Many fruits and vegetables have grown in the wild for thousands of years.
People gathered and ate the wild fruits and vegetables.
About 11 000 years ago people began to plant the fruit and vegetable seeds.
Farmers experimented and grew new kinds of the fruits and vegetables.
What is the difference between fruit and vegetables?
According to The Macquarie Dictionary a vegetable is any plant whose seeds, leaves, stems, roots or tubers are used for food.
A fruit is the edible part of a plant that develops from a flower.
Where the fruits we eat came from
Fruits and vegetables found growing in one part of the world were taken by explorers and traders to many other parts of the world.
Pineapples grew first in Brazil © Getty Images
It is believed that explorer, Christopher Columbus, took pineapples to Spain from South America in the late 1400s. Pineapples are native to Brazil.
Peaches were grown in China thousands of years ago
In China, apricots were grown 4000 years ago and peaches over 2000 years ago.
Avocado is a fruit that is native to South America © Getty Images
The avocado is native to South America.
It is not known for certain where the lemon originated but India, Burma and southern China are the most likely places.
Greece is one country where olives first grew.
Pears grew wild in Britain.
Where the vegetables we eat came from
Can you name all the vegetables in this photo? ©Getty Images
Cauliflowers come from China, where they were about the size of a cricket ball.
Carrots are one of the world's most popular vegetables. But did you know that until about the 1600s carrots were purple? The orange ones were grown in Holland and sold to other countries in the 1600s and 1700s.
Green beans were grown in North and South America.
The slaves who built the pyramids in Egypt ate garlic and onions. © Getty images
Onions were grown in the Middle East thousands of years ago and slaves, building the pyramids in ancient Egypt (about 4000 years ago) ate onions, garlic and radishes.
The ancient Greeks cooked and ate wild asparagus about 2500 years ago.
The Romans grew parsnips and used them into stews and soup in Italy about 2300 years ago.
Potatoes originated in South America and were taken to England and Europe by explorer Sir Francis Drake in the 1500s. At first people in England and Europe didn't eat the potatoes, they just grew the plant because they thought it looked pretty!
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Tomatoes grow on a vine. They came first from South America. © Getty Images
Spinach was first grown in Persia, which is now called Iran, at least 2000 years ago.
Sweet corn was given to explorer Christopher Columbus by the people of Cuba in the 1492. He took the plant back to Spain.
Tomatoes come from South America and Spanish explorers took them to Europe in the 1500s.
