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# Tomatoes as a curiosity in Russia and Europe in the 18th and early 19th centuries
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/kak-vidite-v-pervoi-polovine-xix-v-pamidory-vse-eshche-byli-dikovinkoi-v-rossii-i-trebovalos-raziasnenie-ne-tolko-kak-ikh-vozdelyvaiut-no-i-kak-upotrebliat-v-pishchu/
- Published: 2020-09-10T14:47:17.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:09:38.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archive, Mores, Nature

As you can see, in the first half of the 19th century tomatoes were still a curiosity in Russia, and an explanation was needed not only of how they were grown, but of how they were to be eaten. At that time tomatoes went by the name of “love apples” or “apples of Cupid”, after the European model, where tomatoes had been dubbed apples of love as early as the 16th century, owing to the superstition that they made an excellent aphrodisiac.

Tomatoes began to be grown on Russian soil at the end of the 18th century, though chiefly in the South, from Astrakhan to Taurida and the Caucasus, or indoors as an ornamental plant. Yet in those same years Catherine the Great took a liking to tomatoes and asked for love apples to be supplied to her table from Italy.

In most European countries, however, the tomato was regarded as a purely ornamental crop until well into the 18th century, and botanical dictionaries of the early 19th century still had to explain that the fruit of the tomato was fit to eat and was used in sauces and appetisers.

[https://t.me/cucumberdeath/2777](https://t.me/cucumberdeath/2777?ref=theparnassian.com)