31st January: Broccoli

The French Revolutionary Calendar celebrates broccoli on this date. Here are 10 things you might not know about this vegetable:

1. Broccoli belongs to the same species as Cabbage and Cauliflower. It's actually a man-made cultivar of the species Brassica oleracea.
2. The word broccoli comes from the Latin word brachium and the Italian word braccio, which means “arm”.
3. Broccoli originated in Italy off of the Mediterranean. It has been eaten there since the time of the ancient Romans in the 6th Century BC.
4. It was brought to England from Antwerp in the mid-18th century by Flemish sculptor Peter Scheemakers.
5. China and India are the world's biggest producers of broccoli.
6. Broccoli is very good for you. It's an excellent source of Vitamin C and vitamin K as well as the flavonoid kaempferol. Kaempferol is an anti-inflammatory, which helps prevent heart disease, diabetes and cancer.
7. This may explain why broccoli consumption has risen by over 940 percent over the last 25 years!
8. Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of the United States, was a fan of broccoli, importing the seeds from Italy to plant at Monticello. He recorded planting the vegetable there as early as May of 1767.
9. On the other hand, former President George Bush famously doesn't like it, and saw one benefit of being President of the United States as being that he didn't have to eat it if he didn't want to!
10. Presumably Tom “Broccoli” Landers likes it as he holds the current world record for eating 1 pound of broccoli in 92 seconds.