vegetables

"(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."

"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)."

"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."

"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."

"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.""

"... “,” … —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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

".— 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."

"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."

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

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

"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..."

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

"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.)"

"Brassica oleracea (Q146212) on Wikidata"

"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 on Wikispecies"

"Head of cabbage. (Italian idiom)"

"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)"

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

"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)"

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

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