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Growing Instructions

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  • The Pepper

    Mar 02, 2016 Categories: Growing Instructions

    The Pepper - A Little History and Some Growing Instructions Sweet and hot peppers are indigenous to Central and South America. They have been cultivated since prehistoric times. Archaeologists have found chili peppers at sites dating to 7000 BC. The Aztecs, Incans and Mayans all cultivated peppers. The Aztecs had at least seven different words for hot peppers. We derive the term chili pepper from some of the Aztec words for hot pepper. The Incas used peppers as a form of currency. Columbus named the peppers he saw growing in the West Indies, pimiento, because he thought they were the pimienta, spice pepper, grown in the East Indies. He was painfully surprised to find out that the West Indian peppers were incredibly hot. On his several voyages to

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  • The Peanut

    Mar 02, 2016 Categories: Growing Instructions

    The Peanut - A Little History and Some Growing Instructions Peanuts are native to the Amazon Basin area of South America and have been a staple of the diet of the South Americans for thousands of years. As long as people have been making pottery in South America, pots shaped like peanuts have been created and decorated with peanut images. Graves of ancient Incans found along the dry west coast of South America have contained jars filled with peanuts for the dead. In the 15 th century, Portuguese explorers brought the peanut to Europe, India and China. The Spanish introduced the peanut into Africa where is quickly became popular. The Africans brought the peanut to America by way of the slave ships. The slang expression for peanut,

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  • The Pea

    Mar 02, 2016 Categories: Growing Instructions

    The Pea - A Little History and Some Growing Instructions Peas, along with beans and grains, are among the earliest of all cultivated vegetables. Evidence of peas have been found in lake mud beneath the site of houses created by Bronze Age Swiss lake dwellers that is over 5000 years old. Peas have also been found at a prehistoric cave site in Hungary that is believed to be much older than the Swiss site. Interestingly, no evidence of peas has been found at ancient Egyptian sites, but peas have been found in the ruins of the ancient site of Troy. The Aryans of Western Asia introduced the pea to the Greeks and Romans, but neither civilization held the pea in high regard. It was only after the

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  • The Parsnip

    Mar 02, 2016 Categories: Growing Instructions

    The Parsnip - A Little History and Some Growing Instructions Parsnips have been cultivated for their sweet roots since ancient times. The Romans frequently grew the vegetables. In fact, Emperor Tiberius adored parsnips and, every year, had them brought from France where the colder climate allowed the roots to develop a sweeter flavor. The British are particularly fond of parsnips. It was British colonists that introduced the vegetable into the New World in 1609. Parsnips are native to Europe, but they have been introduced throughout the world, and because they are so hardy, they now grow wild having escaped from cultivated gardens in many areas. Parsnips are such aggressive naturalizers that it was noted in 1848 that, “The Parsnip is a native of Europe. Having been introduced here,

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  • The Parsley

    Mar 02, 2016 Categories: Growing Instructions

    The Parsley - A Little History and Some Growing Instructions Parsley is the world’s most popular herb. The name, parsley, means rock celery. Parsley is, in fact, related to celery. Parsley is native to the Mediterranean region of southern Europe and has been cultivated for more than 2000 years. It has been used for medicinal purposes since prehistoric times. The Romans were familiar with both the flat and curled leaved varieties. The Greeks held the herb to be sacred and used it to crown the heads of athletic contest winners and for decorating the tombs of the deceased. During the Middle Ages, perhaps because of Charlemagne who grew the herb on his estates, parsley began to be used as a seasoning. In some countries, curly leaved parsley is

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  • The Onion

    Mar 02, 2016 Categories: Growing Instructions

    The Onion - A Little History and Some Growing Instructions The origin of onions like the origin of garlic is buried in antiquity. It is known that onions were grown in Ancient Egypt and that eventually they arrived in Rome. It was in Rome that they were given the name unio, which means large pearl. Unio became unyon in Middle English when the Romans introduced the onion into the British Isles. The status of the onion rose substantially after French Onion Soup was made popular by Stanislaus I, the former King of Poland. The Bermuda onion was first listed by Peter Henderson & Co. in 1888 as the White Bermuda. Yet in a 1890 catalogue it said that although shipped as White Bermuda it really “had quite a yellowish

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  • The Okra

    Mar 02, 2016 Categories: Growing Instructions

    The Okra - A Little History and Some Growing Instructions Okra is a beautiful ornamental plant which produces flowers which resemble hollyhock or hibiscus blossoms as well as a delicious and nutritious vegetable. Okra most likely originated in northeast Africa where okra plants can be found growing wild along the banks of the White Nile River and where it has been part of the cuisine for thousands of years. The name, “okra”, comes from the West African Ashanti word, “nkruma”, and its Cajun name, “gumbo”, comes from the Bantu word, “ngombo”. Okra was brought to the United States in the 1660s by slaves. Okra grows best in warm, humid weather and requires full sun. In more temperate climates, to grow okra, the seed must be started indoors, 4-6 weeks

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  • The Mustard

    Mar 02, 2016 Categories: Growing Instructions

    The Mustard - A Little History and Some Growing Instructions Mustard is yet another member of the brassica family, a huge family of vegetables, all of which developed from the wild cabbage and include cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, kale, collards, turnips and Brussels sprouts. Mustard probably originated somewhere in eastern Asia and has been cultivated for nearly 3000 years in central Asia, the Himalayas, India, Russia and China. Mustard leaves when harvested young range in taste from mild to peppery to hot and pungent and are an excellent salad green.   Mature mustard leaves need to be cooked, either steamed or stir-fried. Unlike, most of its brassica cousins which are cool season crops, mustard can tolerate warm and humid growing conditions. Mustard should be direct seeded in early to mid-spring

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  • The Melon and the Watermelon

    Mar 02, 2016 Categories: Growing Instructions

    The Melon and the Watermelon - A Little History and Some Growing Instructions Melons are native to the continent of Africa. Many wild forms of melons and watermelons can still be found there today. Though it is not known when melons were first cultivated, it is believed that prehistoric man may have gathered and saved the seeds of the sweetest melons, and this practice lead to cultivation. Seeds and wall paintings found in Egyptian tombs indicate that melons and watermelons were under cultivation in Egypt at least 4000 years ago. Melons were introduced into Asia about 3000 years ago. The melon became immensely popular in the region that includes Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, India, south and central Russia, China and Japan. The Greeks and Romans most likely introduced the

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  • The Lettuce and the Mesclun

    Mar 02, 2016 Categories: Growing Instructions

    The Lettuce and the Mesclun - A Little History and Some Growing Instructions Lettuce appears to have been domesticated from a weedy species of wild lettuce that produced lettuce leaves on the top of a tall stem. Evidence which supports this theory comes from Egyptian tomb paintings dating back 4500 years which show bundles of stem lettuce being transported. The first written accounts describing lettuce are from Herodotus, who wrote that lettuce appeared on the royal tables in Persia in 550 BC. The Greeks, including Hippocrates, ascribed medicinal properties to lettuce, and the Romans wrote extensively about it including Pliny who described nine varieties grown in Roman agriculture. It was probably the Romans who introduced lettuce into northern and western Europe. The Romans popularized a tall cylindrical form

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