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History of Vegetable & Fruits

Education, Foods

March 02, 2013

By: Pure History

First Thanksgiving Meal

For many Americans, the Thanksgiving meal includes seasonal dishes such as roast turkey with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. The holiday feast dates back to November 1621, when the newly arrived Pilgrims and the Wampanoag Indians gathered at Plymouth for an autumn harvest celebration, an event regarded as America’s “first Thanksgiving.” But what was really on the menu at the famous banquet, and which of today’s time-honored favorites didn’t earn a place at the table until later  in the holiday’s 400-year history?

Food origins play a role in nutrition and sustainability as foods with common geological origins have a greater tendency to survive and be valued by the locals. Importance in food therapy is also involved, as allergies to certain foods can be attributed to race. In this way it’s a part of the local food movement. An example would be lactose intolerance among Polynesians and Native Americans who were not accustomed to breeding cattle as much as Europeans. Combined with seasonal cooking, food origins can be used in predicting the tendency of ingredients to work well together, like wine and cheese or rice and tofu. Some foods have a tendency to develop with predominant civilizations like Chinese herbs in Asia and fertile crescent agriculture in the Middle East. Many culinary fruits have global origins, especially berries, more so than vegetables. Fowl are also common on many different continents, like geese and ducks. Different variations of vegetables can be found on different continents, like yams in Africa and potatoes in South America. Another example would be walnuts in Europe and pecans in North America.

America

Various squashes such as Turban, Sweet Dumpling, Carnival, Gold Acorn, Delicata, Buttercup and Golden Nugget.

Corn, beans and squash were domesticated in Mesoamerica around 3500 BCE. Potatoesand manioc were domesticated in South America. In what is now the eastern United States, Native Americans domesticated sunflower, sumpweed and goosefoot around 2500 BCE.
Ancient American Crops

Cereals Maize (corn), maygrass, and little barley
Pseudocereals Amaranth, quinoa, erect knotweed, sumpweed, and sunflowers
Pulses Common beans, tepary beans, scarlet runner beans, lima beans, and

peanuts
Fiber Cotton, yucca, and agave
Roots and Tubers Jicama, manioc (cassava), potatoes, sweet potatoes, sunchokes, oca,

mashua, ulloco, arrowroot, yacon, leren, and groundnuts
Fruits Tomatoes, chili peppers, avocados, cranberries, blueberries, huckleberries, cherimoyas,

papayas, pawpaws, passionfruit, pineapples,

soursops and strawberries
Melons Squashes
Meat and poultry turkey, bison, muscovy ducks, dogs and guinea pigs
Nuts Peanuts, black walnuts, shagbark hickory, pecans and hickory nuts
Other Chocolate, Canna, tobacco, Chicle, rubber, maple syrup, birch syrup and vanilla

List of culinary vegetables

This is a list of plants that have a culinary role as vegetables. “Vegetable” can be used in several senses, including culinary, botanical and legal. This list includes botanical fruits such as pumpkins, and does not include herbs, spices, cereals and mostculinary fruits and culinary nuts. Currently, edible fungi are not included on this list. Legal vegetables are defined for regulatory, tax and other purposes. Examples include tomatoes, which are a botanical berry, but a culinary vegetable for US tax purposes, and even tomato sauce as found on pizza, which is considered a vegetable for use in school lunches in the US.

Some culinary vegetables (like laver) are not even members of the plant kingdom, although mushrooms and other fungi are kept off the list for this reason.

Leafy and salad vegetables – Main article: List of leaf vegetables

Garden Cress

Iceberg lettuce field in Northern Santa Barbara County

Spinach in flower

Miner’s lettuce

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_food_origins

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