Tomatoes seem to have originated in Central or South America. The name itself comes from an Aztec word, Zitomate. The plant was grown by Indians in Mexico and Peru long before the time of Columbus. It was taken from Peru to Italy, where it met with favor. There it was called "golden apple" and "love apple", but by 1695 the name "tomato" had come into general use. When the cultivation of the plant first started in northern Europe, the fruit was considered poisonous and was grown more for curiosity and ornament than for use. The English herbalist Gerarde wrote in 1595 that "love apples" were eaten abroad, prepared and boiled with pepper, salt, and oil and also as a sauce, but he reported that they "yield very little nourishment to the bodie, and the same naught and corrupt."
The first mention of tomatoes in the United States was made by Thomas Jefferson in 1781, but they were not grown commonly for use even then. Some time later, the secretary of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture wrote: "We raised our first tomatoes about 1832 as a curiosity, made no use of them, though we had heard that the French ate them."-Ann Roe Robbins, 25 Vegetables Anyone Can Grow
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