The Poison Apple?

From the Smithsonian magazine article entitled "Why the Tomato was feared in Europe for 200 Years:

In the late 1700s, a large percentage of Europeans feared the tomato.
A nickname for the fruit was the “poison apple” because it was thought that aristocrats got sick and died after eating them, but the truth of the matter was that wealthy Europeans used pewter plates, which were high in lead content. Because tomatoes are so high in acidity, when placed on this particular tableware, the fruit would leach lead from the plate, resulting in many deaths from lead poisoning. No one made this connection between plate and poison at the time; the tomato was picked as the culprit. 

Okay, I don't think tomaotes are poisonous.  We grow a bunch of them.  This year we had a really nice crop of various varieties of heirloom tomatoes.  We made all sorts of stuff with them and have them preserved in several different ways.

But, this year is another year that I tried to eat a raw sliced fresh homegrown tomato with salt and pepper... and I just can't do it.  I don't like raw tomatoes.  I have tried every single year to develop a taste for them, but I can't.  It is a sacrilege, I know.

I can eat them cooked, in pico de gallo, salsa, ketchup, but just now raw tomatoes by themselves.  This past week we made BLTs.  Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato sandwiches with a little homemade herbed chevre (goat cheese) on top.  Wow! Delicious.

But in all fairness, it is not REALLY a raw tomato I'm eating.  It is a raw tomato disguised with flavors of bacon, swiss cheese, lettuce, and goat cheese.

If you notice, I'm not eating off of a pewter plate, so I wasn't poisoned by the tomatoes. Anyway, I'll mark 2017 off the list.  I'll try to eat plain raw tomatoes by themselves in 2018.  Perhaps I will develop a taste for them next year.