Celery makes you horny and carrots used to be purple

March 30th, 2012

Did you know…vegetables aren’t always boring!? The eclectic lives of the edible plants vary from those that have changed colours over the centuries, to stems that stimulate sexy hormones. Crikey! There’s a lot more to veges than first meets the mouth!

Carrots

Long story short, the Dutch made carrots orange in the 17th Century in honour of their hero William of Orange. Before then, they were purple and a bit yellowish on the inside. Carrots originated in Afghanistan where purple varieties still grow wild.

Onions

A Volcanoe’s eruption is caused by the same stuff that makes you cry when chopping onions: sulfur. Interestingly, Maui onions – cultivated on volcanic soil – are very sweet because they actually lack sulfur.

Flowers

Flower power: apples are part of the rose family and asparagus is part of the lily family. Cauliflower and broccoli are also flowers.

Broccoli and Bush

One of the more intelligent remarks made by George Bush Senior goes like this:

“I do not like broccoli. And I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.” Shortly afterwards, US broccoli growers sent a 10-ton delivery of the veggie direct to the White House.

Peppers

Red bell peppers (capsicums) are ripe versions of yellow and green peppers. As the veggie matures it develops a more mellow flavour and different nutrients; a red pepper is much sweeter. Red peppers have 11 times the beta carotene of green peppers.

Celery

Celery has androsterone, which is a powerful hormone naturally released through male sweat glands that stimulates sexual arousal in women, according to Delish. It is also great for relieving water retention and is therefore used in arthritis or joint pain treatments.

Thyme

In England, large patches of thyme are planted because it is said that they provide playgrounds for fairies. Fairies!

Lima beans

Avoid cyanide poisoning by making sure Lima beans are thoroughly cooked. Kidney beans also contain a toxin (phytohaemaglutinin), which can cause sickness. The beans need to be boiled for 10 minutes before cooking.

Keri Algar

Having once had to sit on the washing machine to stop it from bouncing into oblivion, Keri is today delighted with the new (smoother running) technologies that make housework easier every day. A self-confessed lazy-bones, Keri seeks out quirky inventions that ease the human workload, such as the robotic vacuum cleaner (wow). And as soon as someone figures out a Jetsons-like self-cleaning house, she will happily lay her pen to rest and retire from appliance journalism. Until then, her pick is a fridge that will tell her smartphone when it's time to pick up more beer on the way home. Magic.