Tomorrow is Pi Day, the annual celebration of the ever-intriguing mathematical constant denoted by the Greek letter π. Children in math classes across America will soon discuss the magic of the circumference of a circle and, perhaps more memorably, devour delicious pies.

The nerdy holiday, celebrated on March 14 because the first three digits of pi are 3, 1 and 4, is recognized by the US House of Representatives. And in 2019 UNESCO assigned March 14 is International Mathematics Day.

But years before that, Pi Day was just a crazy tradition at a Bay Area science museum.

The Exploratoriumcurrently on the Embarcadero on San Francisco’s eastern waterfront, was founded in 1969 by physicist and professor Frank Oppenheimer, who wanted to create a more hands-on way for children to learn about science. (Oppenheimer was the younger brother of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb” and the subject of this year’s Best Picture Oscar winner.)

Frank Oppenheimer led the Exploratorium, originally located in the city’s Palace of Fine Arts, until his death in 1985. Three years later, museum officials found themselves at a staff retreat in Monterey trying to figure out ways to further develop the museum and to grow.

That’s when Larry Shaw, a physicist and media specialist at the Exploratorium, felt inspiration strike.

Pi has fascinated mathematicians for thousands of years, not least because it is an irrational number: its digits seem to go on forever without falling into a repeating pattern, a tantalizing glimpse of infinity. It’s the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, and circles themselves tend to carry a mystery because they have perfect shapes with no beginning or end, said Samuel Sharkland, senior program director at the Exploratorium.

To Shaw, pi seemed an ideal subject for scientific celebration. There was also a happy homophone in ‘pie’, which provided a tasty way to entice children and adults to learn about math. (Helpfully, pies are usually shaped like circles, too.)

The Exploratorium hosted its first Pi Day on March 14, 1988, with fruit pie for everyone in the museum to enjoy at 1:59 p.m. (that’s the next three digits after 3:14.)

Eventually, the Exploratorium added a celebration of Albert Einstein’s birthday to its annual festivities (he was born March 14, 1879). Every year, Shaw led a parade through the museum with a boombox that blared the digits of pi to the tune of “Pomp and Circumstance,” culminating in a person walking around 3.14 times “Pi Shrine” – a brass plaque inscribed with the first 100 digits of pi – as he sang “Happy Birthday” to Einstein.

Shaw told SFGate in 2009 that he and other participants regarded the Pi Shrine with the reverence of worshipers as a religious site. “Our religion is a mysterious religion,” said Shaw, affectionately known as the “Prince of Pi” by museum staff.

“Like others, we walk around the things we respect,” he told the news station. Shaw died in 2017.

Although the museum still does everything he can to celebrate it every year. Pi Day has long outgrown its association with the Exploratorium. But that’s not something to regret, Sharkland told me.

“It just blossomed,” he said. “It’s something we’re proud of.”

Tell us

Amid all the turmoil caused by the pandemic, there have been moments of hope and positive change. What were your pandemic silver linings? Tell us at CAtoday@nytimes.com.

And before you go: good news

After another wet winter, California state park officials are expecting an impressive bloom of wildflowers this spring. USA Today reports this.

A number of climatic conditions – including rain, sunlight and humidity – affect when and how profusely the flowers bloom. When these factors come together in just the right proportions, California’s normally dry hills become covered with lupins, poppies, desert sunflowers and lilies that draw visitors to the state parks.

While it is challenging to predict the size of the bloom each spring, state park officials believe this year will be better than average. Parks across the state had a spectacular bloom last year.

Wildflowers are already popping up in some parts of the state, including parts of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and elsewhere more are expected from mid-March through May. The parks department has created a manual to the areas that are already in bloom. Get ready for some rainbow flora.

Thank you for reading. I’ll come back tomorrow. — Soumya

PS Here it is today’s mini crossword.

Maia Coleman and Briana Scalia contributed to California Today. You can reach the team via CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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On San Andres, a small Colombian island in an archipelago off the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua, counting the blues in the famous “Sea of ​​Seven Colors” is on every visitor’s to-do list. It’s an afternoon activity you do along the way as you cruise among the cays, or keys, on the east side of San Andres: low-lying (mostly) uninhabited specks that are little more than coral, covered in palm trees and surrounded by sandbars.

From my floating spot I counted six: a deep sapphire, a dusky azure, streaks of blue-green, turquoise and sky blue and, in the distance, a swath of brilliant cyan against the edge of a small, palm-fringed island.

“Do you see seven?” asked the captain of the boat.

When I told him my count, he laughed. “Six?” he said. “This way you can relax a little more.”

San Andres isn’t on the radar of many American travelers, but in Latin America, and especially among Colombians, it’s a coveted honeymoon destination or a long weekend getaway—a place in the middle of the ocean to disconnect from what you’re doing. also taxed. on the mainland.

Connecting with history

The archipelago of San Andres and Providencia is located more than 400 miles north of mainland Colombia, and closer to 100 miles east of Nicaragua, but thanks to a historical wrinkle that is still being ironed out, it is part of Colombia.

Kent Francis James, 73, was governor of the archipelago in the 1990s and advised the current local and national government on border issues with Nicaragua. But his passion, he said when I met him in San Andres, is helping tourists connect more deeply with the island’s history.

“We want you to come here not just to burn your skin, but to take home a better understanding of Caribbean history,” he said, as we sat on the balcony of his home and enjoyed the view on the water in the distance, framed by bougainvillea and palm trees.

Mr. James scanned the horizon and pointed out the shipwrecks dotting the island’s waters. “We were geographically on the route of the Spanish bringing gold along the coast, so this is where the pirates used to keep watch,” he explained, describing how travelers often explore the shallow waters surrounding the many underestimated the island’s bays and fled. aground – much to the delight of pirates such as Welsh-born Sir Henry Morgan, who is believed to have used San Andres as a base.

Technically we were in Colombia, but Mr. James spoke limited English; his accent was already a nod to the island’s history.

Although it is believed that the Dutch and Christopher Columbus landed on the archipelago, it was the British who settled in San Andres around 1630. English was the island’s first language and is still spoken by the native islanders.

Unlike most places in Latin America, San Andres has no records of indigenous peoples on the island. When the Europeans arrived it was apparently uninhabited. And that’s why when locals talk about “native” islanders, they’re referring to the descendants of the original British settlers or, more often, the descendants of the once-enslaved Africans those settlers brought over.

This Afro-Caribbean ethnic group is called Raizal, a derivative of the Spanish word for ‘roots’.

Posadas Nativas

Cleotilde Henry, 75, is one of the island’s Raizal leaders. Her family traces its roots back to the African slave trade, she explained, as she placed crunchy slices of fried breadfruit and scoops of sweet coconut on her dining room table. She didn’t make the treats especially for me; she sets them up every day for the tourists who rent rooms on the top floor of her house through the islands. posadas nativasor native hostel program.

“I was born in this house,” she said, pointing across the small living room to yellowing family portraits in wooden frames and crocheted tablecloths. “So when I thought about what I could do to make money from tourism, this house was the only one I had.”

Today Mrs. Henry, who is also the president of the archipelago Posadas Nativas Associationrents 12 rooms, which can be found under the name “Cli’s place” on travel booking websites such as Booking.com.

Across the archipelago, about 200 houses have been designated as ‘posadas nativas’, which offers tourists the opportunity to stay with a local family – usually under the watchful eye of the matriarch – in their home, and eat local Raizal food.

It is the local solution to a universal challenge: how to maintain the unique identity of a place when tourism is booming. Less than two decades ago, the Raizal people made up 57 percent of San Andres’ population, but every year that number is shrinking as Colombians are lured from the mainland to the blue waters of island life.

A bikini and a golf cart

Although San Andres’ beaches aren’t among the most beautiful in the world, the water is a short distance offshore thanks to submerged reefs, and so many visitors skip exploring the island’s interior in favor of getting wet.

Each cay is different from the next. Located across the water from the more populated northern part of San Andres, Johnny Cay looks like the glossary for “deserted island”: a cluster of palm trees surrounded by white sand. Rocky Cay is little more than the rock of the same name, with a run-down beach bar and a rusty shipwreck sticking out of the water next to it. You reach Haynes Cay by wading through waist-deep water while holding a precarious rope that connects the bay to a simple restaurant built on a sandbar. A typical holiday day in San Andres consists of floating between the bays, pausing to snooze against the palm trees or swim in the water around them, counting the blues along the way.

Like the pirates of the past, today’s snorkelers and divers delight in the sunken ships that lie in the water, while they can explore the underwater ecosystems created by these wrecks. In 2000, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization founded the massive organization Biosphere reserve of sea flowersan extensive protected marine area around the islands.

“It looks like a mountain range underwater here, and that’s why we have deep spots, but also these sandbanks and bays,” explains Jorge Sanchez, 68, a former diving instructor on the island, who invited me to his home one afternoon to study topological maps of the area’s ocean floor. Waving his hand over a map, he added: “The ocean species don’t know where the border is between Colombia and Nicaragua, so this is a great place to see all kinds of animals from different places.”

Even if you don’t like the waves, San Andres is a beautiful setting to enjoy the seven shades of blue from afar. And the not-so-steep hills and smooth roads mean that the most light-hearted and fun way to do that is by renting a mule (pronounced moo-LAY), a small golf cart, the typical way visitors get around the move island.

I had never driven a golf cart a long distance before, so when Mrs. Henry suggested I put on my bathing suit and drive one around the island, I hesitated. But about an hour later, I was smiling like a fool, the ocean wind blowing my hair back as I chugged along the coastal road at about 25 miles per hour, motorcycles whizzing around me. I sailed past the cays, jumping into the water when it called, heading for the less populated south side of the island. I stopped for lunch at Raizal restaurant Mrs. Janice Place for fried fish and coconut rice.

On the way back I planned to stop by Mr. James’s house to tell him about my day. Without a good cell signal on the island, the only way I could do this was to stop by, so I walked toward his house, until the buzzing of my mule became less frequent and I finally realized the engine was off. My faithful mule slid backwards down the hill. I hit the brakes, which slowed the slide, but I couldn’t get the engine going again. Luckily, some utility workers witnessed the scene, suppressed their laughter, and came to my aid. They improvised a solution and towed the golf cart to the top of the hill using long wires. I told them I was visiting Mr. James, and one of the workers turned and shouted over a wall of bushes, “Mr. Kent! We found an American!”

Grinning, Mr. James emerged from his building to greet me, and as I said a thank you to my utility heroes, he explained that he wasn’t surprised to see me.

“Because a tourist can spend his days on the beach and fill his stomach with our food and rum, and then go home and never come back,” he said. “But once you start talking to the locals about our history, you always want to come back.”

If you go

Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport has direct connections to Panama City, Panama and several cities in Colombia, and from San Andres it is possible to take a flight to the neighboring island of Providencia.

Once on the island, the best way to get around is by taxi, easily found in the center of San Andres or arranged in advance, or by mule, which can be rented for about 200,000 Colombian pesos, or about $51, per day.

Staying at a locally owned posada nativa, or inn, is the maximum immersion experience on the island, and will often be the most affordable accommodation option; expect to pay about 235,000 Colombian pesos per night with breakfast. Cli’s Place Posada Nativa, Posada Nativa Licy And Miss Trinie’s Posada Nativa are some of the most popular.

For a more luxurious experience, Decameron operates many hotels on the island, including the Decameron Isleno at Spratt Bight Beach, a centrally located all-inclusive option for around a million Colombian pesos per night. Hotel Casablanca offers rooms with views of Johnny Cay for approximately 1.1 million Colombian pesos per night. There are also short-term rental options available through Airbnb. Many are located in condominium developments and have amenities such as swimming pools, doormen and gyms.

Niko’s seafood is a mid-range restaurant near the center of San Andres, serving freshly caught fish prepared for around 50,000 Colombian pesos.

La Regatta is perhaps the fanciest restaurant in San Andres, specializing in seafood such as ceviche for 75,000 Colombian pesos or grilled lobster with coconut rice (215,000 Colombian pesos) served on an overwater terrace near the center of San Andres. Reservations required, request the patio.

Mrs. Janice Place on the south side of San Andres in San Luis offers typical Raizal food for 40,000 Colombian pesos for mains, accompanied by coconut rice and jars of natural fruit juice.

Namaste Beach Club San Andres is near Rocky Cay with chic lounge chairs and a menu ranging from beach snacks like empanadas (about 30,000 Colombian pesos) to a fine dinner like fried local fish (50,000 Colombian pesos).

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter for expert tips on smarter travel and inspiration for your next holiday. Are you dreaming of a future getaway or just traveling in an armchair? Check out our 52 places to go in 2024.

Have San Francisco voters lost the bleeding hearts they are known for – or are they just frustrated?

City voters this week overwhelmingly passed two ballot measures that probably wouldn’t have seen the light of day just a few years ago. One measure gives more power to police, and the other requires welfare recipients suspected of being addicted to drugs to enter treatment as a condition of continuing to receive benefits.

Critics of the measures said residents had moved to the right and that billionaires had bought the city by throwing money at campaigns for the measures. But Mayor London Breed, facing a tough race for re-election in November and who placed the two measures on the ballot, brushed aside claims that the city had lost its liberal soul.

In her annual State of the City address on Thursday, Breed argued that it is progressive to invest in public safety to protect vulnerable older residents and immigrants, and to push for drug treatment for those who need it.

“We are a progressive, diverse city, living together and celebrating each other,” she said, standing at a podium at the city’s cruise ship terminal, apparently to highlight the recovery of San Francisco’s tourism industry. “That hasn’t changed and won’t change.”

San Francisco’s reputation has plummeted — many residents say unfairly — since the pandemic began, due to outdoor drug use, property crime and the sharp decline in downtown office occupancy. Breed, a political moderate by San Francisco standards, has responded by moving right, and voters this week backed her priorities.

In addition to the police and drug measures, voters in Tuesday’s primary backed a moderate slate of candidates for the Democratic County Central Committee, the governing body of the local Democratic Party, whose support is likely to carry weight in the mayor’s race.

They also approved a city policy to encourage the city’s schools to offer algebra to students beginning in eighth grade. The district had dropped the course from the middle school over concerns that Asian and white students were making progress in math while black and Latino students were not.

Proposition E, which gives new powers to the San Francisco Police Department, was approved by just under 60 percent of voters. The measure allows police to use drones and install surveillance cameras, and relaxes restrictions on car chases.

About 62 percent of voters supported Proposition F, which would require people receiving public financial assistance who are believed to be drug users to be screened and seek treatment if found to have an addiction.

Lydia Bransten, executive director of the Gubbio Project, which provides services to the homeless, had strongly opposed Prop F, arguing that forcing people into drug treatment would not work.

She believes the city’s long-delayed plan to open supervised locations where people can use drugs, under the watchful eye of harm reduction specialists, is the real answer to solving the city’s devastating drug crisis, with an average of two people die every day.

The success of Prop F, she said, meant that people were simply exhausted by the drug epidemic and the lack of a coherent solution from City Hall, and were eager to support anything that resembled a real plan.

“San Francisco is still a progressive city at its core,” she said. “Even progressives can become exhausted if they are not presented with ideas that are effective.”

Nancy Tung, a prosecutor in the District Attorney’s Office who won election to the Democratic committee this week as part of the moderate slate, agreed that the city is still liberal at heart.

“San Franciscans want to make sure our streets are safe,” she said. “They want better public education. They want a government that works. When are those no longer democratic values?”

Heather Knight is bureau chief of The New York Times in San Francisco.

Tell us

Amid all the turmoil caused by the pandemic, there have been moments of hope and positive change. What have been your pandemic silver linings? Tell us at CAtoday@nytimes.com. Please include your full name and the city where you live.

And before you go: good news

Elephant seals, once hunted nearly to the point of extinction, are recovering, with colonies steadily expanding northward to breeding grounds on California’s Pacific coast. Bay Area News Group reports.

Scientists and researchers monitoring the seal population believe there are at least 25 breeding colonies on the Pacific coast today, with approximately 200,000 seals breeding and giving birth in the region’s five national marine reserves.

The figures represent a spectacular recovery for the seal species, which was hunted aggressively for its blubber in the 19th century and was thought to be extinct by the late 1870s. But a small colony, which at one point numbered fewer than 100 seals, survived in Baja California. After the species was given legal protection, the seals gradually began to rebuild their numbers and spread north again. According to researchers, all modern colonies in the Pacific today are descended from that one colony.

The seals have become prosperous in recent decades thanks to federal protections and because of their feeding habits, which are not directly affected by ocean currents. As the population grew, seals continued to establish colonies further up the coast, with one colony as far north as Humboldt County.

“It’s a conservation success story,” Dawn Goley, professor of zoology at Cal Poly Humboldt, told the news station. “They were in big trouble.”

Thank you for reading. We’ll be back on Monday. Nice weekend.

PS Here it is today’s mini crossword.

Soumya Karlamangla, Maia Coleman, Kellina Moore and Briana Scalia contributed to California Today. You can reach the team via CAtoday@nytimes.com.

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The main campus of the bankrupt San Francisco Art Institute, home to a beloved Diego Rivera mural, has been sold to a new nonprofit led by philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs.

The nonprofit, made up of local arts leaders and supporters including Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, purchased the debt-plagued campus through a limited liability company for about $30 million. Sales, reported previously in The San Francisco Chronicle, features “The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City,” a 1931 mural by Rivera that is valued at $50 million and will remain in a viewing room.

The former school will house an unaccredited institution that will include a residency program where artists can “develop their work and show their work,” said David Stull, president of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, who is a member of the new non- profit organization. Advisory Committee. He described the new center “as a platform for supporting artists and creating a hub for the community around the arts.”

The purchase comes as the institute, with approximately $20 million in debt, filed for bankruptcy last April; the two-acre estate in the Russian Hill neighborhood was for sale last summer.

Artists and city leaders argued that the mural should remain and San Francisco regulators declared it a landmark to prevent its removal.

“San Francisco has long been a center for the development of the arts and it remains an important center for developing ideas,” Stull said. “An institution like the art institution must be part of that future.”

In addition to Stull, the advisory committee includes Brenda Way, the founder and artistic director of San Francisco dance company ODC; Lynn Feintech, the president of Los Angeles-based Liberty Building and a longtime ODC board member; Stanlee Gatti, event designer and former chair of the San Francisco Arts Commission; and Stephen Beal, a former president of the California College of the Arts.

‘San Francisco needed good news and, with Macy’s closing and a doom-loop story, this is a huge shot in the arm for the entire city and county,” said Aaron Peskin, the chairman of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Peskin, who said he helped guide changes in local zoning laws through the legislative process to accommodate a redesigned institute, said work on the campus is expected to take four years. “This is a sign that arts and culture can be part of San Francisco’s recovery,” he said.

The main campus of the bankrupt San Francisco Art Institute, home to a beloved Diego Rivera mural, has been sold to a new nonprofit led by philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs.

The nonprofit, made up of local arts leaders and supporters including Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, purchased the debt-plagued campus through a limited liability company for about $30 million. Sales, reported previously in The San Francisco Chronicle, features “The Making of a Fresco Showing the Building of a City,” a 1931 mural by Rivera that is valued at $50 million and will remain in a viewing room.

The former school will house an unaccredited institution that will include a residency program where artists can “develop their work and show their work,” said David Stull, president of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, who is a member of the new non- profit organization. Advisory Committee. He described the new center “as a platform for supporting artists and creating a hub for the community around the arts.”

The purchase comes as the institute, with approximately $20 million in debt, filed for bankruptcy last April; the two-acre estate in the Russian Hill neighborhood was for sale last summer.

Artists and city leaders argued that the mural should remain and San Francisco regulators declared it a landmark to prevent its removal.

“San Francisco has long been a center for the development of the arts and it remains an important center for developing ideas,” Stull said. “An institution like the art institution must be part of that future.”

In addition to Stull, the advisory committee includes Brenda Way, the founder and artistic director of San Francisco dance company ODC; Lynn Feintech, the president of Los Angeles-based Liberty Building and a longtime ODC board member; Stanlee Gatti, event designer and former chair of the San Francisco Arts Commission; and Stephen Beal, a former president of the California College of the Arts.

‘San Francisco needed good news and, with Macy’s closing and a doom-loop story, this is a huge shot in the arm for the entire city and county,” said Aaron Peskin, the chairman of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Peskin, who said he helped guide changes in local zoning laws through the legislative process to accommodate a redesigned institute, said work on the campus is expected to take four years. “This is a sign that arts and culture can be part of San Francisco’s recovery,” he said.

Giant pandas from China could soon arrive in the United States again as Beijing plans to continue its panda diplomacy with Western countries, according to a statement from the Chinese embassy in the United States.

The China Wildlife Conservation Association has reached agreements with the San Diego Zoo in California and the Madrid Zoo in Spain “on a new round of international cooperation in giant panda conservation,” the statement said.

The deal would maintain a more than five-decade-old tradition of China lending pandas to U.S. zoos in a gesture of friendly diplomacy between the two countries. The return of several pandas from the United States to China in recent years had raised questions about whether the practice was coming to an end.

According to the embassy statement, China is also negotiating with the National Zoo in Washington, DC, and the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna, Austria.

“It has always been our intention and hope to have giant pandas at the zoo in the future and to continue our research here and our conservation work in China,” said Dr. Brandie Smith, director of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, in a statement. She added that the National Zoo was in discussions with the China Wildlife Conservation Association “to develop a future giant panda program.”

Dr. Megan Owen, the San Diego Zoo’s vice president of conservation sciences, said in a statement that the zoo is “taking important steps to ensure we are prepared for a potential return.”

The new round of what the Chinese embassy called “cooperative research” will focus on controlling and preventing diseases among giant pandas and more, according to the announcement.

The San Diego Zoo sent its last pandas back to China in 2019. And last April, the Memphis Zoo brought back its female giant panda, Ya Ya. Animal welfare activists were alarmed by videos and photos of Ya Ya at the time, showing her with a mangy coat and looking somewhat thin. Animal rights groups had campaigned for her release, blaming the zoo for the death of Ya Ya’s partner, Le Le. The Memphis Zoo and Chinese officials denied any wrongdoing.

Then last November, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington sent its two aging adult pandas, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, ​​and their cub, Xiao Qi Ji, back to China on a 19-hour FedEx flight, the Panda Express.

The move led to speculation that rising tensions between the U.S. and Chinese governments were the reason behind the pandas’ return to Washington, but National Zoo officials and scientists said each of the three pandas was at an age where they should have been returned to China should return.

The departure of the pandas made Atlanta is the only place in the United States where giant pandas (two adults and two babies) could be observed, although those bears are expected to return to China sometime this year.

Panda diplomacy between the United States and China dates back to the 1970s. It began after President Nixon made a landmark visit to China in 1972, normalizing relations between the two countries. Within two months, China had sent a female and male panda to the National Zoo. The original pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, lived together in the zoo and produced five cubs, none of which survived.

Zoos that receive pandas from China pay an annual fee to keep the animals, and typically do so for at least a few years. The zoos in the United States that have housed the pandas in recent decades are negotiating their own contracts with conservation groups in China.

While the furry diplomats chew their bamboo, oblivious to their geopolitical significance, critics have said panda diplomacy has been used by China to soften its authoritarian image and divert attention from its record of human rights abuses .

Chinese leader Xi Jinping hinted in a speech last fall that more giant pandas might come to American zoos. “We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States in the field of panda conservation and do our best to meet the wishes of Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples,” said Mr Xi at the time.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, there are just over 1,860 pandas left in the wild, as the species remains vulnerable after coming to the brink of extinction in the 1990s. They usually live in temperate forests in the mountains of southwest China, where they subsist on bamboo, of which they need between 26 and 84 pounds per day.

San Marzano tomatoes are prized by chefs around the world for their intense flavor and are routinely recommended by recipe writers, but a woman in California said her attempt to make a sauce from these rich and balanced tomatoes was disrupted by a misleading label.

Simpson Imports, a Pennsylvania tomato seller, has been selling Roma tomatoes in cans and boxes for years, but California woman Andrea Valiente said in a lawsuit filed last year that the company had used “highly deceptive tomato packaging to trick consumers into believing they are buying real San Marzano tomatoes, at San Marzano prices.”

Simpson Imports tried to dismiss the lawsuit, but Araceli Martínez-Olguín, a judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, said in an order Tuesday that some of Ms. Valiente's claims could proceed.

Simpson Imports said in an emailed statement that it “strongly disputes that reasonable consumers could have been misled” by the label, as “San Marzano” does not appear on it.

The company said “San Marzano” had not been used on the products' labels in nearly a decade, not since the “products contain a different blend.”

Simpson imports sells its canned and boxed tomatoes, as well as tomato sauces and tomato paste, under the brand “San Merican Tomatoes,” which it said was made with a “proprietary blend of Roma tomatoes.” The company's products are often recommended by food expertsincluding writers from The New York Times.

At a hearing in January, Simpson Imports said it had sold canned tomatoes labeled “San Marzano” nine years ago, according to the judge's order.

Ms. Valiente said in her complaint that the old product and the current product had “almost identical” packaging.

Both the old and current packaging had colored ribbons on the top and bottom to indicate whether the tomatoes were whole, crushed, diced or pureed. Both cans were also decorated with illustrations of tomatoes that resembled the elongated shapes of San Marzanos. Simpson Imports said in a statement that the tomato illustration was “a signature of a Roma tomato that the company founder made when he was a child.”

On the cans in use today, the letters “SMT” appear over the tomato illustrations. The older product had “San Marzano” on the tomatoes pictured. The current can design also has words embedded in each letter to spell 'San' on the 'S', 'erican' on the 'M' and 'omato' on the 'T'.

“The result is letters that are so comically minuscule that they are almost impossible to see with the naked eye,” Ms. Valiente said in the complaint.

Judge Martínez-Olguín said in her order: That was the case The Courthouse News Service reports thisthat it was “plausible” that other consumers would see the cans and “reasonably believe that Simpson's tomatoes are San Marzano tomatoes.”

Simpson Imports' tomatoes are priced higher than those of many other canned tomato brands, which “contributes to the plausibility of the consumer's expectation that Simpson's tomatoes are San Marzano tomatoes,” the judge wrote.

The labeling of San Marzano tomatoes in the United States is loose. In the European Union, only tomatoes grown in a specific region of Italy and which comply with this requirement are used a number of other requirements receive the 'Denomination of Protected Origin' or DOP, to prove that they are San Marzanos. In the United States, some tomato sellers claim to grow San Marzano varieties and may sell these tomatoes in the 'San Marzano style' or use 'San Marzano' without the official European certification.

Ms. Valiente said in her lawsuit that the labeling on Simpson Imports' tomato cans suggested they could be either DOP tomatoes or “San Marzano style” tomatoes, although in reality it “sells inferior Roma tomatoes.” She has 21 days to file an amended complaint.

In 2019Three other California home cooks have filed a lawsuit against a New Jersey-based tomato retailer, Cento Fine Foods, claiming it falsely labeled its tomatoes as San Marzanos. Cento said in a statement at the time the allegations were “completely unfounded,” and the plaintiffs dropped the lawsuit in 2021.