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Massachusetts

Tomatoes

• 56 million pounds of tomatoes were produced in 1999.

• 500 acres of farmland are in tomato production statewide.

• An average of 12,500 pounds of tomatoes are produced per acre.

• The Bay State tomato crop is worth nearly $5.6 million.

• Tomatoes represent 1.2 percent of all agricultural cash receipts in Massachusetts.

• Massachusetts ranks 18th in tomato production nationally.

• Middlesex County has the most farms growing tomatoes (70 farms), but Worcester County has the most land in tomato production (71 acres).

• Botanically, tomatoes are a fruit; and to be more specific, a berry.

• The tomato is in the same family as the potato, tobacco, petunia, pepper, and eggplant.

• For more than 200 years, tomatoes were thought to be poisonous and were planted only for ornamental use.

• Commercial tomato production first began in the United States around 1894.

Sources: New England Agricultural Statistics, 1999 and U.S. Census of Agriculture, 1997. Compiled by the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture, 251 Causway Street, Suite 500, Boston, MA 02114, 617-626-1700, www.massdfa.org.

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