Take a look inside your fridge and consider what you're seeing. There are some wild foods with stories about their growth that would make sci-fi authors jealous. Those bananas in your fridge? They're clones that grow on really big herbs (not trees) and get harvested. The cashews that are in your trail mix? They are nuts and actually grow on the outside of a fruit that most Americans have never even seen.
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Check PriceThese are more than trivia facts. Knowing how food grows illustrates amazing collaborations, timing, and survival strategies that keep food in our stores. Let's explore the everyday food science that will surprise you.
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Vanilla: The Orchid That Was Hand Pollinated and Nearly Became Extinct
Vanilla orchids grow like vines, and real vanilla flavoring comes from the seed pods of these orchids. But did you know that vanilla orchids are hand-pollinated outside of Mexico, as there are no pollinators. The native, small bee pollinator lives only in Mexico. When vanilla plants were spread around the world, they became dependent on humans for pollination. Today, flowers are hand-pollinated in Madagascar, as workers use small sticks to transfer pollen to individual flowers.
Cashews: The Only Nut That Grows Outside Their Shell
Have you ever wondered what makes cashews so expensive? The reason why is quite interesting. Cashews are surrounded by shells which contain a poison ivy-like caustic oil. To uncover the cashews, workers have to do tedious roasting and shell cracking, all while avoiding burns from this chemical oil. The other side of the cashew (the apple) is actually edible and really good, but since it is too fragile to be shipped, most Americans only see half of the fruit.
Pineapples: The Two Year Fruit That's Made of Over 100 Berries
It took almost two years for that golden pineapple to grow. Each pineapple is made up of many individual dipped together each with its own 'eye'. Each 'eye' on a pineapple is the remanence of a distinct floral structure. A pineapple shrub will only bear one pineapple and then it will produce lateral vegetative shoots to develop new individual pineapple shrubs. This is the reason why it was once common practice to rent pineapples for use as decorative centerpieces for parties.
Cinnamon: The Tree Bark that Twists into Sticks
True cinnamon is harvested from the inner bark of evergreen trees. First, the outer bark is stripped off, and then they peel long strips of inner bark. Since the strips are flexible, they dry into the characteristic quill shape. The quality of the cinnamon is determined by the thickness of the slices, as thinner slices are more delicate and sweet.
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Brussels Sprouts: Baby Cabbages Growing on Huge Stalks
Brussels sprouts grow along a thick stalk that can get up to four feet tall. Each stalk creates 60-80 tiny edible cabbages that grow from the bottom to the top over the course of several months. Since the sprouts grow at different rates, farmers can harvest the stalks multiple times and pick the sprouts at the bottom and leave the ones on top to continue growing.
Artichokes: Flower buds picked before they open
Have you ever eaten an artichoke? Surprising as it sounds, you just ate a flower bud! An artichoke turns into a large thistle-like flower with a big head that is purple. The heart of the artichoke is the flower bud base, and the artichoke's leaves are defensive bracts that shelter the immature flower.
Black Pepper: Young berries that are picked while still green, then dried to shrivel up.
Black peppercorns are picked berries from a vine. They are still green and hard when picked. They are then dried until they shrivel into the little black balls we know. White pepper is picked from the same plant, but the berries are allowed to fully ripen. After ripening, the outer layer is stripped away to show the seed inside which is white.
Asparagus: From Underground Roots To Arrow-Like Shoots
Asparagus spears grow from an underground root system known as a crown. These crowns can live for 20+ years and produce dozens of spears each spring. Tender asparagus is harvested when the spears are young and growing quickly. If harvested too late the spears will be tough and woody.
Bananas: Seedless Clones from a 7000-year-old Plant
Banana plants are all the same because they all lose their genetic variability by only being able to reproduce by means of cloning, as they are all sterile mutant plants. Bananas plants cannot be reproduced by seeding as wild bananas have hard seeds that populate the soil. This means that entire banana crops are susceptible to disease, which also explains why many banana varieties have gone extinct.
Strawberries are the Inside-Out fruit because the seeds that would typically be found on the inside are on the outside!
Strawberries aren't actually berries. The little yellow specks on the outside are individual fruits. Each of these fruits has one seed. The sweet part of the strawberry that we eat is just flower tissue that has been swollen which surrounds the real fruits. Actual berries, like grapes and blueberries, have seeds that are located in a single wall of the ovary.
Coconuts: The Seeds that Travel the Ocean and Take a Year to Grow
The design of coconuts allows them to float between islands while also remaining viable, allowing them to travel across the ocean. The brown shell on coconuts available in stores is just the inner layer of the coconut. Fresh coconuts are covered with thick, fibrous husks. The fruits will take an entire year to get to full maturity, and the tree itself will not start to produce any fruits until it is between 6 and 10 years old.
Saffron: More Expensive Than Gold
Saffron is harvested from the red stigma of crocus flowers. Each crocus has only three stigmas. The massive amount of labor needed to produce saffron is the main reason why it is so expensive. It takes approximately 150 flowers and a lot of time to collect one gram of the spice. The harvesting time is very limited since the flowers only bloom in the morning, so every stigma must be picked by hand, making it very valuable. This is why a tiny jar can cost more than a week's worth of groceries, and why saffron is more valuable than gold per ounce.
It is important, even while making your next snack, to appreciate how far the food in your kitchen has traveled to reach you. From hand-pollinated orchids to coconuts that crossed the ocean, there are thousands of untold journeys for food in your house. Each food item pays homage to the farmers, the pollinators, and the raw materials that come from other parts of the world. These adventures highlight the extraordinary collaborations between humans and nature that are involved in even the most mundane meals.
