Weird Facts About Fruit

I guess you could say it's kinda odd talking about fruit on a site that is dedicated to cookie dough, however, we're all for a balanced diet (and Gookie Dough with strawberries is rather delicious). We've brought to you some useless facts about fruit that you can tell everyone in the office, let's begin! 

Tomatoes are the most popular fruit in the world

To be fair, we're still getting our heads around the fact that tomatoes are actually a fruit, let alone being the most popular. They definitely have the Marmite factor. You either love them or hate them. But looking through many recipes it makes sense. How often do you cook a meal without adding some tomatoes? 60 million tonnes f tomatoes are produced per year. Wow. 

Pineapple Cones 

(Image credit: The Spruce Eats) 

Originally, the word 'pineapple' was used to refer to pinecones. But when Europeans (hello) first came across the fruit in America, they called them pineapples because they looked like pinecones. Pineapples aren't even a fruit. In fact, they're a group of berries which are fused together around a stalk. Mind blown! 

Figs aren't vegan 

Sounds a bit extreme. The story goes something like this. The fig wasp reproduces by laying eggs in the inward-facing fig flower where they lay down and die inside the flower. The eggs then hatch and the males will breed with the females and chew a hole in the flower where the females will escape. Usually, the flowers don't develop into fruits. However, sometimes the wasp will lay eggs in the wrong kind of flower which means that it's eventually digested by the enzymes as the flower turns into the fruit you pop into your morning porridge. Just call us David Attenborough. 

Oranges aren't orange? 

The colour orange was named after the fruit and not vice versa. Before the invention of the word 'orange', things that were orange were named as 'saffron' or red which explains why we call people redheads instead of orange heads. 

This is bananas

Did you know that you technically wear banana? A fabric made of banana fibres called Bashofu has been made in Japan for centuries. It's biodegradable and a sustainable fabric compared to silk or cotton and also takes less energy to produce. The fibres are taken from the tress where they will be woven together to make cloth. 

So there you have it, your weekly dose of knowledge!