When Tomatoes Were Feared and Hated
The discovery of the Americas revolutionized the world in many ways. Not least among them was the Columbian Exchange – a widespread transfer of plants, animals, peoples, cultures, technology and diseases between the Old World and the New. One plant in particular turned out to be surprisingly controversial when initially introduced to the Old World: the tomato. No other vegetable has been as maligned as the tomato – a fruit by scientific consensus, but a vegetable per the United States Supreme Court. The tomato eventually became a huge hit, and revolutionized cuisines all around the planet.
Early on, however, tomatoes were met with outright hostility in some parts of Europe, where they were viewed as satanic. The centuries-long Witch Hunt Craze, much of which overlapped with the Age of Exploration, was pretty weird in its own right. Tens of thousands of women were slaughtered for witchcraft. Less known is that thousands more, men and women, were executed around the same time, accused of being werewolves. As seen below, tomatoes came to be negatively associated with witch and werewolf folklore.