Long Islanders have a summer love affair with tomatoes
Photo credit: Danielle Finkelstein | Billy King Jr., 4, of Mastic Beach, grabs onto his dad's winning tomatoes. (Aug. 27, 2010)
2010 Long Island Tomato Challenge
The 2010 Great Long Island Tomato Challenge
LI tomato growers share their secrets
2010 Tomatina food fight in Spain
As popular as tomatoes are today, there was a time when our ancestors avoided them like the plague. The juicy, red fruits we've grown to love sliced over mozzarella with basil and a drizzle of olive oil, cooked into a sauce for pasta or layered onto a sandwich, once were believed to be poisonous.
Tomato leaves and stems are, in fact, toxic if ingested, as the plant belongs to the Solanaceae...
