Most of us will never grow our own food (or even cook it if we can help it). But the increasing distance between farmers and eaters has made us out of touch with the realities of how food actually grows.

For example, are you still confused about why there were cashew and almond shortages in the last few years? Can you even picture them growing, not to mention what it takes to actually get them to mature enough to harvest? Probably not – and you’re not alone.

Even when we do see fresh food in the grocery store it might be far removed from its original form.

It helps to understand our food as much as possible not only so we can appreciate the complexities of feeding a whole society but also because some of it is downright cool.

Here are just 15 of the many foods we were surprised to see “in the wild”:

1. Cashews

Getting cashews into a tin requires dozens of steps, but did you know that simply getting them into nut form was a laborious process as well?

Cashews grow on trees, but not in the way you might think. The cashew nut is actually the bottom part of a cashew apple, the fruit the tree produces. Each fruit produces one cashew.

Not only does the nut have to be pulled from the fruit, but it has to be dried and steamed before being removed from its shell.

Now we know why they’re so expensive!

2. Pineapples

We’ll be honest – we had to research this to make sure it wasn’t Photoshopped the first time we saw it.

Most people envision pineapples growing on trees, but they don’t!

They grow upward from the ground – and this picture proving it is just wild.

3. Cranberries

Cranberries actually grow in large bogs and marshes along with layers of sand, peat, and gravel. It’s basically a pool of cranberries!

These bogs are often flooded to aid in the harvest of the fruits.

Who knew?

4. Asparagus

If you’ve ever seen an asparagus field you might think at first that someone just stuck a bunch of veggies straight into the ground.

We don’t know how we expected these to grow, but one stalk every few inches protruding straight up from the ground wasn’t it.

5. Brussels sprouts

If you’ve been to a farmer’s market, you may have seen an entire stalk of brussels sprouts – but even if you have, don’t you remember being surprised the first time you realized that’s how they grow?

They’re both beautiful and strange.

6. Peanuts

You might know that peanuts aren’t actually nuts (they’re legumes) but did you know they grew underground?

At harvest, the plants are dug up and left in the field to dry for a few days before the peanuts are gathered.

7. Almonds

Almonds grow beneath pretty white flowers on trees.

They’re typically harvested in late summer when the majority of the nut hulls have split open.

It takes about 5 years for an almond tree to start producing nuts, so there’s a lot of labor and patience involved.

8. Cinnamon

If you’ve seen a cinnamon stick, you know it looks like rolled up…something. But that’s actually tree bark. (The spice is the same thing but in powdered form.)

Cinnamon is pretty labor-intensive to harvest because it’s not the outermost layer of bark. To harvest cinnamon, one has to scrape off the first layer before getting to the good stuff.

When it dries, it curls up naturally into those sticks.

9. Saffron

Even a tiny bit of saffron can set you back $15 or $20, but there’s a reason it’s so pricey.

The spice is actually the styles and stigmas of the tiny saffron crocus flower and each little strand needs to be plucked out by hand!

10. Pistachios

We’re starting to understand why some nuts are so expensive – they’re incredibly water-intensive and difficult to grow.

The pistachio, for example, grows on huge 20- to 30-foot trees that don’t start bearing edible nuts for the first 15-20 years of their lives!

11. Artichokes

Artichokes are already curious vegetables and most people don’t even know how to get the edible part out.

But did you know they grow on big stalks that even start to flower if they’re not harvested soon enough?

They also tend to grow at different rates and therefore often have to be judged individually and harvested by hand.

12. Capers

Capers grow on vines, which isn’t necessarily surprising but we’d just never really thought about it to begin with.

They are the unopened buds of the little white flowers you see here.

13. Vanilla

Vanilla beans grow in pods on a specific vining orchid that’s native to Mexico.

You can buy them dried in their pods – in which case you split them open and scrape out the little brown seeds in the center – or you can buy vanilla after it’s been macerated and mixed with water and alcohol to make vanilla extract.

14. Coffee beans

Coffee beans are native to tropical climates and grow inside of little red berries.

The coffee beans are the pits of these berries.

15. Sesame seeds

Sesame seeds grow inside these tiny pods on sesame plants.

The pods are first dried before harvesting so that the seeds can easily be shaken out.

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Which one of these wild food surprises were you the most blown away by?

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Source: Bored Panda, Did You Know? Facts