Tomato Trivia

Gardeners are hard workers. Gardening isn’t all fun and games. It’s work, hard work. Here are some tomato trivia, facts, and FAQs that will cause you to smile, chuckle, or just be a little smarter and more knowledgeable about tomatoes.

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Tomato Trivia and Fun Facts

There are over 10,000 varieties of tomatoes
Tomatoes are native to South America. They were discovered in the 1600s and brought back to Europe.
Tomatoes ripen with heat, not sunlight.
Tomatoes are members of the deadly “Nightshade” family and were once thought to be poisonous
Tomatoes are a fruit, not a vegetable.
The question of whether tomatoes were a vegetable or a fruit was once debated by the U.S. Congress.
The first reliable tomato variety was cultivated by Alexander Livingston in the mid-1800s. More on Livingston Seed Company
At the time they were considered poisonous, Tomatoes were prized more as exotic ornamentals, than an edible vegetables.
Lycopene in tomatoes is good for heart health.
The largest tomato ever grown was 7.75 pounds. See Giant Veggies
The largest yield off a single plant was 340 pounds!
Tomatoes were once believed to be poisonous. On June 28, 1820, Colonel Robert Gibbon ate a tomato on the step of the courthouse in Salem, MA. to prove that they are not poisonous.