No one is sure just where the purple tomatoes first appeared, but we do know that Alexander W. Livingston, a legendary tomato seedsman and tomato breeder from Reynoldsburg, Ohio during the 19th century described purple tomatoes he had collected as a child which had been growing wild in a hedgerow near his home. At that time, tomatoes barely resembled the smooth, juicy fruits that we know today, but instead tended to be tough, semi hollow, much maligned "things" with hard cores that would have more in common with modern bell peppers than modern tomatoes. During Livingston's childhood, these semi hollow berries of many colors were believed poisonous. These early tomatoes were originally distributed through modern day Mexico where the Aztecs had first domesticated. Later on they had spread north. Years later, Livingston himself was largely responsible for the improvements that lead to the development of the tomatoes of today. Many of the tomato varieties later developed by Livingston were purple, some of which later fell out of fashion due to their color, which probably indicates that purple tomatoes were once better known than they are today and that the desire for red varieties was a particular vogue of Livingston's lifetime, for today the purple tomatoes are quite rare in comparison to their red counterparts.
