The Great Tomato Scare
True, odd moments from history, told short and checked against at least two sources.
The story
Tomatoes reached Europe in the 1500s, filed with the nightshades, a family with some truly poisonous cousins. In 1597 English herbalist John Gerard called the plant "rank and stinking." Many folks grew tomatoes for looks, not lunch. Now the legend. Salem, New Jersey, 1820. Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson climbs the courthouse steps and eats a whole basket, while the crowd waits for him to drop.
He lived, of course. But historians hunting for proof found none. The story shows up in print in the 1900s, and a 1949 radio show made it famous. Johnson did grow tomatoes. And by the 1830s, American cookbooks were full of tomato recipes. The scare was real. The courthouse stunt is a tall tale. Tomatoes won folks over in the kitchen.
Sources
- smithsonianmag.com/history/how-the-misrepresentation-of-tomatoes-as-stinking-poi
- nationalgeographic.com/history/article/tomato-history-salem-new-jersey
- press.uillinois.edu/wordpress/following-a-hunch-about-tomatoes-by-andrew-f-smith
- app.ckbk.com/reference/food34962c10s001e016/johnson-robert-gibbon-and-the-tomato
- nj.com/salem/2022/09/the-story-of-how-a-man-made-the-tomato-a-garden-state-stapl
- researchdiscovery.drexel.edu/esploro/outputs/journalArticle/The-Making-of-the-Le