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# Tomatoes in Russia and Europe in the 18th century as love apples and an ornamental crop
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/kak-vidite-v-pervoi-polovine-xix-veka-pamidory-vse-eshche-byli-dikovinkoi-v-rossii-i-trebovalos-raziasnenie-ne-tolko-kak-ikh-vozdelyvaiut-no-i-kak-upotrebliat-v-pishchu/
- Published: 2025-06-18T07:33:13.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:47:27.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archive, Mores, Nature

As you can see, in the first half of the nineteenth century tomatoes were still a curiosity in Russia, and it had to be explained not only how they were cultivated, but how they were to be eaten.

At that time tomatoes were called amorous or love apples, after the European model, where they had been nicknamed "love apples" as early as the sixteenth century owing to the superstition that they were a potent aphrodisiac.

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

In most European countries, however, tomatoes were regarded as a purely decorative crop until the end of the eighteenth century, and botanical dictionaries of the early nineteenth century still felt obliged to explain that the fruit of the tomato was fit to eat and was used in sauces and relishes.