TAMARILLO - PAINTED NATURAL

DETAILS Height 5.5cm Width 12cm Weight 5.8oz Materials: Gypsum, wood, paper, acrylic  Plinth Cube / Plinth Star: H 4.5cm / Gypsum   Though native to Central and South America, tree tomatoes were first introduced in the late 1800s to New Zealand where growers found the ideal subtropical conditions to produce this highly nutritious egg shaped fruit. But tree tomatoes were far too exotic and interesting to be lumped in with the common garden tomato, so the New Zealand Tree Tomato Promotions Council held a competition in 1967 to give it an eye-catching new name and increase its appeal to exporters. The winning choice was tamarillo, a combination of the Māori word “tama” meaning leadership and Spanish word “amarillo” meaning yellow. The ancient Incans, perhaps the most creative farmers of the ancient world, spent centuries cultivating a wide variety of crops that grew successfully on the irrigated mountainside terraces of the Andes. When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 16th century, they all but obliterated these agricultural traditions in favor of European foods far less suited to the region’s conditions. The potato begrudgingly went on to became the third most important food crop globally (interestingly worth three times more annually than all the gold and silver stolen from the New World), while obscure fruits like pepino, naranjilla and tamarillo were thankfully kept alive in the mountains by tradition-minded Native Americans. Tamarillos were given a significant bump in popularity during World War II by American GIs abroad who loved the fruit and found it a vital source of essential vitamins when more traditional fruits were scarce. But today the demand for the big red tamarillo remains strong due to an increasing awareness of its unique flavor and nutritional qualities.      Please note each item is made by hand, slight variations are part of the process making each item unique