Here are some fun facts about the food we eat every day. How many do you know about?
Fun Facts About Food
- The largest cabbage ever recorded weighed 138 pounds.
- Carrots were originally purple and were used as a symbol of the Dutch Royal family in the 17th century.
- Yams and sweet potatoes are NOT the same thing. They’re not even related. Yams are more closely related to grass, and the sweet potatoes we top with marshmallows and bake are actually members of the morning glory family!
- The tomato is related to potatoes, green peppers, eggplants, and petunias.
- Broccoli is related to cabbage, kale, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.
- Watermelons and squash are related—and the cucurbit family includes cucumbers, pumpkins, and gourds, too.
- Botanically, tomatoes are a berry; however, in 1893, the Supreme Court classified them as vegetables so they could be taxed as vegetables for tariff purposes. What determines the status as a fruit or vegetable is that a fruit develops from a flower and contains seeds. Anything edible that comes from a plant that does not form from a flower is a vegetable, so kale, carrots, beets, lettuce, etc., are veggies.
- Tomatoes are not the only fruit we think of as veggies. So are green beans, eggplants, okra, olives, cucumbers, peas, squash, corn, peppers, and pumpkins.
- Botanically, a banana is a berry. So are watermelons, squash, all melons, cucumbers, kiwi, avocados, and all members of the tomato family. Strawberries, on the other hand, are NOT berries, but considered an aggregate fruit.
- The hottest pepper in the world is no longer The Carolina Reaper but a new variety developed by the same guy who bred the Reaper. It’s called Pepper X. A hot pepper is rated on its heat by what they called the Scoville Heat Unit (SHU). The Reaper’s SHU is 2.2 million. Pepper X, on the other hand, has a SHU of over 2.6 million! Personally, I don’t see why we needed a hotter pepper.
Think about this the next time you sit down to a BLT sandwich…