Prehistoric fruits and vegetables.

[just t]

Heya guys and girls,

Basically im wondering which of the fruits and vegetables available today were around in the Paleo era. Obviously large amounts of the "natural" food we eat has been modified both by nature and our own tampering during the past 10k. The modern potato wouldnt have been around during Paleo times would it? Apples and oranges etc i imagine are very different to their wild pre agriculture counterparts? Which fruits and veggies can we consider to be "true" to form?


cheers,
T

[goodsamaritan]

I would tend to hypothesize, which fruits and which vegetables survived the great floods that swept almost the entire earth.  These great floods may have happened not just once, maybe twice.  Maybe 14,000 years ago??? and then again 6,000 years ago???

I would bet it may have been easier for fruits to have survived.

Maybe a whole bunch of land animals were decimated.  Maybe more sea creatures survived.

Any cave painting observers here see cave fruit paintings?

I'd probably try asking a fruitarian and vegan board and try to pick their brains on this one and bring the answer over here.

[RawZi]

    I have no idea, but I've been in uncultivated areas and found fruit like oranges loaded with so many seeds, other fruit juicy and fragrant but such thin skin, I tend to believe fruit was quite different when we didn't manipulate it at all.

[goodsamaritan]

When I was doing fruitarian, the fruitarian theorists wrote that humans and other animals have a symbiotic relationship with fruit.  Fruit is a method of plant reproduction.  Plants / trees offer their fruits to animals and animals assist in spreading their seeds via their poop.

So you could imagine many many years of this symbiotic relationship with fruits enhancing humans and animals and the best fruits being propagated.

And if I know that my ancestors are as smart as we are today, I'd spread the seeds of fruit I love.

It is theorized that under a binary star system, of the past, fruits were more abundant than today.  Although in our tropical climate where I live, we have abundant fruits already.  Bananas, coconuts, papayas, fruit trees in season that grow wild like "star apple" and "indian mangoes". 

A wise herbalist taught me to always eat the fruit in season.  They are the most nutritious at that time.  In our country, every month has some new fruit in season besides the all season fruits.

[primaD]

I have no idea, but I've been in uncultivated areas and found fruit like oranges loaded with so many seeds, other fruit juicy and fragrant but such thin skin, I tend to believe fruit was quite different when we didn't manipulate it at all.

For me, the question is "how do we get back to this?"  I plan on starting a farm in PI whenever I retire and I wonder also.  I know I can go and buy some seeds and plant them and start my farm this way but how do I get back to having fruits/vegetables in their "true" manipulated form?  Maybe I should go to different places that have wild "natural" fruits, collect the seeds, and see if I can get them to grow on my farm...