An Issue for the Supreme Court: is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

In 1893, the United States Supreme Court settled this thorny issue: the tomato is legally a vegetable. Maybe the issues facing the Supreme Court in the 1800’s were not as politically charged as they are today? Actually, the decision resolved a lawsuit around the 1887 tariff which applied to imported vegetables, but not to fruit. Undeterred by legal mumbo-jumbo, the botanists persist in classifying the tomato as a fruit, and the chaos continues.

The tomato derived from wild relatives in the Northern Andes of South America. By the time the Europeans first arrived in the region, the tomato had been a staple of sauces and dishes there for centuries. The diversity we see in tomatoes today, in size, shape and color, was already present in the markets of Mexico, Central and South America when the Spanish explorers first arrived.

The tomato was mentioned many times in Italy in the middle of the 1500’s, including one which named it “pomi-doro”, or “golden apple”. But, for a very long time it was used only for ornamental purposes. It wasn’t until the 1700s that the tomato became the staple of Italian cooking as we know it today, leaving us with that essential philosophical question: if there were no tomatoes, would there really be Summer?

Fried Green Tomatoes!

We invite you to come enjoy the vegetable - or is it the fruit? - of the season at the Castle with our Summer Menu!