This book is meant to trace the long life stories of the fruits and vegetables we grow within the United States today 1968], where they came from, and, whenever possible, who were the dedicated men and women who developed them into the superior products picked and harvested across out continent in this computerized, jet-propelled age in which we live. - From the Introduction This delightfully original book makes colorful individuals of each of our fruits and vegetables, in character sketches that trace them down through history side by side with man. Apple and orange, pomegranate and dig, papaya, mango and banana, are as adventurous on their travels from land to land, from continent to continent as any Marco Polo or Columbus. Vegetables, too, are not to be outdone So whether one is historian, agronomist, vegetarian, anecdotist, gourmet, or just plain housewife-going-to-market one will be most happily entertained and seriously instructed by these biographic vignettes with their charming illustrations by Frank Aloise. - Leslie Frost (Daughter of Robert Frost)