Agriculture is the foundation of all human civilization. The moment mankind was able to reliably grow its own food, it could halt its nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle. When we were no longer forced to chase migrating herds and pluck grubs from the dirt to survive, we were able to develop culture, language, and music. Below are 10 strange and fascinating facts about these foods we hold so dear.

10 Johnny Appleseed

Johnny Appleseed was a real person, but so much mystique surrounds his name that, like Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, he’s passed into the realm of legend. He roamed the frontier territory of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana in the late 1700s and early 1800s, planting 100,000 square miles of apple orchards as he went, some of which remain today. Barefoot and dressed in sackcloth, people were vastly entertained by his presence. He made fast friends with Native Americans, children, and animals alike.

That said, the man wasn’t a saint, and growing apples was big business. He seemed to have an uncanny knack for knowing where the next settlement was going to spring up and arrived ahead of time. When the pioneers came along, he would sell his trees for a few cents apiece and move on. Because of this, he died a wealthy man.

Lest you imagine that Johnny’s apples went into pies and cobblers, it might interest you to know that apples weren’t highly valued as food back then. Johnny’s orchards were planted for making hard cider and applejack. After all, there was no sense conquering the frontier if you couldn’t settle down with a cocktail at suppertime.

9 Negative-Calorie Celery

There is no pursuit fraught with more anecdotal, questionable, and downright dangerous advice than dieting. One of the most dubious claims is that there are “negative calorie” foods—so low in calories that the very act of chewing and digesting them consumes more energy than the food actually gives us. The most commonly cited example is celery, which contains about six calories per stalk. Dozens of otherwise reliable sources assert that celery will actually help you lose weight.

However, the act of digestion is remarkably efficient and burns few calories. It makes sense as a survival mechanism; in the age before drive-thrus and Wal-Marts, humans often had to expend enormous amounts of energy to obtain food. If digesting what they managed to scrounge up was also an energy-consuming process, they would likely starve to death. Celery is no replacement for exercise, but feel free to eat it to your heart’s content. It would take over 300 sticks to equal the average human’s daily ration of calories.

8 Banana Extinction

Our great-grandparents might have dealt with the Great Depression, and they certainly didn’t have iPads to while away their hours, but they did have something we don’t—far superior bananas. Prior to the 1950s, the most widely distributed banana in the world was the “Gros Michel.” Unfortunately, the Gros Michel banana was nearly wiped out by a fungus called Panama Disease.

Today, we enjoy a similar version of the banana called the Cavendish. The Cavendish is smaller, more fragile, and less tasty than the Gros Michel, but it has a resistance to the Panama Disease. But like the Gros Michel before it, the Cavendish is in big trouble. There’s a new strain of Panama Disease on the rise, and most scientists believe that it is only a matter of time before the Cavendish, which is susceptible to this version, will also disappear (functionally, that is—there are still Gros Michels around, just not enough to meet global demand).

7 Toxic Potatoes

The common potato is a member of the Solanum genus and a kissing cousin of deadly nightshade. Like nightshade, the potato produces large amounts of substances called glycoalkaloids, particularly one nasty strain called solanine. This poison is the potato’s defense mechanism that keep it from getting eaten, and is most concentrated in the leaves, stems, and shoots. Spotting any green on the skin of the potato is a sure indication of the presence of solanine. Most commercially available potatoes are carefully cultivated for low levels of the poison, but it is possible to get one with a high amount present, and people have died from ingesting potato solanine. While cooking can reduce the level, every potato you eat gives you at least some small amount of exposure.

6 Grape Plasma

A simple grape can be turned from a solid to a gas to a plasma with a little ride in the microwave. There are sometimes inherent dangers involved in catastrophically changing states of matter, and the microwave might not survive this stunt. There is also a chance, however remote, that you might set your house on fire, so don’t try this one at home.

The set up is simple. Take a grape, and slice it about 90 percent of the way through, leaving both halves attached by a small strip of skin. Remove the rotating tray from the microwave, insert grape, and set it for no more than ten seconds. After a couple seconds, the moisture inside the grape emerges as a gas, and the charge between the two halves turns the steam into a brief electric lightshow. Placing a clear glass over the top of the grape will contain the plasma a few moments longer.

5 Cannibal Tomato

Fiji’s “cannibal tomato” is actually an eggplant. The plant closely resembles a tomato and was used by the natives of Fiji, who have practiced cannibalism for thousands of years, to create a sauce said to be the perfect compliment to eating human flesh. As I mentioned in a previous list, some modern-day folks who have tasted human meat have likened its flavor and consistency to that of veal, so it would seem appropriate to pair it with a nice marinara.

4 Designer Melons

The watermelon originated in southern Africa, and its spread throughout the world highlights the existence of sophisticated trade routes in ancient times. It was consumed by Egyptians during the time of the pharaohs. It reached China by the 10th century and Europe in the 13th century.

Highly adaptable, the watermelon was a natural target for the Japanese appetite for novelty. Farmers discovered a way of raising the melons inside glass boxes so that they grow in a cube shape for easy storage in refrigerators. Other shapes—including pyramids—have also been formed. Even more outlandish are the prices paid for gourmet “Densuke” watermelons. Grown only on Hokkaido Island, the first few specimens harvested each year sell for thousands of dollars. The average Densuke melon retails for about $250.

3 Purple Carrots

Like the watermelon, the carrot’s migration around the world can be traced, though there are some doubts regarding its origin. It is believed to have been first cultivated in modern-day Afghanistan, then swept into Europe along Middle Eastern trade routes. Of course, we would hardly recognize these ancient carrots—they were rather straggly and either white or purple. Beneath the green thumb of the Dutch, the carrot was bred into its current orange state. While most of us have never seen anything but orange carrots, other colors are available in high-end grocery and health food stores, often in “rainbow packs,” including white, yellow, red, purple, and even black varieties.

2 Spinach, The Iron Vegetable

Spinach has a bad rap. Many people, particularly children, turn up their nose at the vegetable. Enter Elzie Segar, whose Popeye character derived superhuman strength from a can of spinach. There is no telling just how profound an impact Popeye has had on the worldwide consumption of spinach, but there have been statues erected of him in growing communities. Canner Allens Vegetables even markets a Popeye brand.

The story goes that spinach was chosen by Segar based on a faulty study from the 1800s that misplaced a decimal point in estimating the iron content of the vegetable. The story has since been proven a myth, with newer claims pointing to the vitamin A content as the reason Segar chose spinach. Spinach is rather healthy, but many people choose to boil it—which tends to remove many of the nutrients.

1The World’s Most Hated Vegetable

Unfortunately for our expanding waistlines, vegetables are often the most reviled of foods. President George H.W. Bush so hated broccoli that he made headlines when he banned it from the White House. Surveys in the UK have shown celery to be their least favorite green. But the world over, one vegetable continually tops the lists of “most hated”: brussels sprouts.

These tiny cabbages might be extremely healthy, with over a dozen vitamins and minerals, but their bitter flavor turns off most palates. In fairness to the sprouts, certain cooking methods can improve their taste. For best results, aficionados claim that smaller sprouts taste sweeter. Halving them, quickly boiling them, and then immersing them in cold water takes away some of the bitterness, and it helps to temper them with an acid like lemon or red vinegar.

Mike Devlin is an aspiring novelist.

We’ve always heard great things about vegetables. They tend to be low in fat and calories and high in dietary fiber and vitamins. Our parents made us finish our broccoli before we could have dessert, and opting for a salad with your meal is a much healthier choice than ordering a side of fried cheese curds.

The USDA recommends filling more than one-quarter of your plate with green goodness to maintain a healthy diet. However, not all vegetables have the squeaky-clean records suggested by their reputations. Here are 10 vegetables that have caused human deaths.

10 Zucchini

Home gardeners who grow this popular summer squash often end up with an abundance of extra zucchini, leading them to share their harvest with friends and family. In 2015, an elderly German couple received some homegrown zucchini from their neighbor. Ludwig and Inge used the squash to prepare a stew for dinner, though it ended up tasting quite bitter.

The couple fell ill that night, suffering from severe gastrointestinal symptoms. Ludwig’s face turned a sickly shade of yellow before they were both rushed to the hospital.^[1]

At the hospital, Inge and Ludwig were diagnosed with severe poisoning. It resulted from cucurbitacin, a toxic substance that can occur in plants of the Cucurbitaceae family, which includes pumpkins, melons, and squash.

The bitter taste of the stew was an indicator that the toxin was present. Inge had eaten less of the stew because of the taste and was therefore able to recover. Ludwig had cleared his plate and ingested much more of the toxin, so medics were unable to save him.

9 Red Chilies

Aspiring chef Andrew Lee from Edlington, England, died after eating a large helping of red chilies. In 2008, Lee challenged his girlfriend’s brother to see who could stand to eat the spiciest sauce. Lee prepared a tomato sauce made with red chilies grown in his father’s garden. It seems that Lee should have won the contest because he downed an entire plateful of the peppery concoction. But his victory came at a cost.

That night, Lee complained of intense discomfort and itching before falling asleep. The following morning, he was discovered lying unresponsive on the floor. It appeared that he had suffered a heart attack. When paramedics were unable to revive him, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Lee, who worked as a forklift driver, had recently passed a medical examination at work and was in perfect health before the incident. The postmortem showed that he had no preexisting heart problems.^[2]

Scientists suspect that Lee had an overwhelming allergic reaction based on the itching he experienced. Even if Lee had eaten chilies before with no ill effects, ingesting such a large amount could have triggered an allergic reaction that smaller amounts did not.

Chilies contain capsaicin, an active chemical that has a range of toxic effects in high doses and has been proven to cause damage to the stomach lining in animals. Damage to Lee’s stomach lining would have exposed his bloodstream directly to the chemical, possibly prompting an allergic reaction.

A severe allergic reaction can lead to anaphylactic shock, an extremely dangerous condition that requires immediate treatment. When left untreated, anaphylactic shock can result in fatal complications, including brain damage and heart failure.

8 Spinach

Spinach was one of the earliest superfoods of our time, way before kale or goji berries came into the spotlight. Famously the source of Popeye’s bulging muscles, spinach has long been recommended as a nutritional powerhouse. But spinach is also to blame for the deadliest foodborne disease outbreak from leafy vegetables that has ever been reported.

In 2006, an outbreak of E. coli led to almost 200 laboratory-confirmed illnesses, half of which resulted in hospitalization. Thirty-one people developed kidney failure, and at least three cases linked to the outbreak resulted in death.

Among the victims were an elderly woman from Wisconsin, a toddler from Idaho, and an elderly woman from Nebraska. A woman in Maryland also died after consuming raw spinach, but there was not enough evidence to link her death to the outbreak.^[3]

The source of the outbreak was identified as fresh bagged spinach, so Popeye’s canned greens were not affected.

7 Peas

Edward and Delphine Hein hosted an annual winter dinner party for friends and family at their farmstead near Grafton, North Dakota. In 1931, they held their event on the night of January 29. Delphine served a salad sprinkled with peas that she had canned herself. Within days, 12 people fell ill and died. Edward and Delphine, as well as three of their six children, were among the victims.

Authorities determined that the deaths were caused by the home-canned peas. They were contaminated by toxins that cause botulism poisoning. Symptoms include blurry vision and difficulty swallowing or speaking. Without treatment, botulism can lead to death.

All 12 people who died shortly after the dinner party had consumed the legume-laden salad. Another guest who had removed the peas before eating the salad fell ill and died a week later, bringing the total death count to 13.^[4]

The three children who survived—Richard, Marvin, and Wilfred—were too young to attend the party and spent the evening in their rooms, saving them from exposure to the fatal peas.

6 Corn

For most of us, the word “corn” brings to mind a side dish of soft, sweet kernels slathered in butter. But field corn is very different. It is left to dry completely before being harvested and is used in corn-based food products, in fuel ethanol, or as livestock feed.

After being harvested, the rock-hard kernels are often stored in grain bins, which is where things can become dangerous. Corn avalanches inside grain bins have caused numerous deaths. The most hazardous year on record for grain bin engulfments, with 26 fatalities, was 2010. More than half of grain bin incidents occur in stored corn, while the rest happen in soybeans, wheat, and other crops.

Two of the deaths in 2010 happened at a commercial grain-elevator complex in Mount Carroll, Illinois. Fourteen-year-old Wyatt Whitebread was sent into a storage tower to loosen up crusted corn kernels. When the corn inside a grain bin becomes damp, it gets coated along the sides of the interior walls. Workers are often required to walk along the top of the corn as they use a steel rod to dislodge the caked pieces from the walls.

Wyatt was inside the grain bin when another worker opened two floor holes that are designed to speed the flow of the corn. This resulted in a sudden cascade that dragged Wyatt under a mountain of kernels. He screamed as he went down, prompting 19-year-old Alejandro Pacas to rush over and try to help him. Alejandro was also engulfed by the corn, and both teenagers died within seconds.^[5]

A third worker, 20-year-old Will Piper (who was Alejandro’s best friend), attempted to help and also became trapped. Luckily, Will was able to keep his head above the corn. It took nearly 12 hours for 300 rescue workers to free him.

Being buried in corn creates an enormous amount of pressure on a person’s rib cage and diaphragm, making it impossible to inhale or exhale. In addition, the kernels fill the nostrils and mouth, causing suffocation.

5 Cucumbers

Salmonella is often associated with warnings about consuming raw or undercooked eggs and chicken. But the dangerous bacteria are not confined to poultry and poultry products. A 2015 outbreak of Salmonella in cucumbers infected a total of 907 people in 40 states across the country. Over 200 people were hospitalized, and four deaths were attributed to the outbreak.

“Slicer” cucumbers imported from Baja, Mexico, and distributed by Andrew and Williamson Fresh Produce of San Diego, California, were identified as the source of the contamination. Andrew and Williamson supplied the tainted cucumbers to retail and wholesale companies in 22 states, which explains why the outbreak was so widespread.^[6]

Salmonella is estimated to cause one million foodborne illnesses in the United States every year. People infected with Salmonella typically develop fever, diarrhea, and abdominal cramps shortly after exposure to the bacteria. Symptoms usually last four to seven days, and most people recover without treatment.

However, in severe cases of diarrhea, the Salmonella infection can spread from the intestines to the bloodstream. These cases require hospitalization and prompt treatment with antibiotics to avoid death.

4 Potatoes

Like many members of the nightshade family, potatoes contain highly toxic alkaloids that can cause solanine poisoning when ingested. People are warned against eating any potatoes that appear green. This indicates the presence of toxins that can cause gastrointestinal symptoms ranging from moderate to severe when ingested. In some cases, solanine poisoning can result in coma or death.

But you don’t even need to eat potatoes for them to kill you.

In 2013, rotting potatoes caused the deaths of nearly an entire Russian family. A 42-year-old university professor had gone down to the basement under the garage one afternoon. When he failed to reappear, his wife went to check on him, unaware that he had fainted due to the poisonous fumes emanating from a bag of rotting potatoes. She, too, was overwhelmed by the toxic environment and never returned.

In a lethal procession, their son and his grandmother followed in their footsteps, meeting the same fate.^[7] The elderly woman had grown concerned and called a neighbor for help before descending into the garage basement. By the time help arrived, all four family members had been poisoned by the toxic fumes and died, leaving an eight-year-old girl as the sole survivor.

3 Lettuce

In early 2007, an Oklahoma couple made a routine trip in their semitrailer to pick up supplies from a Dole plant in Yuma, Arizona. Sheila Kay Ross exited the truck to get some paperwork but never returned. When her husband failed to locate her on his own, he contacted police. The Yuma police searched the area but found no sign of Ross.

Three days later, her body was discovered in a trailer that was making a lettuce delivery to a Hy-Vee grocery store in Chariton, Iowa. The semitrailer had been at the same Dole plant in Yuma where Ross had gone missing. It appeared that she had become pinned inside the trailer when it was being loaded. The lettuce crushed her to death.

Authorities couldn’t determine how Ross ended up in the trailer in the first place, but the incident was ruled an accident. There were no indications of foul play by anyone or anything other than the lettuce.^[8]

2 Frozen Vegetables

Make sure you pay attention to the label the next time you dig a bag of frozen peas out of the back of your freezer. Frozen vegetables produced by CRF Frozen Foods of Pasco, Washington, were identified as the likely source of a Listeria outbreak that occurred across four different states.

Although the number of people infected was much lower than other outbreaks, all nine identified cases resulted in hospitalization. Of those, one Connecticut resident died from listeriosis. Two other patients died in Maryland and Washington as well, but their deaths were not attributed to the bacterial infection.

The long-term storage of frozen foods allowed the Listeria outbreak to span over a number of years. The earliest case was reported in 2013, but recalls of the products thought to be contaminated didn’t occur until 2016. Named in the recalls were more than 350 products, including frozen green beans, broccoli, and peas that had been sold under various brands at popular grocery stores such as Safeway, Costco, and Trader Joe’s.

Listeria is much less common than Salmonella or E. coli, but it is the most lethal foodborne pathogen. A healthy immune system can typically fight off an infection from Listeria. But if the bacteria goes into the bloodstream and causes listeriosis, one in five cases results in death.^[9]

1 Canned Vegetables

In summer 2015, Linda Clarene Jackson of Lake Los Angeles, California, was arrested for murder and faced allegations that she used canned foods as a deadly weapon. Jackson was accused of fatally beating her boyfriend, David Ruiz, with cans of peas, carrots, and chicken broth.

Police had been called on reports of a man who was injured and bleeding. They found Ruiz unresponsive, and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities said Jackson’s motive was unclear.

If convicted, she faced life in prison for her canned food killing. But her sentence has already been completed. On June 8, 2017, she died of natural causes behind bars while awaiting trial.^[10]

Believe it or not, some of the popular fruits, nuts, and vegetables we eat today are man-made hybrids. They were created in laboratories through selective breeding, a process whereby only plants with favorable traits are replanted. That said, there have been rare instances where insects were responsible for creating the hybrid plants through cross-pollination.

SEE ALSO: 10 ‘Natural’ Things You Won’t Believe Are Actually Man-Made

Of course, these insects would never have been able to cross-pollinate the plants if humans hadn’t planted at least one of them in the area. Most of the entries on this list are surprising because the majority are fruits, nuts, and vegetables that we consider to be natural.

10 Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Kale, And More

Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, brussels sprouts, collard greens, kohlrabi, and several closely related vegetables originated from the same plant species: Brassica oleracea. Its original form is known as wild mustard and still exists today.

About 2,500 years ago, wild mustard only grew in some parts of Europe and the Mediterranean; its taste varied greatly depending on where it grew. Ancient Romans and Greeks soon realized that they could plant it for food so they engaged in selective breeding by planting seeds from wild mustard with larger leaves. The result was the vegetables that we now call kale and collard greens.

Selective breeding continued in the 1600s when people bred wild mustard with bigger leaf buds. The result was a new vegetable covered with lots of leaves—this was the first cabbage. Wild mustard selected for its bigger stems became kohlrabi, the ones with small heads became brussels sprouts, and the ones with big flowers became broccoli and cauliflower.^[1]

The hybridization of wild mustard and its derivatives continued up to the 20th century. In 1928, Russian biologist Georgii Dmintrievich Karpechenko crossed a radish with a cabbage to produce what he called the rabbage. The rabbage should have been impossible because the radish is not related to the cabbage. However, the plant never caught on because it failed at being either a radish or a cabbage.

Later in 1993, the Sakata Seed Company of Yokohama, Japan crossbred broccoli with kai-lan to create broccolini, or as some call it, baby broccoli, asparation, asparations, broccoletti, broccolette, and Italian sprouting broccoli. It’s a derivative of wild mustard and is the Chinese version of broccoli.

9 Orange

Many varieties of the orange exist today. However, every variety traces its roots to the man-made hybrid when the pomelo was crossed with the mandarin. The pomelo is almost as bitter as the grapefruit, while the mandarin is sweet. The mandarin has an orange color, which is why many people misidentify it as a variety of the orange. Wrong! The mandarin is an ancestor of the orange.

The history of the orange is unclear, but it is believed to have first appeared in southern China. Over the years, humans have selectively bred oranges to create many varieties, making it easy to confuse the orange with other citrus fruits. To be clear, a fruit needs to have evolved from the pomelo and mandarin to be considered an orange.

That said, the tangerine is not considered an orange because it evolved from the mandarin but not the pomelo. However, the tangelo, which we’ll get to shortly, is in a gray area. It’s a cross between a tangerine and a pomelo. And as we mentioned already, the tangerine was created from the mandarin.^[2]

8 Peanut

The modern peanut is a hybrid of two earlier types of peanuts, the Arachis ipaensis and the Arachis duranensis. The Arachis duranensis grows in the Andean valleys between Bolivia and Argentina, while the Arachis ipaensis grows inside Bolivia.

Both plants were found so far away from each other, they couldn’t have crossbred naturally. Researchers ultimately discovered that the earliest settlers in South America took the Arachis duranensis from the Andean valleys as they migrated into today’s Bolivia 10,000 years ago.

However, the settlers did not quickly realize the potential of their new crop and it was the bees that actually cross-pollinated both peanuts. The result was a new peanut that is the ancestor of today’s peanuts.^[3]

7 Banana

The modern, common banana is a man-made hybrid of the wild Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana banana species. Musa acuminata has a fleshy inside, but it has a very unpleasant taste. Musa balbisiana has a pleasant-tasting inside but contains too many seeds.

Both bananas naturally crossbred in the forests of South Asia. However, the resultant banana, which is the ancestor of the modern banana, was sterile. About 10,000 years ago, early humans discovered the hybrid and learned that they could replant the shoots to create new trees. They engaged in selective breeding and only replanted bananas with favorable traits. This led to the creation of the modern banana.

Although we’ve managed to create the perfect banana, we could not figure out a way to grow bananas from seeds. So, bananas will become extinct if we stop planting them. The absence of a seed also means that all bananas have the same genetic properties as they are replanted from the shoot of another tree. As a result, all the world’s banana trees could be wiped out by a single disease.^[4]

6 Almond

The almond is a man-made hybrid of the wild almond, which is notoriously bitter and could be deadly when consumed in considerable amounts. The history of the modern almond is unclear, and scientists still can’t determine which variant of the wild almond was selectively bred to create the modern almond.^[5]

Scientists have their theories though. They suspect that the wild ancestor of the almond is the Amygdalus fenzliana (Fritsch) Lipsky because its trees, seeds, and fruits resemble the modern almond. It’s also found in Armenia and Azerbaijan, where today’s almond is believed to have been selectively bred by humans. Besides the origin, scientists cannot determine how our ancestors managed to create a perfect, sweet almond because the almond is poisonous.

SEE ALSO: 10 Foods That Exist Because Of Ancient Genetic Engineering

5 Grapefruit

The grapefruit is a relatively new hybrid. It’s believed, although not confirmed that the grapefruit first appeared around 1693 when Captain Shaddock transported pomelo (Citrus maxima) seeds to the West Indies and planted them close to some orange trees. The pomelo and orange later cross-pollinated to create the grapefruit (then called shaddocks). However, the grapefruit was still unknown outside the Caribbean.

Europeans eventually learned of this citrus fruit in 1750 when Reverend Griffith Hughes encountered one. Hughes was so surprised with the discovery that he named the grapefruit “the forbidden fruit.” That was its name until 1814 when John Lunan, a planter and Jamaica magistrate, called it a grapefruit because they resembled the smaller and unrelated grapes when they were still growing.

The grapefruit finally reached the United States in 1823, but was mistaken for the pomelo. It was only determined to be a distinct fruit in 1837. However, botanists were still confused about its origin. It wasn’t until 1948 that they discovered it was a hybrid of the pomelo and the orange.^[6]

4 Boysenberry

The boysenberry was created by Rudolph Boysen of Orange County, California in 1923. Boysen, a horticulturist, planted grafted berry vines on his in-law’s farm in Anaheim, eventually cultivating a successful hybrid. Unfortunately, Boysen’s berries never found commercial success and it seemed like his unique vine would go the way of the dodo bird.

Several years later, a fellow farmer from California named Walter Knott heard about the berry and asked its creator if he could try to make something of it. Knott successfully brought the dying hybrid back to life at his Buena Park, California farm. Knott then named the fruit after Boysen, and Knott’s Berry Farm eventually became the would famous amusement park we know today.

The boysenberry is considered to be a variant of the blackberry, although it’s actually a hybrid of a blackberry and either the loganberry or the red raspberry. For all we know, Boysen could have created the berry from of all three vines.

That said, tere are claims that the boysenberry is actually a cross between the Eastern dewberry and the man-made loganberry. The loganberry was created in 1881 when James Logan crossed a raspberry with a wild blackberry. However, the early boysenberry was not a commercial success due to its short shelf life. It decays just two days after harvest.^[7]

3 Tangelo

As we mentioned earlier, the tangelo is a man-made hybrid of the tangerine and the pomelo. In fact, that’s where the tangelo got its name. However, it is common for people to confuse the tangelo with the tangerine, mandarin, and orange.

To add to the confusion, there are different varieties of tangelos and all are not necessarily created from tangerines and pomelos. One common variant, the Minneola tangelo, is a hybrid of the tangerine and the Duncan grapefruit. Another variant was created by crossing a mandarin with a pomelo, which technically makes it an orange.

The tangelo is believed to have first appeared in the forests of Southeast Asia 3,500 years ago when insects cross-pollinated the mandarin with a fruit that is closely related to the grapefruit. However, today’s tangelos are the result of a selective breeding program that started in the 1800s.^[8]

At the forefront of the tangelo project was the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which created the popular Minneola tangelo sold across the United States. The USDA released the seeds of the Minneola tangelo in 1931. It’s named after the city of Minneola, Florida.

2 Carrots

Carrots haven’t always been orange. Natural carrots were either white or purple and probably inedible. There are even accounts that white carrots were eaten in the Roman Empire, but historians believe that they could have been parsnips, white carrots, or both. Ultimately, the modern orange carrot we eat today is a hybrid of the yellow carrot, which is a hybrid of the white carrot.

The earliest-known ancestor of the modern consumable carrot appeared in Persia in the 10th century. Some accounts say it was white, and others say it was purple. Unlike today’s carrots, those vegetables had lots of smaller roots of varying sizes. The Persians selectively bred the carrots with the biggest roots to create bigger roots and, ultimately, a big single root.

As the selective breeding continued, the carrots mutated from white or purple to yellow and finally orange. Selective breeding of carrots continued until modern times to improve their flavor and color.^[9]

1 Strawberry

The modern strawberry is a man-made hybrid of the smaller wild strawberry, which has a shorter shelf life as well as a better flavor and aroma. The modern strawberry first appeared in France in the 18th century. However, the hybridization program began much earlier.

In the 1300s, French botanists started planting wild strawberries in their gardens when they realized that wild strawberries reproduced by cloning. Strangely, some strawberries never produced fruits and half of the ones that did suddenly stopped cloning and making fruits after some years.

The French managed to create wild strawberries that were 15 to 20 times their normal size, but they were still incredibly small. Antoine Nicolas Duchesne created the modern strawberry on July 6, 1764, when he crossed a male Fragaria moschata with a female Fragaria chiloensis from Chile.^[10]

Before Duchesne created his strawberry, French botanists had never realized that strawberries had male and female parts. This was the reason some never produced fruits as some botanists had planted either males or females. Duchesne continued working on the strawberry until the French Revolution, leaving American and British botanists to perfect the modern strawberry.