Pears were used as food long before agriculture was developed as an industry. They are native to the region from the Caspian Sea westward into Europe. Nearly 1000 Years before the Christian Era, Homer referred to pears as growing in the garden of Alcinous. A number of varieties were known prior to the Christian Era. …
Blackberry
Blackberries are native to both North America and Europe, but cultivation of this fruit is largely limited to North America. In the early days of the United States, when land was cleared for pasture, blackberry bushes began to multiply. There are many hybrids of blackberries, and both man and nature have had a hand in …
Blueberry
Blueberries originally grew wild in North America, and in many places they still do. By 1910 there were at least two varieties being cultivated for market. Breeding and selection have made these berries popular, but wild fruit is also marketed. Blueberries are available from early May through August, and the peak month is July. Canada …
Pineapple
Pineapples were cultivated in the West Indies long before Columbus visited there. But after his voyage to the island of Guadeloupe, it was recorded in Spain that Columbus had “discovered” the fruit. The pineapple is native to tropical America and was known to the Indians as na-na, meaning fragrance, and to the Spanish explorers as …
Kale
Kale, and collard, its close relative, are the oldest known members of the cabbage family. Wild cabbage, which strongly resembles kale in its appearance, is still found growing along the European coasts and in North Africa. Kale is native either to the eastern Mediterranean region or to Asia Minor. It is known that man has …
Banana
Bananas were cultivated in India 4,000 years ago. In 1482, the Portuguese found the banana on the Guinea coast and carried it with them to the Canary Islands. Spanish priests are credited with having introduced this fruit to tropical America when they arrived as missionaries in the sixteenth century. Now, the banana can be found …
Rhubarb
Rhubarb is a species of plant in the family Polygonaceae. They are herbaceous perennials growing from short, thick rhizomes. They have large leaves that are somewhat triangular, with long fleshy petioles. They have small flowers grouped in large compound leafy greenish-white to rose-red inflorescence. Most commonly, rhubarb’s leaf stalks are cooked with sugar and used …
Orange
The orange is one of the oldest fruits known in the history of cultivation. As early as 500 B.C. the fruit of the citrus tree was mentioned in a collection of old documents believed to be edited by Confucius himself. In the year A.D. 1178, Han Yen-Chi, a Chinese horticulturist, wrote on the subject of …
Grapefruit
The name “grapefruit” originated in the West Indies in the eighteenth century, perhaps because of the fact that its fruit grows in clusters of three to twelve or more, similar to grape clusters. This citrus fruit was cultivated more than 4000 years ago in India and Malaysia, but it was not until the sixteenth century …
Pomegranate
Mohammad once told his followers: “Eat the pomegranate, for it purges the system of envy and hatred.” The pomegranate is one of the oldest fruits known to man. Frequent references to it are found in the Bible and in ancient Sanskrit writings. Homer mentions it in his Odyssey, and it appears in the story of …
