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Before 1830, tomatoes were known as love apples. English knights, in earlier centuries, gave tomatoes to their sweethearts as special favors. Sir Walter Raleigh is said to have given one to Queen Elizabeth. The tomato was domesticated by the Indians of Central America. Our word tomato comes from those Central American Indians who called it "tomatl." The tomato spread to both North and South America before Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World. Seeds of the tomato were taken to Europe, where the plant was raised for decoration. Because a superstition arose that the tomato stimulated love, it gained the name love apple. Although it was native to America, it was eaten in Europe long before people in the United States used it for food. People here considered it poisonous.

On September 26, 1830, a tomato farmer named Colonel Robert Johnson from Salem, New Jersey, announced he would eat an entire basket of them. As Johnson ate his first tomato, a band played and people fainted. He finished the basketful, as the astonished crowd watched. The courage of Colonel Johnson reminds us of Frank Tyger's words: "The road to success is usually off the beaten path." Beaten paths are for beaten men! The heroes of our religious tradition didn't use their faith as an escape, but as an energetic and courageous adventure into the unknown. At the beginning of Israel's history, for example, is Abraham who left the beaten path of life in Ur "without knowing where he was going." (Hebrews 11:8) Jesus of Nazareth left the beaten path of the old religion by doubting his ancestors' traditional wisdom. (Matthew 5:21f) St. Paul left the beaten path of Judaism. What insight and courage it took for him to write: "We know that a person is put right with God only through faith in Jesus Christ, never by doing what the Law requires." (Galatians 2:16) In science, social advance, and personal living, beaten paths are for beaten men!