Illuminations and text from the medieval Tacuinum Sanitatis can be found online at www.godecookery.com/tacuin/tacuin.htm.
Tomatoes
For the detailed scoop on tomatoes, you can’t do better than Andrew F. Smith. See The Tomato in America (University of South Carolina Press, 1994) and Souper Tomatoes: The Story of America’s Favorite Food (Rutgers University Press, 2000). Also see Karan Davis Cutler’s Tantalizing Tomatoes (Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1997) and David Gentilcore’s Pomodoro! A History of the Tomato in Italy (Columbia University Press, 2010).
On the positive aspects of tomatine, see: M. Friedman, C. E. Levin, S. U. Lee, H. J. Kim, et al. “Tomatine-Containing Green Tomato Extracts Inhibit Growth of Human Breast, Colon, Liver, and Stomach Cancer Cells.” J. Agric. Food Chem. 57, no. 13 (2009): 5727–5733.
Friedman, Mendel, T. E. Fitch, and W. E. Yokoyama. “Lowering of Plasma LDL Cholesterol in Hamsters by the Tomato Glycoalkaloid Tomatine.” Food and Chemical Toxicology 38, no. 7 (2000): 549–553.
Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia (1781) is available online at http://etext.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/JefVirg.html.
For Andrew F. Smith’s exposé of the apocryphal Colonel Johnson, see “The Invention of Culinary Fakelore and Food Fallacies” at www.foodhistorynews.com/debunk.html#typology.
For more on the influential Mrs. Beeton, see Kathryn Hughes’s The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs. Beeton (Alfred A. Knopf, 2006).
The story of the Trophy tomato appears in L. H. Bailey’s The Survival of the Unlike: A Collection of Evolution Essays Suggested by the Study of Domestic Plants (Macmillan, 1896), 485–60.
On lycopene and cooking: Dewanto, Veronica, Xianzhong Wu, Kafui K. Adom, and Rui Hai Liu. “Thermal Processing Enhances the Nutritional Value of Tomatoes by Increasing Total Antioxidant Activity.” J. Agric. Food Chem. 50, no. 10 (2002): 3010–3014.
Unlu, N. Z., T. Bohn, D. M. Francis, H. N. Nagaraja, S. K. Clinton, and S. J. Schwartz. “Lycopene from Heat-Induced Cis-Isomer Rich Tomato Pasta Sauce Is More Bioavailable than from All-Trans Rich Pasta Sauce in Humans.” Br. J. Nutr. 98, 2007: 140–146.
For the nutritional differences between raw and cooked vegetables, see Sushma Subramanian’s “Fact or Fiction: Raw Veggies Are Healthier than Cooked Ones” in Scientific American (March 2009). See the text online in Scientific American’s report “Science of Our Food” at www.scientificamerican.com/report.cfm?id=food-science.
For a discussion of the square tomato (VF-145), see Raymond Sokolov’s Why We Eat What We Eat: How Columbus Changed How the World Eats (Simon & Schuster, 1991).
For more on Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter tomato, see NPR’s “Living on Earth: Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes” at www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=05-P13-00038&segmentID=8.
On the inestimable Charles M. Rick, founder of the Tomato Genetics Resource Center, see http://tgrc.ucdavis.edu/charlie.html and www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/inmemoriam/CharlesM.Rick.htm. Also see: Estabrook, Barry. “On the Tomato Trail: In Search of Ancestral Roots.” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture 10, no. 2 (Spring 2010): 40–44. For the C. M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center, see http://tgrc.ucdavis.edu.
The tomato ripening process is described by A. Karim Khudairi in “The Ripening of Tomatoes” in the American Scientist 60, no. 6 (1972): 696–707.
On flavor in tomatoes, see Craig Canine’s “A Matter of Taste . . . Who Killed the Flavor in America’s Supermarket Tomatoes?” in Eating Well, January/February 1991: 41–55.
On the flavorful gene for florigen, see: Krieger, Uri, Zachary B. Lippman, and Dani Zamir. “The Flowering Gene SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS Drives Heterosis for Yield in Tomato.” Nature Genetics 42, 2010: 459–463.
For more information on transgenic tomatoes, see Belinda Martineau’s First Fruit: The Creation of the Flavr Savr Tomato and the Birth of Biotech Foods (McGraw-Hill, 2001), Alan McHughen’s Pandora’s Picnic Basket: The Potential and Hazards of Genetically Modified Foods (Oxford University Press, 2000), and Nina Federoff and Nancy Marie Brown’s Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist’s View of Genetically Engineered Foods (Joseph Henry Press, 2004).
Turnips
For the turnip as castle, see an example in Elinor Fettiplace’s Receipt Book: Elizabethan Country House Cooking (Viking, 1986), 97.
Johannes Trithemius’s sneer at turnip eaters in his seminal cryptography book appears in Ivars Peterson’s Math Trek column “Cracking a Medieval Code” (4 May 1998). See the article online on the Mathematical Association of America’s website: www.maa.org/mathland/mathtrek_5_4_98.html.
On marvelous and enormous turnips, see Jan M. Ziolkowski’s “The Wonder of the Turnip Tale” in her book Fairy Tales Before Fairy Tales: The Medieval Latin Past of Wonderful Lies (University of Michigan Press, 2009).
On Woolton Pie, see Charles Lyte’s The Kitchen Garden. Oxford Illustrated Press, 1984.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am deeply grateful to all of the many people who provided the help, advice, encouragement, inspiration, and information without whom this book would not have been possible.
Special thanks go to Deb Burns, my kind and patient editor, and the wonderful staff at Storey Publishing; to Pat Stone and colleagues at GreenPrints magazine, who so beautifully combine digging and literature; to Ethan Rupp, who so generously, competently, and continually fixed my computer; and to the helpful and sympathetic librarians at the Bennington Free Library in Bennington, Vermont, the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, Vermont, and the Bailey/Howe Library at the University of Vermont.
INDEX
Pagenumbers in italics indicate illustrations and photographs.
100-mile diet, 27
A
abortion, celery and, 104
absinthe, 168
Achard, Franz, 61
Acosta, José de, 239
Adams, John, 255
Aesop’s fables, 277
alcohol, 93, 113, 122–124, 282
Allen, Woody, 8
American Indians
beans and, 31, 43, 45
corn and, 114–115, 117–118
squash and, 278, 281–282
Amflora potato, 267
Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), 25–26
Anderson, Mark, 102
Andrews, Jean, 234, 237
anthocyanins, 24, 59, 87, 327, 348
antioxidants, 158–159, 189, 207, 327
anti-vitamins, 74–75
aphrodisiacs
asparagus as, 13–15
beans as, 37
carrots as, 87
celery as, 102
eggplant as, 152
lettuce as, 167
sweet potatoes as, 250
tomatoes as, 316
Apicius, 15, 39, 57, 67, 184, 198
Apicius, Marcus Gavius, 39
apiol, 104–105
Appert, Nicholas, 223
Arabidopsis thaliana, 80
Ashley, Anthony, 71
asparagine, 24
asparagus
as aphrodisiac, 13–15
growth of, 12–13
history of, 15–21
how to eat, 24
as luxury, 21–23
medicinal uses of, 15
nutrients in, 24
origin of, 19
Peru and, 25–26
taxonomy of, 14
urine and, 23–24
white, 24–25
Asparagus! (movie), 26
asphodel, 4
astronauts, 240, 295
Audubon, John James, 323
Austen, Jane, 18–19, 346
azote, 37
B
Bach, Johann Sebastian, 81
Bacillus thuringiensis, 161
Bacon, Francis, 92
Bagnal, Richard, 121
Banister, John, 285
Barclay, Robert, 7
Barlow, Joel, 125
Barnum, P. T., 30
Barry, Dave, 287
Bat Cave corn, 116
Beal, William James, 130
beans
American, 41–42
American Indians and, 31, 43, 45
cassoulet and, 40–41
Dark Ages and, 34–36
dopamine and, 38
fava beans, 33–34
flatulence and, 48–49, 51
flowers of, 32
kidney, 42, 43
lentils, 32–33, 39
lima, 45–47, 49
Pythagoras and, 33–34
recipes for, 39–40, 44
scarlet runner, 47–48
string, shell, and dried, 44–45
superstitions about, 36–38
taxonomy of, 32
Beaver, Hugh, 274
Beecher, Catharine, 322
beets
benefits of, 59–60
Charlemagne and, 57–58
coloration of, 59, 60
hatred of, 54–55
mangel-wurzel, 62–63
medicinal uses of, 57
sugar, 61–62
taxonomy of, 55–56
bell peppers, 228
Benton, Isabella, 324
bergapten, 104
Berkeley, Miles Joseph, 261–262
beta-carotene, 88–89, 90–91, 176, 238, 335
betacyanins, 59, 60
betalains, 59
Beverley, Robert, 249
Bhaba Atomic Research Centre (BARC), 49
biodiversity, 131, 262, 331–332
Birdseye, Clarence, 222
blanching, 101, 105
Block, Eric, 203
blush, 59, 60
Bockenheim, Johannes, 40
Booth, William, 321
Borgel (Pinkwater), 150
Bradley, Richard, 280, 318
Brillat-Savarin, Jean Anthelme, 21–22, 169–170
broccoli, 76–78
Brown, Samuel, 230
Brussels sprouts, 79–80
Buchanan, James, 76
Buist, Robert, 321–322
Burbank, Luther, 263
Burpee, W. Atlee, 62–63, 72–73, 79, 96, 101, 108–109, 145, 171, 186, 301, 325
Burton, Robert, 48, 70
Bush, George W., 77
butterfly people, 127
C
cabbages
Arabidopsis thaliana and, 80
broccoli and, 76–78
Brussels sprouts and, 79–80
cauliflower and, 78–79
chromosomes of, 347
cleanliness of leaves, 73
fruit of, 80
heading, 70
kale, 68
kohlrabi, 68–69
medicinal uses of, 67–68
odor of, 74
sauerkraut and, 75–76
sugar content of, 93
taxonomy of, 69
Caesar, Julius, 14, 70
Calgene, 338
Campbell, Robert, 3
cannibal tomato, 157
cantaloupe, 182–183
Canterbury Tales (Chaucer), 200
capsaicin, 232–236, 239–240
capsanthin, 237–238, 239
Carlsson, Arvid, 38
carotenemia (carotenosis), 90
carotenoids, 88–89, 237–239, 335
carrots
alcohol and, 93
butter and, 90–91
in colonial America, 95–96
coloration of, 87–89, 90–91
cooked vs. raw, 89
love of, 84–85
modern varieties of, 97
parsnips and, 92–93
sweetness of, 91–94
taproots of, 94–95
taxonomy of, 85–86
vision and, 89–90
Carson, Kit, 238
Carter, Landon, 20–21, 136, 282
Cartier, Jacques, 71, 142, 278, 346
Casal, Gaspar, 126–127
Casanova, Giacomo, 102
cassoulet, 40–41
Castellanos, Juan de, 246–247
Castelnaudary, France, 40–41
Castelvetro, Giacomo, 280
Cato the Elder, 67
cauliflower, 78–79
celery, 100–108
chaconine, 250
Champlain, Samuel de, 31, 170, 279
Charlemagne, 57–58, 69, 76, 139, 184, 200, 298
Chavasse, Pye Henry, 244
chicha, 122–123
chili, 238
chlorophyll, 25, 174–176
chlorophyllin, 175
cholera, 5
chuño, 245–246
Cieza de Leon, Pedro, 246
climacteric rise, 334
Cobbett, William, 220–221, 245, 251, 258, 308, 346
Cobo, Bernabé, 230
Colorado potato beetle, 160–161
color-blindness, 89–90
Columbus, Christopher, 30, 114, 142, 170, 216, 226–227
Colwin, Laurie, 46
Combs, Raoul, 245
Contained Environmental Life
Support System (CLESS) program, 80
Cook, James, 75–76
Cooney, Barbara, 9
corn
alcohol and, 113, 122–124
American Indians and, 31
in breakfast cereals, 131–133
breeding of, 128–131
colonists and, 114–115
coloration of, 119–121
domestication of, 116–118
genetic diversity, diseases and, 131
hybrids of, 130–131
Irish potato famine and, 260
mythology of, 117–118
nomenclature of, 114–115
nutritional value of, 126–128
popcorn and, 118–119
processing of, 128
sweetness of, 121–122
taxonomy of, 117
uses of, 112–114
Yellow Dent, 129
Corn Laws, 260
Corn Palaces, 133
Coronado, Francisco, 120, 278
Cortés, Hernando, 315
crop rotation, 37
Crum, George, 266–267
cucubitene, 239
Cucumber King, 139
cucumbers
cultivars of, 145–146, 147
cultivation of, 138–140
dangers of, 137
flavor of, 146
medicinal uses of, 140
nutrients in, 137–138
origin of, 136–137
pickling of, 142–144
straightening of, 145–146
superstitions about, 140–141
cucurbitaceans, 272
cucurbitacins, 146
Cunningham, John, 90
cyanogens, 49–51
D
daikon, 297–298, 301
Dalechamp, Jacques, 153
Dampier, William, 228
Dana, Richard Henry, 256
Darwin, Charles, 129–130
Day, Charles, 126
Defoe, Daniel, 51, 346
Delmonico’s, 155–156
de Mare, Anne, 26
de Medici, Catherine, 41, 77, 216, 307
dent corn, 120–121
De Re Coquinaria. See Apicius
De Re Rustica, 280
desserts, carrots in, 91–92
deterrence, directed, 235
Deyeux, Nicolas, 62
Dick, Herbert W., 116
Dickens, Charles, 244, 311
Diderot, Denis, 244–245
Dill, Howard, 276–277
Dillinger, John, 267
Diogenes, 67
Divers, George, 217
diversity, 131, 262, 331–332
D. Landreth Seed Company, 308–309, 321
Dodoens, Rembert, 117, 152–153, 231
L-dopa, 37–38
Drake, Francis, 247
Dudley, Paul, 272
Durand, Peter, 223
E
Easter Island, 249
Ec
o, Umberto, 34–35
Edgar, Marriott, 22
eggplant
antioxidants in, 158–159
as aphrodisiac, 152
cannibal, 157
coloration of, 157–158
dangerous reputation of, 151, 153–154
domestication of, 150–151
origins of name, 154
potato beetles and, 160–161
varieties of, 159–160
Egyptian onions, 208
Elizabeth I (Queen of England), 42–43, 139, 250–251
Elysium Britannicum (Evelyn), 106–107
endozoochory, 339
Engield, Edward, 124
Erikson, Leif, 31–32
ethylene, 193, 334, 336–337
Evelyn, John, 91–92, 106–107, 166, 169, 184, 201, 307–308
F
famines, 259–261
favism, 34
Ferenczi, Alexander, 59–60
fermentation, 93
Feuerbohne, 48
Fisher, M. F. K., 73–74
flatulence, 48–49
flavonoids, 207, 327
Flexner, Stuart Berg, 70
Florentine Codex, 229
Fontanelle, Bernard le Bovier de, 22–23
Ford, Henry, 85
Forster, John, 256
Francis, Richard, 95
Franklin, Benjamin, 4, 23, 125, 144, 254
free radicals, 50
Fremont, John C., 124
French fries, 265–266
Friedman, Mendel, 317
fruits, vegetables vs., 180–181, 323
Fuchs, Leonhart, 114, 140, 152, 227
G
Galinat, Walton, 125
Gaman, Judith and Walter, 102
gardening, reasons for, 1–2
garlic, 202, 209
genetic engineering, 91, 128, 264, 267, 337–338
geosmin, 55
Gerard, John, 43, 48, 70, 78, 86, 92, 140, 153, 200, 227, 247, 249, 285, 299, 306–307, 317–318, 343, 348
Gibbons, Euell, 19
Glasse, Hannah, 218
Goddard, Benjamin, 47
Goldberger, Joseph, 127
Goldman, Amy, 275
Goodrich, Chauncey, 262
Gosnold, Bartholomew, 216–217
Gould, John, 287
Graham, Gordon, 328
Graham, Sylvester, 5–6
Grant, Ulysses, 142
Gray, Horace, 323
Greene, Bert, 78, 138, 308
Gregory, J. J. H., 263, 286
Grimod de la Renière, Alexandre, 17
Grizzard, Louis, 314
Grove, Hugh, 188
Gruskin, Benjamin, 175
Guggenheim, Marcus, 38
Guinness Book of World Records, 274
Gutenberg, Johann, 252
H
Hamilton, Alexander, 123
Hampl, Jeffrey and William, 127