Of Brussels sprouts I thought I knew. Yet Qo'noS? Had to look up that one, and then remembered all the worlds I miss as a non-sci-fi fan. Another life. Next, I checked your spelling of the vegetable, and found my own decades of ignorance in calling them Brussel sprouts, clearly overlooking all the correct spellings... until this morning. What a day. And it is still early, and I've only just begun my lessons.

But then there are all the things you know that a country living person would not. It's neat when we can cross over into someone else's domain and challenge ourselves to learn something new. I have had this theory that the brain only has so much room and use that as my reason for not investigating everything, but I know it has a lot more room than I use, and even when old, we can move into realms that are new to us. My father-in-law learned about computers in his 80s.

That's not altogether a bad thing, Ronni. It gives us other things to think about for years to come!

My father would say, time and again, when he grew older, "The more I know, the more I know I don't know." And he was a very smart man. So there you go!

As the daughter of the farmer's daughter I am ashamed -- sorta -- that I had no idea how brussel sprouts grew. They weren't planted in our garden. I don't like/eat them they smell yucky when cooking. I did, however, cook them when they were in season because ex-hubby and darling daughter love them.

My husband had a business trip to China a few years ago. Walking the streets with all the vendors selling their goods he discovered fresh lychee’s. He knew I absolutely LOVE them, so that’s the surprise he brought home to me. (I didn’t know how they grew and had only eaten them from a can.)

There were a few fruits on each branch and then a few branches simply tied together by the vendor with a pretty pink ribbon.

He may as well have brought me the crown jewels, I was so thrilled! Imagine! FRESH lychees direct from the streets of CHINA!!! I’ll never forget that. Ever.

Well, Ronni, it was only a few years ago having a look around a garden that I realized that green beans actually grew out of a flower!. I have always been a city girl, and never really curious about growing things. More of a consumer, I guess ;)
I find it wonderful that there is still so much to learn, so much that we don't know about!

Ronnie that was great, while I had my four year old grandson this weekend I also heard while watching, one of the children programs, anything with seeds is considered a fruit not a vegetable. It has to have leaves to be a vegetable. Wish I could tell you the name of the show..I forgot..however, I was curious have you ever heard that before? It means a cucumber is a fruit among many other things.

Dorothy from grammology

So much to learn....so little time-Thanks, Ronni and gang.

Ronni, my daughter (39) had exactly the same Brussels sprout enlightenment last week when she, too, saw them at her farmer's market on their stalks. "Wow, I never knew they grew like that" she said.
"But you MUST have known," I protested. "I used to grow them, when you were a kid". Then we remembered that because there was no room in our own yard I grew the veggies in back of my sister's house, up the street. So I brought them home already picked. Barbara Kingsolver, in her recent book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle tells how a magazine editor wanted to nix the part of an article where she'd referred to pineapples growing out of the ground. The editor knew that must be wrong because pineapples grow on trees.