Table of Contents
Venture with us down the rainbow as we divulge some fascinating fun facts about vegetables and fruits from the humble potato to lesser-known beauties such as the dragon fruit.
Fun Facts About Vegetables
The World's Most Consumed Vegetable
Have you ever wondered what the most eaten vegetable in the world is? Potato! This is a great vegetable with many varieties and is used in countless dishes everywhere.
The Great Wall of Cabbage
If you ever happen to visit the Great Wall of China, be sure to ask yourself why those stones are so well stuck together. The answer, for all the hardened mortar with which they have been bound, is surprisingly prosaic: to enhance the food of the people who built it. During the Ming Dynasty, workers forced to convert scrap heaps into the formidable frontier knew they would be stuck in a remote location for an extended period. With that in mind, their superiors, the governors of the province, decided to inject some nutritional vitality into the fortifications by making mashed sticky rice and cabbage a component of the mortar mix.
Carrots Were Not Always Orange
It might surprise you, but carrots were not always orange. In fact, the orange carrot that you enjoy today was not developed until the 17th century in the Netherlands, by Dutch farmers. This carrot variety was originally white or purple.
Fruit Facts: Beyond the Ordinary
The Fruit that Tastes Like Chocolate Pudding
Fruits in any form soften you up, sometimes literally. But I get wide-eyed when I read about the Black Sapote, a ‘chocolate pudding fruit’ native to the tropical forests of Central America – ripe ones of which allegedly have a custardy texture and taste like chocolate pudding. Fruit trivia cool.
Watermelon: A Fruit or Vegetable?
Did you know that watermelon is both a fruit and a vegetable? Botanically, it’s a fruit. But it’s also categorised as a vegetable in the culinary world because it’s grown in a similar way to other vegetables, as part of a vegetable crop.
The Forbidden Fruit Wasn't an Apple
People think the forbiden fruit in the Bible was the apple, but the Bible doesn't say what kind of fruit it was, it could have been a pomegranate it could have been a fig, it could have been a a grape, or any other fruit.
Fun Facts About Fruit that Might Surprise You
Bananas are Berries, Strawberries Aren't
And finally, bananas are technically berries, but – bizarrely – strawberries are not. If you can’t already tell, this is one of those fascinating fruit facts that will completely change the way you look at your fruit bowl.
Avocado: The Fruit of Love
The word ‘avocado’ is from the Aztec word ahuacatl, which translates as ‘testicle’ (some people think it looks like a … male appendage and it was also said to be an aphrodisiac). Fun fact: it’s about time fruits made us think with our … never mind.
Conclusion:
Through these oddball facts about every vegetable and fruit you’ve ever eaten, it’s sometimes possible to glimpse a little bit of that dense, deep history, and just how much hidden world lies between the supermarket and your dinner table. Next time you peel yourself a carrot, slice open a banana, or take a chomp out of a juicy wedge of watermelon, keep all these histories in mind!
Note: Always wash your fruits and veggies before eating them to stay safe and be healthy. Happy and healthy veggies and fruit-ing!