Fun Facts

Fun Fact! July 21 is National Ice Cream Day! Did you know that Neapolitan ice cream colors were traditionally brown (chocolate), vanilla (white), and green (pistachio) to honor the Italian flag? Today, the common flavors are chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.

Fun Fact! Maitake mushrooms, also known as hen of the woods, are a rich source of vitamin D. For example, a 3-oz serving can provide up to 955 IU of vitamin D. The recommended daily amount for vitamin D is 600 IU for people between the ages of 1 and 70 years and 800 IU for those over 70 years of age.

Fun fact! Cherries are a natural source of melatonin, making them a natural sleep aid. One pilot study saw that participants over 50 years of age suffering from insomnia experienced an average of 84 minutes of increased sleep time after drinking 240 ml of tart cherry juice twice daily for two weeks.

Fun Fact! To reduce waste when cooking with shiitake mushrooms, use the stems to add flavor to soups or stocks.

Fun Fact! The milk protein casein is used to create casein paint, a fast-drying, water-soluble medium that artists use.

Fun Fact! Sweet potatoes are not related to potatoes but in fact belong to the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae). By contrast, potatoes are members of the Solanaceae family alongside tomatoes, red peppers, and eggplant. Sweet potatoes are tuberous roots, while potatoes are actually swollen stems.

Fun Fact! There are fewer than 1000 onion farmers in the U.S.

Fun Fact! Chickpeas, or garbanzo beans, are most commonly tan or beige, but also come in yellow, red, dark green, and brown.

Fun Fact: Lettuce was considered a weed before ancient Egyptians turned it into a food plant.

Fun Fact: The darker a carrot’s color is, the more beta-carotene it contains.

Fun Fact: Peppers come in two general varieties: sweet (mild) and chili (hot). The most common sweet pepper is the bell pepper.

Fun Fact: Strawberries and raspberries are technically not berries. Unlike true berries that stem from one flower with one ovary, strawberries and raspberries come from a single flower with more than one ovary.

People once believed that the thickness of an onion’s skin could predict the severity of the winter to come. A thick skin predicted a rough winter, while thin skin meant milder weather.

There are more than 100 types of cabbage grown worldwide. In the United States, the most common types of cabbage are green, red, and Savoy cabbage, while the most common types of Chinese cabbage are Bok Choy and Napa cabbage.

There are more than 50 varieties of grapes.

The average American eats approximately 3 pounds of oranges per year.

Cantaloupes are also called “muskmelons” in the United States.

Americans’ combined consumption of orange juice and fresh oranges makes oranges the most consumed fruit in the United States.

Tomatoes and avocados, both of which contain seeds, are technically fruits, not vegetables.

Ancient Greeks and Romans used asparagus as medicine for healing toothaches and preventing bee stings.

Sweet potatoes are not related to potatoes but in fact belong to the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae). By contrast, potatoes are members of the Solanaceae family alongside tomatoes, red peppers, and eggplant. Sweet potatoes are tuberous roots, while potatoes are actually swollen stems.

Libyans have the highest per capita consumption of onions.

A bell pepper’s flavor becomes sweeter and milder the longer the pepper ripens.

The average American consumes approximately 27 pounds of melons each year, according to the Ag Marketing Resource Center, with the U.S. one of the world’s leading melon consumers.

Strawberries, along with other popular berries like blackberries, boysenberries, and raspberries, are members of the rose (Rosaceae) family.

Ancient Egyptians used honey for embalming the dead.

The majority of cabbage used in the United States is used for processing coleslaw.

While peaches and nectarines are very similar and of the same species, a gene variant between the two means that peaches are covered in fuzz, while nectarines are not.