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Old September 16, 2010   #10
travis
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Evansville, IN
Posts: 2,984
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Some folks believe Cortez is the first European to transfer small yellow tomatoes from Mexico to Spain after his conquest of Mexico City in 1520.

Other folks believe Christopher Columbus was the first European to take the tomato back to Spain as early as 1493.

The earliest mention of the tomato currently known in European literature appeared in a 1544 herbal by Pietro Andre Mattioli, an Italian physician and botanist. Mattioli called the tomato, pomo d'oro, meaning golden apple, and the Italian word for tomato remains pomodoro.

Whether it was Cortez or Columbus, the current thinking is that Spanish ships first distributed the tomato from the American mainland thence through the Caribbean colonies, and then to Europe and the Philipines.
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