The cultivation of tomato in Santorini begun in the 20th century and up today was one of the main products.

The semens were planted in February and in May they protected the tomato from the wind.

In the midst of June the vintage would begin after the procedures of making tomato jelly had already finished. The tomatoes were transferred to the jelly’s canava. There was a wooden trough split in two, a wooden cone with a toothed cylinder and a scraper. The tomatoes were thrown in the wooden machine by the cone of almost 60 kilos capacity. A worker would move the hand of the cylinder and the tomatoes would bread and transform into jelly. The jelly would fell in the scraper, then in the trough where a worker rubbed the jelly on the scraper and took off the clays thrown in the mangano. Another worker would take the jelly and gather it in the strainer to take the semens off. Thus, on the left side of the trough there was pure juice, which they transferred in a big boiler. After the boil they would put it in big barrels and sell it.

Photo from the Traditional Village 'Vanishing Santorini'. You can see the traditional machine for tomato juice preparation.