Toppled Tomatoes
Posted: 06/27/2010 Filed under: Motherhood, Nature, Photography, Stories | Tags: aversions, Nightshade Family, pregnancy, pregnancy aversions, Solanaceae, spider, squirrels, tomatoes, toppling tomatoes 5 Comments »
Last month, a friend kindly gave me and Matt some heirloom tomato seedlings, which we happily potted up in containers on our front porch, a location which neighbors suggested would help protect the plants from the lips of the many hungry deer who share our neighborhood with us.
All was well until my strangest and strongest pregnancy aversion hit: to tomatoes, in all forms — the fruits, sauces, and scents, the plants, and even pictures of the plants. I couldn’t bear to see or smell any of them! Walking up the steps to our front porch — flanked by those growing tomato plants — became an exercise in controlling my gag reflex. It was wild!
Pregnant women report all sorts of aversions to objects and odors that might signal a potential gastrointestinal danger: raw meat, milk, vegetables, scents with notes of rot or overripeness. But I’d never heard of such a strong reaction to tomato plants. My only guess at an explanation for the strange quirk: that my pregnancy spidey-senses were responding to the fact that tomatoes are part of the Nightshade Family — Solanaceae — a plant family which famously includes many toxic plants, such as the mandrake and belladonna and, of course, nightshades (most parts of which are poisonous to humans).
In light of this, Matt kindly moved the plants to the side of the house, out of my line of sight. (Thanks, Matt.) The deer stayed away. But the squirrels didn’t!
Every day, they climb the steel tomato supports to snag little green tomatoes — and both the squirrels and the plants go toppling to the ground in the process.
I don’t know if we’ll muster the motivation to sink the plants into the ground for support, or if we’ll just keep up a daily game of you-knock-’em-down-we’ll-set-’em-up with the squirrels. (Today, it’s 99 F with 88% humidity, and the idea of digging in the garden just seems… overwhelming.)
But I DO know that I’m enjoying the sight of the beautiful spider who has taken up residence on our tomato plants. She’s admirably persistent: she sticks around, no matter how many times she’s been toppled!
I do hate tomatoes, so I wouldn’t be a problem if I would be pregnant
It has to be frustrating can’t stand some normal things..
Love!
xxx
I do feel for you. It must be torturous not being able to enjoy tomatoes in season. On the other hand, I am amazed at the explanation of food aversions. How deeply rooted in our genes must this response be? How amazing are our bodies! It’s miraculous, really – but hopefully it’ll pass quickly.
The spider in your garden, though she might seem unfriendly, is called “gardener’s spider” and brings good luck to your garden. Enjoy her elaborate webs.
It *is* miraculous, isn’t it?! I’m endlessly impressed with what’s coded into those genes of ours…
Thank you for the heads up about the spider — I will take good luck wherever I can get it.
All good things to you!
I hope you are feeling better by this point! Here’s a test for you… do you have a similar reaction to other nightshades, particularly the poisonous ones? See if you can find some and test it out! If the reaction is limited to highly edible tomatoes and no other species in that group, then you can give your pregnancy spidey-sense a slap on the forehead.
After all, the system goofs up a lot, like when pregnant women get cravings to eat laundry detergent and sniff exhaust fumes. We have some nightshades growing in our yard that I have to pull periodically lest the boys eat the fruits. Maybe I’ll mail you a box full! (glinty eyes and mock-evil laughter). Nah, don’t worry, I won’t.
That is a good idea! I am feeling much, much better now and am able to handle tomatoes again, so my window for testing has passed. But the next time I’m pregnant, if the same phenomenon happens, I’ll go sniff out some ground cherries see what happens!