Fruit from the Sands: The Silk Road Origins of the Foods We Eat

The foods we eat have a deep and often surprising past. Many foods we consume today-from almonds and apples to tea and rice-have histories that can be traced along the tracks of the Silk Road, out of prehistoric Central Asia to European kitchens and American tables. Organized trade along the Silk Road dates to at least Han Dynasty China in the second century B.C., but the exchange of goods, ideas, cultural practices, and genes along these ancient trading routes extends back five thousand ye...