Midwest
10 delicious all-American summertime foods enjoy surprising overseas origins
Americans from sea to shining sea feast on juicy beef burgers dripping with Wisconsin cheddar followed by apple pie or peach cobbler at sun-splashed cookouts each summer.
The more ambitious among us will fuel up for 4th of July road races on Wheaties and fresh-squeezed Florida orange juice.
Every item on that all-American menu has one thing in common.
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Not one of them is made from foods native to the United States — or even to the Western Hemisphere.
Beef, cheese, apples, peaches, oranges and even wheat are among hundreds of common, even iconic, American foods foreign to American soil.
Cheeseburgers are a definitive American food. But neither beef cattle nor dairy cows are native to the Western Hemisphere. They arrived with European explorers in the wake of voyages by Christopher Columbus. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
Credit a man reviled by academics today: Christopher Columbus.
The Genoese explorer, sailing under the Spanish crown, was much better appreciated by earlier and more enlightened generations.
“Traditional foods of billions of living people are the mute documents of a process set in motion by Columbus.”
Columbus inspired global cultural integration more profoundly than any human before or since. He did it all with sextants instead of social-media hashtags touting his devotion to diversity.
“The ostensibly traditional foods of billions of living people are the mute documents of a process set in motion by Columbus,” food historian Raymond Sokolov wrote in “Why We Eat What We Eat: How Columbus Changed the Way the World Eats.”
Rendering of Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas in 1492. Chromo-lithograph by Louis Prang and Company. (Getty Images)
The Columbian Exchange, as its known, went both ways.
Roman emperor Julius Caesar never tasted tomato sauce; Ireland patron St. Patrick never peeled a potato; and French heroine Joan of Arc never cherished chocolate souffle.
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Tomatoes, potatoes and chocolate are all New World natives.
Conversely, many foods we cherish as uniquely American today have surprising worldwide origins.
Here are 10.
1. Apples
Apple pie is the standard by which the American-ness of all things is measured. Johnny Appleseed is treasured as the personification of American bounty.
Apples are considered a barometer of American-ness. But they are native to Central Asia. The first apple orchard in the United States was planted by early settler William Blaxton in the 1630s in Boston, Massachusetts. (iStock)
Apples, however, are native to Central Asia. The Pilgrims themselves celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1621 without apple pie.
The first apple trees were planted 10 years later in Boston by William Blaxton, the city’s first settler.
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The Roxbury russet, possibly descended from Blaxton’s original orchard, and named for a Boston neighborhood, is the oldest varietal in the U.S. today.
2, 3, 4. Butter, cheese, milk
Imagine the Land of Milk & Honey without either.
That was the Americas before Columbus. No delicious metaphor to address your sweet love, no way to taunt the greasy-fingered player who drops the ball.
“There were no dairy products, no milk, no cream, no butter, no cheese (before European exploration).”
No way to celebrate victory at the Brickyard on Memorial Day weekend.
The winner of the Indianapolis 500 celebrates his triumph each year by drinking, and often dousing himself, with milk handed to him by an Indiana dairy farmer.
Marcus Ericsson of Sweden celebrates in Victory Lane by pouring milk on his head after winning the 106th Running of The Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Indiana, May 29, 2022. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
“There were no dairy products, no milk, no cream, no butter, no cheese,” before European exploration, writes Sokolov.
Dairy cows and domesticated livestock arrived only with European exploration. Honey bees, too, are an Old World import.
5, 6, 7. Bacon, barbecue, burgers
Sizzling bacon, smoky pork, beef brisket, and cheddar-coated cheeseburgers form a holy alliance of all-American deliciousness.
But pork and beef are both global imports that followed trans-Atlantic trade. That’s right: New York sirloin, Texas beef ribs and Carolina pulled pork are culturally appropriated.
A giant smoky barbecue beef rib from Pecan Lodge in Dallas, Texas. Beef livestock are not native to the Americas. Cattle — and red meat — arrived with European explorers in the 15th and 16th centuries. (Kerry J. Byrne/Fox News Digital)
“Red meat from domestic livestock [was] unknown in Mexico before the Spanish imported (it) … Before 1492, Mexican cuisine had no dishes with beef, pork or lamb.”
The livestock prospered and spread across what’s now the United States.
They gave us cattle drives, cowboys and John Wayne westerns.
8. Oranges
The U.S. boasts the Orange State, the Orange Bowl and several Orange counties.
But it had no oranges before Columbus.
The sunny citrus fruit, symbolic of both California and Florida, is native to Southeast Asia.
Oranges are signature cash crops for both California and Florida. But oranges are not native to the Western Hemisphere. They arrived in the wake of the Christopher Columbus explorations. (iStock courtesy of contributor CactuSoup)
The fruit was delivered to the New World by Columbus himself during a subsequent voyage in 1493.
“Soon afterward, the Spanish brought citrus to Florida,” reports the Florida Division of Historical Resources. “Florida Indians obtained seeds from Spanish missionaries and helped establish the growth of the fruit.”
9. Peaches
Atlanta would be a maze of unnamed streets today, Georgia would be best known as the land of a second-rate fiddle-playing devil, and “Reunited” would have been a 1970s solo hit by Herb, without Columbus.
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Peaches are native to China, but took a fancy to American soil.
Thomas Jefferson found peaches peachy — and grew dozens of varieties at Monticello, his hilltop Virginia farmstead.
Peaches grow at an orchard in Reynolds, Georgia, on Friday, July 8, 2022. Despite their ubiquitous association with the state, peaches are no longer Georgia’s biggest fruit crop. (Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The peach was introduced either by the Spanish settlers in St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565 or by the French to an isolated Gulf of Mexico settlement in 1562,” reports the Monticello website.
“It was probably grown in Mexico at an even earlier date.”
10. Wheat (and the Breakfast of Champions)
Wheaties, dubbed the “Breakfast of Champions,” has provided a forum to celebrate great American athletes for nearly a century (tennis legend Billie Jean King is the latest).
The General Mills cereal, and the amber waves of grain used to make it, are coincidental American culinary icons.
Wheaties were discovered in 1921 as a “result of an accidental spill of a wheat bran mixture into a hot stove,” General Mills reports on its website.
Tennis legend Billie Jean King is a 39-time Grand Slam champion and an equal rights champion. She is appearing on limited-edition boxes of Wheaties, dubbed “the Breakfast of Champions,” starting May 2024. (General Mills via AP)
Wheat was a staple of the Spanish diet.
It flourished in the Americas, first in Mexico and spreading north.
The grain was “planted wherever the conquistadors established farms,” writes Sokolov.
“By 1535, Mexico was exporting wheat to the Antilles.”
For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle.
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Calvin Johnson on his fourth annual charity golf outing
Calvin Johnson speaks at his foundation’s celebrity golf outing at The Cardinal at Saint John’s on Monday, June 15, 2026.
Detroit’s pro sports teams have some pretty iconic uniforms, from the winged wheel of the Detroit Red Wings, to the old English D of the Detroit Tigers to the Honolulu blue of the Detroit Lions.
But for every classic jersey from a Motown team, there is at least one gathering dust in the back of a closet – and not because it’s a cherished item.
There have been some duds in the Detroit sports uniform rotation, with misguided color schemes, wacky logos, unfortunate throwbacks and sleeves where they are not supposed to be (looking at you, Pistons). If it weren’t for these bad uniforms, we might not be able to cherish the brilliant ones quite as much.
But as painful as it might be to revisit these sartorial tragedies, let’s do it, anyway.
Here are the worst jerseys from every major Detroit men’s pro team (excluding the Red Wings, because we honestly couldn’t find one to call bad).
Tigers: 2024-present City Connects
Swing and a miss.
The Tigers debuted their highly-anticipated City Connect jerseys in 2024, and they haven’t exactly been a hit. The black-and-blue color scheme doesn’t scream “automotive industry,” even if the carefully hidden VIN number and the less-carefully hidden highway sign on the sleeve are supposed to pay homage to the Motor City.
That’s the best part of the uniform, by the way – “Motor City” across the chest was a slam dunk, even if the quasi Star Trek font is more reminiscent of spaceships than Model Ts. But by far the worst part is the hat. Not even a downtown tourist shop would sell a hat that ridiculous looking.
The Tigers seemed to have rectified the situation by introducing two alternate jerseys this past offseason, both of which score much higher than the City Connect jersey. But for whatever reason, the Tigers still insist on occasionally breaking out these duds. Banish them, we say.
Lions: 2017 Color Rush
The NFL’s color rush uniforms would likely show up on many “worst” lists for various NFL teams, but Detroit’s color rush attempt in 2017 was especially egregious.
Grey may be a color (technically), but it certainly isn’t a Lions color, as demonstrated by the clashing silver helmets the Lions wear with their traditional unis. At least the Lions all-black uniforms from the past two seasons have an accompanying helmet that matches, truly elevating what an alternate jersey can bring to the field.
But even if the color rush uniforms came with a matching grey helmet, they would still look pretty bad. The best thing that can be said about them is that they are bland, and you have virtually zero chance of seeing a fan wearing one of these in or around Ford Field.
Pistons: 2019-20 City Edition
Remember when the NBA tried to get us all to buy sleeved jerseys in the mid 2010s? And how the Pistons wore a sleeved “Motor City” jersey that used the wrong shade of blue, the wrong shade of red and looked like a shirt for rec league?
The red City Edition uniform is somehow way worse than that.
The brightness of Detroit’s red lends itself much better as a secondary color, as it’s way too bright and harsh to be the featured color on a basketball uniform. The double stripe down the middle serves no purpose and looks to be the only idea the designers had for this uniform. And did we mention how red it is?
These uniforms were shelved after one season, and while the Pistons tried a red City Edition uniform again a couple of years later, they haven’t gone back since. A wise decision.
DCFC: 2025 away
In a vacuum, Detroit City’s 2025 away kits aren’t bad. The lines are clean, the crest keeps its gold sheen and teams are allowed to take a break from their standard color combinations every once in a while.
But green just doesn’t feel right for this team. If it were a lighter green to match the Spirit of Detroit, then maybe the connection to the city would have been strong enough to merit a second look. Forest green, however, just feels like too far a diversion from a team that wears red so well.
Disagree with our rankings? Let us know.
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You can reach Christian at cromo@freepress.com.
Milwaukee, WI
Hundreds rally on Milwaukee’s South Side against ICE arrests and in solidarity with immigrants
Hundreds of people gathered at Kosciuszko Park on Milwaukee’s South Side, marching through the neighborhood and raising signs in protest of recent ICE arrests across Wisconsin.
READ ALSO | Father with no criminal record detained by ICE on Milwaukee’s south side, family says
Community members, organizations, and city leaders joined together in the march, which organizers said is meant to be peaceful and to raise awareness about human rights.
“We are standing in solidarity; we don’t believe what’s happening out here in the streets is valid. We think this administration is messed up and we see the politics trickling down now to Milwaukee,” Christina Lopez-Prado said.
The protest comes after federal agents conducted a series of arrests across Wisconsin in the last couple of days. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Tuesday that they have arrested 39 people and that many of them have criminal histories.
Watch: Hundreds rally on Milwaukee’s South Side against ICE arrests and in solidarity with immigrants
Protest held over ICE activity in Milwaukee
TMJ4 has been covering the recent ICE arrests, getting video and finding multiple people without any criminal record who have been detained by ICE.
“As an immigrant myself from Guatemala, I sympathize so much with the people of my community. Especially those who live in fear for what ICE is doing to our communities,” Julia said. “I have hope because the only thing stronger than fear is hope.”
Emilio De Torre of Milwaukee Turners said the nature of the arrests has shaken the community.
“It’s disruptive. People are afraid to go outside, afraid of being racially profiled,” De Torre said.
De Torre also addressed what demonstrators want from the federal government.
“Milwaukee does not want the kind of chaos that has been reigned down in Minneapolis, in Chicago, in LA. We want our federal government to follow the Constitution, to follow due process, and to make sure their reactions meet the thing that necessitated it,” De Torre said.
DHS said in its statement that all people arrested have or will receive full due process and will remain in ICE custody pending their removal or removal proceedings.
TMJ4 reached out to DHS for an updated number on arrests made in Wisconsin. They did not provide any new information.
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A retrospective look meant to counter hindsight bias pertaining to the Bicentennial era, presented in the manner of Leonard Michaels (“I Would Have Saved Them If I Could”; “The Men’s Club”) and his short story “In the Fifties.“
In the seventies, my family moved to Minnesota from Vermont. I also started school that same year. That was the year everything changed for the worse. I attended six different elementary schools: two red-brick bastions of stale white bread conformity, three inner-city schools, and one school overseas.
In the seventies, I spent whole days exploring wooded and riverine areas, skating and sledding in the winter, riding my bike around the parkways and lakes ringing Minneapolis, or at the beach, where I would swim as far out as I could without the lifeguards getting mad. Given that my family put the “diss” in dysfunctional, being a free-range kid saved my sanity.
In the seventies, my mother commandeered the TV set during the summer of 1973 to watch the Watergate hearings when my brother and I wanted to watch cartoons and situation comedy reruns. We didn’t understand exactly what Nixon had done, but being deprived of entertainment gave us a tangible reason to hate him.
Because home delivery of the Sunday New York Times was not yet an option in the seventies, some of my fonder childhood memories are of going to a suburban news outlet after Sunday school at the First Unitarian Society, where my brother and I would browse the comic books and paperbacks until our mother pried us out of there or the store manager shooed us out.
Because of the 1973 and 1979 energy crises, gas tripled in price during the seventies.
The price of nearly everything increased. I look back wistfully now at my mother maintaining that Big John Baked Beans were too expensive at forty-nine cents a can.
Racist, sexist, ethnocentric and homophobic jokes became less acceptable during the seventies but were still very much a part of the culture.
Corporal punishment and shaming (especially body shaming) were regarded as acceptable parenting methods in the seventies.
In 1973, the American Psychological Association stopped categorizing homosexuality as a mental illness. However, therapists and clinicians wasted no time finding other ways of pathologizing difference. Oppositional defiant disorder, anyone?
The 1970s also saw the rise of the so-called New Right (many of them old-time reactionaries in new clothing), the growth of megachurches and increasing political clout of the religious right, exemplified by Anita Bryant and Jerry Falwell.
Every other news cycle seemed to yield new scarehead articles and more unsettling stories: Killer bees, encephalitis-bearing mosquitoes, the Glensheen Mansion murders, Son of Sam, the Church Committee revelations concerning the FBI and CIA’s misdeeds; to name just a few.
Last but not least, nostalgia became a mass phenomenon in the 1970s with K-Tel’s compilation albums of bygone musical hits, movies like American Graffiti, and TV shows such as “Happy Days” which painted a picture of 1950s in roseate colors for all those yearning for a simpler place and time, or imbued with selective memories. The more things change, the more things stay the same.
We’ll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.
We continue to be paywall-free. We continue to be supported by our readers, not billionaires or corporations. But we need to bring in more revenue. We are leaning on our community more than ever to help make ends meet.
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