The smallest species of tomatoes are less than three-quarters of an inch in diameter. There are both red and yellow varieties.
The South Arkansas vine ripe pink tomato is Arkansas' official state vegetable.
Tomato juice is the official state beverage of Ohio.
According to the 1996 edition of the Guinness Book of Records the largest tomato ever grown weighed in at 7 pounds, 12 ounces.
The largest tomato plant was 65 feet long.
According to a Steel Packing Council survey of 1997, 68% of chefs use canned tomatoes for convenience, quality and flavoring.
The tomato is the world's most popular fruit. More than 60 million tons of tomatoes are produced per year, 16 million tons more than the second most popular fruit, the banana. Apples are the third most popular (36 million tons), then oranges (34 million tons) and watermelons (22 million tons).
There are more than 4,000 varieties of tomatoes, ranging from the small, marble-size cherry tomato to the giant Ponderosa that can weigh more than 3 pounds.
Botanically, tomatoes are a fruit. This is because, generally, a fruit is the edible part of the plant that contains the seeds, while a vegetable is the edible stems, leaves, and roots of the plant. But in 1893 the supreme court ruled in the case of "NIX v. HEDDEN" tomatoes were to be considered vegetables.
The tomato is in the same family as the potato, pepper, eggplant, and petunia.
The French used to refer to the tomato as the “apple of love,” the Germans called it "the apple of paradise."
All tomatoes belong to the genus Lycopersicon, meaning "wolf peach."
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans eat more than 22 pounds of tomatoes every year (up from 13 pounds per person in 1980). More than half this amount is eaten in the form of ketchup and tomato sauce.
Tomatoes have a natural ripening hormone called ethylene. This is the same kind of ripening hormone found in apples.
Hoppin' John, an old southern dish made from rice, tomatoes, and black-eyed peas, is named for the waiter who first served it or for the behavior of the children in the family that concocted it.
