Author: William Alexander

Published by: Grand Central Publishing, 2022

This is a funny, story-filled book about the history of tomatoes that changed the world. You may have heard of some of them: Pomodoro, San Marzano, Roma, Big Boy, Brandywine, Campari, and others you may not have heard or know of much like the Florida tomato. The history of the tomato mirrors the food movements of the United States and by following its story, you can see the changes in our society’s growing and eating habits.

The fascinating thing I learned from this book is that the tomato plant used to be extremely tall with unshapened, not very good tasting–almost bitter fruit. As the book tells well here, there were several people who created hybrids of tomatoes to create a better tasting tomato or a better shape to fit into cans. As people’s needs changed, the tomato was bred to fit that need.

The story of Henry J. Heinz was particularly engaging as he tried to create a new commodity for households that was all natural and affordable. Through many trials and a gift for marketing, Heinz created one of the most important foods that exists in nearly every household or restaurant table: Heinz Ketchup. Alexander incorporates the food history of the time, the use of food additives and some toxic products that was prevalent when food was not regulated.

The book helps clarify the differences between hybridized and genetically modified seed. Hybridization can happen over several years to breed the preferred qualities of the fruit. Burpee’s Big Boy seed was so popular that it helped create more home gardeners . The genetically modified tomato is a lab produced, manipulated seed that failed due to the cost of creating the seed; also occurring at the time was the growing movement of home gardeners and the burgeoning heirloom tomato scene.

Alexander doesn’t say much about the heirloom tomatoes, only to say that Brandywine tastes so good that people would prefer this fickle-to-grow tomato over a GMO tomato.

Alexander also describes the Florida tomato or the growing of tomatoes in greenhouses. The research concerning the environmental aspects of greenhouse growing is debatable and is important to learn about its positives and negatives.

I will be blunt and say that as much as I enjoyed the stories and information in this book, I had a hard time reading this book. It took me far too many weeks to read this book. Alexander is humorous but I also found it to be too distracting. I am eagerly awaiting the release of the audiobook because I think it will be absolutely entertaining.