I’m continuing my exploration of what is commonly grown in our state of Pennsylvania. Last week, I wrote about the state’s native plants and what we have growing on our property. This week, I’m looking at the commercial crops that are most prominent in the state and if they are native to North America or were brought here during European Expansion. I ultimately want to learn if the origins of Pennsylvania’s most commonly-grown crops align with where most of the state’s immigrants came from during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.

Like Magz, I majored in history, and even though I don’t work in history, I still love it. I also approach a lot of things in life from a historian’s perspective and try to ask questions to dig deeper into topics. The gardening offseason seems like a great time to dive into these sorts of topics. Eventually, I want to look at all the vegetables we grew in the garden in 2025 and learn when they arrived in North America if they aren’t native to the continent.

What Does Pennsylvania Grow?

With this question, I’m not talking about what people grow in their personal gardens. I’m talking about the crops that are commercially grown and contribute to the state’s agricultural sector. Pennsylvania plays a prominent role in the agriculture of the United States, equating to just over $9 billion in 2024. That ranked 23rd in the country.

The majority of what’s grown in the state won’t surprise most people. There are a lot of cereal grains (wheat, oats, barley, and sorghum) as well as corn. These are largely grown on a commercial scale and are used to feed animals, as Pennsylvania is a large producer of dairy products. But there are also some surprising crops that you may not associate with the state and a lot of vegetables that are sold throughout the country and world.

Here are Pennsylvania’s most common crops, along with where they originated:

Those crops aren’t in any particular order, but they do make up the bulk of what’s grown commercially in the state. It’s difficult to know exactly when immigration to the United States peaked, but most people think of the 19th and early 20th centuries as a key time period because that’s when large groups of Europeans arrived. They brought with them their cultures, foods, and seeds in an effort to keep a semblance of their home alive with them. It’s now why we grow so many different vegetables, both commercially and in home gardens.

Again, these aren’t in any order, but the countries are:

• France
• Netherlands
• Sweden
• Britain
• Germany
• Wales
• Northern Ireland (aka Scots-Irish or Ulster Scots)
• Ireland

If you compare the crops and where they originated with the countries that contributed the most immigrants, you won’t see any connections. On the surface, that is shocking and may lead to the question, “How did those plants/seeds get to the United States?” It requires taking the research to a deeper level, which taught me a few things.

Plants Arrived From Asia Via Europe

It was decades after European immigrants came to the United States that people from Asia, including the Middle East, immigrated in large quantities. And by that time period, the majority of what we grow commercially in Pennsylvania was already established. Instead, these plants were “obtained” by Europeans via colonization and trade and brought back to Europe where they were planted. In some cases, new varieties were established through adaptation that allowed these plants to thrive in different soil conditions and climates.

Ignorance of Where Our Food Comes From

It’s my belief that because of how history gets told in the West certain aspects are conveniently forgotten. In history, we were always taught that popular history is told by the winners/victors/privileged. You usually have to look to find firsthand accounts from the losers of a battle or war or from an underprivileged person. I think this holds true for the history of what we eat. In the United States, we were taught from a young age that Europeans brought their food, including plants and seeds, with them. But there was never a mention or discussion of whether those plants were native to Europe.

It took me until at least high school to realize that the Silk Road, British East India Trading Company, and Dutch East India Trading Company played key roles in transporting ingredients and plants across the globe. Sometimes, that happened through legitimate trade. Other times, it was less legitimate and more forceful. Either way, crops like cereal grains, cherries, soybeans, and peaches all came from the fertile crescent, Central Asia, and East Asia. Meanwhile, the Spanish brought potatoes and sweet potatoes back from Central and South America as a result of the inquisition. Learning this was a reminder to always go one level deeper when researching. I used to do that all the time when taking history classes, but it’s easy to get out of the habit if you aren’t being forced to.

Immigration Always Has & Always Will Play a Key Role in the American Identity

The United States is at a weird, and frankly, sad place in time. While immigrants have always been treated unfairly, including by other immigrant groups, we’re at a crossroads. Immigrants, including those legally in the country, are being rounded up and deported to places that aren’t their home. This is in spite of us being told that only those with criminal records would be subjected to arrest and deportation. Another lie. Forgotten is all the positive impact that immigrants have on communities and the economy, including how we grow our food. We’ve already seen the struggle to produce food at the same level as a result.

For some reason, there is a group of Americans who forgot how the country was started and the fact that immigrants and foreign-born people have always comprised a large part of our population. Unless a person is 100 percent Native American, everyone is in the United States because of immigration. Whether it was pre-Revolutionary War or the 20th century following the brutal genocides in Africa, Europe, and Asia, people have always been welcomed here with open arms. I’m concerned that we’re forgetting that.

American culture is weird. We want to say it’s a melting pot, but that’s not true. It’s better than a melting pot. A melting pot implies that people lose their personal identity and assimilate into each one common culture. What we’ve always had is an ability for people groups to maintain their uniqueness while pushing toward a common goal. Whether it was the millions of Europeans who came over during the 19th and early 20th centuries or the recent movement of those from the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia, everyone has played a key role in shaping and honing what we know as American culture. The culture isn’t set in stone, but is instead one that is always changing and being refined. When we lose sight of that, we become isolationist, nationalistic, and the antithesis of what the nation was founded as.

Very little of what we consume or partake in as Americans is uniquely American. Sure, we’ve refined a lot of the seeds and plants to better serve our needs, but the majority didn’t originate here. And new foods and seeds coming to the country haven’t stopped. I listen to a podcast called Seeds and Their People, where the hosts talk to farmers and gardeners and discuss the origin stories of them as people and their seeds. Recently, they’ve had Palestinian refugees on their podcast who’ve been in the United States since the war in Gaza broke out in 2023. Regardless of where you fall on the Israel-Palestine debate, there are a lot of people whose lives have been completely altered by decisions that never considered their opinions. These farmers have been able to get seeds native to Palestine to plant in America. That may seem like a small thing, but those seeds represent their culture and help them feel at home. We should never lose sight of that.

This post really expanded from what I originally set out to write. I thought that I’d just look at where our state’s most common crops originated. It morphed into a deeper conversation of the importance of immigration to American culture and how we get our food.