Vegetables

"I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness ; to be dissolved into something complete and great."

"We fancy men are individuals; so are pumpkins; but every pumpkin in the field, goes through every point of pumpkin history."

"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion."

"If I could be a vegetable, I'd be a pumpkin. It's realistically the only vegetable you can use as a weapon, or in any manner of defense."

"I don't know how to tell it—but ef such a thing could be As the angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me— I'd want to 'commodate 'em—all the whole-indurin' flock— When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock."

"And the Creole of Cuba laughs out to behold, Through orange leaves shining the broad spheres of gold."

"O,—fruit loved of boyhood!—the old days recalling, When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling! When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin, Glaring out through the dark with a candle within! When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune, Our chair a broad pumpkin,—our lantern the moon, Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!"

"Soy protein products can be good substitutes for animal products because, unlike some other beans, soy offers a 'complete' protein profile. … Soy protein products can replace animal-based foods—which also have complete proteins but tend to contain more fat, especially saturated fat—without requiring major adjustments elsewhere in the diet."

"We should increase our development of alternative fuels, taking advantage of renewable resources, like using corn and sugar to produce ethanol or soybeans to produce biodiesel."

"The herbicide known as 2,4-D has had limited use in corn and soybean farming because it becomes toxic to the plants early in their growth. The new seeds would let farmers use the weed killer throughout the plants’ lives."

"Farmers have been eager for a new generation of herbicide-resistant seeds because of the prevalence of weeds that have become immune to Monsanto’s Roundup. But skeptics are concerned that use of the new seeds and 2,4-D will only lead to similar problems as weeds acquire resistance to that chemical too."

"Inhabitants of underdeveloped nations and victims of natural disasters are the only people who have ever been happy to see soybeans."

"The ancient Asian practice of fermenting soybeans and eating soy in the form of curds called tofu makes a healthy diet from a plant that eaten almost any other way would make people ill. The soybean itself is a notably inauspicious staple food; it contains a whole assortment of "antinutrients"—compounds that actually block the body's absorption of vitamins and minerals, interfere with the hormonal system, and prevent the body from breaking down the proteins in the soy itself. It took the food cultures of Asia to figure out how to turn this unpromising plant into a highly nutritious food."

"American farmers produced 600 more calories per person per day in 2000 than they did in 1980. But some calories got cheaper than others: Since 1980, the price of sweeteners and added fats (most of them derived, respectively, from subsidized corn and subsidized soybeans), dropped 20 percent, while the price of fresh fruits and vegetables increased by 40 percent"

"Corn is an efficient way to get energy calories off the land and soybeans are an efficient way of getting protein off the land, so we've designed a food system that produces a lot of cheap corn and soybeans resulting in a lot of cheap fast food."

"I have the right to do whatever I wish with my property. If I own a pile of wood, I can set fire to it even if it is currently nailed together in the shape of a barn. Cigarettes may not be healthy for me in the long run, but I have the freedom to smoke them anyway. Drinking alcohol may or may not have negative side effects, but even if it does, the government has no authority to prohibit you from consuming it, even if it is "in your own best interest." Since when do we let the government decide what is or isn't good for us? What the hell does Congress know about nutrition, anyway? (For that matter, what does Congress know about the Constitution?) If the government can use force whenever something is "in our best interest" then government should force everyone to wake up at 7am every morning for calisthenics in the front yard. Fast food establishments should be torn down and replaced with bars that serve carrot juice and alfalfa sprouts, since—"it's in your best interest." This paternalistic attitude that "the government knows best" and that you are merely a helpless child is insulting and reprehensible. Hitler used the same attitude to persuade the Germans to subjugate themselves to the "Fatherland.""

"Vladimir: Was I sleeping, while the others suffered? Am I sleeping now? Tomorrow, when I wake, or think I do, what shall I say of today? That with Estragon my friend, at this place, until the fall of night, I waited for Godot? That Pozzo passed, with his carrier, and that he spoke to us? Probably. But in all that what truth will there be? [Estragon, having struggled with his boots in vain, is dozing off again. Vladimir looks at him.] He'll know nothing. He'll tell me about the blows he received and I'll give him a carrot. [Pause.] Astride of a grave and a difficult birth. Down in the hole, lingeringly, the grave digger puts on the forceps. We have time to grow old. The air is full of our cries. [He listens.] But habit is a great deadener. [He looks again at Estragon.] At me too someone is looking, of me too someone is saying, He is sleeping, he knows nothing, let him sleep on. [Pause.] I can't go on! [Pause.] What have I said?"

"Yes, a bunch of carrots, observed directly, painted simply in the personal way one sees it, worth more than the Ecole’s everlasting slices of buttered bread, that tobacco-juice painting, slavishly done by the book? The day is coming when a single original carrot will give birth to a revolution"

"From that day on, we was always together. Jenny and me was like peas and carrots."

"If carrots got you drunk, rabbits would be fucked up."

"When The Carrot is done with you, you will be nothing but a kumquat!"

"And as we descended, cries of impending doom rose from the soil. One thousand, nay a million voices full of fear. And terror possesed me then. And I begged, "Angel of the Lord, what are these tortured screams?" And the angel said unto me, "These are the cries of the carrots, the cries of the carrots! You see, Reverend Maynard, tomorrow is harvest day and to them it is the holocaust." And I sprang from my slumber drenched in sweat like the tears of one million terrified brothers and roared, "Hear me now, I have seen the light! They have a consciousness, they have a life, they have a soul! Damn you! Let the rabbits wear glasses! Save our brothers!""

"I didn't climb to the top of the fuckin' food chain to eat carrots."

"Cabbage is the one that surpasses all other vegetables; It can be eaten both cooked and raw. (Marcus Porcius Cato)"

"Cabbage (s.m.). A vegetable familiar to our gardens and kitchens, about as big and wise as a man's head. (Ambrose Bierce)"

"There must be a reason why cabbage was chosen to fake the generation site. (Gesualdo Bufalino)"

"The military doctors of the Roman Empire had planned the diet of legionnaires to be invincible against the barbarians: cabbage against red meat, victory assured as with the magic potion of Asterix and Obelix. (Mario Pappagallo)"

"Cabbage is good as food and chard as a remedy. (Talmud)"

"Indole-tre-carbinol, a substance found in cabbage and related vegetables, is a powerful shield against certain female cancers. They are inexpensive vegetables and should be eaten every day even if, most likely, not everyone likes the taste of cabbage. (A caress to heal)"

"Head of cabbage. (Italian idiom)"

"Go and plant cabbage."

"Save goat and cabbage."

"Head of cabbage."

"Reheated cabbage was never good."

"Cavol reheated and garzon returned, it was never good."

"Whoever puts the hell out of April, all year round he laughs at it."

"Cauliflower"

"Brassica oleracea (Q146212) on Wikidata"

"Brassica oleracea on Wikispecies"

"They sowed the duller vegetables first, and a pleasant feeling of righteous fatigue stole over them as they addressed themselves to the peas."

"My vegetable Love should grow Vaster than Empires, and more slow."

"See dying vegetables life sustain, See life dissolving vegetate again; All forms that perish other forms supply; (By turns we catch the vital breath and die.)"

"Peas and beans are as dank here as a dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the bots."

"Hence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek."

"And now, folks, get a load of what our cameraman found in Ecuador. Vegetables on vacation! You've only seen this kind of thing after a party, but down in sunny Ecuador they see it any time—and no hangover to follow! Monster plants on the march! Say, now, that's given me a big idea! Maybe if we can educate our potatoes right we can fix it so they'll walk right into the pot."

"La manie des Pommes de terre."

"When people live on poor vegetables instead of roast beef and plum-pudding, their jaws grow large, and their lips grow coarse, like the poor Paddies who eat potatoes."

"In the matter of ‘roots’, especially potatoes, the Gaffer was recognized as the leading authority by all in the neighbourhood (including himself)."

"Sam: What we need is a few good taters. Gollum: What's "taters", precious? What's "taters", eh? Sam: Po-ta-toes! Boil em, mash em, stick 'em in a stew. Lovely big golden chips with a nice piece of fried fish."

"We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: But now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes."

"Among us there are two principal varieties known of the onion; the scallion, employed for seasonings, is one, known to the Greeks by the name of gethyon, and by us as the pallacana; it is sown in March, April, and May. The other kind is the bulbed or headed onion; it is sown just after the autumnal equinox, or else after the west winds have begun to prevail. The varieties of this last kind, ranged according to their relative degrees of pungency, are the African onion, the Gallic, the Tusculan, the Ascalonian, and the Amiternian: the roundest in shape are the best. The red onion, too, is more pungent than the white, the stored than the fresh, the raw than the cooked, and the dried than the preserved."

"Orrum et caepe nefas violare et frangere morsu; o sanctas gentes quibus haec nascuntur in hortis numina!"

"Wel loved he garleek, oynons, and eek lekes."

"And, most dear actors, eat no onions nor garlick, for we are to utter sweet breath."

"And if the boy have not a woman’s gift To rain a shower of commanded tears, An onion will do well for such a shift, Which, in a napkin being close convey’d, Shall in despite enforce a watery eye."

"Mine eyes smell onions; I shall weep anon."

"The tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow."

"Look, they weep, And I, an ass, am onion-eyed."

"Whoever has tasted onions in Egypt must allow that none can be had better in any other part of the universe: here they are sweet; in other countries they are nauseous and strong. They eat them roasted, cut into four pieces, with some bits of roasted meat which the Turks in Egypt call kebab; and with this dish they are so delighted that I have heard them wish they might enjoy it in Paradise. They likewise make a soup of them."

"Shrek: Ogres are like onions! Donkey: They stink? Shrek: No! Donkey: Oh, they make you cry? Shrek: No! Donkey: Oh, you leave 'em out in the sun and they start turnin' brown and start sproutin' little white hairs... Shrek: No! Layers! Onions have layers. Ogres have layers..."

"HOLLAND BOILED TURNIP Turnips, cut in ¾-inch dice, 1 . , 1. , ½ cup. , large, 1. Boil the turnips till tender in just enough salted water to prevent burning; drain and set in a covered dish on the side of the range, where they will keep hot but not burn. Melt the butter, add the beaten yolk with the eggs, juice the lemon, and a little salt. Serve a spoonful of this sauce over each order of turnip."

"If the tale of agricultural improvement could be told in say two syllables, it would be those which spell turnips. To ask a farmer now-a-days to farm without turnips, would be like asking the of old to make bricks without straw; and yet there was a time, and not so far back in the history of this country, when turnips were as great a novelty as was in our own day. There were no turnips at no very remote period. Turnip husbandry is later than our first . ... ... Turnips are the raw material of beef and mutton. Turnips have made us for a very great part of the year independent of grass, and have enabled us to go on feeding the whole year round. ... But the good of turnip husbandry is not by any means confined to the production of beef and mutton. Turnips make , and manure makes corn. Turnips really and truly mean everything. Get but turnips, and all other things are added, or rather implied. The great value of guano and other portable manures is in enabling turnips to be grown. No man can tell how much turnip husbandry has augmented our annual product of corn."

"As well as adopting the new s, European s increased production by bringing more land under cultivation and developing new agricultural techniques. In particular, they introduced crop rotations involving clover and turnips (most famously, in Britain, the of turnips, , , and ). Turnips were grown on land that would otherwise have been left fallow, and then fed to animals, whose manure enhanced the barley yields the following year. Feeding animals with turnips also meant that land used for pasture could instead be used to grow crops for human consumption."

".— One of my neighbours shot a on an evening as it was returning from feed and going to roost. When his wife had picked and drawn it, she found its stuffed with the most nice and tender tops of turnips. These she washed and boiled, and so sat down to a choice and delicate plate of greens, culled and provided in this extraordinary manner."

"Called kailyards in Scotland and known as potagers in France (sounds fancy, right?), a kitchen garden is a place connected with your kitchen and everyday life. It's a distinct area of your home and landscape where vegetables, fruits, and herbs are grown for culinary use. A kitchen garden can be as small as a collection of or it can be as large as a formal stone garden that covers hundreds of square feet. No matter the size, the purpose is the same: a garden that's tended regularly and used frequently in everyday meals. ... At the very least, kitchen gardens can provide all the herbs you'll need year-round (either cut fresh or dried and stored). Beyond that, kitchen gardens can yield most the greens you and your family eat. And greater still, kitchen gardens can provide large amounts of beans, peppers, squash, cucumbers, and other fresh vegetable in the height of their season as well as opportunity for preserved foods for even the coldest winters."

"In breaking up a piece of grass land, you have at least the advantage of your idea of what a kitchen garden should be. You can make your boundaries and walks, and the forms and sizes of the several plots and plantations in accordance with your own theory of a perfect garden, so far at least as the extent of the grounds, the nature of the soil, and other inevitable conditions will allow. Now in this case the two matters of vital importance are the boundaries and the drainage."

"The vegetable garden has a long timeline and a curious history, quite as compelling as that of any . And with world famous kitchen gardens such as , the home of the American president Thomas Jefferson, in Virginia; in Cornwall; Winston Churchill's in Kent; and in France, home grown vegetables have become as fashionable as they are fresh."

"... “,” … —a documentary miniseries produced, in 1987, for — … had been something of a sensation at the time of its release. It follows a master gardener, , through his yearlong attempt to revive the long-fallow walled garden of , a country estate in , using entirely Victorian-era plants, tools, and methods. Each of the series’ thirteen parts (an introductory episode, and then one for each calendar month, January through December) is narrated, on- and offscreen, by Peter Thoday, a mustachioed horticulturist whose elbow-patched tweeds and air of perpetual wonderment harmonize wonderfully with Dodson, a plainspoken sixty-something man with cheeks as pink as rhubarb, who drops his “H”s and works the soil in a shirt and tie."

"Cauliflower belongs to the species ' L. Floral biology and artificial pollination techniques, self-incompatibility, and hybrid breeding are some conventional breeding methods used for cauliflower. ... Brassica oleracea is a species with 2n = 18. All forms of the species, its Chinese crop relative, and several wild relatives share the same and are interfertile. ... Breeding in cauliflower is done for curd quality, curd dimensions, flavor, and resistance to pests and diseases and other environmental stresses."

"Cauliflowers, in name at least, are older than the s, and were brought to a high state of development and widely distributed before the latter are mentioned in history. They were grown in the Mediterranean region long before they became known in other parts of Europe. ... states that three varieties of cauliflower were known in Spain in the twelfth century. In 1565 the cauliflower is reported as being extensively grown in Hayti in the New World. In 1573-1575, , while traveling in the East, found the cauliflower cultivated at Aleppo, in Turkey. It seems to have been introduced into England from the Island of Cyprus, and it is mentioned by , in 1586, under the name of "Cyprus coleworts.""

"TO BOIL CAULIFLOWER WITH PARMESAN. Boil a cauliflower, drain it on a sieve, and cut it into convenient-sized pieces, arrange these pieces in a pudding-basin so as to make them resemble a cauliflower on the dish, season it as you proceed, turn it on the dish, then cover it with a sauce made of grated , , and the seasoned with , , salt, and , and put parmesan grated over it; bake for twenty minutes and brown it."

"ASPARAGUS 1 box frozen cut asparagus 2 Tb butter in a skillet 2 Tb salt Salt and pepper Allow the asparagus to thaw until the pieces separate from each other. Then drop into 4 quarts of rapidly boiling water. Add 2 s salt, bring rapidly back to the boil uncovered for 3 or 4 minutes, until asparagus is barely tender. Drain. If not to be served immediately, run cold water over asparagus to stop the cooking and set the fresh color and texture. Several minutes before serving, toss gently in 2 tablespoons hot butter to finish cooking. Season to taste with salt and pepper."

"The usual method of preparing asparagus pursued by the Roman cooks was to select the finest sprouts and to dry them. When wanted for the table they were put in hot water and cooked a few minutes. To this practice is owing one of Emperor Augustus's favorite sayings: "Citius quam asparagi coquentur" (Do it quicker than you can cook asparagus)."

"(Asparagus officinalis) is one of the world’s top 20 vegetable crops. Both green and white shoots (spears) are produced; the latter being harvested before becoming exposed to light. The crop is grown in nearly all areas of the world, with the largest production regions being China, , North America and Peru. Successful production demands high farmer input and specific environmental conditions and cultivation practices. Asparagus materials have also been used for centuries as . Despite this widespread cultivation and consumption, we still know relatively little about the biochemistry of this crop and how this relates to the nutritional, flavour, and neutra-pharmaceutical properties of the materials used. To date, no-one has directly compared the contrasting compositions of the green and white crops."