History of beetroot

Beet root originated from Beta vulgaris L. ssp. Maritima by hybridization with B. patula.

Beetroot is the name used by the British and some other English-speaking countries including Australia and the New Zealand for the vegetable that Americans in the USA call beets a type of food.

The earliest written mention of the beet comes from 8th century Mesopotamia.

The first known description of beets are of foliage beets (or chards) by Aristotele, who described a red chards. The Greek Peripatetic Theophrastus later describes two different beets, white and black, the colors referring to light and dark green appearance of the leaves.

Hippocrates used leaves of beetroot for binding and dressing wounds while Talmud, written in 4th and 5th century, advises eating beetroot, among other things, for longer life.

The ancient Babylonians were the first to use it for various applications. Early Greeks and Romans used the root for its medicinal properties and the leaves as vegetables.

Ancient Greeks called the beet teutlion and used it for its leaves, both as a culinary herb and medicinally. The Romans were the first to take an interest in the root which they utilized for their medicinal properties. They also were the first to cultivate the plant for its root.

It was not cultivated until the 3rd century and not developed until the 19th century by German and French breeders. It was not until the sixteenth century that beetroot became known as a root vegetable.

By the end of the 15th century cultivated forms of beets were found throughout Europe and used not only for their leaves, but also for the roots.

Although the leaves have been eaten since before written history, the beetroot was generally used medicinally and did not become a popular food until French recognized their potential in the 1800's.

In England, beetroot juice or broth was recommended as an easily digested food for the aged, weak, or infirm. Even in mythology, Aphrodite is said to have eaten beets to retain her beauty. In Victorian times, beetroot was used to bring color to an otherwise colorless diet and as a sweet ingredient in desserts.

In folk magic, if a woman and man eat from the same beet, they will fall in love. In Africa, beets are used as an antidote to cyanide poisoning.

The sugar beet was developed in the 1700s by the Prussians for its sugar content. The potential source of sugar in beets was discovered in 1747 by German chemist

Andreus Maggraf. By the 1880s sugar beets had been developed with 16-17% sugar content and small factories were found in France, Belgian, Germany and Austria.
History of beetroot

History of Okra

Abelmoschus esculentus L Moench, commonly known as okra or lady’s finger is an important vegetable crop in the tropical and subtropical countries of the world.

Okra is thought to have originated near the equator in Africa. It has been cultivated in the area that includes present-day Ethiopia and the eastern portion of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan for a long time.

It eventually made its way into northern Africa, the Mediterranean and India before its journey across the Atlantic to the New World.

Enslaved Africans brought okra to the Americans during the year of the West African slave trade. The captive Africans in the 1600s secreted okra seeds in their hair or inside their ears during the long journey to America.

Okra found exceptionally popularity in New Orleans. Enslaved Africans used the young okra, which contains the vegetable mucilage, to eat by boiling.

The leaves were also used medicinally to soften a cataplasm, and seeds were used on the plantations of South Carolina to make a coffee substitute.

In Asia, according to the book named Zhou Li, okra was used as sacrificial food to ancestors and Gods.
History of Okra

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

Mustard green in history

Mustard greens are the leaves of the mustard plant, Brassica juncea. It is also known as green mustard.

Brassica juncea includes brown mustard, Indian mustard, leaf mustard and mustard greens.

The term mustard comes from the use of the seeds to form a sweet ‘must’ a component of old wines.

Mustard greens are native to the Himalayan region of India, where they have been cultivated for more than 5,000 years.

It must have migrated eastward early in its domestication to establish secondary centers of diversity in central and western China, eastern India, and Burma as well as westward to the Near East.

Mustard greens are a notable vegetable in many different cuisines, ranging from Chinese to southern African-American.

In India and China mustard greens has long been used as a medicinal plant, most notably for its anti-inflammatory properties.

The mustard green used in Southern cooking today was not known in colonial America.
Mustard green in history

History of tomato soup in America

Tomato soup is quintessential American comfort food, usually eaten with a grilled cheese sandwich.

Although tomatoes apparently were introduced into Florida in the 1600s, they made minimal impression on the dietary habits of Americans until two centuries later. The first tomato soup recipes were simply tomatoes added to basic vegetable soups.

By 1840s tomatoes were an important part of most cookery books, Modern Cookery, written by the British cookbook author Eliza Acton for publication in the United States, in 1845 contained several tomato recipes.

Between 1832 when N. M. K. Lee’s first tomato soup recipe was published and in 1841, when Lettice Bryan’s version published the multitude of other vegetable were left out and the purely tomato soup know today emerge. Lettice Bryan’s Kentucky Housewife feature more than twenty tomato recipes, including some for baked, broiled, stewed, fried and pickled tomatoes.

Andrew Smith in his The Tomato in America stated that tomatoes were used in soup at least as early as the mid-eighteenth century in colonial America.

In 1897, John T Dorrance created a process of condensing soup which involved removing half of the water from the soup to create a thicker consistency.

The first production in 1898 means reducing volume to make it lighter and more transportable, cheaper to can and yet convenient to cook was a new development of a specifically commercial commodity food.

History of tomato soup in America

History of Black Mustard

History of Black Mustard
Black mustard or Brassica nigra is native to the Mediterranean region, where it is reported as a fossil from prehuman Pleistocene time. The species probably joined Neolithic agriculture as a volunteer in wheat and barley fields, spreading with those crops through Eurasia and North Africa.

Millennia later, Brassica nigra went with those crops oversea, its seeds often carried accidentally with the cereal grain. In California, for example, it was a weed during the Spanish period and remains are common in adobe bricks of the early mission.

Like other mustards Brassica nigra is used as a green vegetable and as a source of mild tasting nonvolatile oil expressed from the seed. However, its main use has been as a spice. Use of mustard seed as a spice dates from the beginning of written history in Babylonia and India and is abundantly recorded in classical Greek, Roman, and biblical sources. Although other species of Brassica were also used, it seems likely that Brassica nigra was the main source in ancient history as it has been in modern history.

Traditionally, mustard is prepared by mixing a small amount of seed of white mustard Sinapis alba, other spices, and a lot of Brassica nigra seed. In ancient times, volunteer plants wee probably more than adequate without deliberate planting. Cultivation of Brassica nigra as a field crop came after Medieval times, along with commercial production in Düsseldorf, Dijon and a few other European towns.
History of Black Mustard

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

History of Onion

History of Onion
If a person eats half of raw onion every day, the good HDL will goes up 30%. Onions increase blood circulation and good for reducing blood pressure. Onion usually refers to Allium cepa. Allium cepa is one of the oldest vegetable known. It’s a large family containing 500 species.

It has been used as a food source for millennia. Onion is a native to South Asia and is widely used in Indian cooking.

Most researches agreed that the onion has been cultivated for 5000 years. It grew in Chinese gardens as early as that time.

Apart from using as a currency to pay the workers who built the pyramids, Ancient Egypt 3500 B.C worshipped the onion and believed that its spherical shape symbolized the eternal life. Painting of onions appears on the walls of the pyramids and in tombs of both the old Kingdom and the new Kingdom.

King Ramses IV, who died in 1160 B.C, was entombed with onions in his eye sockets. Egyptian believed that onion strong scent would prompt the dead to breathe again. Sumerians also believed to have grown the onions since 2500 B.C in their farm.

In middle ages, onion became one of European three main cuisines (beans, cabbage and onion). It was the Roma who introduced the onion to Europe. The Latin name unio was to describe a species of onion resembling a single white pearl. At that time, in American native was using wild onions in syrups, in dyes even in toys. They also ate as a raw.

History of Onion

History of cucumber

History of cucumber

The English word "cucumber" comes from the Latin name cucumis. The Bohemian agyrka, German Gurke, Greek aggouria, and our word "gherkin," meaning a small cucumber pickle, all trace back to an old Aryan word. Sometimes today we facetiously refer to this vegetable as "cowcumber," not realizing that English writers of 300 years ago called it "cowcumber" in all seriousness.

Cucumbers, a member of the gourd family, have been cultivated by man for at least 3,000 years. They originated in the foothills of the Himalayas, probably in or near present day India. The cucumber has been cultivated for at least 3,000 years in Western Asia, and was probably introduced to other parts of Europe by the Romans. Records of cucumber cultivation appear in France in the 9th century, England in the 14th century, and in North America by the mid-16th century.

From India, it spread to Greece (where it was called “vilwos”) and Italy (where the Romans were especially fond of the crop), and later into China.

One old record claims that the cucumber was introduced into China as "recently" as the second century B.C. At the beginning of the Christian era it was grown in North Africa as well as in Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, and the countries to the east.

The Romans used highly artificial methods of growing the cucumber when necessary to have it for the Emperor Tiberius out of season. In classical Rome, Pliny reported greenhouse production of cucumbers by the first century, and the Emperor Tiberius was said to have had them at his table throughout the year.

Charlemagne had cucumbers grown in his gardens in ninth-century France. They were reportedly introduced into England in the early 1300s, lost, and then reintroduced approximately 250 years later.

The Spanish began growing them in Hispaniola by 1494, and less than a century later European explorers were noting that a wide range of Native American peoples from Montreal to New York, Virginia, and Florida were cultivating them, along with a large variety of other crops including maize, beans, squash, pumpkins, and gourds.

Most of the distinct types of cucumber grown today were known at least 400 years ago. Present forms range from thick, stubby little fruits, three to four inches long, up to the great English greenhouse varieties that often reach a length of nearly two feet.

History of cucumber

The Origin and History of Spinach

Botanically name Spinacia oleracea is in the family of Amaranthaceae. Spinach has a long history in Near and Middle Eastern and North African cuisine.

In some recipes, spinach was combined with peppermint in equal quantities. Also or anesthetic effect, spinach combined with eggs.

The botanists consider that spinach comes from a central and southwestern Asian gene center where it may have originated from Spinacia tetranda, which is still gathered as a wild edible green in Anatolia. At that time spinach was unknown to the ancient Mediterranean world.

Spinach derive the names from spinacia, spinage, spinat, epinards, from the spinous seeds; various names would seem more likely be of Persian origin.

The diffusion of spinach into the Mediterranean was almost certainly the result of Arab ingenuity.

Spinach, which does not grow well in hot weather, it was successfully cultivated in the hot and arid Mediterranean climate by Arab agronomists through the use of sophisticated irrigation techniques probably as early as the eighth century A.D.

The first references to spinach are from Sasanian Persia (about 226-640 A.D.) and we know that in 647 it was taken from Nepal to China where it was, and still is, known as the "Persian green."

Chinese also referred to spinach as the herb of Persia.

The first written evidence of spinach in the Mediterranean are in three tenth-century works, the medical work by al-Razi (known as Rhazes in the West) and in two agricultural treatises, one by Ibn Wahshiya and the other by Qustus al-Rumi.

Spinach became a popular vegetable in the Arab Mediterranean, where the great Arab agronomist Ibn al-'Awwam of Spain called it the "captain of leafy greens."

According to a treatise on Agriculture – Kitab el-Falaha written by Ibn al-'Awwam of Spain toward the end of the eleventh century, spinach was cultivated in Spain at that time.

Spinach was also the subject of a special treatise in the eleventh century by Ibn Hajjaj, saying that it was sown at Sevilla in January.

When spinach reached Provence it also became a popular vegetable, behind cabbage. Spinach is mentioned frequently as part of the fifteenth century Provençal ortolagia, the vegetable production of the garden. In the seventeenth century, the famous English philosopher John Locke reports having had a spinach and herb soup during his travels in southwestern France.

In Anatolia, spinach was known by the thirteenth century, if not earlier, and served with meat and covered in garlic-yogurt sauce, a dish that was popular with the Seljuk Turks.

Spinach may have reach Italy by 1306, as the cultivation, comparisons and description of spinach made by Italian writer, Pietro de’ Crescenzi.

The Italians were important for promoting the role this new vegetable played in the Mediterranean diet, as they favored spinach along with several other new vegetables both from the Old and New Worlds, in their gardens beginning in the thirteenth century.

In Venice, cooks integrated Muslim flavoring techniques in dishes known as saur which were enriched with pine nuts and sultanas. Although fish, meatballs, and rice were so flavored, so were dishes of spinach.

The spinach was introduced to Moorish Spain by Arabs in the eleventh century. It happened when Moors invaded Spain in 1100 AD spinach came with them.

The Arab influence in Spain is evident even today. Sometime ago a stylish dish in Cordoba was sajina, also called ásida, a kind of watery soup made with wheat flour cooked with spinach or other leafy vegetables.

Mediterranean Jews, the Sephardim, were also fond of spinach and prepare dishes such as shpongous, a savory baked dish of sheep's cheese and spinach that was customary as a dairy dish served on Shavuot, the holiday fifty days after Passover celebrating the Palestinian harvest and the anniversary of the giving of the Law.

In thirteenth century Damascus, burani was a popular dish of Persian origin, made with spinach or Swiss chard and yogurt, garlic, and spices. In 1614, Castelvetro calls for spinach to be used as the stuffing for tortelli.

In the latter part of the sixteenth century, spinach was known and generally eaten in England.

The American colonists brought spinach to North America, and by 1806 at least three cultivars were being grown; by 1828 the first savoy type was introduced.
The Origin and History of Spinach