Not surprisingly, farm-fresh tomatoes have made it onto the top summer crop list for 2018, compiled by our own Farmer Lee Jones. When he picks the first ones of the season, he admits that he “plunks that very first handful” into his mouth. And, as the juice dribbles down his chin, he says this experience absolutely screams summer to him. “As I smell the tomato leaves as I walk towards the vines,” he shares, “and as I smell the soil and feel the sun on my back, the experience is purely spiritual. It’s about that miracle, the miracle that happens when God gives us a seed and then it turns into such a majestic, glorious gift.”

Fresh tomatoes truly serve as a signal that summer has arrived, as Lee so poetically described. By June and July, the team at The Chef’s Garden is in full tomato production mode. And, because of the marvelous diversity of our tomatoes, you can enjoy a different flavor every day, along with a rainbow of colors, textures and more (and, what about this tomato champagne??).

Now, before we go any further, we can’t resist weighing in on one of the world’s commonly asked questions.

Is a Tomato a Fruit or Vegetable?
Nearly 50,000 people ask this question on Google every single month (seriously), so we figured it was worth providing an answer. We’ve hesitated to do that before because the explanation can sound pretty confusing. Fortunately, Encyclopedia Britannica did a great job of giving the definitive answer in two short words: it’s both. More specifically: “Tomatoes are fruits that are considered vegetables by nutritionists.”

Going forward in this post, we’re going to refer to tomatoes as vegetables, a designation the encyclopedia agrees with. Their reasoning: “given that tomatoes are generally not used in desserts and are closely related to other fruit-vegetables (e.g., eggplants and peppers), it is not too counterintuitive for tomatoes to be classified as vegetables.”

And, actually, we have the Supreme Court on our side. In 1893, the top law of the land ruled that “in the common language of the people,” tomatoes were vegetables. Here is part of their ruling: “Botanically speaking, tomatoes are the fruit of a vine, just as are cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas. But in the common language of the people, whether sellers or consumers of provisions, all these are vegetables which are grown in kitchen gardens, and which, whether eaten cooked or raw, are, like potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, beets, cauliflower, cabbage, celery, and lettuce, usually served at dinner in, with, or after the soup, fish, or meats which constitute the principal part of the repast, and not, like fruits generally, as dessert.”

Now, here’s more of the tomato’s backstory.

A Look Back in Time
If you go into a supermarket today, the tomatoes you see are often quite large. So, it’s intriguing to think about how, before tomatoes were domesticated, wild tomatoes were small and two-chambered – in contrast to today’s supermarket tomatoes that have multiple chambers.

The earliest domesticators of the tomato were Mayans and other Mesoamericans, and it’s likely that a mutation created the first large tomatoes. How they made their way to the British colonists in North America isn’t entirely known, but possibilities include that:

• After the Spanish brought tomatoes back to their country (from Mexico) in the 1520s, they may have also brought them to their settlements in Florida. Perhaps tomato seeds were then taken into today’s Georgia and the Carolinas where British colonists lived.
• Or, maybe the colonists and/or the French Huguenots brought them to the Carolinas themselves.
• As a third idea, tomatoes from the Caribbean could have made their way to the American colonies. (Many historians favor this idea.)

The true story, of course, may forever remain a mystery. What we do know: by the mid-1700s, tomatoes had arrived in the Carolinas.

As early as 1812, wealthy Spanish and French immigrants began featuring tomatoes in their Creole recipes in what is today New Orleans, Louisiana. (In fact, the use of tomatoes is considered, even today, to be a key distinguisher between Creole cooking and “proper” Cajun food.)

It took a little bit longer, though, for this lovely vegetable to be widely used in the United States.

How One Brave Man and His Tomato Changed the World!
In this era, people typically believed that tomatoes were poisonous. But, in reality, wealthy Europeans were eating them off of elegant pewter plates, ones high in lead content. The acidity in tomatoes leached lead from the plates, and many aristocrats died from lead poisoning, with survivors blaming the tomato itself, instead.
Once the belief spread about tomatoes being dangerous, it was hard to refute that “fact.” But, the story goes, a man named Robert Gibbon Johnson was living in Salem, New Jersey where he grew tomatoes, and believed them safe to eat. He’d gotten his seeds from South America and, to demonstrate the safety of eating this luscious crop, he intended to eat one – in public, mind you.

Johnson was a well-known man in his community and word of his daring plan spread far and wide, and people came from all around to witness this deed. It was said that, when Johnson first sank his teeth into his tomato, people fluttered in shock and some even fainted. But, after he survived this adventure, people in America began to eat tomatoes.

Thank you, Mr. Johnson!

As more people began growing tomatoes, and eating them, restaurants started to include them in their menus and recipes containing this juicy vegetable were published. Then, in 1834, a man named Dr. John Bennett wrote an article that described the health benefits of tomatoes – and America hasn’t looked back since.

Thank you, Dr. Bennett!

European Cuisine
Long before the tomato became popular in the United States, it was appreciated in Europe by people who didn’t believed them to be dangerous to eat. Italians began growing them around 1550, with people living in the southern portion of Europe, particularly Italy and Spain, using them in increasing numbers. The first Italian tomato sauce recipe known to be published was Lo scalco alla moderna in 1692, credited to the Spanish viceroy’s chef.

What really caused tomatoes to take center stage in Italian cooking, though, didn’t happen until 1889. That’s when Raffaele Esposito, a Neapolitan pizzaiolo, created a dish to honor Queen Margherita of Savoy. The dish is the Margherita pizza. What made this pizza so popular is that it included ingredients that resembled the Italian flag, something people appreciated since Italy had been united at a country for only 28 years.

Ingredients used were:

• Tomato (red)
• Mozzarella cheese (white)
• Basil (green)

Notice that we didn’t say Esposito invented this dish. A similar recipe was published as far back as 1866 in Customs and Traditions of Naples by Francesco DeBouchard, but it was Esposito’s version that caused the fresh tomato to become firmly entrenched in Italian cuisine.

World’s 50 Best Food Dishes
If you’d ask 100 different people to create this kind of list, you’d probably get at least 200 different answers. But, here is the published list created by CNN’s travel staff. It’s worth noting that nine of them contain tomatoes. They include lasagna and Neapolitan pizza, both from Italy. There are two dishes from Thai cuisine on the list, as well:

• Som Tam Salad, with its garlic, chilies, tamarind juice, fish sauce, peanuts, dried shrimp, lime juice, sugar cane paste, string beans, grated green papaya, sticky rice – and tomatoes
• Tom Yum Goong Soup, that “teems with shrimp, mushrooms, tomatoes, lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime leaves. Usually loaded with coconut milk and cream, the hearty soup unifies a host of favorite Thai tastes: sour, salty, spicy and sweet.”

Other items that made the list and contain tomatoes are:

• Masala Dosa from India: This “crispy, rice-batter crepe encases a spicy mix of mashed potato, which is then dipped in coconut chutney, pickles, tomato-and-lentil-based sauces and other condiments.”
• Chicken Parmesan from Australia: The article explains how pub-goers in Australia claim this “ostensibly Italian dish as their own. Since they make it so well, there's no point in arguing.”
• Chili Crab from Singapore with its spicy chili-tomato gravy
• Arepas from Venezuela, a “corn-dough patty that provides a savory canvas” for delicious toppings
• Chicken Muamba from Gabon: Ingredients of the “proper recipe” include “chicken, hot chili, garlic, tomato, pepper, salt, okra and palm butter, an artery-clogging African butter that will force you into a second helping and a promise to start using your gym membership.”

Here are 100 other dishes that use tomatoes that could serve as inspiration for your own unique creations – and here is a Huffington Post quote we’re tossing into to the mix because we agree wholeheartedly: “Could there be anything more perfect than a ripe tomato, freshly picked, still warm from the sun? Tomatoes are one of those special foods that make our hearts flutter.”

Farmacy at The Chef’s Garden: A Look at Farm-Fresh Tomatoes
An article found at Healthline.com provides an overview of how tomatoes have been shown to be beneficial in fighting cardiovascular disease (with heart attacks and strokes being the most common causes of death in the world today), preventing cancer, and maintaining skin health. Perhaps the most noteworthy compound, health-wise, found in tomatoes is lycopene. It is most abundant in the tomato’s peel. The site for the World’s Healthiest Foods, meanwhile, shares the “outstanding antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits from tomatoes.

Plus, here’s what LiveScience.com has to say about the nutritional value of fresh tomatoes.

• They’re high in fiber.
• They’re a good source of vitamin A, C, B2, folate and chromium.
• Vitamins contained in them help to stop oxidative stress .
• Minerals in tomatoes help to ensure our bodies function appropriately.
• Rich in potassium, with one medium tomato has nearly 300 mg.
• Besides being associated with heart health, potassium also plays a role in “proper nerve and muscle function.”

And, here’s one more site that shares health benefits of tomatoes: MedicalNewsToday.com. Benefits listed include that they:

• Help to maintain health blood pressure
• Can reduce blood glucose levels in people with diabetes
• Can product your eyes against “light-induced damage”
• Are linked to healthy hair
• Can boost your energy levels
• Assist people in losing weight
• Fight against constipation
• Provide a natural source of folate, crucial for pregnant women to protect against infant neural tube defects

Farm-Fresh Tomatoes at The Chef’s Garden
If you were to ask Bob Jones, Jr. to list the five most important characteristics of a tomato, ones that determined whether it was successfully grown, he shares this list:

• Flavor
• Visual appearance (we eat with our eyes first!)
• Flavor
• Shelf life
• Flavor

(He’d really rather you ask him for six characteristics, though, because he also wants to add in their nutrition.) “Through variety selection in tomatoes,” he says, “and how you grow them – meaning soil health – you can achieve outstanding nutritional results.”


The Chef’s Garden grows an incredible diversity of fresh tomatoes, diverse in flavor, size, color, shape and texture. We invite you to browse through our choices of cherry tomatoes, currant tomatoes and toy box tomatoes.

If you’d like to experience the rainbow of colors that the cherry tomato has to offer, we suggest you try the mixed box, where you get the best of the day of red, green, white, orange, pink, yellow and striped tomatoes. Or, try one of our tiniest tomatoes, the ruby-red sweet pea currant. Or, if you’re looking for a rich and sweet, tangy and flavorful fresh tomato with a soft, smooth, thick and juicy texture, try our mixed toy box tomatoes.
When you order our fresh tomatoes, we hand-harvest them, picking to order and then shipping them to your kitchen overnight so you receive the freshest, most vibrant and flavorful produce available. This is our efficiently shipped Earth to Table® promise that ensures ultimate freshness, incredible flavor and prolonged shelf-life, resulting in less waste for your business. We encourage you to compare our direct-from-the-farm products to those with a local supplier who is potentially fulfilling your order with products sourced elsewhere and stored for days in a warehouse before they are delivered to your door. We are confident that you will find our fresh vegetables, including our luscious farm-fresh tomatoes, to be the freshest and most flavorful anywhere.