Agriculture Science: What fruits are your favourite?

Whats this? Its litchi, is it loverly? very delicious! very sweet!

Its very difficult to keep fresh after pick off from trees in the past, so most of us hardly eat it. but now, tech is developing and most of us chinese can enjoy it easily. But do remember, dont eat too much at a time!

Speaking of li-tchi! Once, when I was "speaking" online with a Chinese friend whose family name was Lee (his American spelling), Lee was explaining the "historic" meaning of the pictograph for his family name. The story goes, he says, that his ancestors long ago found themselves, in time of war, forced to leave their home and hide from the enemy in a forest. With no food, and facing starvation, it was their good fortune to find a litchi tree to hide under, and to obtain food enough to stay alive until the war, and the danger, had come to an end. To honor the tree for saving them, the family adopted the Li tree name as their family name and, to this day, the historic word for their family name is the pictograph of the tree.

If I can find the pictograph file, I will try to post it....later.

haha, its a wonderful story, but the tree is not litchi but Plum tree. he may make a mistake.

Litchi tree grow in south china, only Plum tree grow our north china. some story describes that Li had ever taken sanctuary under the plum tree not litchi tree. in the ancientry, north china hardly eat the litchi only today can enjoy.

Thank you for correcting. Here was the friend's name, I think it was the first word, 李 , that means the family name (Lee in English).

李立中

yes, you are right, Li in chinese pronunciation and Lee in English writing.

There are many Li pronunciation in chinese surname, but different words. so people like to say "mu zi Li" (wood son) to distinguish other words.

there are lots of population in this name in China.

chinese surname is very interesting in China.

Watermelon was planted scince ancient in China. We call it "xigua", means western melon, because it was planted in Xinjiang at the time, where is located in the west of China.

Its very sweet, i like it very much.

When I was once abroad years ago, I saw a stall offering this melon, I bought several, it seems we still in our homeland.

But I felt its not as same sweet as ours, ah, I had a homesick feeling at the time suddenly.

Do you like these? apricot and

This was drawed two month ago. I post again. I hope that as an engineer we'd better discuss tech, not too much political.

I like this picture, may its green, peaceful, comfortable,easeful.

sorry I should put this pic at another place instead of here.

We pick wild blackberries in the UK in Autumn and make Blackberry pie...(or Blackberry & apple pie)

Going out and picking them is half the fun. They taste much better than the cultivated ones.

Picking them is a metaphor for life...you think the biggest and best are out of reach, but often if you struggle to get them you find they are too big and not so tasty as those which were right in front of you all the time!...(or am I too fanciful!)

Rhubarb is nice too, don't know if you'd call it a fruit?

I've just picked some strawberries from our garden.

I'm all for wild blueberries..

IS VERY EXTENSIVE: WHEN YOU GO TO A RESTAURANT YOU CANNOT CHOOSE BY THE VARIETY - PERU (Wikymedia)

Peruvian cuisine is usually considered one of the most diverse in the world and is on par with French, Chinese and Indian cuisine. In January 2004, The Economist said that "Peru can lay claim to one of the world's dozen or so great cuisines", while at the Fourth International Summit of Gastronomy Madrid Fusión 2006, regarded as the world's most important gastronomic forum, held in Spain between January 17th and 19th, Lima was declared the "Gastronomic Capital of the Americas".

Thanks to its pre-Inca and Inca heritage and to Spanish, Basque, African, Sino-Cantonese, Japanese and finally Italian, French and Britain immigration (mainly throughout the 19th century), Peruvian cuisine combines the flavors of four continents. With the eclectic variety of traditional dishes, the Peruvian culinary arts are in constant evolution, and impossible to list in their entirety. Suffice it to mention that along the Peruvian coast alone there are more than two thousand different types of soups, and that there are more than 250 traditional desserts.

There are many restaurants specializing in Peruvian cuisine in many different cities throughout the world.

The great variety in Peruvian cuisine stems from three major influences:

· Peru's unique geography, 84 of the 104 possible life zones according to Holdridge

· Peru's openness and blending of distinct races and cultures

· The incorporation of ancient cuisine into modern Peruvian cuisine

· Peru is considered an important center for the genetic diversity of the world's crops:

o Maize (aka corn), 35 varieties

o Tomatoes, 15 species

o Potatoes, 4000 varieties. The World Center of Investigations of the potato (CIP) that is devoted to the investigation and genetic conservation of the potato, is located in Lima, Peru.

o Sweet potatoes, 2016 varieties

o Fish, 2000 species of fish, both freshwater and saltwater (more than any other country on Earth)

o Fruit, 650 native species

It is also famed for its large number of species of bananas. The variety of climate itself can provide for the bringing of fruits from all the world. From Peru, the Spanish brought back to Europe foods which would become staples for many peoples around the world.

Peruvian Mango, Lucuma.

o Potatoes: Potatoes, originally from Peru, were considered livestock feed in Europe until French chemist Antoine-Augustin Parmentier began serving dishes made from the tubers at his lavish banquets. His guests were immediately convinced that potatoes were fit for human consumption. Parmentier's introduction of the potato is still discussed in Europe today.

o Maize: Maize is native to all of Central and South America.

o Tomatoes: Tomatoes were introduced to Europe from Latin America.

o and many other food products.

Strawberries are my all-time favorite fruit! Good on ice cream, good in jam, good in a bowl with sugar and cream, but best of all picked from the plant and popped immediately into the mouth. Wow! Strawberries...

why dont you take a photo and post here, so that we can all enjoy them which grow in the world.

I think there may be lots of fruits we havnt seen in our own region or your region as well.

It seems only me enjoy eating fruit at leisure time. I wonder what do you do when you are free? only go to theater to listen to hits pop music?

cnpower -

If I have just a little bit of free time, I like to take my dog for a walk, or sit in the garden with a glass of wine, or read Science News magazine.

If I have more time, I go out to dinner with friends, or go to a play, or read a good novel.

If I have a whole weekend free, it's time for a road trip! I enjoy seeing new places.

Hi, AstroNut,

It seems typically your american action seeing on TV or movies.

From your president to ordinary people, it seems everone has a dog? and read in a garden or drink wine. peaceful idylic. ha

May its cultrual different from different countries.

Our chinese ordinary people like eat. our loverly lady and children alway sock in theater, in family in chatting, even walking, this is reflected in chinese movie scene.

I wonder, except play and read and wine, your american dont like fruits, even in friends party? Isnt america apple very good look and good to eat?

and most of chinese, especially in south china, like to spend their leisure time at tea shop. enjoy drinking tea, chatting, comfort. different culture.

Hello, cnpower!

Americans do enjoy eating fresh fruit, but we do not consider this a "leisure activity" - eating fruit is simply part of a meal.

In any American grocery store you will find a wide variety of fruits all year round. In winter most fruit is imported, but in season we have a huge variety of local fruits. Foreigners are often impressed with our many types of fresh melons. It seems they are much less expensive here than in other countries, perhaps because we have more open land to grow them.

In my garden the rhubarb and strawberries are finished for the year and the apples and raspberries are not ripe yet, but this weekend we bought some beautiful Mexican limes and made a pie. We also have bananas in the house, and in our freezer we have rhubarb, cherries, and cranberries. Yes, we Americans really do enjoy our fruit!

Thats right. I was told your western, especially younger lady has helped only fresh fruit as their main meal to keep slim. They eat less corn. we all suprised at it before. but now most of chinese girl begine to learn it. I dont think its a good action to keep health. However, health is the first.

Speaking to banana, I bought for our "Duan Wu" festival yesterday, ours is not as good as from Philipines, but it still sweet and good to eat.

Today will be celebrated by oversea chinese living in chinese town in your time zone. This is our traditional festival, we and most of east asian eat " zongzi" on the day.

strawberry begin to plant largely in our country and export to your country, I like it color and outline very much, but I dont like to eat it, because I feel to seem eatting sands.

our banana is not as good as philipine's, but its still sweet.

Try bananas from Central America. They'll knock you out!!!

There are a lot of fruit this is going extinct because no one cultivates it any longer. So, there are people that collect "antique seeds" plant them and tend what are called "antique plants." Some people believe it's good to keep these species around just for the sake of diversity.

I don't have a fruit for you yet , but you may like this story ;

April Fools day *(April 1st each year) is a special day in Western culture. It's a continuation of medieval religious festivals. People play tricks on each other to see if they can fool somebody into believing something silly.

In the 1970's people in UK were not all that familiar with non-UK foods. A well known news programmed played a great trick . They ran a false news story about Spaghetti (you will probably know it's just long strings of pasta , a bit like noodles). The story claimed it grew on trees , and that the Italian Spaghetti crop had failed ! They even made up film of sad looking Italians collecting strands of Spaghetti off trees. A huge number of people believed it. It may sound a bit cruel , but it was very very funny. Most older UK people will know the Joke.

*It has different names. I think it's 'Poisson d'Avril' in France (which means April Fish - they try to pin a paper fish on each others back I'm told)

I like Avocado best , but we have to import them because of the climate.