A fruit or a vegetable? (Tomatoes)

Member Name: genmil

Product:	Tomatoes
Date:	18/10/08 (112 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Complement lots of dishes

Disadvantages: non

We still have our tomato on the vine, it have been slow to ripen this year as the summer weather wasn't good.

We love tomato and we loved to grow them. I am not going to give a full description about tomato as all of us are familiar with it.

Tomato belongs to the nightshade family similar to chilli pepper and aubergine. Tomato contain lycopene which is a good source of antioxidant. Lycopene is known to improve skin condition aagainst the harmful UV rays. I found an article that said tomatoes are evil and dedicated the whole website on it. Don't know if I believe the allegation but it is an interesting read.

There are many tomato varieties such as money maker, tumbler, F!, beef tomato, alicante, golden sunshine which is yellow in colour and cherry tomato like chatwick and English vine. Generally, I find red tomato acidic whereas yellow tom tend to be sweeter.

Is tomato a fruit or a vegetable? There is an ongoing debate on this question. I am not sure, it feel more like a vegetable to me.

Growing tomato is easy. We usually buy young tomato plants and transplant them into grow bag. This year, we grew tomato from seeds. The seeds were from tomatoes we bought from the supermarket. Growing tomatoes in grow bag helps retain water and the nutrients in the compost is very beneficial for the plant.

I used tomato for curries, pastas, soups and salads. The acidity of the tomato enhanced the flavour of the dish. Adding raw tomatoes to a bowl of salad also give the dish freshness and acidity.

I am not complaining about our tomato harvest this year, it's still good and I look forward to harvest the remaining toms that is still in hanging on the vine. Does anyone have any advice about freezing tomatoes?

Thanks for reading.

Summary: Nothing beat homegrown toms.