Tomato fruit in North America

English herbalist William Salmon, in his book Botanologia completed in 1710 revealed that he had seen tomatoes growing in Carolina. This is the first known referee to the tomato in the North American colonies.

There were several different theories regarding the presence of tomatoes in United States. Prior to September 1820, American considered the tomato poisonous. Robert Gibbon Johnson had imported tomato seeds from South America and planted them in his garden. When they produced fruit-bearing vines, he announced that he intended to eat a tomato on the courthouse steps.

The tomato was consumed and cultivated by some Americans during the eighteenth century in all regions of the country, including the South, the Midwest, New England, California and the American West.

In the early 1800s, patent medicine hucksters began bottling tomato lo extract as an elixir, advertising that it would cure ills ranging from constipation chronic cough to the common cold.

Their boosterism sparked a national tomato crazed, enabling farmers near big cities to make fortunes. Tomatoes were used as food in New Orleans as early as 1812, doubtless though French influence; but it was another 20 to 25 years before they were grown for food in the northeastern part of the country.

During the 1820s the adoption of the tomato as a culinary product increased throughout the nation. By the 1839s it was fully integrated into American cookery.

In 1893, the US Supreme Court settled the fruit vs. vegetable question by ruling that the tomato was legally a vegetable for reason of commerce.
Tomato fruit in North America