Pineapples were cultivated in the West Indies long before Columbus visited there. But after his voyage to the island of Guadeloupe, it was recorded in Spain that Columbus had “discovered” the fruit. The pineapple is native to tropical America and was known to the Indians as na-na, meaning fragrance, and to the Spanish explorers as …
Cucumber
The cucumber is said to be native to India, although plant explorers have never been able to discover a wild prototype. Cucumbers have been cultivated for thousands of years, and records indicate that they were used as food in ancient Egypt, and were a popular vegetable with the Greeks and Romans. The cucumber is one …
Lettuce
Lettuce is one of the oldest vegetables and probably originated in India or Central Asia. According to the writings or Herodotus, lettuce was served to the Persian kings as far back as the sixth century BC. It was a popular Roman food at about the beginning of the Christian era, and in the first century …
Kale
Kale, and collard, its close relative, are the oldest known members of the cabbage family. Wild cabbage, which strongly resembles kale in its appearance, is still found growing along the European coasts and in North Africa. Kale is native either to the eastern Mediterranean region or to Asia Minor. It is known that man has …
Okra
Okra is native to tropical Africa, where it has been cultivated for many centuries. It is now widely grown in warm regions. For many years it has held an important place among the garden vegetables of the southern states. The young and tender seed pods of okra are used to give a pleasant flavor and …
Banana
Bananas were cultivated in India 4,000 years ago. In 1482, the Portuguese found the banana on the Guinea coast and carried it with them to the Canary Islands. Spanish priests are credited with having introduced this fruit to tropical America when they arrived as missionaries in the sixteenth century. Now, the banana can be found …
Rhubarb
Rhubarb is a species of plant in the family Polygonaceae. They are herbaceous perennials growing from short, thick rhizomes. They have large leaves that are somewhat triangular, with long fleshy petioles. They have small flowers grouped in large compound leafy greenish-white to rose-red inflorescence. Most commonly, rhubarb’s leaf stalks are cooked with sugar and used …
Spinach
Spinach is a small, fleshy-leaved annual of the goosefoot family. It is a quick-maturing, cool season crop that is hardy and will live outdoors over winter thoughout most of the area from New Jersey southward along the Atlantic Coast and in most parts of the lower South. Spinach has been both praised and abused. It …
Orange
The orange is one of the oldest fruits known in the history of cultivation. As early as 500 B.C. the fruit of the citrus tree was mentioned in a collection of old documents believed to be edited by Confucius himself. In the year A.D. 1178, Han Yen-Chi, a Chinese horticulturist, wrote on the subject of …
Grapefruit
The name “grapefruit” originated in the West Indies in the eighteenth century, perhaps because of the fact that its fruit grows in clusters of three to twelve or more, similar to grape clusters. This citrus fruit was cultivated more than 4000 years ago in India and Malaysia, but it was not until the sixteenth century …
