Here's what 14 of your favorite foods look like before they're harvested

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Former Member

Here's what 14 of your favorite foods look like before they're harvested

Kim Renfro, 7h, November 06, 2017, http://www.thisisinsider.com/f...-peanut-plant-2017-4

Banana plant before harvest and in the grocery store Shutterstock/Christopher Furlong/Getty

Reddit is an incredible home to interesting pictures, whether it's sprouting strawberries or mesmerizing "pixelated" avocados.

So it was no surprise that when Redditor JavaReallySucks shared an album of interesting photos that showed food before it was harvested, people couldn't get enough. INSIDER was even inspired to do our own research into how certain foods are grown and harvested.

Keep reading for a look at these fascinating crops and wild plants.

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Former Member

You may have thought pineapples grew on trees, but they actually live on bushes until it's harvesting time.

Here's a whole field of pineapple plants, each with their own fruit.

11/6/175:07 PM

Former Member

Asparagus grows from a bulb that's planted in a field.

Here's a bunch that's been uprooted and is ready for eating (after it's trimmed and cleaned).

11/6/175:07 PM

Former Member

These fuzzy little pods are unripe almonds.

The green pods eventually dry out and crack open on the tree branch, revealing the almond nut inside.

11/6/175:08 PM

Former Member

Almonds are instantly recognizable once they've been shelled.

11/6/175:09 PM

Former Member

Another popular tree nut is the pistachio. These pink blooms will soon give way to the notoriously tough shell.

You can still see traces of the pinkish-red bloom on the meat of the pistachio after it has been picked and dried.

11/6/175:09 PM

Former Member

Another bizarre tree nut is the cashew. The actual nut grows on the bottom of a fruit, called the "cashew apple."

Cashews are removed from their fruit for the harvest. The "cashew apple" is often juiced and sold in concentrated form.

Source: Quora

11/6/175:10 PM

Former Member

This is a peanut field. Peanuts are legumes, which means they're different from their tree-nut friends.

The part of the peanut we eat is the plants' seed — which is uncovered once you dig up the plant.

11/6/175:11 PM

Former Member

It can take up to 160 days for peanuts to grow underground before they're ready for eating.

11/6/175:12 PM

Former Member

Let's take a look at some spices now. Ever wonder why saffron is so expensive? That's because it's harvested from the center of crocus flowers.

Saffron threads are really the stigma part of the flower, and need to be handled delicately during the picking process.

11/6/175:13 PM

Former Member

Saffron is usually sold by weight, with just a few threads packaged into glass bottles.

Source: CNN

11/6/175:13 PM

Former Member

This vine plant looks almost exactly like wild string beans ...

... but it's really a fresh vanilla orchid plant. The green pods are harvested and then dried out.

11/6/175:14 PM

Former Member

Vanilla bean pods are dried until brown, and the sliced open and scraped to reveal the vanilla "paste" inside (which is really just a ton of little seeds).

11/6/175:14 PM

Former Member

This is what a sesame plant looks like.

The little pods hold sesame seeds (either black or white) which are harvested and used whole or processed into sesame oil.

11/6/175:15 PM

Former Member

One of the most common spices is pepper — which grows in little berry clusters on these plants.

Here's a closer look at fresh pepper.

11/6/175:16 PM

Former Member

Depending on which species of the pepper plant is growing, the berries can be red or green.

11/6/175:16 PM

Former Member

The individual berries are picked and dried out to make peppercorns.

11/6/175:17 PM

Former Member

This one may have been obvious, but did you know that cinnamon sticks are just dried tree bark?

This is a close-up look at the trunk of a cinnamon tree, where the bark has been shaved into sticks.

11/6/175:18 PM

Former Member

When you see a ton of cinnamon together, it just looks like wood shavings.

11/6/175:18 PM

Former Member

This is the flower on a banana tree, which grows tons of little bananas from its stem.

11/6/175:19 PM

Former Member

Once they reach the ideal size, bananas are often harvested when they're still green.

11/6/175:19 PM

Former Member

They are then separated into smaller bunches and ripened before they're sold in grocery stores.

11/6/175:20 PM

Former Member

Another funny tree fruit is the kiwi. These little green fruits aren't ripe yet, hence their extreme green coloring.

The kiwi trees resemble grape vines, with dozens of fruits hanging from their branches.

11/6/175:21 PM

Former Member

Last but not least, we have the humble Brussels sprout stalk. The little cabbage buds grow on an upright stalk that has a large bloom at the top.

11/6/175:21 PM

Former Member

Usually each sprout is cut off and sold in a grocery store individually, though some markets sell whole stalks together.

11/6/175:22 PM

Former Member

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