Bonners Ferry Local Guide including all of Boundary County Idaho

Tomato plant trivia

Wednesday, March 21, 2007; KXLY

This week, I am starting my tomato plants. I thought it might be fun to share a bit of trivia that I ran across concerning tomatoes. Supposedly the first tomato noted in Old World writings was probably yellow. In 1554 an Italian herbalist called the tomato pomi dore meaning golden fruit. Did you know that a crop of crabgrass growing at the base of your tomato plants will cut the yield by half? Have you ever heard of the tomato being referred to as the wolf peach? And if so, why? Thats what tomatoes were called by in 1830 when Robert Johnson of Salem, N.J. decided to prove that the tomato was not poisonous. He ate a basketful on the steps of the courthouse, despite his doctors warning that he would froth at the mouth and contract brain fever or stomach cancer. Though he didnt of course, you do have to wonder who was the first person brave enough to eat the tomato, since the plant is in the nightshade family and all parts of it are poisonous, except the fruit. - Full Story