What links the Great Depression in the US and the January Uprising?

Most likely, all of today's tomato varieties descend from a single, innocent wild plant called Solanum pimpinellifolium, whose red fruits were found in the coastal regions of Peru. Tomatoes originate from Central and South America. Most wild varieties have green fruit. One of them, for example, grows only on the Galápagos Islands, where it is spread by tortoises, which consider it a special delicacy.

The tomato family tree was successfully reconstructed thanks to the work of botanist Charles Rick, who established the Tomato Genetic Resource Centre in California in the 1970s. Domesticated by the Maya, cultivated by the Aztecs, they reached Europe thanks to the Spanish, and in many countries are called 'tomato' from 'tomatl', the name given to them 700 years before the arrival of the conquistadors. The Polish word 'pomidor' comes from the Italian 'pomi d'oro', meaning 'golden apple'.

Initially, these vegetables (which are biologically fruits) were regarded as a poisonous, ornamental and symbolic plant. Jan III Sobieski, the 'gardener king', brought a seedling from near Vienna for Queen Marysieńka. The tomato was also known in French as "pomme d'amour", or "apple of love".

Many participants in the November Uprising of 1830 were captured after the insurrection's defeat, sentenced to death, imprisoned, exiled to Siberia or stripped of their property. Some, having lost everything but their lives, decided to flee the country. Stanisław Sarnowski was one of the commanders of the Polish Army's reserve corps during the uprising and took part in the Battle of Ostrołęka.

It can therefore be assumed that the Sarnowski Polish Plum tomato variety, introduced around 1800 in New York, has some connection with this wave of emigration. Today, historical varieties, known as 'heirlooms', are slowly coming back into fashion. A number of American shops offering this variety mention that the seeds of the Sarnowski Polish Plum tomato were given to them by Mike Sarnowski, a horticultural inspector from Schenectady, New York. Mike reportedly claims that his ancestors brought the seeds with them when they emigrated from Poland.

It is touching to think that, fleeing persecution, the refugees took the seeds with them to recreate the taste of home somewhere in a foreign land.