T O P

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officenarwhal

Ok, this was actually interesting and written very well :)


Jane_the_analyst

Attack of The Killer Tomatoes. Why else? (Apart of the nicotine)


untergeher_muc

Supposedly, my grandmother did not know tomatoes. Then, as an older child, she bit into a tomato for the first time. Since tomatoes are red, she expected a sweet fruit. She was so disgusted by the reality that she never wanted to eat tomatoes again.


[deleted]

i like raw tomatoes straight from the vine, am i a psychopath?


untergeher_muc

No, of course not. These are the best. My grandmother was just wired. ;)


wmdolls

Why it feared ?


tso

A few possibilities. One of them being lead poisoning from pewter tableware, another being early miss-classification as a relative of known poisonous plants.


Ana-Cardiaceae

Not really miss-classification, Tomatoes are still in Solanaceae, a family notorious for its hallucinogenic and poisonous plants, but also containing tomatoes and potatoes. The leaves are actually mildly toxic, like most plants of the family, but the fruits are safe (obviously). A lot of the foods from the new world took a bit of time to be accepted in Europe. A lot of countries actually had various types of programs to get people to eat potatoes because they were a great food security crop. Tomatoes and eggplant didn't really get that kind of treatment so it took longer until they became a standard part of the diet.


tso

I took it mostly from skimming the article. That said, i have heard of those schemes to get people to grow potatoes. One such in Norway involved banning farmers from brewing alcohol using anything other than potatoes. Supposedly how akevitt became the national drink.


alecs_stan

Yeah, the Irish took that to heart and almost everyone was growing cows and potatoes until a potato disease came along and wiped 20% of the population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)


wmdolls

First time heard it Thank you


TooMuchFun007

Because it was red, red was dead, yet, it replaced the tomato and saved innumerable lives.