First book of 2020: Seeds, home by Thor Hanson 🌰📚
It all starts with a seed. It's a wonder how something we eat was once just as small as a fingernail.
The grocery store provides us with bounties of fruits and vegetables - as if it was done effortlessly. We take that availability of food for granted everyday.
In my opinion, the pandemic has shown us how much we take that "readily available" food for granted. When it's not there we are aware of how powerful food is in our world. This book introduces us to the evolution of seeds and how they changed over time. At one point in history they dominated our world and caused wars.
This is not everyone’s cup of tea but for me - it was very interesting.
Seed Storage
Can seeds really be kept for a long time in storage?
They found dormancy to be a great mystery once upon a time. How it preserved itself for so long without dying. We are told that seeds can "expire" after a couple years - but yet they discovered when preserved correctly they could regrow even years later.
By dormancy, they mean how a 2,000 year old seed sprouted after even to this day.
Peppers Mild or Spicy
Were peppers always spicy?
They discovered that all peppers were mild at in the beginning and evolved to be spicy - this was done by high rainfall and an evolutionary necessity to ward off an attacker.
Not all animals can taste heat, such as birds!
They were in fact the main reason why the pepper was spread around the world. When the birds eat the fruit the seeds aren't harmed though their digestive systems and are pooped out into the world.
Still More Information to Come
I won’t spill too much more information but that’s just some of the things that this book offered and I believe it was worth the read.
It gave me a whole new perspective of how I view seeds and how seeds are everywhere in our lives. Whether we recognize it or not, like that coffee you drink everyday.. came from a seed. ☕️