Have you ever eaten a
flo er? You va if you've
eaten broccoli. The gf , fluffy
part of broccoli Is really a very
young fl r.
n
FOod is full of surprises.
When you eat a peanut, you
may think you're eating nut.
But you aren't. A pe nut Is a
bean, not a nut. The plant that a
peanut gro s on is a lot like the
plants that lima beans or peas
gro on.
P r Fruit
There are other foods that
aren't hat you think they
ou Id be. Take fru its. You kno
at oranges and apples are
ruits. B4t did you kno that
tomatoes, squash, pumpkins,
peppers, and eggplants are
also fruits? A fruit is the part of
a plant that protects the seeds.
Look inside a tomato and you
If you ere going to rna e
soap, hat would you make it
out of? What ould you use to
make ink? Would you think of
making these things out of
peanuts? George Washington
Carver did. He found a ay to
make 300 different things from
peanuts. He also found hun-
reds of uses for s eet pota­
oes and other plants.
Why did Carver make all
these things from plants?
Carver as a plant cientist at
Tuskeegee Institute, a school in
Alabama, from 1896 to 1943. At
that time many farmers in the
South ere going through bad
times. They had gro n cotton
for years, and gro ing cotton
wears 0 t the soil. Carver kne
that plants like peanuts and
sweet potatoes ould make the
soil stronger again. He anted
to get t e farmers to gro these
crops instead of just cotton.
P n t I
Carver k it would not be
easy to get the farmers to change
Potato In R-"'�'"
Then there is the potato.
Potatoes come from under the
ground. But they are not part of
the potato plant's roots. (The
roots of a plant are usually
underground.) Potatoes are a
part of the stem. (The stem of a
plant is usually aboveground.)
. The part of the potato plant that
e eat Is called a tuber. A tuber
is a special underground stem
that stores food for the hole
plant. Other tubers are sweet
potatoes and yams,
Frult·o'·1 nt m
You ouldn't think that an
everyday thing like food could
be so full of surprises. But it is.
Think about the surprises the �
next time you eat a "bean but-
ter" sandwich or make a
jack-o'-lantern out of a fruit.
ill see the seeds that the
tomato protects.
a
e Plan
their ays. After all, cotton could
be used in many ways. Sails,
rope, and clothes of all kinds
could be made from cotton. What
could the farmers make out of
peanuts besides peanuts? Carver
worked and worf(ed. Then 0 e
day he asked some farmers to
come to dinner. The tab e was full
of good things to eat-soup,
meat, drinks, pie. At the end of
the meal, Carver: told the far -
ers that all the food had been
made out of peanuts. Even what
looked like and tasted like meat
as really peanuts. After that
night the farmers kne that the
new crops like peanuts could
be used in even more ways than'
cotton could. Soon more and
more farmers changed to Car­
ver's crops.
Carver was one of America's
great scientists. He changed the
ay the South farmed. 0 one
else has ever found so many
ays to use plants. Because of
his ark, Carver became famous
all over the wood.
.�
eGoo
o
Pea
A
•
e ca
We think of peanuts as an
American food. But actually
they are a very important food
all over the world. Africa grows
and uses a lot of peanuts. So do
China and India. If you visited
NiQeria, a West African country,
you would eat many foods with
peanuts in them. In fact, Africa
a�d Asia gro about four fifths
of the world's: peanuts.
1,000 Ye rs Old
The United. States as not
the first ptaceto grow peanuts.
Pean s started out in South
America. People there gre
them at least 1,000 years ago.
I n fact, peanuts ere not
brought to the United States un­
til a few hundred years ago.
'..__.. .. -nt
At first people in the United
States did not think peanuts
were an important food for peo­
ple. They just fed them to the
farm animals! But during the
,Civil War (1861-1865), more
people began to gro and eat
peanuts. Peanuts bee me very
important around 1917. One of
the people ho lped ma e
peanuts important as George
Washington Carver.
Good for Y
. Today e kno that peanuts
are a good food. They taste
good, and they are also ood �
for you-a lot bet 8 than
potato chips or coo ir". or ca e.
So enjoy that peanut but er
.sand ich. nd hen you eat
peanuts, remember that you are
eating a great American­
Chinese- frican-Indian food!