Food plants through the ages (exhibition)
Exhibition September 2020
In September, our working group and the Wuppertal Botanical Garden presented the history of food plants in the Glass House on Elisenplatz as part of the exhibition 'Food plants through the ages'. The exhibition was designed by biology students as part of a teaching project.
Many cultivated plants originate from Mesopotamia, where agriculture and agricultural techniques were first developed around 9,000 BC. These plants, as well as the knowledge and techniques, spread across many parts of the world through migration. Other food plants originated in America (e.g. green beans and potatoes) or Asia (e.g. cucumbers).
Unfortunately, even a cold beer is not a German invention. Chance probably played a major role at the beginning. Several thousand years ago, someone in Mesopotamia left cereal porridge (which was the staple food at the time) to go off. It had fermented in the meantime and therefore tasted better than before. Cheers!
