Once upon a time carrots were purple, there were no pineapples in Asia or lemons in America, and many people thought potatoes were poisonous. Many types of fruit and vegetable grew only in one place. So how did they spread all over the world?
Changing colors
Five thousand years ago, carrots only grew in Afghanistan and most were purple. Only a few were orange as they are today! Farmers in the Netherlands were looking for a fruit or vegetable to represent their king, William of Orange, and orange carrots were just what they were looking for. So they became the ancestors of all modern carrots.
At home in the mountains
Many plants only grow in certain places on Earth, often deep in the jungle. The home of potatoes is in the mountains of the Andes in South America. Bananas come from Papua New Guinea and lemons grow wild in China.
World travel
But once people realized that many of these plants were good to eat, they took them far from the places where they grew. Fruit, in particular, attracted thirsty travelers. Arab businessmen transported different fruits and vegetables around the world, such as oranges, which they took from Asia to distant countries such as Spain. The Spanish returned from South America with many new types of food, including chocolate, chili and corn.
And today…
Today, we are so used to our different types of food that we don't think about where they came from. But for each pineapple, potato or carrot we eat, there is a long history!
