Believe it or not, red, green, yellow and orange bell peppers are all the same type of pepper, just at different stages of ripeness. Red peppers pack the most nutrition because they've been on the vine longest. Green peppers are harvested earliest, before they have a chance to turn yellow, orange, and then red. Compared to green bell peppers, the red ones have almost 11 times more beta-carotene and 1.5 times more vitamin C.

In October 1995, NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison collaborated to grow the first vegetable in space when astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia tested seed potato production in its Astroculture plant growth facility.

Compared to sweet potatoes, yams can grow very large--up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) and 132 pounds (60 kgs). Their rough, bark-like skin is difficult to peel, but it softens after heating. They are also less sweet and much more starchy and dry.

The modern day carrot wasn't cultivated until Dutch growers in the late 16th century took mutant strains of the purple carrot and gradually developed them into the sweet, plump, orange variety we have today.

The first Jack-o-Lanterns were made in Ireland out of hollowed-out turnips. A piece of coal was inserted into the hollow and the "lantern" was meant to guide the way of poor old Jack who wasn't welcome in Heaven but was also barred from entering Hell for tricking the devil. According to legend, the devil gave this crude lamp to Jack so that he could walk the earth forever in limbo. When the Irish brought this tradition to America, they apparently decided that pumpkins were easier to carve than turnips, and the modern-day Jack-o-Lantern was born!

A negative-calorie food supposedly requires more energy to be digested than the food provides. Its thermic effect--the caloric "cost" of digesting the food--would be greater than its food energy content. Despite its recurring popularity in dieting guides, there is no scientific evidence supporting the idea that any food is calorically negative.

"I do not like broccoli," Bush revealed in 1990, "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."

A potato is about 80% water and 20% solids. The average American eats 137.9 pounds of potatoes each year.

The Inca Indians in Peru were the first to cultivate potatoes around 8,000 BC to 5,000 B.C. In 1536, Spanish Conquistadors conquered Peru, discovered the flavors of the potato, and carried them back to Europe.

In 1887, U.S. tariff laws taxed vegetables, but not fruits. An importer, wanting to cut costs, went to court arguing that their tomatoes were fruits. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which settled the controversy on May 10, 1893, by declaring the tomato a vegetable based on the popular definition--that produce often served with meats or fish is a vegetable. The court did not purport to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purposes.