* Apples are a member of the rose family.
* Washington state grows the most apples in the U.S.
* The apples from one tree can fill 20 boxes every year.
* Fresh apples float because 25 percent of their volume is air.
* In the winter, apple trees need to "rest" for about 900-1,000 hours below 45 degrees Fahrenheit in order to flower and fruit properly.
* If you grew 100 apple trees from the seeds of one tree, they would all be different.
* Apples are high in fiber.
* There are more than 7,000 varieties of apples grown in the world.
* The name asparagus comes from the Greek language and means "sprout" or "shoot."
* Asparagus is a member of the Lily family.
* Asparagus is related to onions, leeks, and garlic.
* One of the most popular varieties of green asparagus is named after Martha Washington, the wife of George Washington.
* California grows about 70% of all the asparagus grown in the United States.
* More than 50,000 tons of asparagus are grown in California every year.
[size=150]Pumpkin Eater
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* Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites!
* Pumpkin flowers are edible.
* Pumpkins are 90% water.
* Pumpkins are used for feed for animals.
* Pumpkin seeds can be roasted as a snack.
* Native Americans used pumpkin seeds for food and medicine.
* In early colonial times, pumpkins were used as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling.
* The name “pumpkin” originated from “pepon”, the Greek word for “large melon.”
* Pumpkins contain potassium and Vitamin A
* The batter used to make pancakes is almost exactly the same as the batter used to make regular cakes. The pancake batter is just a little thinner.
* Pancakes have become so popular, that people don’t just eat them for breakfast anymore. Many people like to eat pancakes for dinner!
* On Pancake Day in Newfoundland (the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of lent), items are placed in the pancake batter before it is cooked to foretell the future for family members. If a boy received an item for a trade, it meant he would enter that trade. If a girl received an item for a trade, it meant she would marry a person from that trade.
* Peaches are a good source of Vitamin C.
* The United States provides about one-fourth (25%) of the world’s total supply of fresh peaches.
* The peach is a member of the rose family and will have a sweet fragrance when ripe.
* Most peaches that are imported to the United States during winter months come from Chile.
* Peaches are the third most popular fruit grown in America.
* We are eating 900% more broccoli than we did 20 years ago.
* In 1970, consumption of broccoli was only a half a pound per person. Today, the average person in the United States eats four and one half pounds a year.
* In the United States, broccoli was probably first grown by immigrants from Italy in home gardens in Brooklyn, New York. In 1923, a group of Italian vegetable farmers in Northern California started to grow broccoli commercially and in a few years they were shipping fresh broccoli to Boston and New York.
* The most popular sweet pepper in the United States is the bell pepper.
* Most peppers belong to the Capsicum annuum species.
* As bell peppers mature, their color changes from green to red and they become sweeter.
* Chile peppers are hot.
* Dried chile pepper wreaths are called "Ristras" - a symbol of plenty and hope.
* An acre of trees can remove about 13 tons of dust and gases every year from the surrounding environment.
* Almost a third of the world’s total land area is covered by forests.
* Some tissue-making machines can produce as many as 6000 feet of toilet tissue every minute out of trees.
* About 1.5 million tons of ground cocoa beans from the tropical tree are used each year to make chocolate and cocoa products. That’s greater than the weight of more than 300,000 elephants!
* Every year in the United States each person uses the equivalent of one tree, 100 feet tall and 16 inches in diameter, to fulfill their wood and paper needs.
* Thirty to 40 gallons of sugar maple sap must be boiled down to make just one gallon of maple syrup.
* Many farmers grow more than just grains, vegetable and livestock. Some farmers grow trees. This is called a woodlot. A woodlot is not an original forest, because the timber has been cut down before. Sometimes the trees in a woodlot have been cut down four, five, ore even six times. After the trees have been cut down, the farmer lets them grow up again, until they are big enough to be harvested once more.
* Not only is the wood on woodlots good to sell to timber companies to make paper, etc., but the timber can also be useful on the farm. The farmer can cut down the timber and use it to build fences, barns, or other buildings. Some farmers grow specialized woodlots that are used for a specific purpose. A woodlot may be used to harvest maple syrup or as a Christmas tree farm.
* Farmers and ranchers provide food and habitat for 75% of the nations wildlife.
* Plant and animal biotechnology have resulted in new antibodies for immunizations. Agriculture has also contributed to research that has helped develop surgical techniques and pharmaceuticals that help save lives.
* Ethanol and new bio-diesel fuels made from corn, soybeans and other grains are beneficial to the environment and helps contribute to energy independence for the U.S.
[size=150] Servings of Fruits & Vegetables A Day[/size]
* Onions contain a mild antibiotic that fights infections, soothes burns, tames bee stings and relieves the itch of athletes foot.
* Archeologists have found evidence that humans have enjoyed eating apples since 6500 B.C. Each of us eats more than 19 pounds of apples annually.
* Grapes are one of the oldest cultivated fruits. They have been around for more than 8,000 years.
* Americans eat about 125 pounds of potatoes a year, about half from fresh potatoes and half in processed foods.
* It takes a combine 9 seconds to harvest enough wheat to make 70 loaves of bread.
* Americans consume 1.12 billion pounds of popcorn a year.
* Soybean oil is the most widely used edible oil in the United States; you can find it in mayonnaise, salad dressing, process cheese products, dessert frostings and much more.
* Peanuts are not actually nuts. Peanuts, like soybeans, are members of the legume family.
* One bushel of corn will sweeten more than 400 cans of pop.
* There are about 600 kernels on each ear of corn.
* Farmers grow corn on every continent except Antarctica.
* Each tassel on a corn plant releases as many as 5 million grains of pollen.
* Each American consumers, on average, 53 pounds of bread per year.
* Assuming a sandwich was eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it would take 168 days to eat the amount of bread produced from one bushel of wheat.
* A family of four could live for 10 years off the bread produced by one acre of wheat.
* One bushel of wheat will produce 73 one-pound loaves of bread.
* In 1997, Kansas's wheat farmers produced enough wheat to make 36.5 billion loaves of bread, or enough to provide each person on earth with 6 loaves of bread.
* Farmers receive approximately 5 cents (or less) from each loaf of bread sold.
* Soy crayons have been created to replace toxic petroleum-wax crayons, soy crayons are sager to use, brighter in color, and less expensive to produce.
* One acre (43,560 square feet) of soybeans can produce 82,368 crayons.
* Soybean oil is the most widely used vegetable oil. It is found in margarine's, salad dressings, canned foods, sauces, bakery goods, and processed fried foods.
* U.S. textile mills presently convert over half ot the cotton they use into clothing.
* The majority of cotton is used for men's and boys' clothing, with jeans, underwear, and shirts topping the list.
* If all of the cotton produced annually in the U.S. were used to make one product, such as blue jeans, it would make 5 Billion pair.
* One bale of cotton can produce 1,217 men's t-shirts or 313,600 one-hundred dollar ($100) bills.
* Cotton's home uses range from bedspreads to window shades. It is by far the dominant fiber in towels and washcloths. Cotton is also popular in sheets and pillowcases.
* Industrial products containing cotton include wall coverings, book bindings, and zipper tapes. The biggest cotton users in the this category are manufacturers of medical supplies, industrial thread, and tarpaulins.
* Cotton is a food crop. Almost 200 million gallons of cottonseed oil are used in food products such as margarine and salad dressing. Cottonseed and cottonseed meal are used in feed for livestock and poultry. And even products such as toothpaste, ice cream, and the paper money used to buy them contain by-products of the cotton seed.
* The Cotton Belt covers the southern half of the United States, reaching from Virginia to California. Texas is the top cotton-producing state, harvesting about one-third of the crop each year.
Tarragon is one of four herbs – the others are chives, parsley and chervil – that are together known as the “fines herbes.” They form the flavoring building block of many traditional French cuisine dishes.
[size=150]OREGANO
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Oregano is often confused with marjoram because the names for the two herbs were used interchangeably for years. Oregano has the stronger flavor of the two herbs, which both come from the mint family.
Kodomo no Nomimono, which translates as “children’s drink,” is a Japanese nonalcoholic children’s beverage designed to look and even foam up like real beer. And since it’s apple-flavored, it beats out normal nonalcoholic beer in the taste department. Recently, Sangaria, the company that manufactures Kodomo no Nomimono, has also come out with a kid-friendly champagne and wine.
The word coffee comes from Kaffa, a region in Ethiopia where coffee beans may have been discovered.
* About half of the people in the United States over the age of 18 (that's 107 million) drink coffee every day. On average, each coffee drinker consumes three and a half cups each day.
* As early as the ninth century, people in the Ethiopian highlands were making a stout drink from ground coffee beans boiled in water.
* Coffee is grown in more than 50 countries in South America, Central America, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.
* In 1971, a group of Seattle-based entrepreneurs opened a coffee shop called Starbucks. Today there are more than 6,000 Starbucks outlets in the United States. The chain also operates stores in 36 other countries.
* Nearly 25 million farmers worldwide depend on coffee crops for their economic livelihood.
* Coffee contains caffeine, the stimulant that gives you that "lift." Caffeine is the most popular drug in the world, and 90 percent of people in the United States consume it in some form every day.
* Despite what you may believe, dark-roast coffee has less caffeine than coffee that's been lightly roasted.
* Scandinavia boasts the highest per-capita coffee consumption in the world. On average, people in Finland drink more than four cups of coffee a day.
* After oil, coffee is the world's second-most-valuable commodity exported by developing countries. The global coffee industry earns an estimated $60 billion annually.
* France was the first country to cultivate mushrooms, in the mid-17th century. From there, the practice spread to England and made its way to the United States in the 19th century.
* In 1891, New Yorker William Falconer published Mushrooms: How to Grow Them--A Practical Treatise on Mushroom Culture for Profit and Pleasure, the first book on the subject.
* In North America alone, there are an estimated 10,000 species of mushrooms, only 250 of which are known to be edible.
* A mushroom is a fungus (from the Greek word sphongos, meaning "sponge"). A fungus differs from a plant in that it has no chlorophyll, produces spores instead of seeds, and survives by feeding off other organic matter.
* Mushrooms are related to yeast, mold, and mildew, which are also members of the "fungus" class. There are approximately 1.5 million species of fungi, compared with 250,000 species of flowering plants.
* An expert in mushrooms and other fungi is called a mycologist--from the Greek word mykes, meaning "fungus." A mycophile is someone whose hobby is to hunt edible wild mushrooms.
* Ancient Egyptians believed mushrooms were the plant of immortality. Pharaohs decreed them a royal food and forbade commoners to even touch them.
* White agaricus (aka "button") mushrooms are by far the most popular, accounting for more than 90 percent of mushrooms bought in the United States each year.