Only somebody from Lake Oswego would try something like this [ducking to avoid the onslaught of crap thrown at me from Valley-based blogs]
Rob Baur of Lake Oswego, Oregon, dreamed of bringing to life his favorite The Simpsons episode, one from 1999 in which Homer grows “tomacco,” a combination tomato-tobacco plant. Even though it tastes foul and has a brown, gooey center, the entire town becomes addicted to the fruit after one bite, and Homer gets rich.
Baur grafted a tomato plant onto tobacco roots, and voil?, he had a real, live tomacco plant. The two plants can successfully become one because they come from the same plant family, which also includes eggplant and the deadly nightshade. The tomacco even bore fruit, although Baur said he believes it’s poisonous because it likely contains a lethal amount of nicotine.
If you’ve never seen the episode referred to, you live in a hole ;-). Otherwise, check out this full run down from the Simpson’s Archive.
Comments
The world’s first ToMacco was sacrificed to test for nicotine. After a whirl in a blender it was extracted with chloroform and injected into a GC/MS which found NO nicotine. The world’s second ToMacco was given to the ToMacco episode’s writer, Ian Maxtone-Graham, who tasted it and as far as I know, is still alive. The world’s third ToMacco will be going up on Ebay in Feb.
Mr. ToMacco
Will rules!