Globetrotters of the Plant Kingdom

All of us eat apples, tomatoes, potatoes, kiwis and many other fruits and vegetables on any regular day, but have you ever wondered where these fruits and vegetables originated from?

Illustration by- Curiologist

I hope all of you would have eaten an apple whether it be in the U.S, Japan, India, China, England or Australia but do you know that apples didn’t originate in any of these countries? The ancestor of the modern apple we eat originated in Kazakhstan. Merchants travelling on the Silk Route brought it to Europe. The Silk Route is an ancient route stretching from South East Asia through China, Mongolia, Arabia, Turkey and many other countries in the world. When the Europeans arrived in the Americas, they took the apple along with them.

Another fruit that made its way across the globe or really above the globe was the peach. You must have heard about Neil Armstrong, he was the first person to step on the moon. When he was exploring the moon, he ate a peach and the peach became the 1^st fruit to be eaten outside Earth.

Illustration by- Curiologist

Another vegetable that was not found in the country it is used the most was the tomato. When Christopher Columbus discovered the
Americas, he got many things that were found only in the Americas like cocoa, turkeys, potatoes and many other things and one of the things that he brought to Europe was the tomato. The tomato soon became popular because of its tangy taste. When the Europeans started colonizing other countries, they brought the tomato along with them. Even though I like tangy and sour foods I don't like the tomato.

Did you know that the tomato is a fruit and not a vegetable?

 

Another vegetable found only in the Americas was the potato. Like the tomato the potato too was brought to Europe by Christopher Columbus. And when the Europeans started colonizing other countries the potato also travelled along with them.

 The cocoa plant is another plant brought from the New World. The New World is the name the colonists liked to call their newly found colonies in the Americas.  The cocoa plant is used for making chocolate. Its beans are roasted and ground and mixed with milk, sugar and vanilla essence and moulded into shape to make chocolate. The Mayans, a tribe of Central America used to drink chocolate like hot chocolate but without milk or sugar instead they used to drink it with chillies. After the Spanish conquered the Mayans they got chocolate to Spain where it was mixed with milk and sugar. If you're cooking or eating any of these vegetables or fruits I hope it'll be a little interesting as you now know where they originated from.

Illustration by- Curiologist