Birthplace of "How Bout them Tomatoes!"

EXIT OF THE DAY: EXIT 8A on NJ Tpke n;  To Jamesburg, New Jersey, Cranbury, NJ


Listen up kids! It is now time for a Road Test. But first the FAST FACTS... You are now near Jamesburg, New Jersey. Jamesburg’s signature contribution to human history is that world famous fella, the father of commercial canning,  Harrison Woodhull Crosby himself. Gives you shivers does it not?  Harrison, or Harry to his pals, was born right here.


Back in 1847, Harrison Woodhull Crosby became the first person to put tomatoes in tin cans on a commercial scale. Yup. He is THAT guy.

Harry  worked across the Delaware River as the chief gardener at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. It was there that they commercialized the canned tomato. It is probably no coincidence that Campbell's Soup started not far away and that tomato soup was one of their first products. ​

The history of canning food is not corny.  Legend has it, around 1800, Napoleon sought an invention to feed his fast moving troops. This led to sealed  jars. ​

Around 1858, a gent with the last name Mason came up with industrialized sealed bottles and you guessed it, they became Mason Jars.

All such products had to be heat treated first then sealed in cans or jars.  Interestingly, they knew that this method kept food safe far longer, but not knowing about microbes and germs, they simply had no knowledge why it worked.  Canning became a boon during the upcoming Civil War where canned goods  could be shipped and stored anywhere without spoilage. 

In fact, Powdered Milk was first created to feed the Union Army. In Westchester, New York a man by the name of Gail Borden created powdered milk.  Borden’s Dairy still exists to this day.

But I digress. We are speaking about no small tomatoes here.


Fast Fact, the Jamesburg native James Woodhull Crosby was not only famous as the first to can Tomatoes, but he is also famous for coining the term, "Hey! How 'bout them tomatoes?"  I kid you not.


Something that does not commercialize well by being canned is a bobcat. More and more people are seeing bobcats. Many of the sightings are from passengers in cars in wooded areas like right here. ​

The bobcat is about two feet tall —larger than a house-cat  but much smaller than a mountain lion. Adult females in New Jersey generally weigh between 18 and 25 pounds while adult males can weigh as much as 35 pounds.  While they typically hunt rodents, rabbits and birds, they are strong enough to take down a deer. Or unfortunately, Fido or Puss. So bring your pets inside before dusk and only let them out long after dawn.


That’s because most hunting takes place at dawn and dusk. They are extremely shy animals that are seldom seen by humans. With suburbs spreading out, hunting has diminished, and numbers have increased.  But it was not a natural population boom. The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife conducted a restoration project where 24 bobcats captured in Maine were released in northern New Jersey from 1978-1982. By the 1990’s reports of bobcat sightings began to increase. ​

So are the numbers of bobcats killed by automobiles on our highways. During a one year period between 2008 and 2009 fourteen bobcats were observed from New Jersey roads. Sadly, ten of  these were hit by cars.


Now for the Road Test. Did Harrison Woodhull Crosby can tomatoes or bobcats?


#CannedTomatoes #AndyWarhol #Napoleon #CivilWar #CampbellSoup #NewJerseyBobcats
#Bobcats #LafayetteCollege #NJTurnpike #HarrisonWoodhullCrosby #Canning #masonjars

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