Pear tomato (kg)

As its name indicates this variety of tomato is pear shaped but smaller. There are varieties of yellow, orange and red colours.

It is a tasty tomato, sweet and aromatic and is used in many dishes but is also the best for packaging and preserving, in fact it is the favourite to make canned tomatoes. It is a very fleshy tomato variety with thin skin.

The yellow pear tomato is the most popular among the 3 variants in colour outside our borders but in our markets is usually marketed tomato red pear of the Roma variety although there are many varieties and sub groups of this tomato as the pear cherry also in different colours.

It is used in salads, to make fried tomatoes and is delicious spread on bread. It is an ideal tomato also in summer because it is used to make gazpacho, salmorejo and other cold soups. It is a very versatile tomato in the kitchen that allows multitude of combinations as either garnish or entree.

History and origin of tomato pear

The pear tomato originated in Europe in the 18th century. It was introduced in the next century in England and the United States.

There are records dating back to 1752 showing Englishmen using them to flavour the soups. The yellow pear tomato grew in Europe for the first time in the year 1805.

In 1825 the Hudson Bay Company in Fort Vancouver operated a farm full of flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetables among which we find the yellow pear tomato. In 1847 three varieties of tomato were grown for table in the United States. One of these varieties was the pear tomato.

In 1863 the horticulturist Joseph Ellis put up for sale a hundred seeds of several tomatoes in Utah and Denver that included seeds of the pear tomato.

In 1889 the company George Thomas & Co. introduced the tomato pear in the market. This tomato variety decorates the gardens at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC that surround the National Museum of American History since 2001.