Orange ya glad I didn't say banana again?

“A man is not an orange. You can't eat the fruit and throw the peel away!” Willie Loman
The orange is actually a berry, for they have many seeds, called pips, fleshy pulp and derive from a single ovary. The citrus genus of berries is classed as hesperidia, which denotes a berry with a rough skin of oil filled glands encasing segments, or carpels, with juice-filled vesicles, which are really specialized hair cells. Most sources say the orange came from around China, paleontologists have found seeds as old as 20 million years; cultivated oranges appeared as early as 2500 B.C. The bitter orange was known in ancient Rome through her eastern conquests, but didn’t begin to spread throughout Europe until the Moorish conquests of the 11th century. Orange cultivation exploded near the end of the 15th century as sweet varieties made their way from India. Almost all citrus easily interbreeds to form many varieties, ranging from bitter to sour to sweet. Brazil has become the largest producer of oranges and orange juice, doubling the output of #2 U.S.A. The navel is the result of mutation at a Brazilian monastery, which are easy to peel and have few seeds. Valencias and Hamlins are popular sweet juicing oranges; blood oranges have a deep burgundy to slightly red tinged flesh.

If junk food is the devil, then a sweet orange is as scripture. Audrey Foris

Is that a grapefruit in your pocket, or ...

“So far I've always kept my diet secret but now I might as well tell everyone what it is. Lots of grapefruit throughout the day and plenty of virile young men at night." Angie Dickinson

Your grapefruit or mine? Legend has it that the grapefruit is the result of a happy accident: in the late 17th Century, a Captain Shaddock brought some pummelos to the West Indies which crossed with citrus, probably oranges, that had been growing in the region and hybridized into the grapefruit – Columbus was known to have carried limes in his stores to the New World to ward off scurvy, and other citrus followed. In the 1750s the “forbidden fruit” of Barbados was described to the western world called the small shaddock by many and botanically as the Citrus Paradisi; the popular name grapefruit appeared from the fact that the fruits grow in clusters like grapes. Pink and Red grapefruit varieties began to appear in Florida groves in the early 20th century and are now among the most popular varieties. The grapefruit has become more popular then the pummelo from whence it came for several reasons: the rind is much thinner, yielding more meat for its size, it’s smaller making it more single serving size and more sweet hybrids have been developed. Incidentally, the bitterness of the grapefruit is largely contained in the membranes around the sections and is often removed to reveal the sweeter juice sacs inside. And when frozen, these sacs rupture to impart pulpiness and bitterness to juice.

There is a lot more juice in a grapefruit than meets the eye… Anonymous

He eats anything. Live animals, dead animals, rocks, lightbulbs, corkscrews, battery cables, cranberries...

“Well, art is art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now, uh... Now you tell me what you know.”
Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding

Cranberries have been around for a long time - foraged for by Arctic nomads for millennia - but there are many American growing associations who insist they originated in North America. Native Americans partook of their tartness and were good enough to share them with the starving English settlers in Massachusetts in 1620, which is likely how they came to be part of the Thanksgiving repast. Since they had not seen the fruit before, the pilgrims assumed that they were obviously from a native plant. There is a popular myth that there are three fruits native to North America – the cranberry, which is found wild in ancient Russia and Scotland, along with the Concord grape (a hybrid) and the blueberry (known to Pliny and Virgil by other names) – though the blueberry is related to the Huckleberry of which a 13,000-year-old plant lives in Pennsylvania. There are real health benefits to the cranberry: high in vitamin C, low in calories, high in fiber and potassium.
The name we use morphed from “craneberry”: the flower resembles a crane and more likely because cranes love ‘em. Native New England tribes used them to flavor their pemmican – a wonderful concoction of meat, fat, and fruit, preserved by drying, to savor through the long winter months. This was such an important food product that the North West Company and the Hudson Bay Company fought the Pemmican War, which began in 1814, ending when the HBC absorbed the NWC in 1821. Kind of jerky, huh?

Cranberry sauce is yay-high, shaped like a can.
Kevin Burke

Cauliflower by any other name, but a rose is a rose is a...

“Green Eggs and Ham was the story of my life. I wouldn't eat a thing when I was a kid, but Dr. Seuss inspired me to try cauliflower.” Jim Carrey
Cauliflower by any other name, but a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose… or is it? The cauliflower is one of the many varieties of the cabbage, Brassica oleracea, which include broccoli, Brussels sprouts, collards, and kohlrabi among the kinfolk. It is believed to have evolved in Asia Minor more than 2000 years ago, possibly as a primitive form of broccoli; China is the world’s largest producer, followed by India and southern Europe. In order for the heads to remain white, the leaves must cover the heads and keep out sunlight, which can cause the curd-like inflorescences to become bitter. From the latin caulis, which means to have grown from a woody stem, there are some wonderful cultivars that may have originated in Italy, though claimed by others. Purple cauliflower appeared in the early 19th century, a hybridized broccoli developed in Italy and South Africa; broccoflower has many camps: many Dutch and German horticulturist claim it is really Romanesco, in France, Chou Romanesco, more a broccoli masquerading as a cauliflower; in Italy, there is Broccoli Romanesco, which is more likely from northern Italy than Rome, but popular in Rome, nonetheless; orange cauliflower appeared, growing wild in Canadian marshes, in the 1970s and is very high in beta carotene.

“Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.” Mark Twain

Cabbage is cool!

"Cabbage: A vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head."
Ambrose Bierce
Cabbage is cool! Isn’t it amazing how many great foods come from the cabbage? There are many wonderful varieties of cabbage: green, red, Savoy, nappa, bok choy, kales and collards.
Cabbage has been known for 4 millennia in the Orient, some of the earliest pickling recipes come from the nomadic horsemen of the Asian steppes: it was used to feed the throngs needed to build the Great Wall, because it retained freshness long enough to transport it across the barren expanse and feed the construction workers. Later, the invading Mongols and Huns spread it throughout Europe inspiring talk of cabbages and kings; Louis XIV asked his master gardener what he would like on his coat of arms, to which he replied “Sire, three snails topped by a cabbage stalk would be enough for me."
There are also many interesting vegetables that have come from developing characteristics of the stages of cabbage growth: early cabbages were leafy, possibly from the mustard and kales; bulbous roots were developed into kohlrabies; as a shaft grew up from the base, the small heads of Brussels sprouts were coaxed into being; as the plant went to seed we got the cauliflower and broccoli school kids love to hate; and as if this weren’t enough breeders came up with broccoflower, broccolini, and rapini. If this seems a bit windy, when preparing these veggies, some say: boil, toss the water, proceed with cooking as usual, and your company will be more pleasant.
"The time has come," the walrus said, "to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings” Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll

Love dem Alligator Pears!

We don't care if these girls want to eat their men. That's the Piranha Man's problem. We just want the avocados. Ford Maddox in “Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death”
Avocados are among the most nutritious fruits in the world, rich in potassium, B and E vitamins, monounsaturated fats, as well as compounds with anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties. A native to Mexico that traveled throughout the tropics of the New World, Martín Fernández de Enciso first introduced the avocado to the Old World in his 1519 book Suma de Geografía, in which he modestly described the geography of the world. The name is derived from the Aztec ahuacatl, the “testicle fruit“, which describes the masculine characteristics of the fruit; ahuacamolli, a sauce of the avocado gave rise to the Spanish word guacamole. The trees need warmth and sunshine to bear fruit; even slight frosts can cause the stems to be too weak to support the fruit, which grow in pairs from a single stem. The avocado is a climacteric fruit, which means that it matures on the tree but ripens off the tree. The fruit must be kept at 28-32 degrees to inhibit ripening; above 32 degrees ethylene gas is produced and ripening proceeds.

“There are not many references to the avocado in Icelandic literature…" Matthew James Driscoll.

If that don’t beet all!

“Beet ever so onion there snow peas legume.” Margaret Thornley
If that don’t beet all! The beet has been an important food source since antiquity, adorning Egyptian temple walls circa 2000 B.C. Growing wild throughout the Mediterranean and Europe, it was generally more appreciated for what grew above the ground than below, giving us various chards and spinaches. Hippocrates used the leaves for binding wounds and its medicinal uses begat food recipes in Apicius, the fourth century book of Roman cookery. The root of the beet began to come into esteem in the 16th century as the “Roman” beet was developed, though the Britons knew only the red and long red until 1800. Napoleon was the champion of the beet: the English blockades of France successfully kept sugar off of French palates until 1811 when the Emperor was presented with two loaves of bread made with beet sugar; by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, nearly 300 mills were churning out beet sugar - beet Sugar accounts for nearly 30% of the world’s sugar and an astounding 90% of European sugar. Among the most popular varieties of beets are the red, gold and candy-striped varieties, both mature and “baby” beets adorn tables. Delicious hot or cold they are high in fiber, folic acid and antioxidants. So, if you can’t beet ‘em, join ‘em.
The beet was Rasputin's favorite vegetable. You could see it in his eyes. Tom Robbins

This Spud's for You!

"I have made a lot of mistakes falling in love, and regretted most of them, but never the potatoes that went with them."Nora Ephron, Heartburn
This Spud's for You! Isn’t it interesting that some of our favorite foods can kill us if we're not careful with them? The potato is one of those vegetables that come to us from the nightshade family that gives us the eggplant, the tomato. The leaves are poisonous and if left too long in the light, the skin greens and produces solanine, which can be harmful to some people.
Fortunately for us, people who couldn’t really pick and choose what they would eat found that animals native to the Peruvian Andes found the tubers of these plants were edible and followed them to the source over 7000 years ago. Spanish Conquistadors brought them to the Old World in the 16th century; initially, the patata was condemned, but it began to achieve some popularity because its vitals grew underground and were less likely to be reaped by foragers in times of war or pestilence.
Speaking of warriors, legend has it that Sir Walter Raleigh did much to popularize the tater everywhere he went: England, Ireland, and Roanoke. By the time he’d lost his head over his controversial politics, much of Europe had fallen head over heels for the pomme de terre garnering much of the acreage formerly afforded to wheat.
Potatoes are now hitting the market in many colors - white, brown, yellow, pink, red and purple, and shapes – from petite fingerling to new round to football-sized russets. Enjoy them any way you like: boiled, mashed, baked, in salads, roasted or fried!
"It’s easy to halve the potato where there is love." Irish Proverb

Garlic makes it good!

Garlic: From Dracula to pasta, herb reeks of history.
Hackensack (NJ) Record
Garlic makes it good! Just ask a garlic aficionado; there are dozens of festivals throughout the world that celebrate this pungent bulb. Over history, garlic has been reviled and revered. The patricians had disdain for the stinking garlic-eating plebeians; to enter the temple of Cybele, one had to pass a breath test; King Alfonso de Castille forbade his knights to speak for a week if they dared to partake of the “stinking rose”. It has fed the Israelites and slaves of Khufu who built the great pyramid. Even the evil ones who dwelt among us weren’t immune to its power, ask any vampire to enter a room where its braids are hung. It is also said that when Satan left the Garden of Eden, garlic grew from his left footprint and onions grew from the right. But today, over half a million pounds are grown annually in California; half of this total is exported worldwide.
Now, the most important question… when should garlic be added to a recipe? Some say don’t cook it too long or it becomes weak and bitter, so add it to the end of the recipe, some say it should go along with the mirepoix, some devotees say it should be introduced several times during the preparation. All I know is, if you’re cooking with garlic, don’t call me late for dinner.
What garlic is to food, insanity is to art.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens

If it ain't got okra it ain't gumbo...

I don't see how you can make tomato soup without tomatoes.I don't see how you can make gumbo without gumbo (okra). Edlin User (blogger)
If it ain't got okra it ain't gumbo. Rice and okra tie the Carolinas and the Louisiana swamps together - many crops that were grown in the coastal Carolinas migrated to La. & Texas after the Civil War. Okra came to the New World with the slave trade; it was such an important part of the culture, the seeds adorned the hairdos of the kidnapped people. As the slaves’ foods became part of the diet of the land, Native Americans began to use it to thicken their stews instead of ground sassafras root, which is known as file’. The West African word for the vegetable was nkruma, which became okra; Swahili name for the plant was “ gumbo” and so it became the name for stews using it in the southern U.S. The pod also traveled up the Nile and eastward on the spice routes where it is revered in Indian cuisine – curried, pickled or steamed like asparagus. Once considered a relative of the hibiscus because of its delicately lovely flower, it now considered as being in a genus of its own - Abelmoschus.
“So few people eat okra that it never even makes it onto the lists of Top 10 hated foods.”
Julia Reed
　
　

Ask it and so shallot be...

“Don't be too daring in the kitchen. For example, don't suddenly get involved with shallots. Later, when you are no longer a Lonely Guy, you can do shallots. Not now. If you know coriander, stay with coriander and don't fool around. Even with coriander you're on thin ice, but at least you've got a shot, because it's familiar. Stay with safe things, like pepper.”Bruce Jay Friedman The Lonely Guy Cookbook (1976)
Looks like garlic, tastes like sweet onions, must be shallots. Not to be confused with scallions, ubiquitous term for sprouted green onion, the shallot is different from the onion. From the outside, it is a bulb of the lilly family harvested before it is allowed to bloom, growing in clusters like its cousin garlic. When peeled, the bulb resembles a teardrop shaped onion, colors range from whitish grey to purply red, in over 500 varieties in between. Shallots are high in flavonoids, which improve cardiovascular health, lowering bad cholesterol levels and aid in cancer resistance, as well as increasing pungency and potency when compared to onions. Believed to have come from Askelon (from whence comes their name) in ancient Canaan, they grew wild from central to southwestern Asia; they were introduced to Europe during the Crusades. Wonderful in kebabs, Lea & Perrins insists they be present in their genuine Worcestershire Sauce, which was a failed attempt at reproducing a sauce from India; the original sauce itself a failure until it had been forgotten, festering and fermenting for two years, when voila!

Is that an eggplant in your pocket...?

How can people say they don’t eat eggplant when God loves the color and the French love the name? Jeff Smith
There are great recipes with fantastic names in many cultures that pay homage to the eggplant: Baba Ghanoush, Moussaka, Escalivada, Melanzane alla Parmigiana and my personal favorite, Ratatouille. These dishes have been devoured for eons from their native Sri Lanka, after the collapse of the Guptas, appearing in the west with the growth of the Byzantine Empire and the spread of Islam. The eggplant grows on plants blooming out into two shapes: ovals and elongated. The ovals are preferred in the American South; the colors range from white to indigo: dyes from the pigment have been made to color teeth in ancient civilizations. Elongated varieties, such as Italian or Chinese, are popular in many throughout the world; colors range from white to pale green to deep purple. Baby hybrids of these shapes are readily available. So call it what you like: aubergine, brinjal, Guinea squash, metazoan, or mad apple, when you plan to serve it, just don’t call me late for dinner.

What the Kale?

“I lament the loss of the kale-yard.”
Neil Patterson
Well kale hearty fellow! Once the most popular of cabbages, kale has often been relegated to being just a pretty face, but it really is a wonderful curly, flat, spear-shaped, black, green, red, white, brown, purple, variegated, leafy vegetable. It was adored in ancient Rome as well as China, where kai-lin, also known as gai-lon, is the origin of our familiar word, which has also morphed into cole. Kale is a natural evolution of the mustard plant, possessing larger leaves; it is also resistant to many diseases that affect other cabbages. It is an extremely hardy green and rather enjoys harsh climates: like many cabbages, it becomes sweeter when subjected to winter freezes during its dormant period. It has also been a muse for some of English literatures great writers: J.M. Barrie and others of the Kailyard (kale-yard) school of writers from the Scottish lowlands, as well as Robert Louis Stevenson in Kidnapped.

Are Beans Magical?

Some people are fat, some people are lean
But I want you to show me the person
Who doesn't like butterbeans!
The B-52s
Butter beans, lima beans, and fava beans are varieties of the broad bean. These legumes have been growing from flowering vines in Peru for over 8000 years, where the limey, loamy soil is very friendly to the bean’s health. Pizarro named it the “City of Kings”, for it was founded on the Epiphany; the locals changed it to Lima for the beautiful cliffs upon which the city was erected. These delightful morsels have a creamy, buttery texture when cooked, but some varieties can be deadly, for they all contain cyanide compounds. In Japan, baby varieties are used to make “an”, a pasty concoction used in desserts. They are very nutritious, being high in soluble fiber potassium, iron, copper, folates, and manganese. Their high potassium, low sodium content helps lower blood pressure; since they are low in fat, high in fiber and protein, they make and excellent vegan alternative to meat. Lima beans contain protease inhibitors, which thwarts the growth of cancer cells; the folates promote healthy blood cell growth.

Cool as a Cucumber!

Who coined these words that strike me numb? The cuke, the glad, the lope, the mum.”
Ogden Nash
Cool as a cucumber! Botanically speaking, the cucumber is a fruit because it is the mature ovary of a plant having developed the reproductive structure of plants bearing seeds to propagate. Gastronomically, the cucumber is more often prepared as a vegetable, lending itself to cool salads due to its high water content, which exceeds 90%. There are well over 150 varieties of cucumbers to enjoy, so dig in!
Etymologically, the cucumber is a gourd, as are melons, squash and pumpkins. Though its nutritional content isn’t very concentrated, it does contain many vitamins, minerals and some fiber. Sadly, one of the best ways to enjoy your cucumber wipes out most of the nutritional value. You guessed it - Pickles. In the U.S., we consume over 4 pounds of pickles per capita or about 12 billion pounds each year. Fresh cucumber consumption is growing rapidly, zooming past 6 pounds for each of us. Thanks goodness there are burpless varieties.
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Basil is King

Basil is king! Its importance to cuisine cannot be overstated: try to find a culture in the old world where it does not feature prominently. And, oh the subtleties of flavor within its leaves tease the palate: pepper, mint clove, cinnamon, lemon, and anise. The color palette makes a basil garni a feast for the eyes as well, ranging from reds to yellow, green and purple with lovely variegations in Rorschach patterns on the leaves. Of the over 40 known varieties, “Sweet” basil is the most common and widely grown. This variety, Ocimum basilicum “fragrant king” has a spicy aroma that blooms as soon as the delicate leaves are merely bruised. It is one of the earliest cultivated foodstuffs, dating back to over 5000 years in the Indian subcontinent; it is often placed in the mouth of the dying to insure they reach heaven. It has immense cultural significance in other societal and religious customs: ancient Mediterranean cultures believed it would open the gates to heaven, so it is found with mummies; Greek Orthodoxy uses it to bless holy water; it was said to be found around the tomb of Christ after his resurrection; some European lore avers that it is the symbol of Satan. So, choose Indian, Asian, Italian, Greek, African; pick a continent, pick a culture, pick an age, pick a cuisine; just pick some and put it in your recipe and you’ll be glad you did.

Wherefore art thou artichoke?

At least you'll never be a vegetable; even artichokes have hearts! Amelie Poulain
So let's get to the heart of the matter... that is the delicacy revered in this thistly cousin of the daisy. There are three main artichokes we know of: the Jerusalem or sunchoke, which is really named for the girasole　(Fr. sunflower) by French missionaries in North America　whose tubrous root resembles potatoes; the Chinese artichoke which is a flowering mint whose tuber is also consumed; and the globe artichoke, which is a perennial thistle whose head we lop off before it blooms from its leathery leaved bud. The forerunner of the globe choke was probably the cardoon, cultivated by ancient Mediterranean cultures; the cardoon is also prized for its stalks, which when trimmed are quite like celery. The choke in artichoke refers to the immature florets inside the globe's bud, which are spiny and inedible; allowed to mature, they blossom into a spiny purple flower. 80% of the U.S. crop comes from Castroville, CA, which likes to call itself the "Artichoke Capital of the World. According to myth, Zeus,　while visiting his brother Poseidon,　was smitten by a　fair-haired beauty named Cynara, who he arduously pursued. Rebuffing his advances, she was made into a goddess, but alas, she was not happy on Olympus and began to visit her earthly home on the sly. Infuriated, Zeus turned her into a thistle; her name is the genus from which all thistles issue.

I yam what I yam and that’s all that I yam!

I yam what I yam and that’s all that I yam! Sweet potatoes and yams are very different animals. Yams are tropical tubers known to grow seven feet long with flanges like toes whose skins are like a slick, thin blackish brown bark and the flesh ranges in color from off white to crimson to burgundy. Grown in South America, Africa and the Caribbean, the meat is fairly dry, starchy and not as sweet as the sweet potato we grow in the U.S. (see Boniata or ñame – yam?).
The sweet potato got its name from shrewd marketers. Columbus was given the root of a morning glory variant by Taino tribesman on St. Thomas, who called it batata which begat patata and potato. Early American colonists cultivated the sweet potato as a staple and animal fodder – premium Virginia hogs are fed sweet taters and goobers to yield prize-winning hogs. White potatoes, tubers of the nightshade family, first in arrived in Europe with the conquistadors, then came to the colonies in the 17th century and began to overtake the orange fleshed root in popularity; it is now the world’s 4th largest food crop. In order to differentiate the two, and increase consumption, the moniker “sweet potato” was born. The yam name came from the African nyami, which was similar to a root consumed by slaves in their homelands.
Cogito ergo spud “I think, therefore I yam” Herb Caen

Is this my artichoke or yours?

Artichokes are one of the world’s monstrosities, according to Pliny, which must in part contribute to its favor as something enjoyed by the decadently wealthy throughout history. Charlemagne ordered them to be planted in his realm; Catherine di Medici re-introduced them to the court table. The globe artichoke, which is now the most commonly eaten variety, is a member of the family known as thistles; those spiky stalked asters are also kin to the sunflower (French girasole) one of whose number gives us the root tuber known as the Jerusalem Artichoke. The globe is generally consumed before the spiny purple flower blooms, the leaves and the hearts being the preferred parts. Usually steamed or blanched, the leaves are often dipped in sauces and the tender insides and bottoms are eaten. The delicate hearts can be eaten many ways: in dips, with pasta, pickled, in salads or any way your heart desires. Low in fat and calories, high in fiber, they are also full of minerals and compounds that remove toxins from the blood to improve the health of many vital organs.
“Remind me to tell you about the time I looked into the heart of an artichoke.” Margo Channing