Compared with the country, the variety of vegetables in Greece is not very rich; However, compared with Western European and Nordic countries, Greece's vegetable varieties are very rich. In the Greeks' vegetable recipes, tomatoes, potatoes, and onions can be described as the home flowers; Among the three major vegetables, tomatoes are probably the first. So, I arranged for Zu Yi to study tomatoes, which was a small article he wrote.
Huo Qingchuan
August 13, 2022 in Songtao Bay, Athens, Greece
Tomatoes have occupied an important place in Western society for hundreds of years, and in Greece, you can find them in a wide variety of Greek cuisines.
1, in China, some places people turn tomatoes into tomatoes, persimmons. From the words "Fan" and "Yang", it can be seen that the origin of tomatoes is not China, but from the "West" side, which was brought into China by "Fan" (Western) people.
2, tomatoes are the early plants of the solanaceous solanaceae, originating in Central and South America, it is the Spaniards who introduced tomatoes from the Americas to Europe, and then expanded from Europe to the world, as a vegetable on the table of people around the world - in botany, tomatoes belong to the fruit.
3, tomatoes are warm-loving, light-loving plants, although they need more water but do not need frequent irrigation, the soil conditions are not too harsh. The climate of Greece belongs to the typical Mediterranean climate, with sunny, hot and dry summers; Winters are rainy and warm and humid. Greece's climate, topography and soil conditions are ideal for tomato cultivation.
4) It's hard to imagine that tomatoes were introduced to Greece only over two hundred years ago as an integral part of Greek cuisine – I saw a research article on the history of Greek cuisine that mentioned that tomatoes were introduced to Greece from Italy in 1815. The large-scale cultivation and consumption of tomatoes in Greece was postponed until the beginning of the 20th century.
5. In 2020, the total global tomato production was 186.8 million tons. Of these, China produced 64.8 million tons, accounting for a third of global tomato production. The world's top five tomato producers are China, India, Turkey, the United States and Egypt. According to the statistics of continents, Asia produces 62.6% of the world's tomatoes, the Americas account for 13.1%, Europe accounts for 12.2%, Africa accounts for 11.9%, and Oceania accounts for 0.2%.
6. In 2021, EU countries produced a total of 18.1 million tons of tomatoes. Italy produced 6.64 million tons, ranking first; Spain produced 4.75 million tons, ranking second; Portugal produced 1.74 million tons, ranking third; Poland produced 1.12 million tons, ranking fourth; The Netherlands produced 880,000 tons, ranking fifth; Greece produced 810,000 tons, ranking sixth.
Source: European Commission
In 2011, Greece produced 1.17 million tons of tomatoes. After 10 years, Greek tomato production has fallen all the way to 810,000 tons in 2021. In 2017, tomatoes accounted for 6.7% of the cultivated land for vegetables in Greece. Tomatoes are grown all over Greece, but Crete is the largest tomato-producing region in Greece.
Friends who travel to Santorini Don't forget to taste the tomatoes of Santorini The Santorini tomatoes are known for their aroma and sweetness
According to data released by the Greek Association of Export and Distribution Enterprises of Fruits, Vegetables and Juices (Incofruit Hellas), Greece planted 13,323 hectares of tomatoes in 2017 and produced 878,770 tons of tomatoes, of which 540308 tons for fresh consumption and 338447 tons for processing.
Greece exports fresh tomatoes, tomato sauce and canned tomatoes to more than 40 countries and regions around the world, and Western European countries are Greece's main export destinations.
9, tomatoes in Greece have a variety of ways to eat, the most common of which belongs to the Greek salad ( greek salad ) - made up of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and fita cheese, this dish can be found in most restaurants.
Greek stuffed tomatoes (Gemista/Yemista) is a very traditional and very characteristic Greek cuisine. The Greek method of stuffing tomatoes is to hollow out the tomatoes, add the minced meat and rice to them, and bake them in the oven.
Zu yi
August 9, 2022 in Athens, Greece