The tomato is native to the Americas.  The ancient Aztecs and Incas cultivate and harvest them over 1,300 years ago.  These wild tomatoes carry a strong smell and acidic taste.  They are small with a nearly hollow inside.

The Spanish bring tomato seeds back to Europe.  Spain, Italy, and other Mediterranean neighbors enjoy them.  Because of its supposed special powers, the French call the tomato “The Apple of Love.” The English believe they are poisonous.  English colonists who sail to North America bring this myth with them.

In 1870, an American farmer cultivates and methodically develops the first commercially successful tomato variety in the United States.  Alexander W. Livingston (1821-1898) owns and manages the Buckeye Farm near Reynoldsburg, Ohio.  He transforms an ugly duckling of horticulture into the prized tomato that the world knows today.

Reynoldsburg, Ohio is the birthplace of the first commercially successful tomato variety.  Alexander W. Livingston is the farmer given credit for this successful enterprise.

Beginning with his first tomato, the Paragon, Livingston continues to experiment with the development of more than 30 varieties.  By 1910, half of the tomatoes grown in the United States trace their lineage back to Livingston’s seed company.  Some of Livingston’s early varieties include Acme, Beauty, Buckeye State, Dwarf Stone, Golden Queen, and Perfection. 

Posters from Livingston’s era:  Advertisements from his seed company as well as an announcement of two of his newest varieties.

One of Livingston’s most memorable accounts comes when he is ten years old.  He discovers a small garden with tomatoes near his home.  Here are his words: 

“. . . quickly gathered a few of them in my hands, and took them to my mother to ask, ‘What they were?’  As soon as she saw them, she cried out, ‘You must not eat them my child.  They must be poison, for even the hogs will not eat them.’”

In 1965, the Franklin County Historical Society recognizes Reynoldsburg as “The Home of the Tomato.”  An annual Tomato Festival starts up in 1966, and it continues to this very day.  Scheduled in early August, the festival offers tasty food, live entertainment, and wholesome family fun.  A Car & Bike Show features classic cars and motorcycles.

Still standing and available to be rented is the original Alexander W. Livingston farm home on Graham Road in Reynoldsburg.  A poster publicizing the annual Tomato Festival.  (All photos in this post are COURTESY of pinterest)