7/84Cost of planting the average 25-by-50-foot American vegetable garden: $25

Link

    Value of the average garden’s yield of fruits and vegetables: $414

Link

11/85Greatest pumpkin ever grown (in pounds): 612

World Pumpkin Federation (Collins, N.Y.)

4/85Total acres in the United States occupied by shopping centers and malls: 59,129

National Research Bureau (Chicago)

    By vegetable gardens: 1,300,000

Gardens for All (Burlington, Vt.) and The Gallup Organization (Princeton, N.J.)

3/86Percentage change, since 1971, in per capita consumption of green peas: -27

National Food Review (U.S. Department of Agriculture)

    Broccoli: +160

National Food Review (U.S. Department of Agriculture)

4/86Rank of Tenderpod Bush Snap beans among all seeds sold by Burpee: 1

W. Atlee Burpee Company (Warminster, Pa.)

4/86Amount the average household spends on fresh vegetables each week: $1.74

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

1/87Percentage of the parsley served in the United States that is thrown out: 90

Rodale’s Organic Gardening magazine (Emmaus, Pa.)

12/87World rank of the Soviet Union’s annual cabbage crop: 1

U.S. Department of Agriculture

12/87Rank of China’s annual cauliflower crop: 1

U.S. Department of Agriculture

9/87Paces at which the crunch of a pickle should be audible, according to Pickle Packers International: 10

Pickle Packers International (St. Charles, Ill.)

7/93Average speed of Heinz ketchup, from the mouth of an upended bottle, in miles per year: 25

Heinz USA (Pittsburgh)

1/94Cups of iceberg lettuce one must consume in order to satisfy the minimum daily requirement of any vitamin: 27.5

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture

    Cups of spinach one must consume in order to satisfy the minimum daily requirement of any vitamin: 1.3

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture

4/94Amount the federal government spent on pickle research last year: $277,000

U.S.D.A. Agricultural Research, Food Science Research Unit (Raleigh, N.C.)

8/94Weight, in pounds, of the biggest kohlrabi ever grown: 62

Bernard Lavery (Spalding, England)

7/95Average number of peas in a pod: 8

Thompson & Morgan (Jackson, N.J.)

10/97Maximum distance, in feet, that a pumpkin has ever been mechanically hurled without the use of explosives: 2,710

Roadhouse Steak Joint (Rehoboth Beach, Del.)

10/98Minimum amount of salsa that USDA regulations allow a public school to offer as a serving of vegetables, in tablespoons: 2

U.S. Department of Agriculture

3/98Maximum ratio of curvature to length allowed a Grade 1 cucumber under the E.U.’s new produce regulations: 1:10

European Commission (N.Y.C)

10/03Chance on any given day that the only “vegetables” served in a U.S. public school are potatoes: 1 in 2

USDA Food and Nutrition Service (Alexandria, Va.)

11/04Distance in feet traveled by the winning pumpkin at Delaware’s Punkin Chunkin Competition last year: 4,434.28

Bruce Bradford (Howell, Mich.)

    Length in feet of the barrel of “The Second Amendment” pumpkin cannon from which it was shot: 150

Bruce Bradford (Howell, Mich.)