“It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.” Lewis Grizzard
The history of the tomato begins with the Peruvian Incans in ancient times. By the 13th century, tomatoes had proliferated throughout South America., and in the 1600s, Spanish colonialists exported them to Europe.
Tomatoes got a very cold reception, because they are related to the poisonous plant “the deadly nightshade,” used to make digitalis (a medicine for the heart). Incidentally, the same genus of plants includes the potato, eggplant, and chili pepper, as well as some notoriously toxic offshoots like mandrake root.
