Food in the Bible; Fruit
When I went to start writing this I was originally going to do the spiritual part of Fruit of the spirit, but we've been food literal up to this post, so why change now? This food in the bible series has started to bring me clarity on where I wanted to start taking Flavor Imperium. I was feeling pretty stagnant for a while when it came to inspiration in way of growth. I'll be using this winter season to start digging into Flavor Imperium for a long-term plan. That aside, now we're going to get into the fruit in the Bible.
Grapes were extremely prominent in historical times. Grape production in the entire world completely surpasses the popularity of bananas, oranges, and even apples. Annually, the world grows roughly 72 million tomes of grapes. Evidence suggests humans began growing grapes early as 6500 BC, or the Neolithic Era. 1500 years later, grapes had extended throughout entire Asia and the Nile. Babylon's King Hammurabi may have been the first liquor law enactor when he devised regulation in wine trading in 1700 BC. From the Hittites in Crete, Bosporus, and Trace, they spread grapes, along with the Greeks and Phoenicians extending grapes to Carthage, Sicily, Spain, and France. Romans then finished off Europe in grape exposure. Today, we have many varieties of grapes. Two below that are popular are Concord Grapes and the extremely popular cotton candy grapes. Concord grapes, used for juices, jellies, jams, baking, and are also eaten as table grapes. They're also packed with nutrients and high in flavonoid antioxidants that offer anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and heart health benefits. Cotton Candy Grapes are a somewhat recent invention. Created in California in 2011. Known for its sweetness and extreme Similarity to the actual cotton candy confection. To read about other types of grapes< I've put a link to a list of other grapes that's an interesting read at the end of the page. Oranges Fun fact, oranges are not in the Bible. They originated in Asia, in what is now Southeast China. India holds a cultivation history lasting at least seven thousand years, while in China, history of the Orange dates back to 2500 BCE. Sweet orange is a hybrid between pomelo (Citrus maxima) and mandarin (citrus reticulata) India and Sri Lankan oranges were likely introduced to
the Roman Empire around 100 BCE Due to the Persian Empire traders. This allowed the Romans to spread oranges across the Mediterranean lands in North Africa. Groves spread to Morocco and Spain from Libya. The Roman decline in the 6th century, saw Islamic rulers closing Mediterranean trade, but an establishment of trade with Middle East countries. Flash forward to Today, 140_ countries produce citrus fruits, especially in the semitropical northern hemisphere. In the United States, California, Arizona, and Texas see the majority of fresh citrus fruit sales.
Apples:
Aside from The USA, which is the second-biggest producer of apples, China is the leader in their production. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and western china are the three theories for the origination of Apples. Silk Road Traders brought apples to Rome and Greece, then the Romans brought apples to the rest of Europe. The written form of the Latin word malum means both "apple" and "evil" Which was used in the fifth century Latin translation of the Bible. This is where the apple reference came from, being the source of evil on Earth.
Bananas: 10,000 years ago, bananas may have been the world's first fruit, if the timing of their origin is correctly calculated. The banana's beginning is thought to have been in the Malaya peninsula, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the New Guinea region. travelers bound for India, Africa, and Polynesia brought bananas with them, showing references to bananas from 600 BC in Buddhist scriptures. One of the reasons we eat bananas is their nutrient richness. "They're one of the most nutritious of all foods. It has carbs, potassium, vitamin B6, and B group Vitamins, vitamin C, dietary fiber, and antioxidants. They also
don't have fat, cholesterol, or salt." (courtesy of abgc.org.au, link below) Purdue University's Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture's Jules Janick put out an article (found here) about Fruits in the Bible that I enjoyed reading. It was a really good article, I highly recommend reading it. Olives
Olives are classified as a fruit. Did you know that? I didn't. They were and still are very prominent in biblical geography and culture as they are now. Olives are documented as far back as 10,000 BCE. But they weren't cultivated until about 4,000 BCE in Asia Minor. Though the Babylonians and Assyrians didn't use olives, (they used sesame and walnut for their oil sources) olives were already very utilized in Syria and Israel. Egypt was introduced to the olive between 3,000 BCE and 1600 BCE. Some of the same uses for olive oil in biblical times also use that we use olives and their oil for now. Cooking, in dressings, its popularity in culinary oil preference, (especially in the Mediterranean area) are the same things we see out of Olive oil now. Historians aren't sure how, but humans realized these small bitter fruits, that were close to inedible and slightly poisonous could become a food source via soaking and fermenting them. From there we progressively bred olive plants to the ones with high oil content and larger sizes that we know now. Another interesting fact about olives is that they (along with grapes) are the most mentioned fruit in the old testament. Olives are extremely prominent in the Mediterranean diet as well as the actual area itself. It's heart-healthy and is loaded with unsaturated fatty acids. But we can get into that more later. Pomegranate The Latin name for Pomegranate is Punica. It was once known as the apple of Carthage. Pomegranates are native to Iran and North-East Turkey. Egypt's produce section expanded with the pomegranate, courtesy of Syria, in
1600 BCE. Semitic people (Hyksos) brought them into Egypt. Thank you so much for learning about biblical age fruits and their stories with me! The next blog installment will be about herbs and spices to finish up our Food in the Bible series :) Grapes: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/types-of-grapes#The-bottom-line Oranges: Information found on https://www.chronicleonline.com/news/real_estate/chronological-history-of-oranges/article_b286ddb0-323d-11ea-ba19-87844ed6577c.html#:~:text=Oranges%20originated%20in%20Asia%20in,and%20mandarin%20(Citrus%20reticulata). Apples: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/52587/short-history-apple Bananas: https://abgc.org.au/our-industry/history-of-bananas/#:~:text=Bananas%20are%20believed%20to%20have,the%20Philippines%20and%20New%20Guinea.