Yup.
There is actually a utensil out there that is designed for serving tomatoes!
With all of us being in the height of the relentless tomato season, from canning to saving tomato seeds, I thought this would be a fun little utensil to feature.
As unnecessary as it is, it is functional; but the price? Well… that’s exactly what made it a luxury item back in the day.
I found one of them on Amazon, but I could never bring myself to buy one at those prices; not a single piece of cutlery. Hey, I’m a frugal homesteader, what can I say?
(sorry about the image quality!)
What Does a Tomato Server Do?
I’m sure you’ve already pieced it together, but the primary purpose of a tomato server is to… serve tomatoes.
The basic idea of this utensil is that it’s large enough to comfortably hold and serve a tomato slice without it dropping (shout out to those of you who have adapted to the reliable “thumb & fork drill” when it comes to serving tomatoes), and it doesn’t tear up the slices the way a fork would.
It’s a classier way to serve tomatoes, and it drains the juice from the slices, unlike a plain spoon.
I mean, can you imagine wealthy, first class attendees at a fancy banquet or event just flinging tomato slices around all willy-nilly with a fork? Someone, somewhere couldn’t handle the tomato-ey mess, and they had to create this little server spoon.
With it being one of the most bountiful survival crops for homesteaders, the people of days gone by would have been drowning in tomatoes, meaning these utensils may have seen quite a bit more use than they ever would today.
Why Is It Hard to Find Now?
In today’s world, few of us collect these odd little items; as popular as they were, few families even keep China sets anymore. Thus, we see a lot of these unique utensils die off, as they have limited uses and cheaper alternatives. The tomato server was more of a luxury item that a common utensil, which makes it more of a collector’s item than a typical kitchen utensil.
There are only a couple on Amazon currently, with even higher priced options floating around on the web.
The More You Know….
