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Where do fruits & vegetables come from?

Brian HCM#1

Brian HCM#1

MMMMMMMMM BEER!!!!!!!!!!
Sep 7, 2001
32,119
378
Bay Area, California
And yes I know trees and plants, but I've never seen tomatos, squash, potatos, apple trees, grapes etc just grow in the wild. I've see Blackberrys grow wild, but none of the others mentioned. So I'm just curious here if someone has an answer. Where did someone initially find these plants to even try them, country, state etc?????????????
 
RhinofromWA

RhinofromWA

Brevity R Us
Aug 16, 2001
4,622
0
Lynnwood, WA
No plant expert but much of our plants nowadays are based on past plants....they create a better apple, a better cucumber, etc.

They do the same with flowers...bread the traits you want until it is decidingly different than its cousins.

Corn in it's early versions was a Amicana plant right? :think: Not exactl ywhat you get in the store....wasn't it called Maze? *shrug*

Wheat and wild wheat are different beasts.....commercial wheat has been modified to better serve us.

I don't think I was much help..........
 
dexterq20

dexterq20

Turbo Monkey
Mar 6, 2003
3,442
1
NorCal
Most of the nation's fruits and veggies come from the Central Valley in California. I think it's the only reason Bakersfield and Fresno exist, cuz without agriculture, those towns would be 100% worthless. :p
 
J

JRB

Guest
Texas - they all came from Texas. Wumpus will chime in later I am sure. He is quite the gardener.
 
Smelly

Smelly

Turbo Monkey
Jun 17, 2004
1,254
1
out yonder, round bout a hootinany
Skookum said:
What's even scarier is who came up with the bright idea to squeeze milk from a cow or goat and then drink it......
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and i've heard them say that cows have to be milked daily, otherwise they're in pain. so how'd the cows spill that milk people people came along to tug it out?
 
fonseca

fonseca

Monkey
May 2, 2002
292
0
Virginia
squarewheels said:
and i've heard them say that cows have to be milked daily, otherwise they're in pain. so how'd the cows spill that milk people people came along to tug it out?
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Baby cows were thirsty.
 
Dartman

Dartman

Old Bastard Mike
Feb 26, 2003
3,911
0
Richmond, VA
Tomato History
The Tomato History has origins traced back to the early Aztecs in South America around 700 A.D; therefore it is believe that the tomato is native to the America’s. It was not until around the 16th century that Europeans were introduced to this fruit when the early explorers set sail to discover new lands. Throughout Southern Europe, the tomato was quickly accepted into the kitchen, yet as it moved north, more resistance was apparent. The British, for example, admired the tomato for its beauty, but believe that it was poisonous, as its appearance was similar to that of the wolf peach.



It was not regarded as a kitchen vegetable until the times preceding The Civil War Period in the United States. From this point forward, tomatoes have become a staple item in the kitchen throughout the world. Each area of the world has its own tomato history and how it is used in everyday dining. It appears though that tomatoes have had the largest impact on American eating habits, as they are responsible for enjoying over 12 million tons of tomatoes each year.



Fruit or Vegetable?

An interesting aspect of tomato history is the classic debate: Is the Tomato a Fruit or Vegetable? I guess that depends on whom you are asking. By definition, a fruit is the edible plant structure of a mature ovary of a flowering plant, usually eaten raw; some are sweet like apples, but the ones that are not sweet such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, etc. are commonly called vegetables. Botanists claim that a fruit is any fleshy material that covers a seed or seeds where as a horticulturalist point of view would pose that the tomato is a vegetable plant. Until the late 1800’s the tomato was classified as a fruit to avoid taxation, but this was changed after a Supreme Court ruling that the tomato is a vegetable and should be taxed accordingly.

When it is all said and done, the history of the tomato has classified as a poisonous beautiful plant, a tax-avoiding fruit, and a taxable vegetable. Nonetheless, the tomato is the most popular vegetable in America and enjoyed by millions all over the world.
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AKA the "Love Apple"
 
SkaredShtles

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,884
12,862
In a van.... down by the river
Skookum said:
What's even scarier is who came up with the bright idea to squeeze milk from a cow or goat and then drink it......
Click to expand...
Yeah, there's a huge leap.

"Damn. That cavewoman is feeding her baby off those things. And look at the size of 'em on that critter over there. GET OVER HERE, CRITTER!! <squeeze> <squeeze> Mmmmmmmmmm............... miiiiiiilk :drool:"

-S.S.-
 
Dartman

Dartman

Old Bastard Mike
Feb 26, 2003
3,911
0
Richmond, VA
And now the history of Squash...

130 years of squash
For over 1000 years man has invented and enjoyed a variety of games played by hitting a ball with either a closed fist - as in "fives" or "bunch of fingers" - or with some form of bat or racket. Around the year 1148 the French played "le Paume", meaning "the palm of the hand", which developed into Jeu de Paume, Real Tennis, Royal Tennis or, if you play the sport, simply Tennis. At sometime in the early 19th century this obsession with rackets and balls spawned another variety of the sport in the unlikely birthplace of the Fleet Prison in London. The prisoners in "The Fleet", mainly debtors, took their exercise by hitting a ball against walls, of which there were many, with rackets and so started the game of "Rackets". Rackets progressed, by some strange route, to Harrow and other select English schools about 1820 and it was from this source that our own sport of Squash, or Squash Rackets, developed.
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;)
 
Wumpus

Wumpus

makes avatars better
Dec 25, 2003
8,161
153
Six Shooter Junction
Corn = maize = Zea mays is a domesticated plant of the Americas. Along with many other indigenous plants like beans, squash, melons, tobacco, and roots such as Jerusalem artichoke, European colonists in America quickly adopted maize agriculture from Native Americans. Crops developed by Native Americans quickly spread to other parts of the world as well.

Over a period of thousands of years, Native Americans purposefully transformed maize through special cultivation techniques. Maize was developed from a wild grass (Teosinte) originally growing in Central America (southern Mexico) 7,000 years ago. The ancestral kernels of Teosinte looked very different from today's corn. These kernels were small and were not fused together like the kernels on the husked ear of early maize and modern corn.

By systematically collecting and cultivating those plants best suited for human consumption, Native Americans encouraged the formation of ears or cobs on early maize. The first ears of maize were only a few inches long and had only eight rows of kernels. Cob length and size of early maize grew over the next several thousand years which gradually increased the yields of each crop.

Eventually the productivity of maize cultivation was great enough to make it possible and worthwhile for a family to produce food for the bulk of their diet for an entire year from a small area. Although maize agriculture permitted a family to live in one place for an extended period of time, the commitment to agriculture involved demands on human time and labor and often restricted human mobility. The genetic alterations in teosinte changed its value as a food resource and at the same time affected the human scheduling necessary for its effective procurement.
 
Wumpus

Wumpus

makes avatars better
Dec 25, 2003
8,161
153
Six Shooter Junction
Always wondered who was the first brave soul that tried a plant. Like the leaves of a potato plant are extrememly poisonous, but the root(potato) is edible.


btw - That is why you don't eat green potatoes.
 
Dartman

Dartman

Old Bastard Mike
Feb 26, 2003
3,911
0
Richmond, VA
I've always wondered about who the first person who tried beer was...

Two guys standing over a bowl of barley which had gotten wet and stood out for a few weeks fermenting.

"I dare you to drink that."

"No, I dare you..."

"I double dog dare you..."

"Ok..."
 
dwaugh

dwaugh

Turbo Monkey
May 23, 2002
1,816
0
Bellingham, Washington ~ U.S.A.
Washington has a lot of apple trees. I'm sure that there were more wild ones at one time, but now they are just in huge orchards. What I think is that if you were here a long time ago you would see wild fruits and veggies here and there, but now that people have moved in, we cleared the wild ones to build stuff on that land after we made orchards and crops of them to harvest.

I might be right, right? :confused:
 
ALEXIS_DH

ALEXIS_DH

Tirelessly Awesome
Jan 30, 2003
6,147
796
Lima, Peru, Peru
Brian HCM#1 said:
And yes I know trees and plants, but I've never seen tomatos, squash, potatos, apple trees, grapes etc just grow in the wild. I've see Blackberrys grow wild, but none of the others mentioned. So I'm just curious here if someone has an answer. Where did someone initially find these plants to even try them, country, state etc?????????????
Click to expand...
potatoes are originally from the andes. they grow wild in ecuador, peru, bolivia and colombia. between 3000 and 9000 ft of height.

there used to be poisonous variations, but not since a few thousand years ago when they became agricultural products.

there are like 30 kinds of commercial potatoes as far as i know.
 
Brian HCM#1

Brian HCM#1

MMMMMMMMM BEER!!!!!!!!!!
Sep 7, 2001
32,119
378
Bay Area, California
ALEXIS_DH said:
potatoes are originally from the andes. they grow wild in ecuador, peru, bolivia and colombia. between 3000 and 9000 ft of height.

there used to be poisonous variations, but not since a few thousand years ago when they became agricultural products.

there are like 30 kinds of commercial potatoes as far as i know.
Click to expand...
Thank you, this is the kind of answer I was looking for.
 
ALEXIS_DH

ALEXIS_DH

Tirelessly Awesome
Jan 30, 2003
6,147
796
Lima, Peru, Peru
RhinofromWA said:
No plant expert but much of our plants nowadays are based on past plants....they create a better apple, a better cucumber, etc.

They do the same with flowers...bread the traits you want until it is decidingly different than its cousins.

Corn in it's early versions was a Amicana plant right? :think: Not exactl ywhat you get in the store....wasn't it called Maze? *shrug*

Wheat and wild wheat are different beasts.....commercial wheat has been modified to better serve us.

I don't think I was much help..........
Click to expand...

yup, corn is maiz, its from central america i think.

and the "maiz" its big compared with the yellow canned corn. 1ft long, and grains about the size of an index finger nail.
 
J

JRB

Guest
ALEXIS_DH said:
yup, corn is maiz, its from central america i think.

and the "maiz" its big compared with the yellow canned corn. 1ft long, and grains about the size of an index finger nail.
Click to expand...

But now milo is maze, or sorghum. I don't really get it and I farmed for a few years. It sure does make you itch at harvest and in the grain bin. Corn dust makes the lungs hurt. I guess potatoes are not dusty.
 
-BB-

-BB-

I broke all the rules, but somehow still became mo
Sep 6, 2001
4,254
28
Livin it up in the O.C.
Brian HCM#1 said:
And yes I know trees and plants, but I've never seen tomatos, squash, potatos, apple trees, grapes etc just grow in the wild. I've see Blackberrys grow wild, but none of the others mentioned. So I'm just curious here if someone has an answer. Where did someone initially find these plants to even try them, country, state etc?????????????
Click to expand...
There are wild Squash that grow down here in SoCal, there are also a ton of wild "tuber" plants out there realted to potatos... and what about crabapples?

All of these fruits and stuff are "domesticated" just like dogs, cats, and horses.
 
Brian HCM#1

Brian HCM#1

MMMMMMMMM BEER!!!!!!!!!!
Sep 7, 2001
32,119
378
Bay Area, California
-BB- said:
There are wild Squash that grow down here in SoCal, there are also a ton of wild "tuber" plants out there realted to potatos... and what about crabapples?

All of these fruits and stuff are "domesticated" just like dogs, cats, and horses.
Click to expand...
I realize that, but where did they originate from? Like watermelons?
 
-BB-

-BB-

I broke all the rules, but somehow still became mo
Sep 6, 2001
4,254
28
Livin it up in the O.C.
Dartman said:
I've always wondered about who the first person who tried beer was...

Two guys standing over a bowl of barley which had gotten wet and stood out for a few weeks fermenting.

"I dare you to drink that."

"No, I dare you..."

"I double dog dare you..."

"Ok..."
Click to expand...
The first "beer" was actually a brew that the ancient egyptians used to make that had not only barley, but also honey and grapes. They have found remnants of it in jugs unearthed from the tombs.

Dogfishhead Brewery did a chemical analysis of this stuff and has attempted to recreate this ancient grog. They call it "MIDAS TOUCH"
 
Skookum

Skookum

bikey's is cool
Jul 26, 2002
10,184
0
in a bear cave
SkaredShtles said:
Yeah, there's a huge leap.

"Damn. That cavewoman is feeding her baby off those things. And look at the size of 'em on that critter over there. GET OVER HERE, CRITTER!! <squeeze> <squeeze> Mmmmmmmmmm............... miiiiiiilk :drool:"

-S.S.-
Click to expand...
Actually i think it is a huge leap...... :dead:
 
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