I would never have called myself a tomato lover, but this week’s salmonella outbreak has me longing for the red fruit (vegetable? fruit? yum?) Forget Adam and his apple, could it be that the serpent tempted man with a Solanum lycopersicum? Even the plant family it derives from, the nightshade family, warns of danger. Some thought of it as poisonous, but most just thought it inedible or ornamental. Let us praise brave, educated men like Thomas Jefferson for having the gumption to declare the red orb delicious.

I miss them. I miss them on my roast beef sandwich, on my pizza and I miss seeing their happy faces in the produce section. Come back, tomato.