Food trivia | 100 facts about fruits (part 4)

Fruits are tasty, full of energy, and normally used as snacks. We all have one (or maybe more) favorite fruit. But how many things do we know about them?

Let’s find out more about them!

The fig is also known as the common fig.
Its scientific name is Ficus carica.
It is an Asian species of flowering plants.
It belongs to the mulberry family.
It is the source of the fruit also called the fig.
It’s an important crop in those areas where it is grown commercially.
It’s native to the Middle East and western Asia.
It has been sought out and cultivated since ancient times.
Nowadays is widely grown throughout the world.
The word fig, first recorded in English in the 13th century.
Fig trees have no blossoms on their branches.
The blossom is inside of the fruit.
Figs are harvested according to nature’s clock.
They are fully ripened and partially dried on the tree.
Fig puree can be used to replace fat in baked goods.
Many believe it was figs that were actually the fruit in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve instead of the apples.
The early Olympic athletes used figs as a training food.
Figs were also presented as laurels to the winners, becoming the first Olympic “medal.”
The fig tree is a symbol of abundance, fertility, and sweetness.
Eating one-half cup of figs has as much calcium as drinking one-half cup of milk.
Figs have a kind of milk.
Two medium figs have 75 calories.
Figs reduce inflammation and redness.
They contain phenolic antioxidants.
This is beneficial for your heart health.
They also help your bones to be strong since they contain calcium.
They also help prevent cancer in the breast, prostate, and colon.
In Roman times figs were considered to be restorative.
They were believed to increase the strength of young people, to maintain the elderly in better health, and to make them look younger with fewer wrinkles.
The historical source of this information is Pliny.
Guinea pigs can eat figs only in moderation.
Watermelon is a plant species.
It belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae.
It comes from West Africa.
Watermelons have been cultivated in Egypt for more than 5,000 years.
Egyptians depicted watermelon in drawings on the walls of tombs
They even left watermelon with their dead.
This happened in order to nourish them as they journeyed through the underworld.
It is a highly cultivated fruit worldwide though.
It has more than 1000 varieties.
Some varieties need up to 130 warm days to ripen.
Most watermelons mature in 85 to 100 days.
The largest watermelon ever grown was grown in Arkansas by Lloyd Bright.
It weighed 268.8 pounds.
It happened in 2005.
Watermelons are 92% water.
Some watermelons have white, yellow, orange or even green flesh.
Watermelon sweetness can be measured by a Brix scale.
Most watermelons are around 9 to 10 on the Brix scale.
The seeds of watermelon are actually quite nutritious.
We think of watermelon as a fruit because of its sweet flavor.
Watermelon is actually a vegetable.
In Egypt and Africa, people often pair watermelon with salty feta cheese.
People in Greece also prefer eating it with feta cheese.
Watermelon has only 40 calories per cup.
Yet it has more lycopene than any other fruit or vegetable.
Watermelon is the official vegetable of Oklahoma.
Seedless watermelons are the result of hybridization.
Watermelon can help prevent cancer.
In Japan, farmers have been growing cube-shaped watermelons.
Japanese do that for the past 40 years.
Melons belong in the family of Cucurbitaceae.
Melons are considered all the plants of this family.
Its closest relatives are squashes and cucumbers.
The word “melon” can refer to either the plant or specifically to the fruit.
Botanically, a melon is a kind of berry.
More specifically a berry named”pepo”.
Peponi in greek means… melon!
Melons originated in Africa.
Alternatively, they originated in the hot valleys of Southwest Asia,
Especially Iran and India.
Melon produces two types of flowers: staminate and perfect flowers.
Staminate contains only male reproductive organs.
Perfect flowers contain both male and female reproductive organs.
Melon is an annual plant.
That means that it finishes its life cycle in one year.
Melons were introduced to America by the Spanish settlers.
This happened during the 15th and 16th century.
Seeds are located in the middle of the fruit
They are usually 0.4 inches long.
They are creamy in color and oval in shape.
Size, shape, color, sweetness, and texture of the fruit depending on the type of melon.
Best known varieties of melon are casaba, honeydew, Persian melon, and cantaloupe.
Melon grows as a vine.
It has a round stem that produces lateral tendrils.
Green leaves are oval or circular in shape.
They have shallow lobes.
It takes 3-4 months for cantaloupe melons to grow.
Melons offer a decent dose of fiber, which helps fill you up.
As a snack for dieters, melons can’t be awesome, as they don’t have many calories.
Their juicy sweetness is just the substitute for high-calorie snacks and desserts.
Sour cherries are also known as tart cherry or dwarf cherry.
Sour cherry was extremely popular with the ancient Greeks, Persians, and the Romans.
Romans actually introduced sour cherries into Britain long before the 1st century AD.
The sour cherry tree is smaller than the sweet cherry.
Sour cherries are smaller than their sweet cousins and more globular in shape with softer flesh.
There are about 50 calories in 100 grams of sour cherries.
The Montmorency cherry is very popular due to the fact it is used to make cherry pies.
Sour cherries or sour cherry syrup are used in liqueurs and drinks.
In Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and Serbia sour cherries are especially prized for making spoon sweets by slowly boiling pitted sour cherries and sugar.