Posts tagged fruit
Vampire pumpkins and watermelons are my new favorite supernatural beings. I want real ones to exist.
Right now, I could care less what’s asked. I’ll probably delete the unrelated stuff in the morning (note: morning = when I wake up >_>). But no, I can’t open my screens here, watermelon isn’t THAT cheap, and I like it. I think I’ll save mine for another day. He went inside after he was done smoking and screaming at his friend (?) across the lot.
As for what the watermelon is related to, that depends what you define as “other melons”. I’ve never seen one that looks like a pumpkin (I associate that shape more with cantelope), but I wouldn’t be surprised. The watermelon isn’t closely related to honeydew and cantelope and the like, but it’s still a member of the cucurbits family. It’s though to be a descendent of the fruit known as bitter apple or vine of Sodom (great implications there, eh?), but thorough DNA analysis isn’t quite finished yet, so I suppose we’ll see what that yields upon its conclusion.
I’ll post a watermelon plant as was known in the 1800s tomorrow, since I have one right in front of me.
![scientificillustration:
The Avocado, Persea americana Miller [as Persea gratissima Gaertner f.]
From: L’Illustration horticole, vol. 36: t. 75 (1889)
Reblogging mostly for the link to the Botanicus source - this book has some of the nicest flower illustrations from the 19th century, and is a great source for anyone wanting good representations of plants. The other volumes of L’Illustration horticole are just as good.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxqxqmK5Yg1qgzqeto1_400.jpg)
The Avocado, Persea americana Miller [as Persea gratissima Gaertner f.]
Reblogging mostly for the link to the Botanicus source - this book has some of the nicest flower illustrations from the 19th century, and is a great source for anyone wanting good representations of plants. The other volumes of L’Illustration horticole are just as good.
![Don’t like eggplants? We have bananas!
Bananas (Musa spp. [not including Ensete spp.]) are native to southeast and south Asia, but were some of the first non-native fruits taken from that area over to the Americas. Portuguese sailors introduced bananas to the Caribbean Islands and Central America as early as the beginning of the 16th century.
US citizens only began eating bananas (at extremely high prices) after the Civil War. Their popularity was boosted by the book Around the World in 80 Days, where there’s a very detailed description of the fruit.
Until multinational vertically-integrated fruit companies (Dole and Chiquita) were well established, after WWII, the general public knew of bananas, but they were not a “staple” fruit. Thanks to the “banana republic” political fun that was waged during the Cold War, the banana as a standard and affordable fruit was widespread throughout the US by the 1960s and 70s.
Prospectus of the Tropical Development Company, Founders of the American City and Colony of McKinley Isle of Pines. 1904.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvlxv5rfPw1qk931ho1_400.jpg)
Don’t like eggplants? We have bananas!
Bananas (Musa spp. [not including Ensete spp.]) are native to southeast and south Asia, but were some of the first non-native fruits taken from that area over to the Americas. Portuguese sailors introduced bananas to the Caribbean Islands and Central America as early as the beginning of the 16th century.
US citizens only began eating bananas (at extremely high prices) after the Civil War. Their popularity was boosted by the book Around the World in 80 Days, where there’s a very detailed description of the fruit.
Until multinational vertically-integrated fruit companies (Dole and Chiquita) were well established, after WWII, the general public knew of bananas, but they were not a “staple” fruit. Thanks to the “banana republic” political fun that was waged during the Cold War, the banana as a standard and affordable fruit was widespread throughout the US by the 1960s and 70s.
Prospectus of the Tropical Development Company, Founders of the American City and Colony of McKinley Isle of Pines. 1904.
You know you want some eggplant! We’ve got us lotsa eggplant down here!
Aubergines (Solanum melongena) are a member of the nightshade family (Solanaceae). Other members of this family include tomatoes, potatoes, and tobacco.
Like the tomato, since the flowers of the aubergines were obviously in the same family as the nightshades, European scholars long considered it highly poisonous. It’s known to be native to India and to have been used in Indian and Chinese cuisine as far back as 544 C.E., though it’s suspected to have been known as a food in India for over 4000 years.
Prospectus of the Tropical Development Company, Founders of the American City and Colony of McKinley Isle of Pines. 1904
Fruits Exotiques
Including guava, papaya, mango, litchi fruit, passionfruit, pineapple, breadfruit, bergamot orange, coconut, and several other fruits, primarily from the equatorial Western hemisphere.
Histoire Naturelle Ilustree: Les Plantes.Julien Costantin and F. Faideau, 1922
Fragaria vesca - The wild or woodland strawberry plant.
These small strawberries grow in woodland clearings, along footpaths (both man-made and natural), in meadows and young partly-shady wooded areas, and have been eaten by humans since the Stone Age. Though they’ve been cultivated since the time of Ancient Persia, the vast majority of strawberries eaten since the 18th century have been the much larger garden strawberry.
When I was 12, my family went camping at a place called Gooseberry Falls, in Minnesota. We had a walk-in campsite about 2 miles away from the main parking lot, away from everyone. After a couple days of hiking and exploring, we packed up to continue on to Canada. As I finished folding my tent, I saw a young deer about 20 meters away, in the woods beyond where I was standing. Despite the significant noise my brother and parents were making, it was intently focused on these tiny bright red spots on the ground. After my brother yelped because of something or other, the deer finally did trot away from the area.
I was intrigued as to what it was eating, since all the berries I knew in the area only grew in sunny clearings or on bushes. As I approached the tiny red berries and bright white flowers, I was transfixed. I wasn’t sure that they were strawberries, or that they were ripe, especially given their size, but I was so sick of dry, bland, and salty “camping food”, I was desperate for even a sour or unripe strawberry. I figured that if I was mistaken about its identity, it was small enough that it wouldn’t kill me, and I picked one of the little berries. It was about the size of a blueberry, but had more flavor than any strawberry - no, any fruit - that I’d ever tasted. I greedily munched down two of the three stalks of berries that the deer hadn’t eaten. The sweet, almost-tart, concentrated-but-not-unnatural flavor of these strawberries was mesmerizing, warming, and filled me with an crazy happiness that food had never given me before. As I slowly finished the second stalk, my brother barked at me to help load up the backpacks so that we could get back to the car. It took more than a small amount of willpower to drag myself away from those little marbles of joy, but I somehow managed it.
Ever since then, I’ve looked for wild strawberries wherever I camp or hike. I once found the blooming flowers, but have never since found more of the fruits.
- from an essay my old friend wrote during culinary school
Illustrations from Edward Step - 1895, and Otto Wilhelm Thome - 1885.
A blog for all biological and medical ephemera, from the age of Abraham through the era of medical quackery and cure-all nostrums. Featuring illustrations, history, and totally useless trivia from the diverse realms of nature and medicine.
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