History of celery in Europe

Celery is believed to be originally from the Mediterranean basin, though archaeological remains from Switzerland have suggested that humans were transporting celery seeds as early as 4,000 B.C. Wild forms can be found in marshy areas throughout temperate Europe and Western Asia.

In Homer's Illiad, the horses of Myrmidons graze on wild celery that grows in the marshes of Troy, and in Odyssey there is mention of the meadows of violet and wild celery surrounding the cave of Calypso.

The ancients associated celery with funerals and believed it to be a bad luck omen. In ancient Greece, celery leaves were used as garlands for the dead and to make wreaths or crowns that were given to winners of battles. Woven garlands of wild celery are reported to have been found in early Egyptian tombs.

People in Egypt and Rome used the wild plant medicinally for a slew of ailments, but "usually for hangovers or as aphrodisiacs." The Romans also favored wild celery's leaves to weave victory crowns for athletes.

Celery was probably not under widespread cultivation till the Middle Ages, though ancient literature documents that celery was cultivated before 850 BC. Celery production developed in the lowlands of Italy and further spread to France and England.

Celery was probably first used as a food by the French around 1623. For about the next century its use was confined to flavoring because of the pungency of early types.

In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, in Italy, France, and England, were seen the first evidences of improvement of the wild type.

The Italians domesticated celery as a vegetable in the 17th century. After years of domestication, growers were able to reduce the bitterness and hollow stalks associated with celery at that time.

All through the 19th century in America, England, and much of Europe, it was believed necessary to blanch the green edible portion of celery to rid it of unpleasantly strong flavor and green color.
History of celery in Europe

Cultivation of blueberries in history

The blueberry is a member of the heath family (Ericaceae) and is native to North America and East Asia. Wild Blueberries emerged on the desolate plain, aptly called The Barrens of Maine, Eastern Canada, and Quebec, following the retreat of the glaciers more than 10,000 years ago.

Blueberry cultivation is thought to have started when Native Americans burned wild stands of lowbush blueberries (V. angustifolium Ait. and V. myrtilloides Michx.) to tend them and to increase production. Wild blueberries were utilized for making medicines, dyes, and flavorings, as well as for direct consumption.

More advanced blueberry domestication began in New Hampshire in 1908 by the United States Department of Agriculture. Highbush blueberry cultivation and breeding programs, which began in the early 1900s, paved the way for the modern blueberry industry

In 1911 Dr F.V. Goville of the U.S.D.A. began a series of crosses among six native selections of three Vaccinium species (V. australe, V. corymbosum and V. angustifoliam). This work led to the release of the first named cultivar Pioneer in 1920.

By the 1930s and 1940s, blueberries were being grown in North Carolina and the West Coast, with further expansion occurring in subsequent decades.

Since 1960 and up to 1977 a further 15 Highbush Blueberry cultivars, have been released to the USA industry by various public agencies.

Since the 20th century American blueberry species and varieties have been spread to Europe. European cultivation of highbush blueberry began after 1920, in the Netherlands. In the following years cultivation spread to Poland and Germany, where the first European blueberry breeding products, crosses of Northern American were introduced.

However, highbush blueberry cultivation did not expand into southwestern European until the 1980s.
Cultivation of blueberries in history

The arrival of cocoa in Europe

The first people known to consume the cacao beans were the Olmec, who lived in what is today southern Mexico.

The Olmec were followed by the Maya (of present-day Guatemala, Belize, and Yucatán Peninsula), and then the Toltec and Aztec of central Mexico. Each civilization valued the drink of the cacao bean. For the Maya, chocolate was a cocoa drink prepared with hot water and often flavored with cinnamon and pepper.

The early chocolate drink, considered a “drink of the Gods” was mixed with cinnamon and pepper, tasting bitter and strong.

In 1502, the first meeting of Western civilization with cocoa occurred: Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Guanaja, Honduras, and received the gift of a cup of Chocolate.

Cocoa appeared in Europe in 1528, when the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés brought samples of cocoa to King Charles of Spain, spreading the great effects of the beverage prepared from this “brown gold”.

In 1544, Dominican friars escorted Maya nobles to the court of Prince Philip of Spain, with cacao. The drink they made from it was bitter and flavored with unfamiliar New World spices.

Starting from 1660, the drinking of hot sweet chocolate spread across Europe: Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, and also Austria and Italy.

Francisco Hernández (c. 1517–1587) was among the first to consider the use of chocolate in connection with humoral medicine: he argued that as cacao bean had cold and dry qualities, chocolate had to be recommended to treat hot diseases, such as fevers.

It was in 1753 that the Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus named the cocoa plant Theobroma cacao, from the Latin name Theobroma [literally ‘food of the Gods’], and the Aztec word xocolatl [i.e., xococ (bitter) and atl (water)].

In 1815 Conread Van Houten of Amsterdam island made cocoa butter from cocoa mass. He invented a special machine called the cocoa press. The cocoa press squeezed out a liquid from the cocoa nuts. This is called cocoa butter. Because of the machine, it was possible to make more chocolate and at a lower price.

The addition of milk to chocolate first occurred at the end of the 17th century, but Nestlè preparation based on condensed powdered milk by evaporation started in 1867, completely changing the taste of chocolate.

Milk chocolate was first made by Swiss Daniel Peter with condensed milk powder from Nestle company. He experimented for eight years before he finally produced the first milk chocolate in 1875. Milk chocolate is not as bitter as dark chocolate. Daniel Peter and his friend Henri Nestlé mixed condensed milk with chocolate

In 1879 Rudolph Lindt in Switzerland produced the first dark chocolate, by “conching”.

In 1905, Cadbury Dairy Milk was launched in the United Kingdom for it first sold products and now consists of a number of products. In June 1905 in England, Cadbury made its first Dairy Milk bar, with a higher proportion of milk.
The arrival of cocoa in Europe

History of bilberry

Bilberries (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) are the native European blueberries, closely related to the North American blueberry species (Vaccinium corymbosum L.).

Bilberry fruit was reported in the writings of ancient medical authorities such as Pliny and Theophrastus.

The common name bilberry is reported to be derived from the Danish word bollebar which mean “dark berry”. The species name myrtillus refers to the resemblance of the leaves to those of myrtle (Myrtus communis, Myrtaceae).

The genus name Vaccinium, reportedly first used by Pliny, is thought to be derived from Latin bacca, meaning “olive”, “berry”, or any round fruit or alternatively vacca meaning “cow”. Common names for bilberry in England include bleaberry, blueberry, and common whortleberry.

The medicinal activity of bilberry has been written about since at least the Middle Ages, and bilberry fruit and leaves have been used in conventional folk medicine in Europe since the 16th century. Saint Hildegard from Bingen (1098-1179 AD) indicated the use of bilberry for the treatment of eye disorders. She also is reported to have recommended the fruits for promoting menstruation.

The 16th century herbalist Culpeper reported on the use of bilberry for the liver and stomach, as an astringent, and for chronic coughs and diseases of the lungs.
History of bilberry

Modern history of turnip

Turnip is one of the oldest cultivated vegetables. The scientific classification for the plant is either Brassica rapa or Brassica campestris. The oil seed form of turnip is mentioned in Sanskrit records in India as early as 2000-1500BC. It has been under cultivation in Europe for the last 5000 years or so.

Turnip has been used as a vegetable for human consumption in Europe since prehistoric times. In the "Capitulare de Villis" emperor Charles the Great (around 800 A.D.) gives instructions as to which crops had to be planted and had to be given to his court; among those there are "napi."

However, it was not until early 18th century that turnip was cultivated as a field crop in England. Many specialists worked on the botany of this important crop plant. Phillip Miller in England, DeCandolle in Switzerland, Metzger in Germany and Vilmorin in France described all the garden varieties which were so important for the food supply of the big cities showing that Europe has been an important centre of diversity for Brassica rapa.

Turnip was introduced into Canada by Jacques Cartier in 1541 and into the US in 1609. The Indians adopted its culture from the colonists. Turnips were introduced into North America by early European settlers and colonists. They grew well in the South and became a popular food of this region.

In the late 1970s, researchers began to demonstrate the potential of turnip as pasture. The development of varieties with partially exposed roots rendered the roots more available to grazing animals.
Modern history of turnip

Capsicum: From the new world to Europe

Capsicum originated in Mexico, Central America, and South America. This genus of capsicum is native to tropical and subtropical America in a wide region comprising Mexico and northern Central America, the Caribbean, the lowland Bolivia, the northern lowland Amazonia, and the mid-elevation southern Andes, where archaeological evidence suggests use of this spice crop since 6000 BC.

Native Americans had grown chili plants between 5200 and 3400 BC. This places chilies among the oldest cultivated crops of the Americas. The genus Capsicum is one of the first plants being cultivated in the New World with beans.

Capsicum annuum and Capsicum frutescens were widely distributed from the New World to other continents via Spanish and Portuguese traders while the other species are little distributed outside South America.

In the Caribbean region where Christopher Columbus landed, the pods of the plant were called "ají," sometimes spelled "axí" or "agí" or "ajé" by early Spaniards. The crop was firstly introduced in Europe by Christopher Columbus during his travels after the discovery of America in the fifteenth century and later spread to Africa and Asia.

Early imported varieties belong to C. chinense which most probably were the most consumed during that time.

It spread to countries in Africa and Asia by way of the trade routes operating at that time. The fruit was traded initially as black pepper (Piper nigrum L.), a species with its own unique form of pungency but otherwise dissimilar in appearance and taxonomically unrelated to Capsicum. Peppers were named by Christopher Columbus and Spanish explorers who were searching for peppercorn plants to produce black pepper. Columbus took samples of a wide variety of peppers back to Europe where they became quite popular. For this reason, cultivated Capsicum acquired the common name ‘‘pepper.’’
Capsicum: From the new world to Europe

History of chocolate in Europe

Cocoa first arrived in Europe in 1528. Cocoa was considered divine in origin and in 1737 the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus named the cocoa tree Theobroma cacao, not its official botanical named, from the Greek word ambrosia.

After spotting Aztec Indians grinding cocoa beans in Mexico and using them to make a beverage, a recipe found its way into Spain. Beginning in Spain and then throughout the rest of Europe, cocoa preceded coffee and tea s a stimulating rink and by the end of the seventeenth century there were chocolate houses all over the continent.

The original hot cocoa recipe was a mixture of ground cocoa beans, water, wine and peppers. It didn't take long for Spaniards to begin heating the mixture and sweetening it with sugar. After being introduced in England, milk was added to the after dinner treat.

By 1828, the first cocoa powder producing machine had been developed, which generated a less acidic, processed cocoa. The new form of cocoa was easier to blend with warm milk or water. In 1848, the first real ‘eating chocolate’ was invented, produced from addition of coca butter and sugar to cocoa liquor.

In the United Kingdom in 1847, Joseph Fry was the first to produce a plain eating chocolate bar, made possible by the introduction of coca butter as an ingredient. In 1876, the Swiss, by mixing cocoa power and power milk, developed milk chocolate.

Today, there are two types of warmed chocolate drinks. Hot cocoa is the less fatening variety made with milk and real chocolate. Hot chocolate is a velvety textured drink, made with various spices or liqueurs.
History of chocolate in Europe

Ancient oats

Oats (Avena spp.) were one of the first cereals cultivated by man. They were first grown as weeds in barley and wheat fields in Mesopotamia in about 10,500 BC, though in cloudier, wetter and cooler Europe, oats were selected for cultivation over wheat and barley by about the 7000 BC.

The ancient Greeks are believed to be the first people to have made a recognizable porridge from oats.

Oats were also weeds in ancient fields of wheat and barley in the Near East and certain of them came to be cultivated, though at what date remains uncertain. The Roman historian, Pliny, complained that oats were a highly aggressive weed in cereal crops planted in moist environments though Pliny noted that oats were good for forage production.

In China oats were cultivated already in Han times. Some says that the early oats of China were Avena nuda, presumably introduced from an east European center of domestication.
Ancient oats

The history of raspberry

The history of raspberry consumption and domestication goes back to ancient times. The European raspberry is a native of Europe from Greece and Italy, north into Scandinavia and far eastward into Asia.

It was name for Mount Ida, in Asia Minor and was possibly more or less cultivated in southern Europe in ancient times. Fruits were gathered from the wild by the people of Troy in the foothills of Mount Ida around the time of Christ. Records of domestication were found in 4th century writings of Palladius, a Roman agriculturist and seeds have been discovered at Roman forts in Britain.

It is believed that Roman soldiers spread the cultivation of this plant throughout Europe. Raspberry gradually grew in popularity over the centuries, and by the 1500s, R. idaeus was cultivated all over Europe.

King Edward I is recognized as the first person to call for the cultivation of berries. By the 17th century, British gardens were rich with berries and berry bushes. In 1829, 23 raspberry cultivars were liste0 in the “History of English Gardening”.

It was early brought to America by colonists from Europe and prior to the middle of the nineteenth century was the only raspberry commonly cultivated in USA.
The history of raspberry

History of Rice in the West

History of Rice in the West
For along time, western Europe regarded rice as another kind of spice. It was certainly reaching England before the middle of the thirteenth century; the Oxford English Dictionary’s first citation for the word is from the household accounts of King Henry III in 1234, and we know that between Christmas 1264 and the following Easter the Countess of Leicester’s household got through 110 pounds of rice, costing 1.5 pence a pound, a high price which explained the careful book keeping and the fact that the rice was locked in the spice cupboard.

At about same time, the accounts of the Duke of Savoy that rice ‘for sweets’ cost 13 imperials a pound, whereas honey was only 8 imperials.

In Milan rice was heavily taxed as ‘spice brought through Greece from Asia’.

The black death , which ravaged Italy from 1348 to 1352, and then recurred at irregular intervals as bubonic plague, has been credited with the introduction of rice to the northern Mediterranean.

The workforce had been reduced by perhaps one third, and the low yields of wheat and barley were hardly enough to keep people alive.

Rice was a high-yielding, energy giving crop that required far less labor per sack of grain harvested.

Gian Gleazzo Sforza sent a sack of rice to the Duke d’Este of Ferrara in 1475, with a letter telling him that one sack of seed would produce twelve sacks of food grain.

According to present day Italian writers, however large tracts of the Piedmont and Lombardy plains had been turned into paddy fields several decades before this famous letter, with the export of seed grain already strictly prohibited as a state secret.

In England, in 1585, rice stepped in cow’s milk with white breadcrumbs, powdered fennel seed and a little sugar was thought good for increasing the flow of milk in a nursing mother’s breasts. But by the seventeenth century rice was no longer a magical luxury.

A century or so later, it was being imported to Britain in large enough quantities to be considered quite an ordinary item of diet – usually milk puddings.

Then the availability of cheap rice from new possessions overseas drove this former luxury food further and further down the British market.

Rice was being taken to countries very remote from where it grew. Far, workers in nineteenth century Norway ate porridge of water and barley on working days, milk and barley on Sundays, but milk and rice for feats and celebrations.

In Finland, rice porridge was served as dessert in Christmas Eve, and Christmas lunch began with the leftover sliced thick and fried.
History of Rice in the West

Invention of Camembert cheese by Marie Harel

Legend holds that Marie Harel (April 28, 1761- November 9, 1844) is credited with inventing the gourmet cheese named for her native village of Camembert.

Marie was a 19-year-old cheesemaker. One day in 1819, her thoughts more on the boy next door than on her cheesemaking, she omitted the blue mold culture for one batch of cheese. Upon testing of that one batch with its soft creamy texture and delicious flavor, her fame was made. Camembert started life as a meager, dry, yellow-brown cheese made for family consumption.

Fortunately for cheese-lovers, the Harel family gave shelter to a young priest from Brie region, on the run during the French Revolution of 1789. Having closely watched his parishioners make cheese, he was able to return the Harel’s kindness by imparting his knowledge.

This helped them turn the small, rather bitter cheese into a delicious, softer, infinitely more palatable and memorable experience.

The first known reference to cheese from the village of Camembert is from 1706, and in 1760 a nearby may0r wrote that Camembert’s cheeses were reputedly even better than the local ones at Livarot’s market, although cheeses from Livarot and Camembert were still richer and better than those from Pont I’Eveque.

In 1855 a descended of Marie Harel presented Napoleon III with a sample of this cheese. He liked it and ever since then it became known as Camembert cheese.

In 1890 the characteristic round box was invented and Camembert quickly became of the most popular French cheeses conquering foreign markets as well.

After repeated attempts since 1909 to protect its name, Camembert de Normandie became a protected designation of origin cheese in 1983.
Invention of Camembert cheese by Marie Harel

Mozart chocolate (Mozartkugel)

Salzburg’s two main tourist attractions were its baroque architecture and its relationship with Mozart.

The invention of the chocolate Mozartkugel rapidly proved to be the ultimate form of tourist souvenir-cum-advertisement.

Mozart chocolate or Mozartkugel is a delicious candy created in 1890 by Salzburg confectioner Paul Furst to honor Salzburg’s famous musician, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

At first, the confectioner called them ‘Mozartbonbon’ and only later by the name which they are known world-wide today: Mozatkugeln.

When Fürst presented his sweet creation at a Paris fair in 1905, he was awarded a gold medal. The chocolate-covered Mozartkugel have a center of marzipan mixed with pistachio nuts.
Mozart chocolate (Mozartkugel)

Origin of pears

Pears (pyrus communis, Rosaceae) have been cultivated for thousands of years. The fruit originated in prehistoric times as a fruit crop. Native to Middle East, pears toady also grow world across of Europe and Asia. They do not seem to have been known to the ancient Greeks or Egyptians, but were to the Romans, who spread pear cultivation throughout their empire.

The Romans ate pears,  both raw and cooked. The less exquisite fruits were made into perry, or into pear vinegar, for which Pliny, Varro, Columella and other Roman authors on such subjects all had their own recipes.

The Byzantines feasted on pears in jelly, pear preserves, pears cooked in wine or in oxymel (a syrup of vinegar and honey).

It was in the seventeenth century that the European pear became much more widely distributed.

English and French settlers took the pear to East Coats America and Canada. Probably, the Spanish took pears to South America. In North America it has emerged as the most widely grown and a pear much used in canning.

Dutch traders introduced operas to South Africa, and British explorers took pears to Australia and New Zealand in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In these centuries, as in Europe the pear became a garden orchard and market fruit, and also an export fruit shipped around the globe.

Second only to apples in world production of deciduous tree fruits; pears are consumed fresh, cooked, dried or as preserves. In Europe some are used for making perry or pear wine.
Origin of pears

History of fork

The used of forks became widespread during the high Renaissance. In Europe, prior to the 15th century, most food was eaten with the hands or from the points of a knife.

Forks merged in the European eating settings only in the 15th and 16th centuries. One can trace the history of the fork back to the dagger - sharpened metal stick that can be used to transport pieces of objects of solid consistency. It didn’t take on a food sense until the mid –fifteenth century.

The person credited with introducing the eating fork to England was Thomas Coryate, an author and traveler from the time of Shakespeare who was famous for walking huge distances – to India and back in one occasion.

In his writing, Coryate’s Crudities, in 1611 he gave much praise to the dinner fork, which he had first encountered in Italy. In 1616, Ben Jonson, English poet and dramatist, took up Coryate’s campaign for amore salutary table in The Devil Is an Ass, which he surmised that the Italians used forks to keep their hands clean and spare the host soiled napkins.

Until the late nineteenth century the fork became part of the basic equipment of a lower–middle class kitchen, while working-class families largely continued to eat with knives and spoons.
History of fork

History of Knorr

Unilever’s biggest brand is Knorr, which includes a range of sauces, snacks, frozen foods, and other food products.

The Knorr brand of soups began with German culinary inventor, Carl Heinrich Theodor Knorr, who built a factory in Heilbronn, Germany in 1838 in order to dry chicory and make various types of flours.

The Knorrs eventually came to believe that convenience foods were the wave of the future

He then started investigating how to dry barley without affecting its flavor and its nutrients and ended up extending such researches to other vegetables and ingredients, which brought about the launch of the first powdered soup.

They introduced their first packaged soup mix in 1873. They soon expanded into bouillon cubes and other soup concentrates.

Demand for powdered or pre-prepared liquid soups – both then a novelty was so strong that in 1885 his son Carl decided to set up a packing center for the export trade.

The products were hit in Germany and were soon exported to other European nations as well.

In 1907, Switzerland set up its own factory to manufacture the foods. It was not until 1949 that the company launched the world’s first packet soup - the chicken noodle recipe that soon became known around the world.

Knorr soup mixes were introduced to America in 1958 when the company became part of the Corn Products Company, which later evolved into Bestfoods.

In 2000, Bestfoods was taken by Unilever for $20.3 billion. Today Knorr is Unilever’s largest brand by sales, a great part of which can be attributed to the strong brand marketing that was pursued by its early Swiss management.
History of Knorr

History of potato in Europe

The potato was introduced into Europe from South American sometime between 1565 and 1573.

It was first grown in Spain and tubers were exported to other parts of Europe. At first, yields were low in Europe because the potatoes from Peru were adapted to short-day growing condition and tuberised poorly in the days of European summers.

Eventually, selections were made for lines of potatoes that would initiate tubers under longer day growing conditions.

By the early part of the 17th century it was found in the botanical gardens of many European states.

The botanist Charles de L’Ecluse (Carolus Clusius) first describes the potato in his Rariorum plantarum historia of 1601 and then again in a section devoted to ‘American exotics’ in a 1605 work.

The cultivation then spread into Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium and Germany.

It was introduced into Ireland in 1585 or 1586 and in England in 1590. Ireland was the first country in Europe where the potato became a major food-crop.

The first certain mention of potato-growing in Ireland is in County Down in 1606, but its spread thereafter was rapid, By the end of the 17th century potatoes were the chief article in the diet of all the poorer classes in Ireland.

It was from Ireland that the potato was first introduced to the North American colonies. Its cultivation seems to have been begun by Irish emigrants to New England in 1718.

The first botanical description of the potato was published by the Swiss botanist, Caspar Bauhin in 1596.
History of potato in Europe

History of broccoli

Broccoli developed from a wild cabbage native to Europe. It is common with cauliflower derives from ancient forms of Brassica oleracea. There are indications it had been known in Europe for 2000 years.

Broccoli is mentioned in an ancient text about the Emperor Tiberius who is said to have teased his son Drusas, calling him greedy for eating so much broccoli.

It was improved upon by the Romans and later-day Italians and is now cultivated throughout the world. It was said to have come to Italy in the seventeenth century from eastern Mediterranean, Crete or Cyprus.

It is believed that the early selection of the plant for its edible flower heads may have been done somewhere in Asia Minor, and that sea-going traders brought the plant to the Italian peninsula where further development took place.

Colonists introduced broccoli to the United State in the early eighteenth century and popularized by Italian immigrants who brought this prized vegetable with them to the New World.

In 1923 D’Arrigo Bros. Company planted trial field of Italian sprouting broccoli near San Jose, California and later shipped the first ice-packed to eastern markets via railroad in the fall of 1924.

Recipes for broccoli appear in a number of cookbooks found in America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such as Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cooker Made Palin and Easy.

The name probably is derived from brocco, Italian for twisted thread or shoot, or it may be a corruption of the Latin brachium, which means arm.
History of broccoli