WEBVTT - Where Do Baby Vegetables Come From?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff, the production of I Heart Radio, Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren bol obam here. From baby carrots to microgreens,

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<v Speaker 1>we humans are enamored of tiny vegetables. But then we

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<v Speaker 1>have a long history of fascination with things of diminutive scale,

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<v Speaker 1>from Egyptian tomb artisans to modern miniacs, that is, people

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<v Speaker 1>who make, collect or appreciate tiny versions of everyday objects.

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<v Speaker 1>There's evidence dating back to the third millennium BC of

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<v Speaker 1>Egyptian tombs outfitted with dinky models of livestock, boats and

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<v Speaker 1>furniture in an effort to ensure a comfy afterlife. By

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<v Speaker 1>the fourteen hundreds, miniature portraits had become all the rage,

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<v Speaker 1>with painters creating images around just three inches or seven

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<v Speaker 1>centimeters wide, and in the sixteen hundreds, German dollhouses complete

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<v Speaker 1>with pots and pans, became popular as informative playthings, an

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<v Speaker 1>idea that bloomed in the seventeen hundreds as wealthy English

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<v Speaker 1>families commissioned itty bitty replicas of their own homes outfitted

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<v Speaker 1>with itty bitty family heirlooms. Somewhere along the way, our

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<v Speaker 1>fascination with things in miniature came to include Etsy bitsy

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<v Speaker 1>vegetables too. The aforementioned baby carrots and microgreen's yes, along

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<v Speaker 1>with baby corn and similarly infantilized squash, are all commonplace

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<v Speaker 1>today everywhere, from fresh produce aisles and frozen meals to

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<v Speaker 1>take out and fancy restaurant fair alike. So why do

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<v Speaker 1>we love baby vegetables? Mary White, a Boston University anthropologist,

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<v Speaker 1>said in an interview with New York Magazine in in

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<v Speaker 1>terms of our psycho emotional relationship to tiny things, I

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<v Speaker 1>think it relates to the way you feel when you're

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<v Speaker 1>in a cathedral. The enormity and intricate detail of the

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<v Speaker 1>space are all inspiring, and humans can experience a flipped

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<v Speaker 1>version of that awe when looking at meticulously reproduced tiny things.

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<v Speaker 1>That something can be that small is a wonder. But

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<v Speaker 1>where do those tiny vegetables come from? It turns out

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<v Speaker 1>a veggie packaged, sold, or served as a baby may

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<v Speaker 1>actually be a young vegetable, or it may not. It's

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<v Speaker 1>also entirely possible that a baby vegetable is a dwarf

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<v Speaker 1>or hybrid version of a full sized vegetable. Take, for example,

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<v Speaker 1>those adorable little ears of corn that show up in

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<v Speaker 1>some of your favorite American Chinese dishes. Baby corn, also

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<v Speaker 1>known as corn letts, truly are just baby ears of

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<v Speaker 1>regular corn. The corn is harvested at an immature stage

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<v Speaker 1>from nearly any variety of regular sized corn plant. Typically

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<v Speaker 1>once an ear designated to be baby corn reaches up

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<v Speaker 1>to four inches that's around ten centimeters in length, and

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<v Speaker 1>it's about half an inch or a little over a

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<v Speaker 1>centimeter in diameter. It's picked from there. It can be

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<v Speaker 1>par cooked, in canned, pickled, or frozen, or sold fresh

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<v Speaker 1>in local markets. Baby back choi is another young vegetable

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<v Speaker 1>that's harvested early for its tender and mild quality. However,

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<v Speaker 1>there are also dwarf varieties of mock baby bok choy

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<v Speaker 1>that have a similar looking taste to their early harvested

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<v Speaker 1>adolescent cousins. Another specially developed varietal led to the debut

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<v Speaker 1>of baby broccoli, also commonly called broccolini in the early nineties.

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<v Speaker 1>This baby veggie is the offspring of regular sized broccoli

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<v Speaker 1>and guy lawn Chinese plant with similar qualities. Broccolini, like

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of vegetable youngsters, is known for its tenderness

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<v Speaker 1>and bite sized presentation. Size can also be determined by

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<v Speaker 1>the way of vegetable has grown. Baby artichokes and regular

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<v Speaker 1>size artichokes come from the same type of plant. They're

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<v Speaker 1>even harvested at the same time. The difference in size

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<v Speaker 1>lies in the fact that the baby version is grown

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<v Speaker 1>in the shade, while the regular version is grown in

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<v Speaker 1>the sun. But what about baby carrots? The name applies

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<v Speaker 1>to two entirely different things. Some baby carrots are harvested

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<v Speaker 1>early to create delicate, finger sized edibles, and a few

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<v Speaker 1>varieties are genetically predisposed to dibunitive size. But some baby

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<v Speaker 1>carrots aren't babies at all. They're chopped door whittled down

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<v Speaker 1>from regular sized carrots. So when did growers start whittling

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<v Speaker 1>carrots down into smooth, skinless, miniature versions of regular carrots.

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<v Speaker 1>The idea is generally credited to a California carrot farmer

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<v Speaker 1>named Mike Urasak, whose operation needed a way to deal

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<v Speaker 1>with the daily loss of four hundred tons of carrots

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<v Speaker 1>that were too misshapen to fit into the bags his

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<v Speaker 1>company used for retail sale. Your sack experimented with peeling

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<v Speaker 1>and shaping a few bags of crooked carrots into a

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<v Speaker 1>baby size and sent them to a customer. A grocery

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<v Speaker 1>chain that almost immediately demanded more. The process was later industrialized,

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<v Speaker 1>using machines to cut, peel, grind, and polish the carrots

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<v Speaker 1>into bite sized form. The advent of the too bite

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<v Speaker 1>perfectly sculpted baby cut carrot grew the United States carrot

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<v Speaker 1>consumption by leaps and bounds. In seven one year after

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<v Speaker 1>they hit the marketplace, people were buying thirty more carrots.

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<v Speaker 1>A decade later, the average American was eating a hundred

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<v Speaker 1>and seventeen percent more carrots than before and estimated fourteen

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<v Speaker 1>pounds that's six and the third kilos per year. By

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<v Speaker 1>the two thousands, the baby carrot had come to dominate

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<v Speaker 1>the fresh cut vegetable category. It's fairly easy to tell

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<v Speaker 1>the difference between a carrot that's naturally small and one

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<v Speaker 1>that's cut larger. Carrots ground down to baby carrot size

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<v Speaker 1>are labeled baby cut, while carrots that have been harvested

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<v Speaker 1>in their infancy are labeled baby carrots. There are about

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<v Speaker 1>fifty different types of vegetables that are grown or imported

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<v Speaker 1>as miniatures in the United States. Baby squash look improbably

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<v Speaker 1>perfect in miniature. They're one or two inch that's two

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<v Speaker 1>and a half to five centimeter round vegetables with scalloped

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<v Speaker 1>edges and delicate green, white or yellow skin. Some are

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<v Speaker 1>harvested so young that their embryonic flowers are still intact,

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<v Speaker 1>decrying a gentle and conscientious picking. Microgreens, the tender, young

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<v Speaker 1>leafy plants that often appear on salad plates, are produced

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<v Speaker 1>year round, and baby lettuces specifically come in a number

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<v Speaker 1>of varieties, from romaine green leaf and iceberg to the

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<v Speaker 1>dark red hue of red royal oak leaf lettuce. Harvested early,

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<v Speaker 1>these greens contain the same nutritional composition as their older counterparts,

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<v Speaker 1>but are known for their tender and delicate nature. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>episode is based on the article so That's where baby

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<v Speaker 1>veggies come from on House to works dot Com, written

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<v Speaker 1>by laure L Dove. Brain Stuff is production of by

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<v Speaker 1>Heart Radio and partnership with how stuff works dot Com,

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<v Speaker 1>and it's produced by Tyler Klein. Four more podcasts from

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