Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Fruit Hunter

My in-laws got me a copy of Adam Leith Gollner's The Fruit Hunters for Christmas.  I'm just a few chapters in, but there's already a few good knowledge nuggets,
"The sweetness issue actually went to the United States supreme court in 1893. They ruled that tomatoes are vegetables because they aren't sweet," 
and an estimation,
"There are an estimated 240,000 to 500,000 different plant species that bear fruit.  Perhaps 70,000 to 80,000 of these species are edible; most of our food comes from only 20 crops."
 How long would it take to try every fruit?

Most people eat three meals per day or 1095 per year.  If you ate one new species of fruit at every meal, it would take about 70 years to try every edible fruit.  Even if I start now and live to be 100, there is literally no way I will every try every fruit.

2 comments:

  1. Fascinating! I've been on a diet in recent years and always looking for new fruits and veggies to consume. Looks like I have some work to do!

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  2. I find there are a lot of interesting fruits at Asian and other ethnic food stores. I highly recommend trying exploring what you can fin there.

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