Surprising Facts Plus a Christmas Novella!

by

As most people already know, I’m a bit of a history buff. I’m always running across things that surprise and interest me, so I found an article quite by accident that’s provided material for a blog.

With Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, it’s a given that we’ll be eating tomatoes. But did you know that in the early 1800s, tomatoes were only used as medicine and not eaten? In fact, people thought they were unappetizing, poisonous in fact!

Compliments of Pixabay

An Ohio doctor put them in pill form and sold them as a medicinal tonic that would cure indigestion, jaundice, and a host of other problems. But when F. & J. Heinz began making and marketing ketchup, people decided they were tasty.

In 1883, the Supreme Court declared tomatoes as fruit due to them having seeds and growing from a flowering vine.

This has always been a bit weird to me because they seem to be a vegetable.

But ketchup changed the way people thought of tomatoes and began eating them.

* * * * *

Compliments of Goosebumps on Pixabay

Another weird article I saw was about cucumbers. They weren’t well liked prior to the 18th century and people saw them only as food for livestock. They called them “cowcumbers” and that continued until after 1870.

Louisa May Alcott joked about cowcumbers in a letter to her sister Anna. Food was a scarcity from the 14th century to the 20th and people could’ve been eating them all along. Just seems so strange to me to starve when there was food.

So when you’re eating your Thanksgiving dinner, you’ll have something to tell your guests. Tomatoes were medicine and cucumbers were cowcumbers. HaHa!

* * * * *

I have a new Christmas novella coming on November 30th. LOVE COMES TO CHRISTMAS is #7 in the Christmas Stocking Sweethearts series by seven of the Fillies.

I loved writing this story and making some Christmas magic. It stars Gillian Everly and Brett Love. Also Zema the border collie.

It’s available for preorder HERE.

The launch date is Dec. 4th and I’ll have a post then also and tell more.

But, here’s a blurb. Also, there is no mention of tomatoes or cucumbers in this story.

Someone is going to great lengths to convince Gillian Everly her beloved Christmas store is haunted. Sudden, mysterious occurrences keep her unsettled, still she doesn’t buy into ghosts and spirits. An intruder has to be getting seemingly through locked doors. With a big Christmas Eve performance planned, she doesn’t have time for strange shenanigans.

Brett Love, a new customer, is taken by the beautiful shop owner and tries to help. He loans her a dog to keep her safe against whatever is happening in the shop. It seems the perfect solution.

The unthinkable happens when Gillian confronts the intruder, and she’s left with a maimed hand. Will she ever be able to perform again? Watching another dream die will shatter her fragile hope.

Tell me if you’ll be eating tomatoes and/or cucumbers this Thanksgiving. Or you might mention if you like this cover. I’ll give away a $10 Amazon gift card.

 

 

Linda Broday Headshot
Website |  + posts

Here in the Texas Panhandle, we do love our cowboys. There's just something about a man in a Stetson and jeans that makes my heart beat faster. I'm not much of a cook but I love to do genealogy and I'm a bit of a rock hound. I'm also a NY Times & USA Today bestselling author of historical western romance. You can contact me through my website and I'd love to connect with you on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and more. HAPPY READING!
https://petticoatsandpistols.com/sweepstakesrules/

98 thoughts on “Surprising Facts Plus a Christmas Novella!”

  1. I love your cover. I am not planning on eating cucumbers or tomatoes on Thanksigiving. Thank you so much for sharing the wonderful facts. God bless you.

  2. I love the cover! Honestly, I’m not sure if tomatoes & cucumbers will be eaten for Thanksgiving yet because we haven’t decided on what we’re having yet except possibly twice baked potatoes.

    • Joannie, well I know whatever you decide on, it’ll be delicious. I don’t plan to either. We tried having a salad once with our turkey and no one ate it so we won’t try that again. It’s strange that people once thought tomatoes were poisonous. Yet, they took those medical remedies that were made with cocaine. Just crazy. Have a good day and thanks for coming.

  4. I won’t be having tomatoes or cucumbers this Thanksgiving. We don’t eat them much in the winter, except for a few tomatoes on sandwiches.

    • Janice, we don’t either. Those seem to be summer foods. In the winter we eat more heartily. Have to put meat on our bones to withstand the cold. And have you noticed that people tend to wear longer hair in winter? Men especially. They want something to cover their necks. Thanks for coming. Blessings and love.

  5. Interesting article as I have been on a tomato, cucumber, bleu cheese dressing, salad kick the last couple of months AND I love your cover! But…I won’t be having tomatoes or cucumbers this Thanksgiving. 🙂

    • Thank you for complimenting my cover. I really like it too. This model is exactly how I picture Gillian Everly. And I can see her walking with a limp. Glad you’re ditching the salad for Thanksgiving. There are too many other foods that are better. I hope you have a blessed day.

  6. Very interesting reading in this post. No, I don’t like tomatoes, so I won’t be eating those. I don’t like ketchup either, but I do use a little bit on some seafood. Cucumbers are great with Italian dressing, but I like them fresh, so I won’t have them at Thanksgiving.

    However, I will be reading this Thanksgiving!

    • Good morning, Susan. I’m glad you’re here. And how wonderful to be reading! I was reading Winnie’s free sequel last night and I got so emotional. She does an excellent job introducing the series. Nope, no tomatoes or cucumbers!! Turkey and dressing and all the trimmings, plus a delicious dessert! Blessings and love on this Thanksgiving.

    • Ann, I can smell turkey and dressing at your house. You can smell it in mine too. We’ll ditch those poisonous tomatoes and cowcumbers!! Appreciate the compliment on the cover. I love it. Have a blessed day.

  9. Here in Finland we obviously don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here in Finland. However, I have tomato sauce on my zucchini, cheese and mozzarella (also called Moomin meat) pizza.

    Did you know there was a time when tomatoes were thought to be poisonous and was actually called “poison apple”?

  10. I don’t think I will, but I do like both. I grew up eating tomato and cucumber sandwiches. I did like the interesting facts about both. Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

  11. I don’t normally include them in my Thanksgiving meal but do enjoy them both, I found an easy cucumber tomatoe and avocados salad which is great! Love the cover too! Can’t wait to read!

  12. We might be eating them. My mother is bringing either a veggie tray or a salad to dinner. She loves a variety of veggies.

    • Karijean, you’ll have to tell your mother about those “poisonous tomatoes!” I can’t believe people thought that and yet were starving. It was there but they wouldn’t eat them. Enjoy your Thanksgiving. Have a blessed day.

  14. I won’t be serving either tomatoes or cucumbers at Thanksgiving. They don’t seem to be a part of “traditional” Thanksgiving fare.
    The cover is pretty.

  15. We usually have vegetable platters at our family gatherings but Thanksgiving is the one time we don’t. Most likely it’s the abundance of other foods that I never think to do snack trays.
    Wishing everyone a joyous Holiday season filled with God’s abundant love!

  16. Good morning Linda. Naw – we won’t be eating cucumbers or tomatoes at our table. Most likely sweet potatoes, squash, and sweet corn. Ha! The cover is gorgeous. I can’t wait to read your book. Am so happy many P&P authors wrote another series. Thank you all. Happy Harvest my friend. Such a Beautuful time of year to fill our hearts with Thanksgiving.

    • Kathy, Thanksgiving is such a beautiful time of the year. We’ll have 16 at our table so it’ll be a little chaotic. Thank you for complimenting my cover. We’ll be giving thanks for an abundance of rain. We’ve gotten over 5 inches this month with recent rain Sunday and that’s unusual for us. The cotton farmers are sure happy. Our hearts are full. Blessings and love, sweet friend.

    • Teresa, I’m so happy to see you. I agree that this isn’t the season for salad. We’ll have our turkey, dressing, and all the trimmings. Much better. Happy Thanksgiving!

  18. No, I won’t probably be eating cucumbers or tomatoes this Thanksgiving. However, I love both of them. Yes, your cover is gorgeous. Your history on the two items of food above is very interesting and also funny. What people thought in prior years is utterly hilarious. Thank you for your blog.

    • Judy, I totally agree about people’s flawed thinking back then. And the thing was, it continued for 200 years!! Those people were starving but wouldn’t eat tomatoes or cucumbers. Yet, they drank those bottles of elixirs that were almost totally cocaine. Just so strange. Thank you for liking my cover. I hope you get a chance to read the story. Blessings and love this Thanksgiving.

  20. I don’t think we’ll be eating cucumbers, but I’m sure some form of tomato will sneak into our food for Thanksgiving! 😀

  21. Unless someone decides to grab a pickle, we don’t have plans to serve tomatoes or cucumbers for thanksgiving. 🙂 Thanks for sharing the history about them, how interesting!

  22. Howdy Linda! Thanks for the history lesson today! Yes, we will be eating layer salad! So, we will have tomatoes and cucumber! And I love the cover! White pianos! And I love the dress!

    Will YOU be eating tomatoes and cucumbers? What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish or sweet? Mine is pecan pie! But, we haven’t had one in a while. And next year we won’t have many pecans! If we do, they will be expensive! Did you hear that Hurricane Helene wiped out the pecan groves in Georgia? So very sad for those families. Our family farm pecan groves were pretty much stripped during Hurricane Idalia the year before. I can remember we put up frozen pecans almost every year as a child. On the farm it was always putting up some sort of food. Those were the days!

    Wishing you success on your new Christmas book! I plan to read this series! Happy Thanksgiving!

    • Tracy, I thought you would find this as interesting as I did. Those people believed anything. No tomatoes or cucumbers but they’d drink bottles of elixirs that were almost pure cocaine!! Really blows my mind. I didn’t hear about the pecan groves but I’m not surprised. That hurricane wiped out everything down there. I love pecan pie too and we usually have one because some of our family doesn’t like pumpkin.

      Thank you for liking my cover. The white piano was settled on right off the bat when were thinking about covers. I just love it and I was so happy that I got a model that looks exactly as I picture Gillian Everly. And I can even see her with a limp. I hope you enjoy the series that will be out soon. Have you read the prequel that Winnie wrote? It’s free right now on Amazon so you can grab it if you haven’t. I downloaded it last night and I got very emotional. Even I didn’t know much about Melody Nightingale until the prequel came out. It’s very good and really kicks off the series. Happy Thanksgiving blessings to you and yours!

  23. Appreciate learning that history! I don’t know if you are familiar with the small community of Avery, in far northeast Texas. Back some decades ago, they were considered a regional center for growing and shipping tomatoes. My grandmother lived there, and the tomatoes were large and delicious! I don’t expect to have either tomatoes or cucumbers for our somewhat simple Christmas meal. I like the model’s eye catching dress on the cover.

    • Catherine, thanks so much for coming. I am not familiar with Avery but it sounds like an interesting place to set a book. I didn’t know they are the tomato capital. Thanks for telling me. And thank you for liking the model on my cover. She really caught my eye when I was choosing. She looks exactly like I picture Gillian Everly. And, I can even picture her with a limp. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

      • I love history and also do a great deal of genealogical research. Avery is in Red River Country, which was one of the main gateways into Texas. The county originally encompassed many other later counties. Actually, there is a history book by that name, Gateway to Texas, written by Martha Sue Stroud.

        • Catherine, I looked Avery up and it was founded way back in 1870 so it’s among the oldest towns in Texas. I see it’s near Mt. Pleasant. At least up in that area and I know where that is. Thanks for the book title.

  24. Tomatoes have been a staple at every occasion. Either in a salad or sliced with balsamic drizzled over them. Absolutely delish.

    • Ellie, thank you for coming by. I hope you enjoy your tomatoes at Thanksgiving. You’re the smart one. We’ll have 16 at our table so it’ll be really chaotic. There will be so much food! I always overeat. I can’t help myself. Blessings on this Thanksgiving!

  25. The cover is gorgeous! I love her dress. I won’t be eating tomatoes or cucumbers either one, I’m more of a meat and potatoes kind of gal!

    • Kim, thank you so much. I just love this cover too. The model looks exactly like I picture Gillian, even down to the limp. I can see it. Whatever you eat on turkey day, I hope you enjoy it. Happy Thanksgiving!

  26. Whatever the meal and celebration we serve tomatoes in a unique and wonderful manner. Sliced, diced, and in a chopped salad which is a favorite.

  27. We don’t usually have tomatoes or cucumbers for Thanksgiving, but I enjoyed the historical tidbit about them! 🙂

  30. I honestly don’t know if I’ll be eating them! I do like both! I’ll be with friends on Thanksgiving, and they do all of the cooking!! So, I have no idea what we’ll have until I get to their house!

    • Trudy, how nice to get to go have Thanksgiving with friends. I’m sure you’ll have a lot of good food. Just enjoy and go back home. Happy Thanksgiving! Have a blessed day.

  31. I like the cover on the book.
    I will be eating tomatoes and a lot of other foods that I eat only at this time. I like yams but hardly eat during the year.

    • Hi Joye, thank you for liking the cover of my upcoming book. It’s very Christmasy. I like yams too but I don’t eat them much except at holidays. I don’t know why that is. They’re very healthy for us. Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

  32. Good morning Linda, first of all your book cover is Gorgeous!! I love it and your book sounds like a great read! We will be having salad on Thanksgiving so we will be eating tomatoes and cucumbers. Thank you for sharing these facts, they are so very interesting! Have a Great day and a great rest of the week.

    • Alicia, I’m so glad you came. Thank you for liking my book cover. I do think it’s very nice. If you get when it comes out Nov. 30th or if you win a copy that I’ll be giving away, I hope you enjoy the story. Also, enjoy your tomatoes and cucumbers on Thanksgiving. Have a blessed one.

  33. I did know about the tomato being thought of as poisonous but not that it had been used for medicinal purposes. I laughed when I read that cucumbers had been called cowcumbers. I don’t know if we will be having tomatoes or cucumbers for Thanksgiving as we will be at my youngest sister’s place.

    • Barbara, it made me laugh too. How crazy those people were to feed cucumbers to livestock! And that they made medicines from tomatoes. They wouldn’t either of those yet they drank bottles of elixirs that were mostly cocaine! Very strange. Have fun at your youngest sister’s house on Thanksgiving. Blessings and love.

  35. I really love your cover.
    I would say we will be eating tomatoes and cucumbers but not sure usually in a salad. I will have to say that I always put out tomatoes and cucumbers in the spring because I love having fresh ones. There is nothing like a fresh tomato right off the plant.

    Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

    • Quilt Lady, thank you for the book cover compliment! I love it too. And I really appreciate you coming. That’s always nice. I hope you and your husband have a blessed Thanksgiving. Love you, lady!

  36. Great cover! We will not be eating tomatoes or cucumbers for Thanksgiving. We are having corn and asparagus for veggie side dishes.

  37. That’s a big no to cukes or tomatoes. Will most likely have them after the fattening Thanksgiving feast in a salad.

    Love the beautiful cover!

    Happy Thanksgiving to all!

    • Lynn, I won’t be having any either. Like you, that will be for AFTERWARD to get rid of my belly. Ha! Thanks for liking my cover. Have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving.

  38. No tomatoes or cucumbers on the menu… enjoyed learning some interesting facts about them I did not know about… Thanks for sharing Linda! Happy Holidays!!!

    • Colleen, I’m glad you enjoyed my post. I love finding things like this. Absolutely, we will ditch the tomatoes and cucumbers! Until after. Ha! Wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving.

  39. Linda, I could eat my weight in tomatoes. I’d rather have those than chocolate! I eat them with every meal. One summer when I was about 10, we’d gone to help my grandparents bring in the crops and put some of them up and they gave us a LOT of vegetables to bring home–one thing was a huge basket of tomatoes. I ate those so much I ended up getting a rash from the acidity of them. But I still kept eating them, despite my mom trying to keep me from it until my rash was gone. I couldn’t bear to NOT have those fresh tomatoes. I am not a huge cucumber fan, but I used to eat them in salads–I mean, I wouldn’t pick them out. Anyhow, now THEY do not like ME, so I can’t eat them anymore. This was really interesting. Love your cover, of course, and I can’t wait to read all the other books in our Christmas Stocking Sweethearts series! Love you, filly sis!

    • Cheryl, I’m just so excited about our series and the books are finally coming out. I’ve preordered yours and can’t wait to read it. I know it’ll be really interesting. Crossing fingers we do as well as Pam and Winnie. Boy, you do like tomatoes! That’s good because they are good for you…until you eat too many. Have a blessed Thanksgiving up there in Oklahoma. That’s a foreign country to us Texans. HAHA! Love you right back, Filly Sister.

  40. Probably not… you do realize that for the longest time European/UK peeps didn’t eat corn as it was livestock feed…imagine missing out on corn tortillas, sweet corn, maybe Italians ate polenta/grits….

    • Kate, it’s odd how many foods were delegated to livestock feed, especially when you think about how many were starving and food was scarce. It was right there and they wouldn’t eat it. But yet, they’d go through bottles of those elixirs that almost pure cocaine! Really strange. Have a very blessed Thanksgiving.

  41. Hi, Linda,
    Thanks for the info! We are in fact having guests for Thanksgiving and now we have interesting conversation starters :). I do love that cover and sweet story. Take care.
    sally

    • Miss Sally, it’s great to see you! It’s been a while since I talked to you. For sure, you’re going to have some interesting conversations at the Thanksgiving table. I do hope Brittany and her family will be there. Thank you for the compliment on my cover. I’m very proud of this story. It’s really Christmasy. Have a blessed Thanksgiving. 🙂

    • Sarah, when I find something that interests me, I just about know it will others as well. I really love history. Thank you for liking this cover. I think you’ll like to story too. Wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving.

  43. Love the book cover, and NO we will not be having tomatoes or cucumbers. Very interesting information though. Love little known trivia like that. My husband still thinks tomatoes are poison and that cucumbers are for cows. lol He doesn’t eat either of them in any form. I love them.

  46. Miss Linda- I loved your blog & I love both tomatoes and cucumbers. Did you know that cucumbers taste best if you milk them 1st? No, no it’s not a joke, cut off about a 1/2 inch off the end that was attached to vine, then rub the end cut off back and forth on the cut side of cucumber, and a white foam forms. Then cut another 1/4 inch off cucumber cut end to get rid of the foam. The foam is actually bitter if you taste it. Doing this removes the bitter taste in cucumbers. Now you have something to tell at your Thanksgiving dinner!
    As for your cover, ILOVE IT.
    Love you,too.

  47. The cover is lovely. Anything with any shade of purple is a favorite at our house. Even if her dress were a different color, it would still be lovely.
    I haven’t gotten my Thanksgiving menu finished yet. We will likely not be having a tossed salad or sliced veggies at dinner. There is always so much else. However, we will be eating lots of salads in the following days so cucumbers and tomatoes will be on the menu.
    I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

  48. Hi Linda, The cover is Awesome!!! Wow, I didn’t know that about a cucumber, so glad that Tonya, shared.
    Yes, we will have a salad with cucumbers & tomatoes. I love stewed tomatoes like by brother, so we will be enjoying them also with the turkey. Have a blessed Thanksgiving with your family.

  50. I don’t think I will be eating tomatoes or cucumbers on Thanksgiving, but you never know what someone might bring in our family.

Comments are closed.