Solanum lycopersicum
Tomatoes range from bright and sharp to deeply sweet, depending on variety and ripeness. In the Northeast, they are a frost-tender crop whose fruit quality changes quickly with maturity.1
Lycopene is the red pigment most associated with ripe red tomatoes; yellow and orange varieties have different pigment profiles.2
Tomatoes belong to the nightshade family, alongside potatoes and peppers. Their fruit ripens from green through a variety-specific range of red, yellow, orange, purple, or striped colors.
Tomato is another New World crop. In Maine it generally needs to be started as a seedling so fruit can ripen before fall frost.3
Tomato tissues do not taste interchangeable. The outer wall carries most of the sugars and amino acids, the seed jelly and juice have about twice the wall’s acid concentration, and most aroma compounds sit in the cuticle and wall.4 Removing skin and jelly therefore makes a sauce less watery but also shifts it sweeter and sacrifices aroma and acidity.
Tomatoes are one of the Northeast’s clearest warm-season crops: in Maine they are generally set out as seedlings so fruit can mature before fall frost, and in northern areas early varieties are the safer choice.35 The short season is not just a gardening constraint; it shapes the ingredient’s local identity, concentrating the best field- and vine-ripened fruit into a relatively brief summer window.6
The fruit can continue ripening after harvest if it has reached the mature-green stage, which makes the last sound tomatoes worth bringing indoors before frost. Once ripe, they are fragile and fragrant; Maine Extension recommends room-temperature storage for ripe fruit and warns against refrigerating under-ripe tomatoes, since cold interferes with better ripening.6
Footnotes
-
University of Maine Cooperative Extension, “Food & Nutrition for the Home Gardener,” accessed July 17, 2026. ↩
-
U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, “Tips for Healthy Eating,” accessed July 17, 2026. ↩
-
University of Maine Cooperative Extension, “How to Plan Your Garden for Canning and Preserving,” 2023. ↩ ↩2
-
Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, rev. ed. (Scribner, 2004), PDF p. 344. ↩
-
University of Maine Cooperative Extension, “What tomato varieties are recommended for Maine and what are some growing considerations?,” accessed September 7, 2026. ↩
-
University of Maine Cooperative Extension, “Vegetables and Fruits for Health: Tomatoes,” accessed September 7, 2026. ↩ ↩2