Did you know tomatoes are actually berries? Yes, scientifically speaking, a tomato is a berry, which means a strawberry is not a berry, but a tomato is. Nature has a twisted sense of humor. These red, juicy rebels belong to the nightshade family, alongside potatoes, eggplants, and the terrifying-looking belladonna—but don’t worry, your Caprese salad won’t send you into a hallucinating frenzy.
Tomatoes were once feared in Europe as “poison apples” because wealthy aristocrats ate them off pewter plates, and the acid leached lead from the metal. The peasants, who couldn’t afford pewter, happily munched tomatoes and didn’t die. So the rich blamed the tomato instead of their fancy plates. Classic rich-people logic.
