I never knew why it was called that. It doesn't look like a cat's face to me.

The above photo is of Blossom-end Rot.
Catfacing is quite different and often looks like the face of a cat.

Someone with a vivid imaginatin posted a picture to help us see what catfacing looks like.
Look halfway down the page here: http://forums.seedsavers.org/f...

I do not think it is rot because it is firm and dry...to me rot is moist. I have always thought the name came because it looks like a catfaced spider.....perhaps this is one of those situations where a term commonly used for many years in one section of the country doesn't ring true somewhere else.

This site has images of blossom end rot both the wet-looking type and the dry, like Paul2032's photo has, and several photos of examples of catfacing. Catfacing is still a funny term and I do wonder where it originated.

http://www.maine.gov/dacf/php/...

Greene, thanks for that link, very informative... and actually Paul's photo looks to me like what they show as sunscald.

(Edit to add: Cross posted, sorry. I'm still stuck on the word 'catface'.)

Still research 'catface/catfacing'. Not just for tomatoes.Searching for the word/term catface, catfacing, cat face, cat facing, catface, cat facing I am told first of all that it is currently an urban slang word best not explained to young people here.

I find some sources say the first use of the word was 1940 referring to deformed fruit.

But a book/booklet "Consumers' Guide Index Consumers' counsel of the Agricultural adjustment administration - was in print in 1935. Mentions 'catface' and growth cracks in tomatoes.

Further back to 1931, catface is mentioned in an agricultural publication: Miscellaneous Publication U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1931

There is a reference to 'catfacing' to mean a pucker left in a garment as a result of poor ironing/pressing but that was 1952, possibly the garment's owner was a fruit grower or turpentiner.

See this link for the turpentine industry. Charles Herty's new system to collect pine sap; the term 'catface' was coined in or about 1901 and referred to the scars which resembled cat's whiskers, left by cutting into the pine trees .
http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/extens...

Does the term 'catface' go back any further?

Great discussion everyone.......I doubt that it is sunscald as those tomatoes were picked out of the center of some very large plants with very dense and heavy foliage.

I always wondered why the name "catface" came into being, too, in relation to tomatoes anyway. I've been accused of having a catface expression before, especially after sucking on a persimmon too early in the year, before it sweetens up.

The picture shown doesn't look like blossom end rot (BER) to me as it normally starts out black if coming from within (internal BER) or may be whitish but normally has a dark outline. Nor does it look like sunscald, especially being on the bottom side of the tomato where the sun doesn't hit. It kinda looks like slugs have been munching on those tomatoes though but who knows...if I were a slug I'd lay down and rest on the top of the tomato and chew away!

All in all, methinks we should add some tomato pics w/catfacing to the database!
Good tip, Paul!

Shoe (with few red tomatoes left but plenty of green ones to be fried!)

Good link, Greene.