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 Fresh Produce is a history podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 198 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts The History of Fresh Produce, a history show with 198 episodes published.

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  Episode #200

  Johnny Appleseed: The Man Behind the Myth

  Sep 28, 202649 min

  Who was John Chapman, the barefoot, tin-pot-wearing nurseryman who became one of America's most beloved folk heroes? Why were his millions of apple trees destined not for eating, but for cider and applejack? And how did a man who secretly controlled a small fortune in frontier land come to be remembered as a penniless wandering saint? Join John and Patrick as they strip away two centuries of Disney-fied legend to uncover the real Johnny Appleseed — a hard-nosed frontier businessman, a devoted follower of a radical Swedish mystic, and the accidental architect of the chaotic genetic lottery that gave America the Golden Delicious, the McIntosh, and the modern apple itself. ---------- In Sponsorship with J&K Fresh. The customs broker who is your fruit and veggies’ personal bodyguard. Learn more here ! ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friends Give a 5-star rating Write a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffreshproduce Email: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

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  Episode #199

  Death by Produce

  Sep 21, 202639 min

  Why did the Suda insist a Greek comic playwright died after being struck by a pear? How did the Emperor Augustus's own precautions against poison get defeated by figs still hanging on the tree? And why could sixteenth-century chroniclers not agree whether a King of England was killed by apples, pears, plums, peaches, or simply overeating? Join John and Patrick as they trawl through history's long and stranger-than-it-sounds relationship with fatal fruit and veg — from poets choked on grapes at Greek symposia and a Roman prince's fatal party trick, to a 99-year-old man killed by a falling coconut, a watermelon-eating contest that ended in tragedy in Brazil last December, and a devastating public health mystery in India that took decades to unravel. --------- In Sponsorship with Cornell University: Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friends Give a 5-star rating Write a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffreshproduce Email: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

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  Episode #198

  The History of Quinoa

  Sep 14, 202659 min

  How did a plant that Victorian botanists dismissed as something you'd find growing on a rubbish heap become the sacred mother grain of the Inca Empire — and how did the Spanish nearly stamp it out of existence by banning it as a religious act? Why did quinoa's spectacular twenty-first century success on global markets cause farming communities who had grown it for seven thousand years to start eating less of it? And, what exactly is the "quinoa paradox"? Join John and Patrick as they tell the story of quinoa — from the shores of Lake Titicaca to the UN General Assembly, via a golden digging stick, four centuries of colonial suppression, and a UN resolution... ---------- In Sponsorship with J&K Fresh. The customs broker who is your fruit and veggies’ personal bodyguard. Learn more here ! ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friends Give a 5-star rating Write a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffreshproduce Email: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

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  Episode #197

  Finland's Great Hunger: The Last Famine of Western Europe

  Sep 7, 202644 min

  How did a single night's frost in September 1867 kill nearly one tenth of Finland's population — proportionally worse than the Irish Famine — and why has almost nobody heard of it? Why did a philosopher-turned-finance-minister's obsession with protecting a brand-new currency cost tens of thousands of lives? And, how did the very people who mismanaged the catastrophe end up writing its history? Join John and Patrick as they tell the story of the Great Finnish Hunger Years — the Frost Night, the coffins, and the national amnesia that followed... ---------- In Sponsorship with Cornell University: Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friends Give a 5-star rating Write a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffreshproduce Email: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

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  Episode #196

  The History of Watermelons

  Aug 31, 202636 min

  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 electrifying their patches with lethal intent, and causing over a hundred and sixty of them to spontaneously explode in rural China? Why did Mark Twain call the watermelon "the king by grace of God over all the fruits of the earth"? And, what does a kinkajou locked in a Florida bathroom have to do with any of this? Join John and Patrick as they tell the 5,000-year history of the watermelon — from Tutankhamun's tomb to the Watermelon War of 1856, via a prison ship, a poisoned patch, and one very angry nocturnal mammal... ---------- In Sponsorship with J&K Fresh. The customs broker who is your fruit and veggies’ personal bodyguard. Learn more here ! ----------- Join the History of Fresh Produce Club for ad-free listening, bonus episodes, book discounts and access to an exclusive chatroom community. Support us! Share this episode with your friends Give a 5-star rating Write a review ----------- Subscribe to our biweekly newsletter here for extra stories related to recent episodes, book recommendations, a sneak peek of upcoming episodes and more. ----------- Instagram, TikTok, Threads: @historyoffreshproduce Email: historyoffreshproduce@gmail.com

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