With summer soon upon us, we will finally start to enjoy those delicious home grown tomatoes.\u00a0 The ways to include tomatoes in a meal are only limited by one\u2019s taste buds and imagination.\u00a0 Americans love their tomatoes probably more than any other vegetable–but is it a vegetable?\u00a0 Technically, by botanical definition, the tomato is a fruit in that it is the fleshy product of a plant that contains seeds and can be eaten as food.<\/p>\n
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This was the definition that the importers John Nix, John W. Nix, George W. Nix, and Frank W. Nix argued for all the way to the Supreme Court in Nix v. Hedden in 1893.\u00a0 The Tariff Act of March 3, 1883 required a 10% tax on imported vegetables.\u00a0 This tax, however, did not apply to fruit, which by definition the tomato is.\u00a0 So the Nixes took the case to court against Edward L. Hedden, the collector of Port of New York to recover duties paid.<\/p>\n
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At the trial, definitions were submitted from Webster\u2019s Dictionary, Worcester\u2019s Dictionary, and the Imperial Dictionary as \u201cevidence\u201d.\u00a0 The \u201cwitnesses\u201d were individuals who had been in the fruit and vegetable business and were asked whether those words or definitions had any special meaning in their trade or commerce.<\/p>\n
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The court unanimously decided in favor of Mr. Hedden and upheld the definition that the tomato is a vegetable and subject to import taxes.\u00a0 Justice Gray did acknowledge that botanically tomatoes are classified as a \u201cfruit of the vine\u201d, but ultimately they are a vegetable because they are eaten as a main course instead of as a dessert.\u00a0 This decision followed the precedent of the decision reached four years prior in the 1889 case Robertson v Salomon, which cleared the air of the controversy of beans and whether they are \u201cseeds\u201d or \u201cvegetables\u201d.<\/p>\n
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According to the USDA, the United States is the second largest producer of tomatoes in the world after China.\u00a0 California and Florida produce almost two-thirds of the fresh tomatoes in the country; Georgia is in a distant 5th<\/sup> place in acreage planted.\u00a0 Americans consume three-fourths of their tomatoes in processed form.<\/p>\n In the home garden, tomatoes can be a difficult plant, even in ideal conditions.\u00a0 Wet, humid weather like we have had recently creates ideal conditions for fungal diseases.\u00a0 If browning on lowers leaves or brown spots on leaves or stems is observed, it is best to remove all infected tissue.\u00a0 Reducing or eliminating soil splashing on leaves and stems with mulch will help to prevent infection from fungal diseases.\u00a0 As many of tomato diseases are soil borne, it is recommended to rotate tomatoes and other nightshade family plants like eggplant, peppers, and potatoes on a three to four year rotation.\u00a0\u00a0 If you have questions about growing tomatoes or identifying problems with your tomatoes you can contact the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Cherokee County at (770)721-7803.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you are unable to grow your own tomatoes you can get that same home grown tomato taste from one of our great farmers markets in the county.<\/p>\n Tuesday 2:00 \u2013 6:00 River Church Market: Sixes Road<\/p>\n Thursday 3:00 \u2013 6:00 Waleska Farmer\u2019s Market: Reinhardt University<\/p>\n Saturday 8:30 \u2013 12:00 Woodstock Farmer\u2019s Market: Downtown Woodstock<\/p>\n 8:00 \u2013 12:00 Canton Farmer\u2019s Market: Cannon Park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With summer soon upon us, we will finally start to enjoy those delicious home grown tomatoes.\u00a0 The ways to include tomatoes in a meal are only limited by one\u2019s taste buds and imagination.\u00a0 Americans love their tomatoes probably more than any other vegetable–but is it a vegetable?\u00a0 Technically, by botanical definition, the tomato is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":21,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16,18,14,15],"tags":[9,21,20,19,22],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cherokee-county","category-farmers-markets","category-history","category-tomato","category-vegetables","tag-cherokee-county","tag-farmers-market","tag-supreme-court","tag-tomato","tag-vegetables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions\/22"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.extension.uga.edu\/cherokee\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}