Farm To Table Has A Whole New Meaning In Space

While locally grown produce has gained popularity across the US in recent years, no one has taken that sentiment more seriously than NASA, which has started experimenting with growing food in space. On Monday, astronauts aboard the International Space Station

red romaine lettuce and ate fresh produce during their mission for the first time in history. The event took social media by storm and marked an important milestone in NASA's efforts to travel to Mars.

The astronauts who ate the space veggies tweeted pictures of their produce before eating and enthusiastically praised the event, saying the opportunity to eat fresh food after such a long time in space was "awesome". Not only does growing food in space provide nutritional benefits, but the astronauts said the psychological benefits were also evident.

Gioa Massa, a NASA scientist working on the project, believes plants could potentially play an important role in astronauts longer missions. Plants, she said, will grow if given the correct conditions, even in space. She sees the need for on board vegetable patches expanding as trips in to space take astronauts further into space for longer periods of time.

The astronauts ate only half of the lettuce this week, the rest of the crop will be packaged, frozen and taken back to earth to be studied. If the lettuce proves to be a viable option, NASA will likely repeat the experiment using other fruits or vegetables until a reliable system has been developed.