This ancient fruit has been called a superfood and it certainly has the history to prove it. This ancient Inca berry has been providing nutrition to people for centuries.
The scientific name for the Inca berry is Physalis peruviana. It is indigenous to the Peruvian highlands where the Inca Empire flourished. The Incas picked this wild-growing fruit. The Inca berry has been called the “Lost Incan Crop.”
Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Inca Empire in the early 16th century and soon noticed the tiny fruit. They carried it back to Spain where it spread to England, France, and eventually Africa. Around 1774, English settlers on the Cape of Good Hope began growing the Inca berry and from there it spread to Australia where it acquired its current Australian name, the “Cape Gooseberry.”
Today, the ancient Inca berry is grown all over the world and each region calls it by a different name.
