The History of Fresh Produce

What if you could tell the history of the world through the food we grow? The History of Fresh Produce explores the extraordinary stories of the fruits, vegetables and crops that have shaped human history. Join John Paap and Patrick Kelly as they uncover the surprising connections between fresh produce and some of history’s biggest events, most fascinating people and strangest moments. From the potato priests who helped transform Europe and the rabbit plague that overran Australia, to the cacao that financed revolutions, the plant that gave us the gin and tonic, and the farmer who became one of the most recognizable faces in the world — John and Patrick reveal the history hiding in plain sight in our fruit bowls, grocery stores and fields. Along the way, expect empires, exploration, science, politics, war, religion, trade, agriculture — and more than a few stories that sound far too ridiculous to be true. Because the history of fresh produce isn’t really just the history of food. It’s the history of us. Social Channels: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/historyoffreshproduce/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@historyoffreshproduce?lang=en Threads: https://www.threads.net/@historyoffreshproduce?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558921896574

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Episoder(196)

The History of Watermelons

How did a fruit that began as an ancient Egyptian burial canteen — a self-contained water supply buried with pharaohs — end up starting an American military intervention in Panama, getting farmers ele...

1 Sep 35min

In a Pickle

How did a jar of pickles keep Julius Caesar's legions marching, Cleopatra beautiful, Captain Cook's sailors alive, and Napoleon's armies fed — and why does the same basic technology of salt water and ...

25 Aug 57min

The History of Peas

How did a green vegetable reduce the court of Louis XIV to what contemporaries called "a fashion and a madness" — with ladies smuggling peas to their bedrooms and the Sun King himself eating so many t...

18 Aug 49min

The 1944 Water Treaty

How did a treaty signed in the middle of the Second World War end up with farmers seizing a dam at gunpoint, a woman shot dead by her own country's National Guard, and American lettuce growers in 2026...

11 Aug 31min

The Parasite in the Salad Drawer

How did five farms in the highlands of Guatemala end up sickening nearly a thousand people across fifteen American states and two countries — and why did California's strawberry industry lose forty mi...

4 Aug 28min

Netherlands: Operation Manna

How did a Nazi food embargo, a frozen canal, and a railway strike combine to starve one of the most developed societies in Europe to below 400 calories a day? Why does the Dutch Hunger Winter still le...

28 Jul 26min

South Korea: The Cabbage Crisis

Why did the South Korean government fly in emergency cabbage from China in 2010 — and why was that decision experienced as a national humiliation as much as a practical solution? How did a fermented v...

28 Jul 27min

Ivory Coast: Blood Chocolate

Why does the country that grows 45 percent of the world's cocoa receive between five and seven percent of the value of the chocolate bar it becomes? How did a single crop fund two civil wars simultane...

21 Jul 23min