You could find apples anywhere in the United States. But did you know that apples didn't originate from the U.S.? Well actually, nobody really knows where apples came from. Since they are one of the world's oldest cultivated fruit, heck, they could have originated anywhere!

Even though there are apples ALL OVER the U.S., China is the largest producer of apples in the world. The U.S. comes second, and the only reason the U.S. even produces apples is because early English settlers brought them to the U.S. in the 1600s.

The only apples available in the U.S. during that time were the crab apples, and they weren't edible...or they just tasted nasty. So, the folks from England brought over apple seeds to the "New World," and then came mass planting of this fruit all over the U.S. But one man in particular, John Chapman, was famous for planting apple seeds all throughout Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. This earned him the nickname "Johnny Appleseed."

We could credit the English for bringing apples to the U.S. And the English could credit the Romans for bringing them apples when the Romans conquered them back in the first century B.C.

So, when you see an apple tree or an apple at your local supermarket, remember that the apples were a result from lots and lots and lots of crazy planting from European settlers. They loved apples so much that they wanted this country to be filled with them.

One thing about kiwi fruits are that they're sweet yet bitter. You either love them or hate them. But when added to drinks, they taste great!

We typically associate this fruit with New Zealand, but the kiwi fruit didn't originate in New Zealand, but in China! In fact, it was once declared to be China's national fruit! Other varieties of the kiwi fruit came from India, Japan, and even Siberia!

This fruit is actually considered a berry. The early Chinese used to call it "yang tao," which means "strawberry peach." The Europeans would later nicknamed the fruit "Chinese Gooseberries." 

Back in the early 1900s, a New Zealand missionary brought back kiwi seeds to New Zealand. In the 1930s, New Zealand started to produce these fruits commercially and this fruit became a BIG HIT in New Zealand. In fact, in the 1960s, the fruit was given the brand name "kiwi" (since the kiwi bird and the fruit shared similar characteristics). For some reason, New Zealand never did trademark the name Kiwi, so now everybody calls the fruit kiwi and don't have to worry about getting sued for infringement rights!

One of the most potent nutrient in the kiwi is vitamin C. It perhaps has more vitamin C than an orange! I might pick an orange over a kiwi, though...oranges aren't as sweetly bitter!

When kids think about bananas, they think about monkeys. When comedians think about bananas, they think about the old slipping-on-a-banana-peel gag. When athletes think about bananas, they think about a powerhouse snack that's loaded with energy-blasting carbohydrates. 

Bananas are one of the most widely consumed fruits in the world. This fruit is entirely imported from other countries that have the perfect climate to grow these fruits. So, you won't see banana farms in the U.S.

The banana that we are familiar with (as shown in this picture) is called the Cavendish banana. Did you know that this banana was actually man-made??? Okay, no, we don't have the ability of God to make fruit, but we certainly have the ability to "play God" and cross-breed different varieties of bananas until we get one that we like. 

This cross-breeding perhaps took place in Africa around 650 A.D. As a result, seedless bananas developed and they probably looked similar to the Cavendish banana that we eat today.

Now, why make a banana without seeds? Well, obviously eating fruit where you have to constantly spit the seeds out is a pain in itself (just think about a watermelon with seeds!). But the "wild variety" of bananas (the natural ones you could find growing by themselves) have seeds that are very large and very hard! You can't just peel them and eat...unless you want to break a few teeth!

As for the origin of bananas, well, no one is really sure where they came from. Some archaeological studies would suggest that bananas have been cultivated first in Papua New Guinea and that they spread all over the world from there.

One of the things bananas are famous for is their potassium content. One large banana could have anywhere from 300 mg to 500 mg of potassium. But with the amount of potassium inside of a banana, a small amount of it is considered potassium-40, which is naturally radioactive. Potassium-40 is used in geology for potassium-argon dating of rocks. Wow...who knew that one fruit could be used for a science project?

India, Uganda (Africa), and China are the largest producers of bananas in the world. However, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Colombia are the world's largest exporters of bananas, so when you get your bananas from a supermarket, it most likely came from one of those South American countries.

Man, I love me some cantaloupe, especially when they are ripe! They are just so delicious! I could eat cantaloupe ALL day long. Heck, I would love to have a backyard full of cantaloupe!

There are two varieties of cantaloupe: the American and European. That should be simple enough! The photo here is the American version.

Christopher Columbus is credited to having introduced the cantaloupe to the American indians in the 1490s. We have been eating cantaloupes on this North American continent ever since!

Back in 1700, the Armenias brought cantaloupe seeds to Italy, which were then grown in a small town called Cantalupo. The French referred to this fruit as "cantaloup." Finally, the Anglicans just had to add an "E" at the end of the word, so that now the fruit is currently known as "cantaloupE."

Both the European and American cantaloupe are, believe it or not, related to the squash fruits -- including pumpkins. The cantaloupe (as well as watermelon and honey dew melon) is just the sweet variety where you could eat it without gagging. Ever tried to eat a pumpkin or butternut squash raw? Me neither!

The cantaloupe is highest in vitamin A and beta carotene (which could also turn into vitamin A when consumed) due to its intense orange fresh.

The foundation of any salad is lettuce. When we think about lettuce, we think about the bland, taste-less, nutrient-deficient "iceberg lettuce" (shown in the picture. But there are actually several varieties of lettuce, and we eat them in our salads today because of the ancient Egyptians.

Records show that lettuce have been cultivated in Egypt back in the 2680s BC, and they were grown mainly fortheir seeds to make oil. But then lettuce started taking on other meanings for the Egyptians, including religious meanings.

The early lettuce in Egypt were leafy and tall, about 30 inches high. No iceberg lettuce for the Egyptians. If they had that kind of lettuce around, they probably would have start planting them!

The Egyptians passed on the lettuce to the Greeks (perhaps when Alexandra the Great conquered them), and the Greeks passed on the lettuce to the Romans (perhaps when the Romans conquered them!). It was the Romans that named this plant "lactura" ("lac" meaning "milk," referring to a milky-like substance that came out of the stems of the lettuce). The Anglos adopted the word lactura and put their middle English twang to it, calling it "lettuce."

This leafy veggie was introduced in North America by Christopher Columbus in the late 1490s AD. 

Since lettuce has such a short life span (heck, it's like when you buy them at the store, they start going bad before you get home!), you were only able to buy them at a close market. Pretty much, if you didn't have a farmer's market in town that sold them, then you just wouldn't get any lettuce. There was no way you could grow lettuce across the country and ship them without them soiling.

However, during the 1900s, the U.S. started developing packaging techniques to ship these veggies to distant places. During the 1950s, the U.S. finally developed a cooling and packaging technique for lettuce so that you could ship them from New York to Florida without them going bad. Or from North Carolina to California...whatever!

There are different kinds of lettuce. The iceberg lettuce is considered a "crisphead" type. Then you have your more nutrient-dense Romaine variety. Besides the appearances, the main things that distinguishes these varieties of lettuce is the nutritional content. In general, all lettuce are high in vitamin A and potassium. Romaine, however, is VERY high in vitamin A since the leafs are so dark green. Romaine is also high in calcium. But get this: Romaine also has protein! But not just any protein, but "complete protein," meaning that it has all the essential amino acids that the body cannot produce on its own.

Iceberg lettuce is perhaps the least nutrient-dense lettuce. This doesn't mean it's useless! If anything, it has a HIGH water content, so if you eat enough of these, then you'll be getting plenty of water to meet your daily water intake needs. Okay...well...you probably won't eat that much of this lettuce. But as far as nutrition goes, it has vitamin A and potassium, as well as fiber and small amounts of vitamin C.