Hey NRaleighLiberal & other tomato lovers did you know this?....

[Little Star]

Why the Tomato Was Feared in Europe for More Than 200 Years

In the late 1700s, a large percentage of Europeans feared the tomato.

A nickname for the fruit was the “poison apple” because it was thought that aristocrats got sick and died after eating them, but the truth of the matter was that wealthy Europeans used pewter plates, which were high in lead content. Because tomatoes are so high in acidity, when placed on this particular tableware, the fruit would leach lead from the plate, resulting in many deaths from lead poisoning. No one made this connection between plate and poison at the time; the tomato was picked as the culprit.

Around 1880, with the invention of the pizza in Naples, the tomato grew widespread in popularity in Europe. But there’s a little more to the story behind the misunderstood fruit’s stint of unpopularity in England and America, as Andrew F. Smith details in his The Tomato in America: Early History, Culture, and Cookery. The tomato didn’t get blamed just for what was really lead poisoning. Before the fruit made its way to the table in North America, it was classified as a deadly nightshade, a poisonous family of Solanaceae plants that contain toxins called tropane alkaloids.

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2013/06/why-the-tomato-was-feared-in-europe-for-more-than-200-years/

Boy did those people miss out on a good thing!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Tomatoes are, in fact, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae.

The scientific name for the tomato plant is Solanum lycopersicum. They just don't happen to be poisonous like some of their cousins.

Potatoes and eggplants are also classified as Solanaceae.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. Yep - cool, hey? Found lots of neat stuff that I've put in the history of tomato part

of my upcoming book....you will have to wait until Dec 2014 to read it!

Working on the final appendices this afternoon....table of recommended varieties by color, and table of common tomato diseases - kept some of the busy work for last!

[Curmudgeoness]

3. December 2014!!!!!

Hell, I might not make it that long!!!

But I look forward to it, in a year and a half....jeez. Can't wait.

[mopinko]

4. ok, may 2015 book signing at the ark.

unless you want to do a tomato tasting in august. and book signing.

[madokie]

5. If I remember correctly it was Thomas Jefferson

who convinced the people here that a tomato was good to eat.
I read it in one of my history books years ago.
If I remember correctly he was threatened with impeachment because of his eating tomatoes. He was considered unfit for office.

I'm off to bed or I'd see if I can find a reference to this.
I'm sure I still have the history book where I read this even though it might take a while to find it.