Taste Of Wine TV Showcases Nature Sweet Tomatoes

What part of sitting down to a great meal with wine, but without tomatoes don't you understand?

On Saturday, our friends at Nature Sweet will stop by our TV booth to talk tomato. Think of the pasta, salad, and other pairing possibilities....See you Saturday at The San Diego Bay Food and Wine Festival.

TOMATO TIDBITS

· Tomatoes were originally cultivated in the Americas by the Aztecs and Incas.

· Columbus “discovered “the tomato and brought it back to Europe.

· A tomato is botanically a fruit, not a vegetable, because it develops from the ovary of the plant after fertilization has occurred. However, it is categorized by its use, thus making it a vegetable by law. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1893 that because the tomato is eaten with the main part of the meal instead of dessert, it is indeed a vegetable.

· NatureSweet recommends that you NEVER refrigerate your tomatoes –

it destroys their natural sugars and they don’t last as long.

Keep your D’Vines™ on the counter (out of direct sunlight) for optimum flavor and convenient snacking.

· The French labeled the tomato “love apple”; the Germans called the tomato “apple of paradise.”

· By 1850, the tomato was an important produce item in every American city.

· There are over 4,000 varieties of tomatoes.

· Americans eat roughly 18 lbs. of tomatoes per capita on average each year.

· Tomatoes are a good source of lycopene - the stuff that makes tomatoes red -which research suggests may reduce prostate cancer in men. Tomatoes are also a source of dietary fiber, potassium, iron, phosphorous and some B vitamins. They are low in sodium and contain no cholesterol.