The Portuguese ruled the State for hundreds of years, and their influences can be seen in almost every sphere of life in Goa – from cuisine to culture. However, one they also brought many plants to Goa, and these are essential ingredients in a variety of local dishes.
Tomatoes and potatoes are kitchen basics that we take for granted, today. But, what we rarely hear about is that they came to Goa through the Portuguese.
The ripe tomato is so many things: it is a fruit to botanists, a crop for farmers and a vegetable to the cooks. Knowledge is being aware that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting a tomato in a fruit salad.
The French call the ‘apple’ as pomme, while the science of growing fruits is known as ‘pomology’ even in English.
The tomato and the potato are Latin American introductions into Europe via the Spanish who invaded the continent.
The tomato and the potato are Latin American introductions into Europe via the Spanish who invaded the continent.
So, they named the tomato ‘Pomme d’Amour’, a term meaning ‘Love Apple’ and differentiating it from ‘Pomme de Terre’ or ‘Ground Apple’ that was used for the potato.
The saying ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’ can be confusing in the French language. It could just mean that one should eat good food. It does not matter if the ‘Tomatt bhaji’ has more potatoes or the ‘Salad bhaji’ has more tomatoes: they are both healthy foods.
Fresh tomatoes, for salads and curries, include the need to remain fresh and firm till they are ready to be cut and used. Spoilage during transit and storage occurs because their thin skin gets bruised with the slightest friction.
Once the skin is bruised, fungal and bacterial rot sets in, and this then spoils even the other good tomatoes in the basket. Conventional breeding techniques of selection and hybridisation were used to develop tomatoes with thick skins.
The more common use of tomato is in the form of puree, sauce and ketchup. Conventional hybrid tomatoes like ‘Bharat’ from Indo-American Hybrid Seeds (IAHS) have a thin skin and soft pulp.
Dr Manmohan Attavar, a senior alumnus from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, earned a name and fortune with this single variety of tomato while I was an undergraduate student in Bangalore.
The more common use of tomato is in the form of puree, sauce and ketchup. Conventional hybrid tomatoes like ‘Bharat’ from Indo-American Hybrid Seeds (IAHS) have a thin skin and soft pulp.
There are a number of tomato varieties in India, bred by conventional hybridisation methods, in government as well as in private institutes and by seed companies.
Arka Rakshak is a tomato hybrid from the Indian Institute of Horticulture Research (IIHR-ICAR) that is resistant to bacterial wilt and the viral tomato leaf-curl diseases.
Some Zonal Agriculture Offices, farms and private nurserymen in Goa raise tomato seedlings of different varieties. So, find a good source in Goa, and why not grow your own tomatoes.
(The author is the former Chairman of the GCCI Agriculture Committee, CEO of Planter's Choice Pvt Ltd, Additional Director of OFAI and Garden Superintendent of Goa University, and has edited 18 books for Goa & Konkan).
