Let’s get right to it...
- Melons can grow to 40 pounds (18 kilograms) or more.
- There are three kinds of cherries — sweet, sour and dukes, which are a sweet-sour cross.
- Banana ash is used to make soap.
- A medium-sized orange contains the amount of vitamin C that a healthy adult should eat daily.
- Pears are the second most important temperate fruit after apples. The leading producer is China.
- “Batology” is the taxonomic study of blackberries. There are over 1,000 known species.
- There are over 200 different known species of raspberries but only 2 species are grown on a large scale.
- Citrus fruits grew in Asia 20 million years ago.
- Cranberries are in the same family as blueberries: Vaccinium.
- Strawberries were cultivated in ancient Rome.
- Peaches were once known as Persian apples.
- Citrus fruits were first mentioned in literature in 2400 B.C.
- Blueberries are related to azaleas, camellias, heathers, and rhododendrons.
- Cultivated apples all descend from wild crab apples that grow in Northern Europe, Asia, and America.
- Avocados are commonly used as vegetables. Botanically, they are fruits.
- Kiwis were once known as Chinese gooseberries.
- Grape-growing or viticulture is described in detail in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs of 2400 B.C.
- Pineapples contain an enzyme that is used in blood tests.
- There are more than 100 varieties of bananas. Some even have red skin.
- Orange trees first grew in China.
- The world’s most popular pear is the Williams’ Bon Chretien or Bartlett.
- The world picks about 32 million tonnes of apples a year.
- Most raspberries are red, but some varieties are white, yellow, or black.
- Peaches are sometimes referred to as “stone” fruit due to their pits.
- Cranberries grew in popularity in the 1960s with the promotion of cranberry juice and cranberry juice blends.
- Citrus fruits grow in warm Mediterranean climates, and they are very vulnerable to frost.
- Passion fruits were first grown in Brazil.
- Kiwi plants were first grown in China.
- Olive trees can live for more than 1,500 years.
- A peach is 87% water.
- Cranberries are mostly consumed during Thanksgiving and Christmas.
- If you plant a single seed from an orange you will probably get more than one plant growing from it.
- Pear trees can grow to 60 feet (18 meters) and may be as old as 300 years.
- Strawberries are a member of the Rose family.
- Nectarines are just peaches without the fuzz.
- “You're a real peach” originated from the tradition of giving a peach to the friend you liked.
- Florida oranges may be greener than California oranges because the night temperatures in Florida are warmer, which causes more chlorophyll to migrate into the peel; they are still ripe and sweet, though.
- Strawberries have a museum dedicated to them in Belgium.
- The sharp tang of citrus fruits comes from citric acid.
- 1565 is the starting date of the first peach orchard in Florida.
- There is more fiber in an orange than in most other fruits and veggies.
- Some citrus fruit-growers warm the trees with special burners in winter to avoid frost-damage.
- In China the peach is a symbol of longevity and good luck.
- 4 A.D. saw the first writings on the cultivation of raspberries.
- Fruits of temperate regions must have a cool winter to grow properly.
- The main temperate fruits are apples, pears, plums, apricots, peaches, grapes and cherries.
- Plums are dried to make prunes.
- Fibers in pineapple leaves are used to make rope and a cloth called pino.
- Grated lemon peel is called zest, and is sometimes used as flavoring in baking and in candies.
- Oranges were taken to Europe by Arab traders more than 1,000 years ago.
- New pear trees are grown not from seeds but by grafting branches on to roots such as those of quinces.
- Blackberry juice was used to dye cloth navy blue and indigo.
- In 45 A.D. the raspberry fruit was called “ida,” probably after the mountain it was found growing on.
- Blueberries have more antioxidants than most other fruits and vegetables.
- Strawberries were used as a medicinal herb in the 13th century.
- Peaches were mentioned as early as 79 A.D. in literature.
- Apple trees can grow up to 40 feet (12 meters) high.
- British sailors were given lime juice to keep them from getting a disease called scurvy (malnutrition illness caused by a lack of certain vitamins). British sailors were often called "Limeys" because of this.
- The strawberry probably got its name originally from the Anglo-Saxon word streawberige, which means "spreading berry".
- Plums came originally from the Caucasus Mountains in Turkey and Turkey is still the world’s major plum grower. The damson plum came from Damascus.
- Apricots were first grown in China more than 4,000 years ago.
- Round cherry pits were used to play games such as marbles.
- Currant juice can be used to soothe sore throats and colds.
- The gooseberry is called the "mackerel currant" in French because gooseberry sauce is served with mackerel, a type of fish.
- Pear wood is hard and can be used to make furniture.
- Apples were eaten by the earliest Europeans hundreds of thousands of years ago. They were spread through the USA by Indians, trappers and travelers like Johnny ‘Appleseed’ Chapman.
- Raspberries used to be called hindberries.
- Brazil produces the largest amount of oranges and grapefruits in the world.
- Blueberries won't ripen once they are picked.
- Citrus fruits are richer in Vitamin C than any other fruit or vegetable.
- The estimated value of cranberries grown in the United States is several hundred million dollars.
- Strawberries are grown in every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada.
- The name pineapple was the original name for a pine cone (grows on pine trees). Because the fruit pineapple looked like a huge pine cone, it too was called a pine-apple.
- Figs were one of the fruit most often eaten by the ancient Greeks and Romans.
- Soft dates contain saccharine, which is sometimes used as a sugar substitute for diabetics.
- Strawberries were first cultivated back in the 16th and 17th centuries.
- Lemons were spread through Europe by the crusaders who found them growing in Palestine.
- Columbus took limes to the Americas in 1493.
- Peaches are native to China but are now widely grown in southern Europe. Their sweet, fragrant flesh makes them a popular delicacy.
- Black raspberries are indigenous to North America. The cross between a blackberry and a raspberry dates back to 1893 in Geneva, New York.
- The U.S. crop of apples is about 4,427,000 metric tons per year.
- Blueberries are native to North America.
- Citrus fruits are the most widely grown crops in the world.
- There are over 700 varieties of peaches. Some Chinese varieties are even flat like hockey pucks.
- Raspberry breeding made greater gains when American varieties were crossed with European varieties.
- In Florida there are approximately 10.3 million citrus trees on 853,000 acres of land.
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