Times are changing, and with them vegetables and fruits. Often the original varieties bear little resemblance to what we now know from the stores. People have been working on crops for years, improving species and creating bigger, better and more nutritious vegetables and fruits.
See how the most popular vegetables and fruits have changed!
#1 Watermelon
A cutout of a 17th-century painting by Giovanni Stanchi shows watermelons in a completely different form than the one we know. The picture, painted between 1645 and 1672, shows watermelons in a definitely less juicy version.
#2 Bananas
Before the banana became what we know today (a sweet, creamy fruit), it underwent many changes through selective breeding. One of the biggest differences in the wild variety of the fruit is the large seeds that take up most of the fruit. Definitely reducing the seeds has made it easier to eat the fruit.
#3 Eggplant
Throughout history, eggplants came in various shapes and sizes before they appeared on our tables as round, full-fleshed vegetables. Their roots can be traced back to ancient China! The first species had spines!
#4 Carrot
We associate carrots with a distinctive color. In the case of its wild variety, it is easy to mistake it for an ordinary root of a random plant. The plant from which the modern carrot originated was originally a whitish/ ivory colored root. Subsequent varieties took on purple and yellow colors to eventually get the form we know today.
#5 Corn
Corn is the best example of how farming can be influenced. The first varieties looked completely different from today and reached only 19 mm.
#6 Cabbage
Brassica oleracea is the great-grandfather of such vegetables as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and kale. You can still see wild cabbage growing near limestone sea cliffs. One thing can be taken for granted – you won’t make a single cabbage roll using it!
#7 Tomatoes
The tomatoes we grow in greenhouses and know from stores are drastically different from what they used to look like. Species of wild tomatoes known as Solanum pimpinellifolium, or more commonly known as the currant tomato, still exist in Ecuador and Peru, and are naturalized elsewhere in the world. They are edible, but actually not grown for consumption. Instead, they are used in science to develop hybrid species and supplement the gene pool of more common tomato species.
#8 Apples
The ancestor of the modern apple looks relatively similar to what is found in supermarkets today. But the flavor has certainly evolved over the years. The wild Asian apple or Malus sieversii is small and sour, unlike its descendant – the apple we eat today.
The post This Is How Popular Fruits and Vegetables Looked Many Years Ago appeared first on Handimania.