THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT BECOMES THE FAVOURITE FRUIT Dr C.V ANANDA BOSE

 

8. THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT BECOMES THE FAVOURITE FRUIT

Everyone was sure one thing. If this fruit is eaten, death is certain

But this poisonous fruit is in daily use now as a favoured item on the dining table.

There is a story behind this change of fortune for tomato. An American soldier named Col Robert Gibbon Johnson had once a brainwave. Something has to be done to remove the mortal fear of tomato that Americans had. The colonel decided to take the initiative himself. That was in 1820. He made an announcement in his home town in New Jersey that on September 20 he was going to openly eat a basketful of tomatoes and live thereafter. About 2,000 people assembled there to witness what they thought to be the suicide bid of the colonel. But when they saw the colonel, after eating the tomatoes, merrily going around like an elephant in a cane field, they were satisfied. Tomato is not an enemy, but a friend.

There started the great leap of the tomato. Today it stands first among all the fruits produced in the world. Quantity wise, it is 16 million tonnes more than plantain that stands second in world production. Apple, Orange and Watermelon are in the third, fourth and fifth positions.

But there is a point of dispute here. Is tomato a fruit or a vegetable? This became a major legal issue. Finally the Supreme Court of the United States had to intervene. A law came into being in that country imposing a tax on vegetables. One of the major importers of tomato, John Nix and brothers, was bound to pay a huge amount as tax after the collector of customs, Edward Hedden, decided that tomato was a vegetable and hence liable to tax. Fruits,however, had no tax liability. Nix brothers therefore went to the Supreme Court challenging the imposition of tax, claiming that tomato was a fruit. The Supre Court finally gave its verdict: considering its general use, the tomato is to be considered a vegetable, not a fruit.

But plant science does not agree with this view. What the fleshy red tomato contains within it are seeds. Hence scientifically it is a fruit. Tomato is perhaps a strange commodity that is legally a vegetable and botanically a fruit.

The dispute about tomato does not stop here. There is dispute between the Americans and Englishmen on how to pronounce its name. While the Englishmen argue it is ‘tomato,’ Americans call it ‘tomaito. ’

Even as the dispute is still pending a resolution, the Spaniards are organising a tomato festival. ‘La Tomatina’ is a festival celebrated every year without a break in the small Spanish town of Buñol. About 40,000 people from different parts of the world visit Buñol to take part in this unique festival which involves throwing the tomato at each other, everywhere. When the one hour long tomato splash is over, the entire town will be filled with crusahed tomatoes. Tomatina has become a festival that rouses the common people to frenzied heights.

There are many stories about the origin of the tomato festival. Once a street singer was passing through  Buñol singing songs and playing on the violin. When the local people found his oxen voice a nuisance they drove him away throwing tomatoes at him. Later, throwing tomatoes became a common pastime. Another story says that some masked dancers taking part in a rural pageant fell down when some youth ran among them to reach the front. One of the masked characters angrily reacted by beating all and sundry. He also threw tomatoes taken from a wayside vegetable stall.

In 1951 the town administration banned the tomato festival. But this invited widespread protests from the people. A group of youth symbolically took out a funeral procession around the town, carrying a tomato in a coffin and giving it a formal burial. Realising that the people wanted the festival, the administration rescinded its decision and offered full support for Tomatina.

The festival is organised on the last Wednesday of the month of August. Tens of thousands of people will reach Buñol that day. Parking their cars outside the town limits, they animatedly walk or run to the stadium at the centre of the town. There are fairs and variety entertainments on the way. At the centre of the stadium is a flagpole at the head of which is tied a piece of roasted ham. It is a competition for the youth. One has to climb the greasy flagpole and take the piece of ham. Hundreds of people make a futile bid to scale the pole. When the flagpole becomes less slippery after many make their bids, one person will finally scale it and take the ham. There will be a loud gunfire then to mark the formal beginning of the festival.

Trucks laden with tons of tomatoes will then make a beeline to the stadium. The people will grab the tomtatoes, crush them and throw them at others. It will be a free for all. The tomatoes will hit roadside buildings also. Some owners try to cover their buildings with plastic sheets but this is no protection from the tomato missiles. If the men wear shirts or T-shirts while engaged in the festival, they will be called upon to remove them. Or else they will be surrounded by others with the chant ‘kamiseta, kamiseta’ (shirt). The garments will be thrown away with much fanfare. After one hour, another gunfire will be sounded to mark the close of the tomato war.

The people of Buñol proudly say that never even once since the festival began in 1940 had there been any untoward incident. Those participating in the festival are bound to go by the festival regulations. The most important stipulation is that nothing other than tomato should be thrown. No one should tear away the shirt of anyone. Only broken or crushed tomatoes should be thrown and not whole tomatoes. There should be no throw after the sound of the gunfire closing the festival. What is interesting is that tens of thousands of people who come from different parts of the world all observe these regulations meticulously.

Though Spaniards organise a festival in the name of tomato, the first to honour tomato was the United States. American President Jefferson was somehow a devotee of tomato. His children also got that liking and became promoters of tomato. Jefferson’s daughter even wrote a book of recipes on what all could be made with tomatoes. A further promotion for tomato came when in the dinner receptions given by the President, tomato was accorded the status of a favoured item.

In the midst of all this, some people even discovered that tomato had properties to fight cancer and other ailments. Some others felt that beauty and glamour were not enough for tomato which needed some added weight also. One farmer in America took up sustained research to bring out a tomato strain that weighed three and a half kilograms. Another farmer in England irrigated and fertilized his tomato plant in such a way that it grew to a height of 65 feet. The French praised the tomato to the sky, calling it the apple of paradise. Another name for tomato is apple of love.

Moving from the forests to the farmlands and then to the dining tables, tomato continues its onward journey, touching the hearts of poets, lovers and farmers alike, proclaiming its transformation from forbidden fruit to the favourite fruit.