Love Apple

This time of year, beautiful tomatoes fresh from the garden, warm from the sunshine and smelling of vine are one of my favorite things. I remembered today, as I was slicing one up for dinner, that they were at some point called "love apples" and were thought to be poisonous. When I investigated further, I was thrilled by the scope of the stories (true or false?) that I found: that they were an Aztec side-dish for cannibalistic main courses, that they were once called the "wolf peach" because of a connection to werewolf lore, that they come from the nightshade family so were thought poisonous by many cultures for centuries (and do have trace amounts of poisonous toxins), that a translation of a breed from Africa became something about Moors that was translated by Europeans to "pomme d'amour" (love apple) which then spurred on tales of its aphrodisiac properties. Of course now tomatoes have become such a staple it is difficult to imagine not having them around. Fascinating!