Tomatoes: A Love Story

The tomato is Gastropod’s favorite flavor of summer, and we’re not
alone: today, it’s the most popular vegetable on the planet,
despite the fact that it's technically a fruit. But, until a couple
of hundred years ago, the tomato wasn't really anyone's favorite.
In South America, where the tomato originates, no one even bothered
to domesticate it; in Mexico, the Aztecs seem to have preferred
tomatillos; Renaissance Europeans thought this member of the
nightshade family was practically poisonous; and, until the 1830s,
most Americans considered them an “acquired taste.” Even in Italy,
where the culinary mainstays of pizza and pasta now depend on red
sauce, it took centuries to catch on. So why was the tomato so
unloved—and how did it end up converting the haters on its rise to
glory? Listen in this episode for the story of how Italian block
parties, snake oil pills, and the state of Florida played in a role
in the tomato’s journey to global domination—as well as the epic
tale of one man’s quest to make the industrial tomato taste great
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