Many April Fools’ Day pranks have been pulled by big companies. But have you seen one pulled by a major news source?

In 1957, the BBC showed a news story about a family in Ticino, in southern Switzerland, that made spaghetti by harvesting it from a tree that grew the crop. It said that after a light winter and the disappearance of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, there were spaghetti strands (AKA spaghetto) ripe for the taking. There was also a discussion on breeding spaghetti trees so that the noodles can get to the right length.

By now, this seems fake, doesn’t it?

Well, it is.

I don’t know what you were thinking if it was fake.

The whole thing was aired on April Fools’ Day, and some footage was shot at a hotel, while others were shot at a pasta production factory. The cameraman behind this, Charles de Jaeger, dreamt up the story because his teachers in Austria scolded students for thinking spaghetti grew on trees. The editor gave him a whopping £100 and sent him on his way. The thing was really believable because:

A) The narrator was well-known, and

B) Spaghetti, at that time, was hard to come by in the UK.

Around eight million people watched the event live, and after the program (or programme as they say there) concluded, hundreds of people called the BBC on how to grow their own spaghetti tree. The people were instructed by the BBC to “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best”.

I mean, you really can’t blame them, because they thought it was an exotic food, right?

But while this story seems all fun and games, sadly, the Ticino region is losing its spaghetti tree population. What was once the most fertile land for the arbor spaghetti species is quickly decreasing at this second because of urbanization. But with your help, we can protect this endangered kind together. Go to www.saveourspaghetti.com to donate any amount of money or spaghetti tree seeds so we can keep this important plant once and for all.