Asparagus during ancient time

Asparagus was cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans but lost its popularity in the Middles Ages.

Asparagus was known to ancient Egypt where the Egyptians offered bundles of asparagus to their gods. It has been associated with gods of fertility, Osiris and Min, because of its shape and the way it grows, and with Isis and Hathor, the goddesses who cultivate the fecundity of Osiris-Min.

It was said that ancient Phoenicians brought asparagus to the Greeks and Romans.

The Greek discovered that wild asparagus, Asparagus officinalis, was delicious. They ate the young shoots of the plants.

The ancient Greeks also used asparagus for medicinal purposes; however they used a different species, Asparagus acutifolius.

The word asparagus derives from Greek words: ‘ana’, meaning ‘up’, and ‘sparagan’, meaning to ‘swell’, a reference to the prominent shoots of the plant or sprout that ‘swell up; as it grows.

Oddly the word was used in English at the beginning of the eleventh century but then vanished until the middle of the sixteenth century when it reappeared as ‘sperage’.

Pliny celebrates the cultivated asparagus of Ravenna. Asparagus was highly regarded by the Romans as a food and was considered most beneficial to the stomach. Pliny said that of all the cultivated vegetables, asparagus needs the most delicate attention.
Asparagus during ancient time

History of Asparagus

History of Asparagus
Asparagus name is derived from Greek word asparagos. It’s native to the East Mediterranean area, cultivated form antiquity and now grown in much of the world. Asparagus cultivation began 2000 years ago in eastern Mediterranean region. Greeks and Romans ate it fresh when in season and dried the vegetable for use in winter.

Having appeared in England as early as the year 1000, it was known as sperage and sperach. Asparagus has been used as a vegetable and medicine, owing to its delicate flavor and diuretic properties.

The Emperor Augustus coined the phrase ‘velocius quam asparagi conquantur’, meaning to do something faster than you can cook asparagus. Julius Caesar first ate it in Lombardy and wanted it served with melted butter. And in the time of King Louis XIV asparagus was dubbed ‘The King of Vegetables’.

In the 16th century, asparagus gained popularity in France and England. From there, the early colonists brought it to America and often called the “Food of Kings”. King Louis XVI of France, who did indeed dress in silken splendor when he dined, was so in love with asparagus that his gardeners were instructed to grow it in hothouses for his year round pleasure.
History of Asparagus