Fun Farm Food Facts

Apples

• Because it's so high in antioxidants - which are health-booting nutrients - the cranberry has been called a "superfruit."
• 5% of cranberries are sold fresh, and the rest are dried or turned into juice or sauce.
• There are 440 cranberries in one pound and 4,400 cranberries in one gallon of juice.
• Cranberries, which are native to North America, are a crucial ingredient in a number of traditional Native American recipes. The cranberry is one of only three native American fruits. (Concord grape and blueberry are the other two.)
• Massachusetts is the second largest producer of cranberries in the United States. Wisconsin is the first. (eff. 2012-2013)
• Undamaged cranberry vines can produce fruit for a long time. Some vines in Massachusetts are over 150 years old!
• Cranberries strung with popcorn makes a traditional - and compostable! - Christmas-tree garland.
• The expression "bogged down" means getting stuck while you're doing something - the same way you would if you tried walking through a cranberry bog!

Carrots

• Carrots are chock-full of vitamins and crunchy sweetness. They make for a nutritious snack, a wonderful side dish, or a tasty ingredient in hearty stews and casseroles.
• Nine carrots have as much calcium as one glass of milk. 
• Carrots can be eaten raw, cooked, or juiced - and they're so sweet, they can even be grated into cookies and cakes. 
• Carrots are usually orange, but they also come in purple, red, and yellow varieties too.
• It’s a myth that eating carrots will enable you to see in the dark - but it’s true that the vitamin A we get from carrots improves our eyesight, including our night vision!
• Carrots were originally cultivated for their aromatic leaves and seeds, not their roots. It takes about 70 days for a carrot to grow from a seed to a root ready for harvest.
• Massachusetts has 99 farms growing 80 acres of carrots for a total of 712,000 pounds of the sweet orange root! (eff. 2012-13)
• The root of the Queen Anne’s Lace flower is actually a type of wild carrot.
• “Never bolt your door with a boiled carrot” is an old (and sensible) Irish proverb.
• In The Looney Tunes Show, Bugs Bunny made his fortune by inventing the carrot peeler.

Corn

Dark, Leafy Greens

• Dark, leafy greens are packed with vitamins A and C, calcium, iron, and fiber - making them among the very healthiest foods you can eat!
• Their growing season is nice and long, because sturdy greens can survive cold weather.
• There is a great variety of dark, leafy greens - also called “cooking greens” because they’re sturdy and hold up well in a recipe. They include...
  • Spinach is mild and familiar, good raw or cooked.
  • Collards have wide, flat leaves and a lot of flavor.
  • Kale is in the cabbage family and comes in many delicious varieties.
  • Mustard greens can be peppery, but lose a little of their bite after cooking.
  • Chard tastes like spinach, but has thick stems that sweeten up when cooked.
• There are many kinds of kale: green or purple kale, curly or plain kale, and Tuscan kale, also called “dinosaur kale,” because of its warty, prehistoric-looking leaves.

Eggs

• Eggs are a good source of protein and affordable for families. They’re easy to prepare, readily available, and so versatile!
• In 2012, Massachusetts had 131,000 laying chickens that produced over 36 million eggs! (eff. 2012-13)
• The egg shell accounts for 9-12% of an egg’s total weight.
• To tell if an egg is raw or hard-cooked, spin it! If the egg spins easily, it's hard-cooked, but if it wobbles, it’s raw
• In general, hens with white earlobes lay white-shelled eggs, while hens with red earlobes lay brown-shelled eggs.(Did you even know chickens had earlobes?)
• Which came first? East Indian history suggests that wild birds were domesticated as early as 3200 B.C., while Egyptian and Chinese records show that fowl were laying eggs for humans to eat as early as 1400 B.C.
• Are eggs fragile? Drop one and it will break. But what if you squeeze one as hard as you can? An egg is like a 3-D version of an arch, which is one of the strongest shapes in architecture. The curved form of the shell spreads the pressure evenly all over, rather than concentrating it at any one point where you’re pressing, which makes it very hard to break by squeezing. 

Eggplant

• We think of eggplant as a vegetable, but it’s actually classified as a berry!
• An eggplant is almost 95% water.
• Each eggplant can pack up to three grams of health-boosting fiber.
• If you go searching for eggplant at a supermarket or farmers market you might find it in colors other than the usual deep, shiny purple: pale purple, bright green, and even white.
• Eggplant belongs to the Nightshade family, which also includes tomatoes, sweet peppers, and potatoes.
• Each year more than 100 Massachusetts farms together harvest a total of nearly 600,000 pounds of eggplant. (eff. 2012-13) 

Lettuce

• Lettuce gets its name from the Latin word lac, which means “milk,” because of the milky liquid that comes out of its cut stems. 
• In 2010, the world produced 23,620,000 metric tons of lettuce.

Milk

• One cup of 2% milk contains almost a third of your daily calcium requirement - plus a significant amount of protein.
• Milk is the best thing to cool your mouth after eating spicy food. It contains casein, a protein that scrubs the spice from your burning taste buds.
• A single cow yields about 90 glasses of milk per day or about 200,000 glasses of milk per lifetime. (Although most cows give more milk when they listen to music!)
• The classic black-and-white cows are called Holsteins, and their spots are like fingerprints - no two cows are alike. 
• Cows spend 6-8 hours eating each day. They eat between 80 and 90 pounds of grass, hay, and feed daily, and drink 25-50 gallons of water a day.
• Dairy farming has been a part of Massachusetts agriculture ever since the early settlers brought cows to Plymouth in 1624.

Mushrooms

• Mushrooms are often overlooked as a source of nutrition, but they're chockfull of fiber and essential nutrients.
• The cultivated mushrooms you might see at a supermarket include white mushrooms (the most basic kind), button mushrooms (small white ones), portobellos (huge, meaty, and darkskinned), and cremini (baby portobellos).
• The wild mushrooms you might see at a supermarket or farmers market, depending on the season, include oyster mushrooms (trumpet-shaped and mild-tasting), shiitakes (rich and strong-tasting), chanterelles (bright yellow and funnelshaped), and morels (these have a honeycombed surface).
• Mushrooms use dusty spores, instead of seeds, to reproduce themselves. The spores are contained in the mushroom’s gills - that feathery-looking part underneath the mushroom’s cap. 
• The technical term for eating mushrooms - a practice which dates back to ancient times - is mycophagy, while the technical term for growing mushrooms is fungiculture.

Onions

• Onions, which are in the lily family, come in three main colors: white, yellow, and red. Red onions are fun to use because they’re so pretty, but really you can use any color onion you like. 
• Onions don’t actually make you sad, but cutting them can produce a stinging sensation that makes your eyes tear. The stinging is produced by molecules stored in the cells of the onion, which are broken apart when you cut them and waft up as gas; your eyes tear to try to wash off the gas. To lessen the stinging, try chilling onions in the fridge before you cut them.

Peppers

• Peppers are an excellent source of vitamin A and C, which help keep your eyes, teeth, and skin healthy. 
• Peppers make a tasty, crunchy snack, and a healthy addition to many dishes.
• Peppers come in different colors. The ripe ones are red, orange, or yellow, and they're sweeter than the unripe green ones. Plus, they have more nutrients.
• One large red bell pepper contains 209 milligrams of vitamin C, which is three times the amount in an average orange.
• Peppers are native to Mexico, as well as Central and South America. Pepper seeds were imported to Spain in 1493, and from there spread to other countries.
• The largest recorded pepper was grown in Israel and weighed over 16 ounces. The pepper was nicknamed “Godzilla.” (eff. 2012-13)

Radishes

• Radishes are root vegetables in the cabbage family, and they can taste strong or spicy - but they’re also gorgeous, super crunchy, and even, when you get past the spiciness, quite sweet.
• The name radish comes from the Latin word radix, which means “root.”
• Summer radishes can grow quickly, with many seeds varieties sprouting in 3-7 days, and ready for harvest in 3-4 weeks.
• Radishes can be white, red, or purple, round, or carrot-shaped. There’s even a multi-colored radish called an Easter Egg radish!
• The world’s heaviest radish was grown in Japan in 2003 and weighed 68 pounds, 9 ounces. (eff. 2012-13)

Root Vegetables

• “Root vegetable” refers to the edible part of a plant that grows underground.
• Root vegetables are sweet because that’s where the plant stores natural sugar to use for energy.

Squash

• Winter squash don't actually grow during the winter. They’re called that because their thick skins mean they keep well during the winter months. Summer squash, such as zucchini and pattypans, are harvested when they’re still immature and tender.
• Winter squash is brimming with nutrients - just one cup has over 100% of the vitamin A you need in a day! - and it’s also a delicious fall treat. 
• Like most other orange fruits and vegetables, squash has loads of beta-carotene, which your body converts to vitamin A. (Your eyes will thank you!)
• Butternut squash is a member of the gourd family, which includes cucumber, melon, and pumpkin.
• “Squash” comes from the Native-American Narragansett word askutasquash - which means “a green thing eaten raw” - but the Pilgrims shortened it. 
• Over 320 farms in Massachusetts grow squash. (eff. 2012-13).
• You can roast the seeds of any winter squash just like you would pumpkin seeds! 
• Thanks to its size, a pumpkin is the obvious choice for your jack-o’-lantern. But you could carve a little one out of any of the winter squashes: acorn, sweet dumpling, or even the hollow bottom of a butternut!

Strawberries

• Strawberries get their red color from plant pigments called anthocyanins. These are a type of antioxidant, and they’re great for helping to keep you healthy.
• A strawberry is not actually a berry, according to botanists. It’s what’s called an “aggregate accessory fruit.” (Say that ten times fast!) The seeds are not true seeds, but miniature fruits with seeds inside of them.
• Although a cultivated strawberry can grow as large as an apple, a wild one can be as small as your pinky fingernail.
• Strawberries are in the rose family, which is why their white flowers look like miniature wild roses.

Sweet Potatoes

• A single sweet potato gives you 26% of your daily fiber, 65% of your daily vitamin C, and 769% of your vitamin A!
• Sweet potatoes grow underground. They are in the same plant family as the morning glory flower.
• In the U.S., we use "sweet potato" and "yam" to mean the same thing, but true yams are a completely different species, native to Africa and Asia.
• In 2010, U.S. consumers bought nearly 12 million pounds of sweet potatoes.
• Sweet potatoes were grown in Central America as far back as 5,000 years ago.

Tomatoes

• Tomatoes aren't just a juicy example of summer perfection - they’re also a superfood, filled with vitamin C, lutein (which is good for your eyes), and lycopene, the cancer-fighting antioxidant that gives them their red color.
• Over 7,500 varieties of tomatoes are grown around the world. (eff. 2012-13)
• A University of California survey ranked the tomato as the single most important fruit or vegetable of western diets as an overall source of vitamins and minerals.
• Like its cousins eggplant and bell pepper, the tomato is in the nightshade family - famous for its poisonous member belladonna, aka deadly nightshade!