They may have been different but they had already been bred in the Americas by the Native Americans for many hundreds of years and were fully edible. The modern cherry tomatoes are the closest to the original pre-Columbian varieties. However the entire tomato plant is poisonous except the fruit. At the same time it’s related and highly looks like european native nightshade plants which are poisonous in every part of the plant. So scepticism was understandable. Same story for the potato, tomato’s close relative, where every single part of the potato plant, including the tomato like fruit, is poison, except the tuber.
I remember reading somewhere that pewter dinnerware was also partly to blame, as the acids in tomatoes were especially good at dissolving the lead in the alloy. But this only affected nobility as commoners tended to use wooden plates instead.
Yeah the new Galifinakis show “this is a garden show” explains it like this and makes no reference to toxicity of tomatoes themselves. And I would definitely trust a comedian for historical accuracy.
I didn’t think of its similarity to actual super poisonous stuff and did a follow-up read to find out that even their edible relative that is non-native to Americas - the eggplant, was also somehow quite obscure (in Europe) in those times. So yeah, makes sense in hindsight that stuff similar to Nightshade, wasn’t really garnering any trust of Europeans of the times.
Same story for the potato, tomato’s close relative, where every single part of the potato plant, including the tomato like fruit, is poison, except the tuber.
The tuber can be poisonous, too! It contains solanine, the level variies based on variety, how it’s stored and whether it’s peeled.
They may have been different but they had already been bred in the Americas by the Native Americans for many hundreds of years and were fully edible. The modern cherry tomatoes are the closest to the original pre-Columbian varieties. However the entire tomato plant is poisonous except the fruit. At the same time it’s related and highly looks like european native nightshade plants which are poisonous in every part of the plant. So scepticism was understandable. Same story for the potato, tomato’s close relative, where every single part of the potato plant, including the tomato like fruit, is poison, except the tuber.
I remember reading somewhere that pewter dinnerware was also partly to blame, as the acids in tomatoes were especially good at dissolving the lead in the alloy. But this only affected nobility as commoners tended to use wooden plates instead.
Yeah the new Galifinakis show “this is a garden show” explains it like this and makes no reference to toxicity of tomatoes themselves. And I would definitely trust a comedian for historical accuracy.
He was so hot in this show. “The future is agrarian”
Oh, thank you for wonderful explanation.
I didn’t think of its similarity to actual super poisonous stuff and did a follow-up read to find out that even their edible relative that is non-native to Americas - the eggplant, was also somehow quite obscure (in Europe) in those times. So yeah, makes sense in hindsight that stuff similar to Nightshade, wasn’t really garnering any trust of Europeans of the times.
The tuber can be poisonous, too! It contains solanine, the level variies based on variety, how it’s stored and whether it’s peeled.
Raw potatoes are generally poisonous. But luckily, the really poisonous stuff (after exposure to sun) is green-blue, visible.