The Slave Garden or Huck Patch

Occasionally slave owners in the 18C allowed their workers to layout and plant small gardens to supplement the usually meager food provisions allocated to the field slaves. Some masters intentionally delegated a small plot of ground for this purpose near the slave quarters. Slaves would prepare their garden plots after sundown and on Sundays when most had a lighter work schedule.

The problems with planting and harvesting herbs and vegetables were the same for both groups of gardeners; and of course, the slaves knew the challenges well, since they planted and maintained the gardens of their masters. Nature makes no class distinctions. It would be relatively easy to save the seeds for annuals, just as they did for their masters year to year. The wealthy landowner would have his slaves build a wall or intricate fence around his plantation's kitchen garden to keep deer and other interlopers at bay, and his slaves would need to find a way to do the same.

Permitting slaves to independently raise produce, and even livestock, was not new in the 18C Chesapeake. Earlier in 17C Virginia, some masters had allowed their slaves to grow tobacco, corn, horses, hogs, and cattle and to sell them to gain enough money to buy their freedom and the freedom of their wives and children. Sensing that this was a serious threat to their labor pool, in 1692, the Virginia General Assembly ordered slave owners to confiscate "all horses, cattle and hoggs marked of any negro or other slaves marked, or by any slave kept."

Apparently the practice of allowing independent garden plots had begun again in the first half of the 18C or earlier. In 1732, traveller Hugh Grove noted Virginia slaves planting "little Plats for potatoes or Indian pease and Cimnells."

Cimnells were small squash. In addition to field peas and squash, Chesapeake slaves also planted potatoes, beans, onions, and collards. All these crops could be eaten raw, boiled in an old pot, or roasted in the coals of a small fire. Over winter, the slaves could store some of their produce inconspicuously in the ground, banking them just like they did for the master.

In the warmer climate of South Carolina, slaves were growing more familiar heat-loving varieties of vegetables. In the 1720s, Mark Catesby recorded a new variety of yam in South Carolina, calling it, "a welcome improvement among the Negroes," who were "delighted with all their African food, particularly this, which a great part of Africa subsists on." Slaves in the Lowcountry could grow tania roots, millet, sorghum, sesame, peppers, and okra in addition to the traditional colonial vegetables.

In the Chesapeake, those with larger plots might attempt to grow mellons and corn, which required more room to grow and would certainly draw more attention from the gentry; something that might be considered risky by a group of people trying to maintain a low profile just to survive. A good slave did what he was told and kept his mouth shut. The slave might appreciate the autonomy a little patch of garden land would give him, but he wouldn't advertise it.

A few years later, in the 1740s, itinerant Chesapeake traveler, Edward Kimber also mentioned that slaves were cultivating "the little Spots allow'd them."

Slaveowners knew they could learn about both life and gardening from their enslaved servants.

In 1771, Virginian Landon Carter wrote in his diary, "I walkt out this even to see how my very old and honest Slave Jack Lubber did to support life in his Extreme age; and I found him prudently working amongst his melon vines, both to tivert the hours and indeed to keep nature stirring that indigestion might not hurry him off with great pain." Carter took "notice of his Pea Vines a good store and askt him why he had not got them hilled." Lubber replied, "they have not got age wnough and it will hurt too young things to coast them too closely with earth." Carter wrote that his answer showed, "the Prudence of Experience."

In March 1774, New Englander Philip Fithian, who had journeyed south to temporarily tutor the children of Robert Carter at Nomini Hall, watched as, "Negroes make a fence; they drive into the Ground Chesnut stakes about two feet apart in a straight Row, & then twist in the Boughs of Savin which grows in great plenty here." The savin or red cedar would be easy to weave in and out of the more permanent stakes. A month later he noted the plantation's slaves "digging up their small Lots of ground allow'd by their Master for Potatoes, peas &c; All such work for themselves they constantly do on Sundays, as they are otherwise employed on every other Day." One of Robert Carter's slaves offered Fithian "Eggs, Apples, Potatoes."

About twenty years later, Englishman Isaac Weld also wrote of the slave quarters in Virginia: "Adjoining their little habitations, the slaves commonly have small gardens and yards for poultry, which are all their own property… their gardens are generally found well stocked, and their flocks of poultry numerous." If the master allowed his slaves to keep poultry, the slave not only took advantage of the extra food, but also sold some of the chickens for extra spending money.

Virginia planter James Mercer declared that the "Negroes…are the general Chicken merchants" in the state.

In Maryland, as Colonel Nicholas Rogers (1753-1822) planned a new home in the 1780s, he designated an area for the household slaves to plant their own garden. Back of the master's house at the end of this second yard, an area measuring 36' by 82' was dedicated "For Servants' Vegetable Patch or For Other Purposes." Within the area was an 18' by 16' slave quarter with the remainder of this long rectangular plot to be used by the slaves to grow fruits & vegetables.

Peter Hatch, long-time director of Thomas Jefferson's gardens and grounds at Monticello, reports that "Jefferson's Memorandum Books, which detailed virtually every financial transaction that he engaged in between 1769 and 1826, as well as the account ledger kept by his granddaughter, Anne Cary Randolph, between 1805 and 1808, document hundreds of transactions involving the purchase of produce from Monticello slaves."

Hatch calculates that the records show the purchase of 22 species of fruits & vegetables from as many as 43 different individuals..."much of the produce purchased from Monticello slaves was out of season: potatoes were sold in December and February, hominy beans and apples purchased in April, and cucumbers bought in January. Archaeological excavations of slave cabins at Monticello indicate the widespread presence of root cellars, which not only served as secret hiding places, but surely as repositories for root crops and other vegetables amenable to cool, dark storage...

"Both Jefferson and Ann Cary specified the person from whom they purchased vegetables and fruit; however, the person involved in the sale might not have been the one gardening. Thirty-one males, averaging about 37 years of age, and twelve females, averaging 41 years old, were involved in the transactions. Since many of the sellers were older, seven of the males were over fifty, they may have been representing the family garden. Squire, for example, a former Peter Jefferson slave leased by Thomas Jefferson from his mother, represented the most sophisticated garden. He sold thirteen different commodities, including cymlins (a patty-pan-shaped squash), potatoes, lettuce, beets, watermelons, apples, and muskmelons. He sold a cucumber to Jefferson on January 12, 1773, suggesting either that the fruit was pickled and preserved, or that artificial heat in a cold frame or hot bed was used to bring this tender vegetable to fruition in the middle of winter, a rather remarkable feat in 18th-century Virginia. Bagwell, Squire's son-in-law, was also a major supplier, and sold Jefferson sixty pounds of hops for twenty dollars...

"Israel Gillette Jefferson, a waiter and carder in the Monticello cloth factory, represented another productive African American family garden. His father, Ned or Edward Gilette, sold watermelons, beans, and potatoes, while Israel sold large quantities of cabbage, fifty to one hundred at a time. Caesar, a farm laborer at Shadwell, Jefferson's birthplace and a satellite farm to Monticello, was another major supplier of cucumbers, cabbages, and greens, and Burwell Colbert, probably Jefferson's most valued and trusted slave, sold 'sprouts' to Jefferson. Boys and girls were also involved in the bartering process; Billy, at the age of eight, sold strawberries, perhaps collected from the wild, while Madison and Eston Hemings, most likely Jefferson's sons by Sally Hemings, were 15 and 18 when selling 100 cabbages to Jefferson in 1822."

Hatch further notes that "Except for watermelons, and perhaps sweet potatoes, few of the sold fruits and vegetables were either African in origin, or closely associated with African American food culture. Cucumbers were the most common commodity, with 23 transactions, followed by cabbages, watermelons, hops, Irish potatoes, cymlins, and greens."

In 1792, George Washington wrote to English agricultural writer Arthur Young, "Ground is often allowed them for gardening, and priviledge given them to raise dung-hill fowls for their own use."

Julian Niemcewicz reported visitin George Washington's Mount Vernon in 1797. He noted that in the slave quarters, "a small vegetable garden was situated close to the hut. Five or six hens, each with ten or fifteen chickens, walked around there. That is the only pleasure allowed to Negroes: they are not permitted to keep either ducks or geese or pigs. They sell the chickens in Alexandria and with the money buy some furniture."

In Virginia, Englishman John Davis visiting the Spencer Ball plantation in Prince William County about 1800, wrote that one old slave declared, "There is few masters like the `Squire.' He has allowed me to build a log-house, and take in a patch of land, where I raise corn and water Melions." Perhaps it was easier for the older slaves, who usually were not assigned as much heavy labor, to keep an eye on the growing slave gardens.

In Maryland, an 1801 garden plan for Colonel Nicholas Rogers's property in Baltimore indicates a space in one of the far corners of the property "for servants vegetable patch or for other purposes." This garden space that Rogers chose for his slaves was inelegantly bounded by the slave quarter, the privy, and the hog pen. Elderly Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a Maryland signer of the Declaration of Independence, advised his overseer in 1823, that his new slave, "Clem a blacksmith must not have more priveleges than my other slaves or be better fed...he desires a huck patch; these I grant...as many of my slaves have that privelege."

Convict servant, who was not a slave, James Revel wrote a poem about his experiences in The Poor Unhappy Transported Felon's Sorrowful Account of His Fourteen Years Transportation, At Virginia, in America.

At last to my new master's house I came,
To the town of Wicowoco called by name,
Here my European cloaths were took from me,
Which never after I could see.

A canvas shirt and trowsers me they gave,
A hop-sack frock, in which I was a slave,
No shoes or stockings had I for to wear,
Nor hat, nor cap, my hands and feet went bare.

Thus dress'd unto the field I next did go,
Among tobacco plants all day to hoe.
At day break in the morn our work begun,
And lasted till the setting of the sun.

My fellow slaves were five transports more,
With eighteen negroes, which is twenty-four,
Besides four transport women in the house,
To wait upon his daughter and his spouse.

We and the negroes both alike did fare,
Of work and food we had an equal share;
And in a piece of ground that's call'd our own,
That we eat first by ourselves was sown.

No other time to us they will allow,
But on a Sunday we the same must do,
Six days we slave for our master's good,
The seventh is to produce our food.

And when our hard day's work is done,
Away unto the mill we must begone.
Till twelve or one o'clock a-grinding corn,
And must be up by day-light in the morn.


The above poem was Published in York, England in 1800, the full text of the book may be found at the site of the collaborative effort between the University of North Carolina and Duke University called Documenting the South.

To see Peter Hatch's full article go to the Twinleaf Journal.

Garden to Table - The poor, forgotten quince...

In Praise of the Misunderstood Quince

By Michael Tortorello New York Times. Published: May 2, 2012

Quince at the Cloisters Museum in New York. Photo by Tony Cenicola/The New York Times

After half a century in public life, the most famous quince trees in New York are looking — let’s say mature. Or how about distinguished? No need to beat around the bush, said Deirdre Larkin, the horticulturist who tends the four beloved quinces at the Cloisters Museum and Gardens, along the Hudson River in Fort Tryon Park.  “They are old, and nothing will change that,” she said.  Yet in Europe, where the quince’s yellow pome is a culinary treasure, orchardists will buttress the sagging limbs with a crutch...But, Ms. Larkin said, “trees can live for hundreds of years.” ...

What most Americans know about quince (Cydonia oblonga) — if they know about quince at all — is that it was once a fixture in Grandma’s garden. O.K., Great-Great-Grandma’s garden. As long ago as 1922, the great New York pomologist U. P. Hedrick rued that “the quince, the ‘golden apple’ of the ancients, once dedicated to deities, and looked upon as the emblem of love and happiness, for centuries the favorite pome, is now neglected and the least esteemed of commonly cultivated tree-fruits.” Almost every Colonial kitchen garden had a quince tree. But there was seldom need for two, said Joseph Postman, the United States Department of Agriculture scientist who curates the quince collection in Corvallis, Ore. Settlers valued quince, above all, as a mother lode of pectin for making preserves. And for that task, a little fruit went a long way.

“If you put the seeds in a cup of water, it becomes almost like Jell-O,” Mr. Postman said. This goo doubled as a pomade...Like so many American workers, the quince lost its job to a disruptive technology: powdered gelatin, introduced by Charles Knox in the 1890s...Today the nation’s entire quince crop covers a paltry 250 acres ... By contrast, farmers this year will raise some 350,000 acres of apples and 96 million acres of corn.

Quince Jacques le Moyne de Morgues (c. 1533–1588)

So we arrive, perforce, at a fundamental question: Is raw quince edible? ... The skin, fuzzy at first, has an objectionable texture,...And when the flavor is not sour, it’s sour and astringent...The key to enjoying quince at home, apparently, is to cook it and cook it and cook it. At that point, the quince is ready to cook...

The quince tree is self-pollinating: you need only one. If you train the growth to a few trunks, a quince shouldn’t get much taller than a gardener can reach with a six-foot ladder.

By now, Mr. Postman has probably grown more varieties of quince than anyone else on the continent. The Corvallis germ-plasm repository contains 50 or 60 edible varieties, and provides material to researchers and plant breeders...When I spoke to Mr. Postman, in fact, the couple was driving across Arizona with a fresh quince cutting in the back seat. Mr. Postman had just stopped at the historic Mission San José de Tumacácori, about 20 miles north of the Mexican border. Researchers there have been replanting the neglected orchard with the forgotten fruit varieties of 17th-century Jesuit missionaries...

A bushel of good quince will fetch $2.50 at farmers’ markets in New Jersey. At least it did in the late 19th century, when the Rev. William W. Meech published Quince Culture, in 1825.  It is the definitive — and possibly the only — guide to cultivating the fruit.  You can read the updated 1888 version here.  or the original 1825 edition here ...

The portingegale Quince. John Tradescant (c 1570-1632) 1634 Plant List

 John Tradescant the elder (c 1570-1632)

A few random quince facts...

Apples (Malus communis, M. pumila, & M. sylvestris), pears (Pyrus communis) & quince (Cydonia oblonga) belong to the rose family.

The homeland of the quince lies between the Caspian Sea & the Black Sea, a mountainous region called the Caucasus that touches northern Turkey & Iran as well as Southern Georgia.

Mention of quince appears in Greek writings about 600 BCE as a ritual item in wedding ceremonies. Pliny mentioned the Mulvian variety, a cultivated quince, as the only one that could be eaten raw. Columella described three other varieties he names as the sparrow apple, golden apple, & the must apple.

Cultivation of the quince began in Mesopotamia, an area now Northern Iraq between the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers. Between 200 & 100 BCE, this "golden apple" was cultivated by the Greeks. The quince was cultivated prior to the apple & reached Palestine by 100 BCE.

Following the battles for power between the Arabs & the Byzantines circa 763 CE, the some Arabs traveled to Isfahan in Persia for quinces, apples, saffron, & salt.

Charlemagne was partly responsible for introducing the quince into France with his orders in the year 812 to plant quince trees in the royal garden.

Chaucer mentions quince using the name coines, a word that comes from the French coing.
 O mosy quince, hangyng by your stalke,
 The whyche no man dar pluk away ner take,
 Of all the folk that passe forby or walke,
 Your flowres fresshe be fallyn away and shake.
 I am ryght sory, masteras, for your sake,
 Ye seme a thyng that all men have forgotyn;
 Ye be so rype ye wex almost rotyn.

When European & Near Eastern immigrants began to settle in the New World, they planted quince in North America.

Quince enjoyed the spotlight only briefly during the colonial period in New England. A March 16, 1629 entry in the Massachusetts Bay Colony's Memorandum listed quince as one of the seeds requested from England.

By 1720, quince was thriving in Virginia. Many home gardens throughout the colonies were reaping a fall harvest from their quince trees; however, apples quickly snatched the spotlight from the quinces. Americans had become accustomed to sweet fruits like the apple & found little about the quince to favor.

Quince cheese, an old New England specialty of the 1700's, required all-day boiling of quince preserves to achieve a solidified state, probably similar to the French specialty cotignac.

Quince grew traveling legs as the westward movement took hold in the United States. In the 1850's a Texan, who owned a large land grant, grew many fruit trees on his property. Among them was quince, along with peach, fig, raspberry, pomegranate, & plum.

Quince Folklore...

Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, was known to consider apples sacred. Historians believe the apple favored by Aphdrodite were really quince. The legendary golden apple of Hesperides that Paris gave to Aphrodite was really a quince.

The ancient Greeks considered quinces to be the symbol of fertility & dedicated them to the goddess of love.

An Athenian wedding tradition of the ancient Greeks had friends & family tossing quinces into the bridal chariot as the groom was escorting his bride to her new home. Once they arrived, the bride ate a ceremonial cake flavored with honey & sesame. To insure fertility, she was then presented a quince.

One myth says that pregnant women who indulge their appetites in generous quantities of quinces will give birth to industrious & highly intelligent children.

Quince Cooking...

Apicius, Rome's first cookbook author, first century CE, preserved whole quinces with their stems & leaves attached in a bath of honey diluted with defrutum, a newly prepared wine that is spiced & reduced by boiling.  Another quince dish prepared by Apicius, Patina de Cydoniis, combines them with leeks, honey, &broth in hot oil.

The earliest true preserves came about during classical times when quinces were cooked with honey & vinegar, a combination that produced a gel or pectin-like quality.

From the15th century to the present, Cotignac d'Orleans, a clear gel made from boiled quince juice & sugar, is set into small wooden boxes to form confections. These treats were originally presented to French royalty in honor of their visit to cities & outlying villages.

When Joan of Arc arrived in Orleans in 1429, to liberate the French from the English, she received the honored gift of cotignac.

The English, during the 16th & 17th centuries, delighted in preparing many variations of quince preserves which they called quidoniac, quiddony, marmelade or paste of Genoa. The preserves formed a thick paste that could be shaped into animals or flower forms. Though the quince paste is rarely found in England today, a coarse version, called membrillo, is a favorite treat presently served along with cheese in Spain.

In 1570, Pope Pius V gave a spectacular banquet that featured as its piece de resistance, a quince pastry that required "one quince per pastry."

In Britain, quince was incorporated into the cuisine in various pies & tarts. The British also prepared a sauce made from quince that became a traditional accompaniment to roasted partridge.

Although the most favored quince marmalade, called marmelada, originated Portugal during the 1500's, the British were preparing many versions of marmalade from quince well into the 1600's.

For even more on quince, see Vegetrians in Paradise

Tho Jefferson (1743-1824) America’s Pioneering Gourmand

Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817)

Thomas Jefferson: America’s Pioneering Gourmand

by Laura Schumm on History.com 9/4/2018

... Of the numerous extraordinary contributions Thomas Jefferson made to the United States of America, one that is often overlooked is his legacy of gourmet cuisine & sustainable horticulture.

In the mid-18th century, the American diet was still largely influenced by English traditions. Meats were often boiled, baked or stewed, while less-frequently-consumed vegetables were typically boiled. Baked breads, sweet pies & alcohol—usually hard cider, ale & fortified port or Madeira wines—were readily consumed. In 1784, two years after his wife had died, Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister plenipotentiary by Congress & set off for France. It was during this time in Paris, & while traveling throughout southern France & northern Italy, that he developed an enduring appreciation of fine cuisine.

Jefferson arranged for one of his slaves, James Hemings, to accompany him to Europe so that he could be trained in the art of French cooking. Under the tutelage of a few well-known chefs & caterers, Hemings soon acquired the skills necessary to assume the role of chef de cuisine at Jefferson’s private residence on the Champs-Elysees, where Jefferson maintained a garden that included Indian corn from American seeds, along with other fruits & vegetables. The scientific gardener enjoyed exchanging plants with his French companions & experimenting with the most unusual vegetables he could obtain.

While touring the country & soaking up epicurean delicacies, Jefferson recorded careful notes & drafted detailed sketches of local farming techniques & tools as well as cooking methods & utensils. One such observation depicted a macaroni machine for making pasta, a version of which he later procured & had shipped back to Monticello. Although he may not have been the first person to bring pasta to America, Jefferson certainly helped to spread its popularity by presenting macaroni & cheese to dinner guests while serving as president of the United States, & while hosting numerous lavish dinner parties in his home at Monticello.

Another indulgence that Jefferson enjoyed while living abroad was ice cream. By 1796, he had established two “freising molds” back home in his Monticello kitchen to facilitate its production, & several accounts exist of the frozen treat being served within a warm crust or pastry at the President’s House (now known as the White House) during his term in office. A recipe written in his hand for vanilla ice cream is considered to be the first known recipe recorded by an American.

According to food historian Karen Hess, it’s also possible that Jefferson initiated America’s love affair with french fries. Long before American soldiers encountered them in Europe during World War I, Jefferson reportedly served the addictive fare while entertaining guests at the President’s House. Having hired a maître d’hôtel & chef from France to manage provisions & food preparations, Jefferson & his guests likely benefitted from an imported knowledge of deep-fried slices of potatoes.

Upon returning home from France in 1789, Jefferson had some of his favorite delicacies shipped to the U.S., along with 680 bottles of wine. His repeated attempts to plant various European grape varieties in his vineyards at Monticello were unsuccessful, but his knowledge of wine & advocacy of American viticulture earned him a reputation as a distinguished wine connoisseur. It was his experimental kitchen garden at Monticello, however, which gave Jefferson the ultimate satisfaction. Cultivating 330 varieties of 89 species of vegetables & herbs & 170 varieties of fruits while emphasizing the importance of fostering rich soil through organic matter, Jefferson was determined to introduce new crops that might help American farmers prosper & expand the country’s palate. Although his horticultural diary, “Garden Book,” details numerous failures, Jefferson wrote of his retirement, “I am constantly in my garden or farm, as exclusively employed out of doors as I was within doors when at Washington, & I find myself infinitely happier in my new mode of life.”

Garden to Table - 1st American Cookbook

In 1796, New Englander Amelia Simmons published the first truly American cookbook, American Cookery: The Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry, and Vegetables, and the Best Modes of Making Puff-Pastes, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custards, and Preserves, and All Kinds of Cakes From the Imperial Plumb to plain Cake, Adapted to this Country, and All Grades of Life.
There were 13 known editions of this book, all published between 1796 to 1831. Simmons devoted a section of her cookbook to the cultivation & cooking of vegetables, fruits, and herbs giving us an immediate look at the produce of the period.

Amelia Simmons on Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits...
We proceed to ROOTS and VEGETABLES--and the best cook cannot alter the first quality, they must be good, or the cook will be disappointed .

Potatoes take rank for universal use, profit and easy acquirement. The smooth skin, known by the name of How's Potato, is the most mealy and richest flavor'd; the yellow rusticoat next best; the red, and red rusticoat are tolerable; and the yellow Spanish have their value--those cultivated from imported seed on sandy or dry loomy lands, are best for table use; tho' the red or either will produce more in rich, loomy, highly manured garden grounds; new lands and a sandy soil, afford the richest flavor'd; and most mealy Potato much depends on the ground on which they grow--more on the species of Potatoes planted--and still more from foreign seeds--and each may be nown by attention to connoisseurs; for a good potato comes up in many branches of cookery, as herein after prescribed.--All potatoes should be dug before the rainy seasons in the fall, well dryed in the sun, kept from frost and dampness during the winter, in the spring removed from the cellar to a dry loft, and spread thin, and frequently stirred and dryed, or they will grow and be thereby injured for cookery.

A roast Potato is brought on with roast Beef, a Steake, a Chop, or Fricassee; good boiled with a boiled dish; make an excellent stuffing for a turkey, water or wild fowl; make a good pie, and a good starch for many uses. All potatoes run out, or depreciate in America; a fresh importation of the Spanish might restore them to table use.

It would swell this treatise too much to say every thing that is useful, to prepare a good table, but I may be pardoned by observing, that the Irish have preserved a genuine mealy rich Potato, for a century, which takes rank of any known in any other kingdom; and I have heard that they renew their seed by planting and cultivating the Seed Ball , which grows on the tine. The manner of their managing it to keep up the excellency of that root, would better suit a treatise on agriculture and gardening than this--and be inserted in a book which would be read by the farmer, instead of his amiable daughter. If no one treats on the subject, it may appear in the next edition.

Onions --The Madeira white is best in market, esteemed softer flavored, and not so fiery, but the high red, round hard onions are the best; if you consult cheapness, the largest are best; if you consult taste and softness, the very smallest are the most delicate, and used at the first tables. Onions grow in the richest, highest cultivated ground, and better and better year after year, on, the same ground.

Beets grow on any ground, but best on loom, or light gravel grounds; the red is the richest and best approved; the white has a sickish sweetness, which is disliked by many.

Parsnips are a valuable root, cultivated best in rich old grounds, and doubly deep plowed, late sown , they grow thrifty, and are not so prongy; they may be kept any where and any how, so that they do not grow with heat, or are nipped with frost; if frosted, let them thaw in earth; they are richer flavored when plowed out of the ground in April, having stood out during the winter, tho' they will not last long after, and commonly more sticky and hard in the centre.

Carrots are managed as it respects plowing and rich ground, similarly to Parsnips. The yellow are better than the orange or red; middling fiz'd, that is, a foot long and two inches thick at the top end, are better than over grown ones; they are cultivated best with onions, sowed very thin, and mixed with other seeds, while young or six weeks after sown, especially if with onions on true onion ground. They are good with veal cookery, rich in soups, excellent with hash, in May and June.

Garlicks, tho' used by the French, are better adapted to the uses of medicine than cookery.

Asparagus --The mode of cultivation belongs to gardening; your business is only to cut and dress, the largest is best, the growth of a day sufficient, six inches long, and cut just above the ground; many cut below the surface, under an idea of getting tender shoots, and preserving the bed; but it enfeebles the root: dig round it and it will be wet with the juices--but if cut above ground, and just as the dew is going off, the sun will either reduce the juice, or send it back to nourish the root--its an excellent vegetable.

Parsley, of the three kinds, the thickest and branchiest is the best, is sown among onions, or in a bed by itself, may be dryed for winter use; tho' a method which I have experienced, is much better--In September I dig my roots, procure an old thin stave dry cask, bore holes an inch diameter in every stave, 6 inches asunder round the cask, and up to the top--take first a half bushel of rich garden mold and put into the cask, then run the roots through the staves, leaving the branches outside, press the earth tight about the root within, and thus continue on thro' the respective stories, till the cask is full;it being filled, run an iron bar thro' the center of the dirt in the cask and fill with water, let stand on the south and east side of a building till frosty night, then remove it, (by slinging a rope round the cask) into the cellar; where, during the winter, I clip with my scissars the fresh parsley, which my neighbors or myself have occasion for; and in the spring transplant the roots in the bed in the garden, or in any unused corner--or let stand upon the wharf, or the wash shed. Its an useful mode of cultivation, and a pleasurably tasted herb, and much used in garnishing viands.

Raddish Salmon coloured is the best, purple next best-- white -- turnip --each are produced from southern seeds, annually. They grow thriftiest sown among onions. The turnip Raddish will last well through the winter.

Artichokes --The Jerusalem is best, are cultivated like potatoes, (tho' their stocks grow 7 feet high) and may be preserved like the turnip raddish, or pickled---they like.

Horse Raddish once in the garden, can scarcely ever be totally eradicated; plowing or digging them up with that view, seems at times rather to increase and spread them.

Cucumbers are of many kinds; the prickly is best for pickles, but generally bitter; the white is difficult to raise and tender; choose the bright green, smooth and proper sized.

Melons --The Water Melons is cultivated on sandy soils only, above latitude 41 1/2, if a stratum of land be dug from a well, it will bring the first year good Water Melons; the red cored are highest flavored; a hard rine proves them ripe.

Muskmelons are various, the rough skinned is best to eat; the short, round, fair skinn'd, is best for Mangoes.

Lettuce is of various kinds; the purple spotted leaf is generally the tenderest, and free from bitter--Your taste must guide your market.

Cabbage requires a page, they are so multifarious. Note, all Cabbages have a higher relish that grow on new unmatured grounds ; if grown in an old town and on old gardens, they have a rankness, which at times, may be perceived by a fresh air traveller. This observation has been experienced for years--that Cabbages require new ground, more than Turnips.

The Low Dutch only will do in old gardens.

The Early Yorkshire must have rich soils, they will not answer for winter, they are easily cultivated, and frequently bro't to market in the fall, but will not last the winter.

The Green Savoy with the richest crinkles, is fine and tender; and altho' they do not head like the Dutch or Yorkshire, yet the tenderness of the out leaves is a counterpoise, it will last thro' the winter, and are high flavored.

The Yellow Savoy takes next rank, but will not last so long; all Cabbages will mix, and participate of other species, like Indian Corn; they are culled, best in plants; and a true gardener will, in the plant describe those which will head, and which will not. This is new, but a fact.

The gradations in the Savoy Cabbage are discerned by the leaf; the richest and most scollup'd, and crinkled, and thickest Green Savoy, falls little short of a Colliflour .

The red and redest small tight heads, are best for slaw , it will not boil well, comes out black or blue, and tinges, other things with which it is boiled.

BEANS

The Clabboard Bean is easiest cultivated and collected, are good for string beans, will shell--must be poled.

The Windsor Bean is an earlier, good string, or shell Bean.

Crambury Bean is rich, but not universally approved equal to the other two.

Frost Bean is good only to shell.

Six Weeks Bean is a yellowish Bean, and early bro't forward, and tolerable.

Lazy Bean is tough, and needs no pole.

English Bean what they denominate the Horse Bean, is mealy when young, is profitable, easily cultivated, and may be grown on worn out grounds; as they may be raised by boys, I cannot but recommend the more extensive cultivation of them.

The small White Bean is best for winter use, and excellent.

Calivanse are run out, a yellow small bush, a black speck or eye, are tough and tasteless, and little worth in cookery, and scarcely bear exportation.

PEAS-- Green Peas.

The Crown Imperial takes rank in point of flavor, they blossom, purple and white on the top of the vines, will run, from three to five feet high, should be set in light sandy soil only, or they run too much to vines.

The Crown Pea is second in richness of flavor.

The Rondeheval is large and bitterish.

Early Carlton is produced first in the season--good.

Marrow Fats , green, yellow, and is large, easily cultivated, not equal to others.

Sugar Pea needs no bush, the pods are tender and good to eat, easily cultivated.

Spanish Manratto is a rich Pea, requires a strong high bush.

All Peas should be picked carefully from the vines as soon as dew is off, shelled and cleaned without water, and boiled immediately; they are thus the richest flavored.

HERBS useful in Cookery.

Thyme is good in soups and stuffings.

Sweet Marjoram is used in Turkeys.

Summer Savory, ditto, and in Sausages and salted Beef, and legs of Pork.

Sage is used in Cheese and Pork, but not generally approved.

Parsley good in soups, and to garnish roast Beef , excellent with bread and butter in the spring.

Penny Royal is a high aromatic, altho' a spontaneous herb in old ploughed fields, yet might be more generally cultivated in gardens, and used in cookery and medicines.

Sweet Thyme is most useful and best approved in cookery.

FRUITS

Pears, There are many different kinds; but the large Bell Pear, sometimes called the Pound Pear, the yellowest is the best, and in the same town they differ essentially.

Hard Winter Pear are innumerable in their qualities, are good in sauces, and baked.

Harvest and Summer Pear are a tolerable desert, are much improved in this country, as all other fruits are by grafting and innoculation.

Apples are still more various, yet rigidly retain their own species, and are highly useful in families, and ought to be more universally cultivated, excepting in the compactest cities. There is not a single family but might set a tree in some otherwise useless spot, which might serve the two fold use of shade and fruit; on which 12 or 14 kinds of fruit trees might easily be engrafted, and essentially preserve the orchard from the intrusions of boys, &c. which is too common in America. If the boy who thus planted a tree, and guarded and protected it in a useless corner, and carefully engrafted different fruits, was to be indulged free access into orchards, whilst the neglectful boy was prohibited--how many millions of fruit trees would spring into growth--and what a saving to the union. The net saving would in time extinguish the public debt, and enrich our cookery.

Currants are easily grown from shoots trimmed off from old bunches, and set carelessly in the ground; they flourish on all soils, and make good jellies--their cultivation ought to be encouraged.

Black Currants may be cultivated--but until they can be dryed, and until sugars are propagated, they are in a degree unprofitable.

Grapes are natural to the climate; grow spontaneously in every state in the union, and ten degrees north of the line of the union.

The Madeira, Lisbon and Malaga Grapes, are cultivated in gardens in this country, and are a rich treat or desert. Trifling attention only is necessary for their ample growth.

Garden to Table - Mary Randolph (1762-1828)

Biography of 1838 Virginia Cookbook Author Mary Randolph 1762-1828

Mary Randolph was born in Virginia, the daughter of Anne Cary and Thomas Mann Randolph, a legislator and wealthy plantation owner. Her tombstone lists Ampthill, her mother's family home near Richmond, as her birthplace, though some genealogists believe she may have been born at her father's plantation called "Tuckahoe," in Goochland County. The oldest of thirteen children, "Molly," as she was called, grew up among southern aristocracy. Her father (1741 - 1793), orphaned at infancy, was raised by Thomas Jefferson's parents; the Randolphs were distant cousins of the Jeffersons, and the families saw each other often. Her father served Virginia in the colonial house of burgesses, the Revolutionary conventions of 1775 and 1776, and later in the state legislature. Her mother was the daughter of Archibald Cary, plantation owner and statesman. Her brother, Thomas Mann Randolph, became a Congressman and governor of Virginia and married Martha Jefferson, daughter of Thomas Jefferson.

Mary Randolph's education consisted of reading, writing, arithmetic, training in the household arts, and lessons in dancing, music, and drawing. In December 1780, at age eighteen, Randolph was married to a first cousin once removed named David Meade Randolph (1760 - 1830), a revolutionary war officer and tobacco planter. They settled at Randolph's James River plantation called "Presqu'Ile" in Chesterfield County, and the couple had eight children, four of whom lived to adulthood. Around 1795 President George Washington appointed David Randolph the U.S. marshal of Virginia (a federal court official), and the couple moved to Richmond. There, at the turn of the century, the Randolphs built Moldavia, an elegant residence named after the two of them. They held sparkling social gatherings that quickly made Mary Randolph a celebrated hostess, known for her well-set table and her knowledge of cooking. David Randolph, however, was a champion of Federalism and an open critic of Thomas Jefferson. President Jefferson removed Randolph from his post in 1801, and the Randolph family was forced to sell Moldavia and many of their plantation lands as a result of their declining fortunes.

Eventually, in 1807, Mary Randolph opened a tasteful boardinghouse in Richmond to supplement their income. At the time, boardinghouses were particularly popular in cities, where large numbers of workers and visitors were in need of meals and lodging. Restaurants barely existed at the time. Randolph's boardinghouse was known as "the Queen," after the name her boarders gave her. It was one of the most popular places in Richmond. As chronicler Samuel Mordecai attests in 1856, "There were few more festive boards . . .Wit, humor and good-fellowship prevailed, but excess rarely." They closed the boardinghouse in 1820 and moved to Washington D.C. In 1824, just four years before her death, Randolph published her one and only cookbook, The Virginia Housewife. She writes in the Preface:

The greater part of the following receipts have been written from memory, where they were impressed by long continued practice. Should they prove serviceable to the young inexperienced housekeeper, it will add greatly to that gratification which an extensive circulation of the work will be likely to confer.

Randolph's hope for success was fully realized. A second edition was published in 1825, and it was often republished - in Baltimore in 1831 and 1838, in Philadelphia in 1850, and at least nineteen editions before the outbreak of the Civil War. Replacing English cookbooks which until then were the standard in America, The Virginia Housewife became the most influential American cookbook of the nineteenth century. Practical and specific in weights and measures, it was simpler to follow than English cookbooks. Broad in its range of recipes, it called on the bounty of Virginia's pastures, fields, waterways and woods, revealing the remarkable variety of fruits, vegetables, herbs, berries, meats, wild game and fish of that place and time, matched only by the author's remarkably varied and masterful methods of preparation. Not surprisingly, the book's regional emphasis made it especially popular in the South, where every Virginia housewife, according to a later writer, Letitia Burwell, "knew how to compound all the various dishes in Mrs. Randolph's cookery book."

Mary Randolph lived for less than four years after the first publication of her cookbook. She was caring for an invalid son near the time of her death, which may have taxed her emotions and strength, for her gravestone describes her as "a victim of maternal love and duty." According to her wishes, she was buried at Arlington, the home of her cousin George Washington Parke Custis, stepson of George Washington and father of Mary Custis (Mrs. Robert E.) Lee. This final detail of her life reflects what historian Karen Hess points out, in her introduction to a facsimile of the 1824 edition:

So it can be seen that, in addition to her culinary prowess, nobody was more qualified by reason of family and social milieu to record the cookery of Virginia, the home of so many of our founding fathers, and of our nation's capital as well, in those early days. From the Historic American Cookbook Project: Feeding America

Sources:
Keene, Ann T., American National Biography. Vol. 20. Eds. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford, 1999.
Randolph, Mary. The Virginia Housewife: or Methodical Cook. Baltimore: Plaskitt, Fite, 1838.
----The Virginia House-Wife. With introduction by Karen Hess. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1985.
----The Virginia Housewife: or Methodical Cook. With introduction by Janice Bluestein Longone. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1993.
Rutledge, Anna Wells, Notable American Women 1607 - 1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Eds. Edward James, Janet James, Paul Boyer. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.

Garden to Table - Vegetables with Mary Randolph (1762-1828)

The Virginia Housewife: or, Methodical Cook

By Mary Randolph 1762-1828

This is considered by some to be the first truly American cookbook and by all to be the first regional American cookbook. This work is still in print and still forms the basis of traditional Virginia cooking. It has been praised by many culinary authorities both for its delineation of authentic Virginia foods and its careful attention to detail.

Upon its first appearance in 1824 it was an immediate success and it was republished at least nineteen times before the outbreak of the Civil War. In addition, copies appeared in the late nineteenth century and modern Southern authors aften reference it.

Anyone who doubts that early Americans savored salads and vegetables need only look at what Mrs. Randolph offers. There are recipes for artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, eggplant, French beans, Jerusalem artichokes, lima beans, mushrooms, onions, parsnips, peas, peppers, potatoes, potato pumpkin, red beet roots, salsify, savoy cabbage, sea kale, sorrel, spinach, sprouts and young greens, squash, sweet potatoes, turnips, turnip tops, winter squash, onions, and tomatoes.

Indeed, Mrs. Randolph has seventeen recipes using tomatoes in the various editions of her cookbook. This provides further evidence to correct the misinformation that Americans did not use tomatoes prior to the mid-nineteenth century.  From the Historic American Cookbook Project: Feeding America.

Garden to Table - Fruits, Vegetables, & Herbs in Amelia Simmons 1798 Cookbook

André Bouys (French, 1656 - 1740) Woman in Kitchen

On Fruits, Vegetables, & Herbs 1798 Amelia Simmons Cookbook

ROOTS and VEGETABLES--and the best cook cannot alter the first quality, they must be good, or the cook will be disappointed.

Potatoes, take rank for universal use, profit and early acquirement. The smooth skin, known by the name of How's Potatoe, is the most mealy and richest flavor'd; the yellow rusticoat next best; the red, and red rusticoat are tolerable; and the yellow Spanish have their value--those cultivated from imported feed on sandy or dry loomy lands, are best for table use; though the red or either will produce more in rich, loomy, highly manured garden grounds; new lands and a sand foil, afford the richest flavor'd; and most mealy Potatoe much depends on the ground on which they grow--more on the species of Potatoes planted--and still more from foreign feeds--and each may be known by attention to connoisseurs; for a good potatoe comes up in many branches of cookery, as herein after prescribed.--All potatoes should be dug before the rainy seasons in the fall, well dryed in the sun, kept from frost and dampness during the winter, in the spring removed from the cellar to a dry loft, and spread thin, and frequently stirred and dryed, or they will grow and be thereby injured for cookery.

A roast Potatoe is brought on with roast Beef, a Steake, a Chop, or Fricassee; good boiled with a boiled dish; make an excellent stuffing for a turkey, water or wild fowl; make a good pie, and a good starch for many uses. All potatoes run out, or depreciate in America; a fresh importation of the Spanish might restore them to table use.

It would swell this treatise too much to say every thing that is useful, to prepare a good table, but I may be pardoned by observing, that the Irish have preserved a genuine mealy rich Potatoe, for a century, which takes rank of any known in any other kingdom; and I have heard that they renew their feed by planting and cultivating the Seed Ball, which grows on the tine. The manner of their managing it to keep up the excellency of that root, would better suit a treatise on agriculture and gardening than this--and be inserted in a book which would be read by the farmer, instead of his aimiable daughter. If no one treats on the subject, it may appear in the next edition.

Onions--The Medeira white is best in market, esteemed softer flavored, and not so fiery, but the high red, round hard onions are the best; if you consult cheapness, the largest are best; if you consult taste and softness, the very smallest are the most delicate, and used at the first tables. Onions grow in the richest, highest cultivated ground, and better and better year after year, on the same ground.

Beets, grow on any ground, but best on loom, or light gravel grounds; the red is the richest and best approved; the white has a sickish sweetness, which is disliked by many.

Parsnips, are a valuable root, cultivated best in rich old grounds, and doubly deep plowed, late sown, they grow thrifty, and are not so prongy; they may be kept any where and any how, so that they do not grow with heat, or are nipped with frost; if frosted, let them thaw on earth; they are richer flavored when plowed out of the ground in April, having stood out during the winter, though they will not last long after, and commonly more sticky and hard in the centre.

Carrots, are managed as it respects plowing and rich ground, similarly to Parsnips. The yellow are better than the orange and red; middling siz'd, that is, a foot long and two inches thick at the top end, are better than over grown ones; they are cultivated best with onions, sowed very thin, and mixed with other seeds, while young or six weeks after sown, especially if with onions on true onion ground. They are good with veal cookery, rich in soups, excellent with hash, in May and June.

Garlicks, though used by the French, are better adapted to the uses of medicine than cookery.

Asparagus--the mode of cultivation belongs to gardening; your business is only to cut and dress, the largest is best, the growth of a day sufficient, six inches long, and cut just above the ground; many cut below the surface, under an idea of getting tender shoots, and preserving the bed; but it enfeebles the root: dig round it and it will be wet with the juices--but if cut above ground, and just as the dew is going off, the sun will either reduce the juice, or send it back to nourish the root--its an excellent vegetable.

Parsley, of the three kinds, the thickest and branchiest is the best, is sown among onions, or in a bed by itself, may be drying for winter use; tho' a method which I have experienced is much better--In September, I dig my roots, procure an old thin stave dry cask, bore holes an inch diameter in every stave, 6 inches asunder round the cask, and up to the top--take first a half bushel of rich garden mold and put into the cask, then run the roots through the staves, leaving the branches outside, press the earth tight about the root within, and thus continue on thro' the respective stories, till the cask is full; it being filled, run an iron bar thro' the center of the dirt in the cask, and fill with water, let stand on the fourth and east side of a building till frosty night, then remove it, (by slinging a rope around the cask) into the cellar; where, during the winter, I clip with my scissars the fresh parsley, which my neighbors or myself have occasion for; and in the spring transplant the roots in the bed in the garden, or in any unused corner--or let stand upon the wharf, or the wash shed. Its an useful mode of cultivation, and a pleasurably tasted herb, and much used in garnishing viands.

Raddish, Salmon coloured is the best, purple next best--white--turnip--each are produced from southern feeds, annually. They grow thriftiest sown among onions. The turnip Raddish will last well through the winter.

Artichokes--the Jerusalem is best, are cultivated like potatoes, (tho' their stocks grow 7 feet high) and may be preserved like the turnip raddish, or pickled--they like,

Horse Raddish, once in the garden, can scarcely ever be totally eradicated, plowing or digging them up with that view, seems at times rather to increase and spread them.

Cucumbers, are of many kinds; the prickly is best for pickles, but generally bitter; the white is difficult to raise and tender; choose the bright green, smooth and proper sized.

Melons-- The Water Melons is cultivated on sandy soils only, above latitude 41 1-2, if a stratum of land be dug from a well, it will bring the first year good Water Melons; the red cored are highest flavored; a hard rine proves them ripe.

Muskmelons, are various, the rough skinned is best to eat; the short, round, fair skinned, is best for Mangoes.

Lettuce, is of various kinds; the purple spotted leaf is generally the tenderest, and free from bitter--your taste must guide your market.

Cabbage, requires a page, they are so multifarious. Note, all Cabbages have a higher relish that grow on new unmanured grounds; if grown in an old town and on old gardens, they have a rankness, which at times, may be perceived by a fresh air traveller. This observation has been experienced for years--that Cabbages require new ground, more than Turnips.

The Low Dutch, only will do in old gardens.

The Early Yorkshire, must have rich foils, they will not answer for winter, they are easily cultivated, and frequently bro't to market in the fall, but will not last the winter.

The Green Savoy, with the richest crinkles, is fine and tender; and altho' they do not head like the Dutch or Yorkshire, yet the tenderness of the out leaves is a counterpoise, it will last through the winter, and are high flavored.

The Yellow Savoy, takes next rank, but will not last so long; all Cabbages will mix, and participate of other species, like Indian Corn; they are culled, best in plants; and a true gardener will, in the plant describe those which will head, and which will not. This is new, but a fact.

The gradations in the Savoy Cabbage are discerned by the leaf; the richest and most scollup'd, and crinkled, and thickest Green Savoy, falls little short of a Colliflower.

The red and redest small tight heads, are best for slaw, it will not boil well, comes out black or blue, and tinges other things with which it is boiled.

To boil Cabbage.
If your cabbage is large, cut it into quarters; if small, cut it in halves; let your water boil, then put in a little salt, and next your cabbage with a little more salt upon it; make your water boil as soon as possible, and when the stalk is tender, take up your cabbage into a cullender, or sieve, that the water may drain off, and send it to table as hot as you can.
Savoys are dressed in the same manner.

B E A N S.

The Clabboard Bean, is easiest cultivated and collected, are good for string beans, will shell--must be poled.

The Windsor Bean, is an earlier, good string, or shell Bean.

Crambury Bean, is rich, but not universally approved equal to the other two.

Frost Bean, is good only to shell.

Six Weeks Bean, is a yellowish Bean, and early brought forward, and tolerable.

Lazy Bean, is tough, and needs no pole.

English Bean what they denominate the Horse Bean, is mealy when young, is profitable, easily cultivated, and may be grown on worn out grounds; as they may be raised by boys, I cannot but recommend the more extensive cultivation of them.

The Small White Bean, is best for winter use, and excellent.

Calivanse, are run out, a yellow small bush, a black speck or eye, are tough and tasteless, and little worth in cookery, and scarcely bear exportation,

Peas--Green Peas.

The Crown Imperial, takes rank in point of flavor, they blossom, purple and white on the top of the vines, will run from three to five feet high, should be set in light sandy soil only, or they run too much to vines.

The Crown Pea, is second in richness of flavor.

The Rondehaval, is large and bitterish.

Early Carlton, is produced first in the season--good.

Marrow Fats, green, yellow, and is large, easily cultivated, not equal to others.

Sugar Pea, needs no bush, the pods are tender and good to eat, easily cultivated.

Spanish Manratto, is a rich Pea, requires a strong high bush.

All Peas should be picked carefully from the vines as soon as dew is off, shelled and cleaned without water, and boiled immediately; they are thus the richest flavored.

To boil all kinds of Garden Stuff. In dressing all sorts of kitchen garden herbs, take care they are clean washed; that there be no small snails, or caterpillars between the leaves; and that all the coarse, outer leaves, and the tops that have received any injury by the weather, be taken off; next wash them in a good deal of water, and put them into a cullender to drain, care must likewise be taken, that your pot or sauce pan be clean, well tinned, and free from sand, or grease.

To keep Green Peas till Christmas.
Take young peas, shell them, put them in a cullender to drain, then lay a cloth four or five times double on a table, then spread them on, dry them very well, and have your bottles ready, fill them, cover them with mutton suet fat when it is a little soft; fill the necks almost to the top, cork them, tie a bladder and a leather over them and set them in a dry cool place.

To boil French Beans.
Take your beans and string them, cut in two and then across, when you have done them all, sprinkle them over with salt, stir them together, as soon as your water boils put them in and make them boil up quick, they will be soon done and they will look of a better green than when growing in the garden; if they are very young, only break off the ends, then break in two and dress them in the same manner.

To boil broad Beans.
Beans require a great deal of water and it is not best to shell them till just before they are ready to go into the pot, when the water boils put them in with some picked parsley and some salt, make them boil up quick, when you see them begin to fall, they are done enough, strain them off, garnish the dish with boiled parsley and send plain butter in a cup or boat.

To boil green Peas.
When your peas are shelled and the water boils, which should not be much more than will cover them, put them in with a few leaves of mint, as soon as they boil put in a piece of butter as big as a walnut, and stir them about, when they are done enough, strain them off, and sprinkle in a little salt, shake them till the water drains off, send them hot to the table with melted butter in a cup or boat.

To boil Asparagus.
First cut the white ends off about six inches from the head, and scrape them from the green part downward very clean, as you scrape them, throw them into a pan of clear water, and after a little soaking, tie them up in small even bundles, when your water boils, put them in, and boil them quick; but by over boiling they will lose their heads; cut a slice of bread for a toast, and toast it brown on both sides; when your asparagus is done, take it up carefully; dip the toast in the asparagus water, and lay it in the bottom of your dish; then lay the heads of the asparagus on it, with the white ends outwards; pour a little melted butter over the heads; cut an orange into small pieces, and stick them between for garnish.

Herbs, useful in Cookery.

Thyme, is good in soups and stuffings.

Sweet Marjoram, is used in Turkeys.

Summer Savory, ditto, and in Sausages and salted Beef, and legs of Pork.

Sage, is used in Cheese and Pork, but not generally approved.

Parsley, good in soups, and to garnish roast Beef, excellent with bread and butter in the spring.

Penny Royal, is a high aromatic, although a spontaneous herb in old ploughed fields, yet might be more generally cultivated in gardens, and used in cookery and medicines.

Sweet Thyme, is most useful and best approved in cookery.

F R U I T S.

Pears, There are many different kinds; but the large Bell Pear, sometimes called the Pound Pear, the yellowest is the best, and in the same town they differ essentially.

Hard Winter Pear, are innumerable in their qualities, are good in sauces, and baked.

Harvest and Summer Pear are a tolerable desert, are much improved in this country, as all other fruits are by grafting and innoculation.

Apples, are still more various, yet rigidly retain their own species, and are highly useful in families, and ought to be more universally cultivated, excepting in the most compactest cities. There is not a single family but might set a tree in some otherwise useless spot, which might serve the two fold use of shade and fruit; on which 12 or 14 kinds of fruit trees might easily be engrafted, and essentially preserve the orchard from the intrusions of boys, &c. which is too common in America. If the boy who thus planted a tree, and guarded and protected it in a useless corner, and carefully engrafted different fruits, was to be indulged free access into orchards, whilst the neglectful boy was prohibited--how many millions of fruit trees would spring into growth--and what a saving to the union. The net saving would in time extinguish the public debt, and enrich our cookery.

Currants, are easily grown from shoots trimmed off from old bunches, and set carelessly in the ground; they flourish on all soils, and make good jellies--their cultivation ought to be encouraged.

Black Currants, may be cultivated--but until they can be dryed, and until sugars are propagated, they are in a degree unprofitable.

Grapes, are natural to the climate; grow spontaneously in every state in the union, and ten degrees north of the line of the union. The Madeira, Lisbon and Malaga Grapes, are cultivated in gardens in this country, and are a rich treat or desert. Trifling attention only is necessary for their ample growth.

To dry Peaches.
Take the fairest and ripest peaches, pare them into fair water; take their weight in double refined sugar; of one half make a very thin sirup; then put in your peaches, boiling them till they look clear, then split and stone them, boil them till they are very tender, lay them a draining, take the other half of the sugar, and boil it almost to a candy; then put in your peaches, and let them lie all night, then lay them on a glass, and set them in a stove, till they are dry, if they are sugared too much, wipe them with a wet cloth a little; let the first sirup be very thin, a quart of water to a pound of sugar.

To pickle or make Mangoes of Melons.
Take green melons, as many as you please, and make a brine strong enough to bear an egg; then pour it boiling hot on the melons, keeping them down under the brine; let them stand five or six days; then take them out, slit them down on one side, take out all the seeds, scrape them well in the inside, and wash them clean with cold water; then take a clove of garlick, a little ginger and nutmeg sliced, and a little whole pepper; put all these proportionably into the melons, filling them up with mustard-seeds; then lay them in an earthen pot with the slit upwards, and take one part of mustard and two parts of vinegar, enough to cover them, pouring it upon them scalding hot, and keep them close stopped.

To pickle Barberries.
Take of white wine vinegar and water, of each an equal quantity; to every quart of this liquor, put in half a pound of cheap sugar, then pick the worst of your barberries and put into this liquor, and the best into glasses; then boil your pickle with the worst of your barberries, and skim it very clean, boil it till it looks of a fine colour, then let it stand to be cold, before you strain it; then strain it through a cloth, wringing it to get all the colour you can from the barberries; let it stand to cool and settle, then pour it clear into the glasses; in a little of the pickle, boil a little fennel; when cold, put a little bit at the top of the pot or glass, and cover it close with a bladder or leather. To every half pound of sugar, put a quarter of a pound of white salt.

To pickle Cucumbers.
Let your cucumbers be small, fresh gathered, and free from spots; then make a pickle of salt and water, strong enough to bear an egg; boil the pickle and skim it well, and then pour it upon your cucumbers, and stive them down for twenty four hours; then strain them out into a cullender, and dry them well with a cloth, and take the best white wine vinegar, with cloves, sliced mace, nutmeg, white pepper corns, long pepper, and races of ginger, (as much as you please) boil them up together, and then clap the cucumbers in, with a few vine leaves, and a little salt, and as soon as they begin to turn their colour, put them into jars, stive them down close, and when cold, tie on a bladder and leather.

To keep Damsons.
Take damsons when they are first ripe, pick them off carefully, wipe them clean, put them into snuff bottles, stop them up tight so that no air can get to them, nor water; put nothing into the bottles but plumbs, put the bottles into cold water, hang them over the fire, let them heat slowly, let the water boil slowly for half an hour, when the water is cold take out the bottles, set the bottles into a cold place, they will keep twelve months if the bottles are stopped tight, so as no air nor water can get to them. They will not keep long after the bottles are opened; the plumbs must be hard.

American Cookery, or the art of dressing viands, fish, poultry, and vegetables, and the best modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards, and preserves, and all kinds of cakes, from the imperial plum to plain cake: Adapted to this country, and all grades of life.
By Amelia Simmons. Hartford: Printed for Simeon Butler, Northampton, (1798)

Note: This information also appears in a book which is essentially a pirated editon of Amelia Simmons' American Cookery (1798).

The New-England cookery, or the art of dressing all kinds of flesh, fish, and vegetables, and the best modes of making pastes, puffs, pies, tarts, puddings, custards and preserves, and all kinds of cakes, from the imperial plumb to the plain cake. Particularly adapted to this part of our country.
By Lucy Emerson. Montpelier, VT: Printed for Josiah Parks, 1808.

Garden to Table - Edible Plants in John Gerard's 1633 Herbal

John Gerard. Herball or General Historie of Plantes. 1633

John Gerard (1545-1612) was one of the most respected plant experts of his time, but apparently, he was not the primary author of his famous "The Herball of Generall Historie of Plantes" of 1597. He plagiarized a manuscript by Dr. Robert Priest that was a translation of the Flemish physician and botanist, Rembert Dodoens’ "Stirpium Historia Pemptades Sex."

Gerard was originally supposed to finish the translation after Priest died, instead he added 182 new plants, revised the arrangement, appended his own observations and claimed the entire work as his own. In a rush to publish, Gerard made a great number of errors in his first edition. However, that first edition held the field without a competitor for more than a generation.

Gerard is the best known botanist published in English. His work has remained popular for over 400 years for its amalgamation of horticultural lore, its collection of medical "virtues" of plants, and, not least, its graceful and delightful English prose.

Gerard was born in Cheshire, England and attended a village school in Wisterson. He was apprenticed for a career of a surgeon in 1562 and achieved eminence in his profession, being elected Master of the Company of Barker-Surgeons. He traveled the Baltic coast to "Denmarke, Swevia, Poland, Livinia, and Russia."

Gerard's reputation, however, rests on horticulture. As early as 1577, he superintended several gardens and plant collections of William Cecil (Lord Burghley, the first minister of Queen Elizabeth) including his residence in the Strand and at Theobalds, Hertfordshire. In 1586 he was appointed curator of the College of Physicians physics garden. In addition, Gerard’s own garden at Holborn, between Chancery Lane and Fetter Lane included "all the rare samples" and "all manners of strange trees, herbs, roots, plants, flowers and other rare things ..."

Gerard’s list of plants in his Holborn garden published in 1596 was the first garden catalog printed in English and included over 1,000 species including the first English mention of potato. However, Gerard’s most famous work is his Herball or General Historie of Plants, published in 1597.

Although John Gerard reported on a variety of edible plants in his herbal, eating vegetables was not particularly popular in 17C & 18C British Colonial America. In 1705, Robert Beverly, in his The History and Present State of Virginia (1705), wrote: “A Kitchen-Garden don’t thrive better or faster in any part of the Universe, than there [Virginia]. They have all the Culinary Plants that grow in England, and in far greater perfection.” But in fact, he observed that typical attempts at gardening in Virginia were not “fit to bear the name of gardens.”

Swiss traveler Frances Michel visiting the Williamsburg, Virginia area late in 1702, reported, “The inhabitants pay little attention to garden plants except lettuce, although most everything grows here.”

Almonds
"Amygdalus. Of the Almond Tree.
There is drawne out of sweet Almonds, with liquor added, a white iuice like milke... Almonds taken before meate do stop the belly, and nourish but little; notwithstanding many excellent meates and medicines are therewith made for sundry griefes, yea very delicat and wholsome meates, as Almond butter, creame of Almonds, marchpane, and such like, which dry and stay the belly more than the extracted iuyce or milke; and they are also as good for the chest and lungs."

Apple
"Malus Carbonaria. Of the Apple tree.
The tame and graffed Apple trees are planted and set in gardens and orchards made for that purpose... I haue seene in the pastures and hedge-rows about the grounds of a worshipful gentleman... so many trees of all sorts, that the seruants drinke for the most part no other drinke but that which is made of Apples; The quantity is such, that by the report of the Gentleman himselfe, the Parson hath for tithe many hogsheads of Syder...
Rosted apples are alwaies better than the raw, the harm whereof is both mended by the fire, and may also be corrected by adding vnto them seeds or spices."

Apricot
"Armeniaca malus maior. Of the Aprecocke or Abrecocke tree.
Aprecocks are cold and moist in the second degree, but yet not so moist as Peaches, for which cause they do not so soone or easily putrifie, and they are also more wholesome for the stomacke, and pleasant to the taste; yet do they likewise putrifie, and yeeld but little nourishment, and the same cold, moist, and full of excrements: being taken after meate they corrupt and putrifie in the stomacke; being first eaten before other meate they easily descend, and cause the other meates to passe downe the sooner, like as also the Peaches do."

Artichoke
"Cinara. Artichoke.
The nailes, that is, the white and thicke parts which are in the bottome of the outward scales or flakes of the fruit of the Artichoke, and also the middle pulpe whereon the downy seed stands, are eaten both raw with pepper and salt, and commonly boyled with the broth of fat flesh, with pepper added, and are accounted a dainty dish, being pleasant to the taste, and good to procure bodily lust: so likewise the middle ribs of the leaues being made white and tender by good cherishing and looking to, are brought to the table as a great seruice together with other junkets: they are eaten with pepper and salt as be the raw Artichokes... But it is best to eate the Artichoke boyled... Some write, that if the buds of yong Artichokes be first steeped in wine, and eaten, they prouoke vrine, and stir vp the lust of the body."

Asparagus
"Asparagus. Sperage, or Asparagus.
...The first sprouts or naked tender shoots hereof be oftentimes sodden in flesh broth and eaten, or boyled in faire water, and seasoned with oyle, vineger, salt, and pepper, then are serued at mens tables for a sallad; they are pleasant to the taste, easily concocted, and gently loose the belly..."

Banana/Plantain
"Musa fructus. Of Adams Apple tree, or the West-Indian Plantaine.
...Aprill 10. 1633. my much honored friend... gaue me a plant he receiued from the Bermuda's... The fruit which I receiued was not ripe, but greene, each of them was about the bignesse of a large Beane... This stalke with the fruit thereon I hanged vp in my shop, where it became ripe about the beginning of May, and lasted vntil Iune: the pulp or meat was very soft and tender, and it did eate somewhat like a Muske-Melon...
The fruit hereof yeeldeth but little nourishment: it is good for the heate of the breast, lungs, and bladder: it stoppeth the liuer, and hurteth the stomacke if too much of it be eaten, and procureth loosenesse in the belly: whereupon it is requisit for such as are of a cold constitution, in the eating thereof to put vnto it a little Ginger or other spice."

Barley
"Hordeum Distichon. Common Barley.
...it serueth for Ptisana, Polenta, Maza, Malt, ale and Beere. The making whereof if any be desirous to learne, let them reade Lobelius Aduersaria, in the chapter of Barley... There be sundry sorts of Confections made of Barley, as Polenta, Ptisana, made of water and husked or hulled barley, and such like. Polenta is the meate made of parched Barley...Maza is made of parched Barley tempered with water... Hesychius doth interpret maza to be Barley meale mixed with water and oyle."

Bastard Parsley
" Caucalis. Bastard Parsley.
Dioscorides saith, that bastard Parsley is a pot-herbe which is eaten either raw or boiled, and prouoketh vrine. Pliny doth reckon it vp also among the pot-herbes; Galen addeth, that it is preserued in pickle for sallades in winter. "

Bastard Saffron
"Carthamus siue Cnicus. Bastard Saffron.
The seed vsed as aforesaid [bruised and strained into honied water or the broth of a chicken -- ed.], and srained into milke, causeth it to curdle and yeeld much cruds..."

Bay
"Laurus. Of the Bay or Laurell tree.
The later Physitions doe oftentimes vse to boyle the leaues of Laurell with diuers meats, especially fishes, and by so doing there happeneth no desire of vomiting: but the meat seasoned herewith becommeth more sauory and better for the stomacke."

Beets
"Beta alba. White Beets.
...the white Beete is a cold and moist pot-herbe...Being eaten when it is boyled, it quickly descendeth... especially being taken with the broth wherein it is sodden..."

Beta rubra, Beta rubra Romana. Red Beets, Red Roman Beets.

...The great and beautiful Beet last described may be vsed in winter for a salad herbe, with vinegar, oyle, and salt, and is not onely pleasant to the taste, but also delightfull to the eye.

The greater red Beet or Roman Beet, boyled and eaten with oyle, vineger and pepper, is a most excellent and delicate sallad: but what might be made of the red and beautifull root (which is to be preferred before the leaues, as well in beauty as in goodnesse) I refer vnto the curious and cunning cooke, who no doubt when he hath had the view thereof, and is assured that it is both good and wholesome, will make thereof many and diuers dishes, both faire and good."

Bell-Flowers
"Viola Mariana. Bell-Floures or Couentry-Bells.
"The root is cold and somewhat binding, and not vsed in physicke, but only for a sallet root boyled and eaten with oyle, vinegar, and pepper."

Borage
"Borago. Borage.
...Those of our time do vse the floures in sallads, to exhilerate and make the mind glad... The leaues boyled among other pot-herbes do much preuaile in making the belly soluble..."

Buckwheat
"Tragopyron. Buck-wheat.
...Bread made of the meale of Buck-wheat is of easie digestion, and speedily passeth through the belly, but yeeldeth little nourishment"

Burnet
"Pimpinella hortensis... Garden Burnet.
...The lesser Burnet is pleasant to be eaten in sallads, in which it is thought to make the heart merry and glad, as also being put into wine, to which it yeeldeth a certaine grace in the drinking."

Capers
"Capparis. Capers.
They stir vp an appetite to meat... They are eaten boiled (the salt first washed off) with oile and vineger, as other sallads be, and sometimes are boiled with meat."

Caraway
"Carum, siue Carcum.
Caruwaies.
It consumeth winde, it is delightfull to the stomacke and taste... the root may be sodden, and eaten as the Parsenep or Carrot is.
The seeds confected, or made with sugar into Comfits, are very good for the stomacke..."

Carob
"Ceratia siliqua, sive Ceratonia. Of the Carob tree, or Saint Iohns Bread.
...the fruit or long cods... are of a sweet taste, and are eaten of diuers, but not before they be gathered and dried; for being as yet green, though ripe, they are vnpleasant to be eaten by reason of their ill fauoured taste..."

Carrot
"Pastinaca sativa tenuifolia, Pastinaca satiua atro-rubens.
Carrots.
The root of the yellow Carrot is most commonly boiled with fat flesh and eaten... The red Carrot is of like facultie with the yellow."

Cherry
"Cerasus vulgaris. Of the Cherrie Tree.
The best and principall Cherries be those that are somewhat sower: those little sweet ones which be wilde and soonest ripe be the worst: they containe bad juice, they very soon putrifie, and do ingender ill bloud... The late ripe Cherries which the French-men keep dried against winter, and are by them called Morelle, and we after the same name call them Morell Cherries, are dry, and do somewhat binde; these being dried are pleasant to the taste, and wholesome for the stomacke, like as Prunes be, and do stop the belly. Generally all the kindes of Cherries are cold and moist of temperature, although some more cold and moist than others: the which being eaten before meat doe soften the belly very gently... Many excellent Tarts and other pleasant meats are made with Cherries, sugar, and other delicat spices, whereof to write were to small purpose."

Chervil
"Cerefolium Cheruill.
Cheruill is held to be one of the pot-herbes, it is pleasant to the stomacke and taste... It is vsed very much among the Dutch people in a kinde of Loololly or hotch-pot which they do eate, called Warmus. The leaues of sweet Cheruill are exceeding good, wholesome, and pleasant, among other sallad herbs, giuing the taste of Anise seed vnto the rest... The seeds eaten as a sallad whilest hey are yet greene, with oyle, vineger, and pepper, exceed all other sallads by many degrees, both in pleasantnesse of taste, sweetnesse of smell, and wholsomnesse for the cold and feeble stomacke.
The roots are likewise most excellent in a sallad, if they be boyled and after dressed as the cunning Cooke knoweth how better than my selfe: notwithstanding I doe vse to eate them with oile and vineger, being first boyled; which is very good for old people that are dull and without courage; it reioyceth and comforteth the heart, and increaseth their lust and strength."

Chestnut
"Castanea. Of the Chestnut tree.
Our common Chestnuts are very dry and binding, and be nither hot nor cold, but in a mean betweene both: yet haue they in them a certaine windinesse, and by reason of this, vnlesse the shell be firest cut, they skip suddenly with a cracke out of the fire whilest they be rosting... Being boiled or rosted they are not of so hard digestion... Some affirme, that of raw Chestnuts dried, and afterwards turned into meale, there is made a kinde of bread: yet it must needs be, that this should be dry and brittle, hardly concocted, and verie slow in passing thorow the belly..."

Citrus Fruit
"Malus. Of the Citron, Limon, Orange, and Assyrian Apple trees.
[the rind of the Pomecitron] is good to be eaten against a stinking breath, for it maketh the breath sweet; and being so taken it comforteth the cold stomacke exceedingly. The white, sound, and hard pulpe is now and then eaten, but very hardly concocted, and ingendreth a grosse, cold, and phlegmaticke iuyce; but being condite with sugar, it is both pleasant in taste, and easie to be digested, more nourishing, and lesse apt to obstruction and binding or stopping.
Galen reporteth, that the inner iuice of the Pomecitron was not wont to be eaten, but it is now vsed for sauce; and being often vsed, it represseth choler which is in the stomacke, and procures appetite..."

Clove Gillyflowers
"Caryophyllus. Cloue Gillofloure.
The conserue made of the floures of the Cloue Gillofloure and sugar, is exceeding cordial, and wonderfully aboue measure doth comfort the heart, being eaten now and then."

Coconut
"Nux Indica arbor. Of the Indian Nut tree.
...next vnto the shell vpon the inside there cleueth a white cornelly substance firme and sollid, of the colour and taste of a blanched Almond: within the cauitie or hollownes thereof is contained a most delectable liquor like vnto milke, an dof a most pleasant taste.
...The distilled liquor is called Sula; and the oile that is made thereof, Copra... The Indians do vse to cut the twigs and tender branches toward the euening, at the ends whereof they haue bottle gourds, hollow canes, and such like things, fit to receiue the water that droppeth from the branches thereof, which pleasant liquor they drinke in stead of wine, from the which is drawne a strong and comfortable Aqua Vitae... Likewise they make of the shell of the Nut, cups to drike in, which we likewise vse in England, garnished with siluer for the same purposes. The kernell serueth them for bread and meat; the milkie iuice doth serue to coole and refresh their wearied spirits: out of the kernel when it is stamped, is pressed a most precious oile, not onely good for meat, but also for medicine..."

Coriander
"Coriandrum. Corianders.
Coriander seed prepared and couered with sugar, as comfits, taken after meat closeth vp the mouth of the stomacke, staieth vomiting, and helpeth digestion... The manner how to prepare Coriander, both for meat and medicine. Take the seed well and sufficiently dried, whereupon poure some wine and vinegar, and so leaue them to infuse or steepe foure and twentie houres, then take them forth and drie them, and keepe them for your vse."

Corne-Marigold
"Chrysanthemum. Corne-Marigold.
The stalkes and leaues of Corne Marigold, as Dioscorides saith, are eaten as other pot-herbes are."

Cow Parsnips
"Sphondylium. Cow Parsnep.
The people of Polonia and Lituania vse to make drinke with the decoction of this herbe, and leuen or some other thing made of meale, which is vsed in stead of beere and other ordinarie drinke."

Cowslips of Jerusalem
"Pulmonaria... Cowslips of Jerusalem.
The leaues are vsed among pot-herbes."

Cress
"Nasturtium hortense. Garden Cresses.
...Galen saith that the Cresses may be eaten with bread Velutiobsonium, and so the Antient Spartanes vsually did; and the low-Countrie men many times doe, who commonly vse to feed of Cresses with bread and butter. It is eaten with other sallade hearbes, as Tarragon and Rocket..."

Cucumber
"Cucumis... Cucumbers.
Cucumber (saith my Author) taken in meats, is good for the stomack and other parts troubled with heat... [a cure]The fruit cut in pieces or chopped as herbes to the pot and boiled in a small pipkin with a piece of mutton, being made into potage with Ote-meale, euen as herb potage are made, whereof a messe eaten to break-fast, as much to dinner, and the like to supper; taken in this manner for the space of three weekes... doth perfectly cure all manner of sawce-flegme and copper faces... "

"Palma. Of the Date tree.
...the fruit is ripe in September, and being then gathered they are dried in the Sunne, that they may be the better both transported into other countries far distant, as also preserued from rotting at home... All manner of Dates whatsoeuer are hard of digestion, and cause head-ache: the worser sort be those that be dry and binding, as the Egyptian Dates; but the soft, moist, and sweet ones are lesse hurtfull... The Dates which grow in colder regions, when they cannot come to perfect ripenesse, if they be eaten too plentifully, do fill the body full of raw humors, ingender winde, and oft times cause the leprosie... There is made hereof both by the cunning Confectioners and Cookes, diuers excellent cordiall, comfortable, and nourishing medicines, and that procure lust of the body very mightily."

Fennell Gyant
" Ferula. Herbe Ferula, or Fennell Gyant.
...It is reported to be eaten in Apulia rosted in the embers, first wrapped in leaues or in old clouts, with pepper and salt; which, as they say, is a pleasant sweet food, that stirreth vp lust, as they report."

Figs
"Ficus. Of the Fig tree.
The dry Figs do nourish better than the greene or new Figs; notwithstanding they ingender not very good bloud, for such people as do feed much thereon doe become lowsie... Dioscorides saith, that the white liquor of the Fig tree, and the iuice of the leaues, do curdle milke as rennet doth, and dissolve the milke that is cluttered in the stomacke, as doth vinegar."

Filberts
"Nux Auellana, sive Corylus. Of the Hasell tree.
...this kernell is sweet and pleasant vnto the taste... Hasell Nuts newly gathered, and not as yet dry, containe in them a certaine superfluous moisture, by reason whereof they are windie: not onely the new gathered Nuts, but the dry also, be very hard of digestion; for they are of an earthy and cold essence, and of an hard and sound substance, for which cause also they very slowly passe thorow the belly, therefore they are troublesome and clogging to the stomacke, cause head-ache, especially when they be eaten in too great a quantitie. The kernells of Nuts made into milke like Almonds do mightily bind the belly, and are good for the laske and the bloudy flix."

Flax
"Linum sativum. Garden Flaxe.
...Galen in his first booke of the faculties of nourishments saith, that diuers vse the seed hereof parched as a sustenacne [sic] with Garum, no otherwise than made salt. They also vse it mixed with hony, some likewise put it among bread but it is hurtfull to the stomacke, and hard of digestion... at Middleborough in Zeland, where for want of graine and other corne, most of the Citizens were faine to eate bread and cakes made hereof with hony and oile, who were in short time after swolne in the belly below the short ribs, faces, & other parts of their bodies in such sort, that a great number were brought to their graues thereby..."

Ginger
"Zingiberis. Of Ginger.
Ginger, as Dioscorides reporteth, is right good with meate in sauces, or otherwise in conditures: for it is of an heating and digesting qualitie canded, greene or condited Ginger is hot and moist in qualitie, prouoking Venerie: and being dried, it heateth or drieth in the third degree."

Gooseberry
"Vua Crispa. Of Goose-berrie, or Fea-berry Bush.
The fruit is vsed in diuers sauces for meate, as those that are skilfull in cookerie can better tel than my selfe. They are vsed in broths in stead of Veriuice, chich maketh the broth not onely pleasant to the taste, but greatly profitable to such as are troubled with a hot burning ague...The young and tender leaues eaten raw in a sallad, prouoke vrine, and driue forth the stone and grauell."

Gourds
"Cucurbita... Gourds.
The Gourds are cherished in the gardens of these cold regions rather for pleasure than for profit: in the hot coutries where they cope to ripenesse there are sometimes eaten, but with small delight; especially they are kept for the rindes, wherein they put Turpentine, Oyle, Hony, and also serue them for pales to fetch water in, and many other like vses...
The pulpe also is eaten sodden... But being baked in an ouen or fried in a pan it loseth the most part of his naturall moisture..."

Guayaua
"Guayava arboris ramus. Of the Guayaua, or Orange-Bay.
The fruit is vsually eaten, the rinde being first taken off; it is pleasing to the palate, wholesome and easie of concoction... if rosted, it is good both for the sound and sicke; for so handled it is wholsommer, and of a more pleasing taste..."

Hemp
"Cannabis. Hempe.
The seed of Hempe, as Galen writeth in his bookes of the faculties of simple medicines, is hard of digestion, hurtfull to the stomacke and head, and containeth in it an ill iuyce: notwithstanding some do vse to eate the same parched, cum alijs tragematis, with other junkets... Matthiolus saith, that the seed giuen to hens causeth them to lay egges more plentifully."

Hops
"Lupus salictarius. Hops.
The buds or first sprouts which come forth in the Spring are vsed to be eaten in sallads... The floures are vsed to season Beere or Ale with, and too many do cause bitternesse thereof... The floures make bread light, and the lumpe to be sooner and easilier leauened, if the meale be tempered with liquor wherein they haue been boyled."

Horseradish
"Raphanus rusticanus. Horse Radish.
...Horse Radish stamped with a little vineger put thereto, is commonly vsed among the Germanes for sauce to eate fish with, and such like meates, as we doe mustard; but this kinde of sauce doth heate the stomacke better, and causeth better digestion than mustard."

Houseleek
"Sedum minus. Lesser Houseleekes or Prickmadams.
...is vsed in many places in sallads, in which it hath a fine relish, and a pleasant taste..."

Jerusalem Artichoke
"Flos Solis Pyramidalis. Jerusalem Artichoke.
These rootes are dressed in diuers waies; some boile them in water, and after stew them with sacke and butter, adding a little Ginger: others bake them in pies, putting Marrow, Dates, Ginger, Raisons of the Sun, Sacke, &c. Others some other way, as they are led by their skill in Cookerie. But in my iudgement, which way soeuer they be drest and eaten they stirre and cause a filthie loathsome stinking winde within the bodie, thereby causing the belly to bee pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine, than men..."

Kidney Beans
"Phaseolus [and] Smilax. Of Kidney Beane.
The fruit and cods of Kidney Beanes boiled together before they be ripe, and buttered, and so eaten with their cods, are exceeding delicate meat, and do not ingender winde as the other Pulses doe. They doe also gently loose the belly, prouoke vrine, and ingender good bloud reasonably well; but if you eat them when they be ripe, they are neither toothsome nor wholsome. Therefore they are to be taken whilest they are yet greene and tender, which are first boiled vntill they be tender; then is the tib or sinew that doth run alongst the cod to be taken away; then must they be put into a stone pipkin, r some other vessell with butter, and set to the fire againe to stew, or boile gently: which meat is very wholsome, nourishing, and of a pleasant taste."

Lettuce
"Lactuca. Lettuce.
...Lettuce maketh a pleasant sallad, being eaten raw with vineger, oyle, and a little salt: but if it be boyled it is sooner digested, and nourisheth more. It is serued in these dayes, and in these countries in the beginning of supper, and eaten first before any other meate: which also Martiall testifieth to be done in his time, maruelling why some did vse it for a seruice at the end of supper, in these verses...

Tell me why Lettuce, which our Grandsires last did eate,
Is now of late become, to be the first of meate?

Notwithstanding it may now and then be eaten at both those times to the health of the body: for being taken before meat it doth many times stir vp appetite: and eaten after supper it keepeth away drunkennesse which commeth by the wine; and that is by reason that it stayeth the vapors from rising vp into the head."

Liquorice
"Glycyrrhiza vulgaris. Of Liquorice.
...with the juice of Licorice, Ginger, and other spices, there is made a certaine bread or cakes, called Ginger-bread, which is very good against the cough, and all the infirmities of the lungs and brest: which is cast into moulds, some of one fashion, and some of another...
These things concerning Liquorice hath also Theophrastus: viz. that with this and with cheese made of Mares milke the Scythians were reported to be able to liue eleuen or twelue dayes."

Mad Apples [eggplant?]
"Mala insana. Madde or raging Apples.
...The people of Tolledo do eat them with great deuotion being boiled with fat flesh, putting thereto some scraped cheese, which they do keepe in vineger, honie, or salt pickell all Winter to procure lust. Petrus Bellonius, and Hermolaus Barbarus, report that in Egypt and Barbary they vse to eat the fruit of Mala insana boiled or rosted vnder ashes, with oile, vineger, & pepper, as people vse to eat Mushroms. But I rather wish English men to content themselues with the meat and sauce of our owne Countrey, than with fruit and sauce eaten with such perill: for doubtlesse these apples haue a mischievuous qualitie, the vse whereof is vtterly to be forsaken..."

Marigold
"Calendula. Marigold.
The yellow leaues of the floures are dried and kept throughout Dutchland against Winter, to put into broths, in physicall potions, and for diuers other purposes, in such quantity, that in some Grocers or Spice-sellers houses are to be found barrels filled with them, and retailed by the penny more or lesse, insomuch that no broths are well made without dried Marigolds."

Marjoram
" Mariorana. Marierome.
The leaues are excellent good to be put into all odoriferous ointments, waters, pouders, broths, and meates."

Melons or Pompions
" Pepo... Melons, or Pompions.
The pulpe of the Pompion is neuer eaten raw, but boiled... The fruit boiled in milke and buttered, is not onely a good wholesome meat for mans body, but being so prepare, is also a most physicall medicine for such as haue an hot stomacke... The flesh or pulpe of the same sliced and fried in a pan with butter, is also a good and wholesome meat: but baked with apples in an ouen, it doth fil the body with flatuous or windie belchings, and is food vtterly vnwholesome for such as liue idlely; but vnto robustious and rustick people nothing hurteth that filleth the belly."

Mint
"Mentha. Mints.
Garden Mint taken in meat or drinke warmeth and strengtheneth the stomacke... and causeth good digestion."

Mulberry
"Morus. Of the Mulberrie tree.
These Mulberries taken in meat, and also before meat, do very speedily passe through the belly, by reason of the moisture and slipperinesse of their substance, and make a passage for other meats, as Galen saith. They are good to quench thirst, they stir vp and appetite to meat, they are not hurtfull to the stomacke, but they nourish the body very little, being taken in the second place, or after meat..."

Mustard
"Sinapi sativum. Garden Mustard.
...The seed of Mustard pound with vinger, is an excellent sauce, good to be eaten with any grosse meates either fish or flesh, because it doth helpe digestion, warmeth the stomacke, and prouoketh appetite."

Oats
"Avena Vesca. Common Otes.
...is vsed in many countries to make sundry sorts of bread; as in Lancashire, where it is their chiefest bread corne for Iannocks, Hauer cakes, Tharffe cakes, and those which are called generally Oten cakes; and for the most part they call the graine Hauer, whereof they do likewise make drink for want of Barley."

Olive
"Olea sativa. Of the Oliue Tree.
The Oliues which be so ripe as that either they fall off themselues, or be ready to fall... be moderately hot and moist, yet being eaten they yeeld to the body little nourishment. The vnripe oliues are dry and binding. Tose that are preserued in pickle, called Colymbades, do dry vp the ouermuch moisture of the stomacke, they remoue the loathing of meate, stirre vp an appetite; but there is no nourishment at all that is to be looked for in them, much lesse good nourishment."

Onions
"Cepa. Onions.
...The Onion being eaten, yea though it be boyled, causeth head-ache, hurteth the eyes, and maketh a man dimme sighted, dulleth the sences, ingendreth windinesse, and prouoketh ouermuch sleepe, especially being eaten raw. ...There is also another small kinde of Onion, called... Scallions... It is vsed to be eaten in sallads."

Orach
"Atriplex. Orach.
Dioscorides writeth, That the garden Orach is both moist and cold, and that it is eaten boyled as other sallad herbes are...."

Parsley
"Apium hortense. Garden Parsley.
The leaues are pleasant in sauces and broth, in which besides that they giue a pleasant taste, they be also singular good to take away stoppings, and to prouoke vrine: which thing the roots likewise do notable performe if they be boiled in broth: they be also delightfull to the taste, and agreeable to the stomacke."

Parsnips
"Pastinaca latifolia sativa. Garden Parsneps.
The Parsneps nourish more than doe the Turneps or the Carrots... There is a good and pleasant food or bread made of the roots of Parsneps, as my friend Mr. Plat hath set forth in his booke of experiments, which I haue made no triall of, nor meane to do."

Peach
"Persica alba. Of the Peach tree.
Peaches be cold and moist, and that in the second degree; they haue a juice and also a substance that doth easily putrifie, which yeeldeth no nourishment, but bringeth hurt, especially if they be eaten after other meates; for then they cause the other meates to putrifie. But they are lesse hurtfull if they be taken first; for by reason that they are moist and slippery, they easily and quickly descend; and by making the belly slippery, they cause other meates to slip downe the sooner."

Pear
"Pyra. Of the Peare tree.
To write of Pears and Apples in particular, would require a particular volume: the stocke or kindred of Pears are not to be numbred: euery country hath his peculiar fruit... Wine made of the iuice of peares called in English, Perry, is soluble, purgeth those that are not accustomed to drinke thereof, especially when it is new; notwithstanding it is as wholsome a drink being taken in small qunatitie as wine; it comforteth and warmeth the stomacke, and causeth good digestion."

Peas
"Pisum maius. Of Peason.
Galen writeth, that Peason are in their whole substance like vnto Beanes, and be eaten after the same manner that Beans are..."

Peppers
"Capsicum. Ginnie or Indian Pepper.
...Ginnie pepper hath the taste of pepper, but not the power or vertue, notwithstanding in Spaine and sundrie parts of the Indies they do vse to dresse their meate therewith, as we doe with Calecute pepper: but (saith my Authour) it hath in it a malicious qualitie, whereby it is an enemy to the liuer and other of the entrails... It is said to die or colour like Saffron; and being receiued in such sort as Saffron is vsually taken, it warmeth the stomacke, and helpeth greatly the digestion of meates."

Plum
"Prunus Domestica. Of the Plum tree.
Plummes that be ripe and new gathered from the tree, what sort soeuer they are of, do moisten and coole, and yeeld vnto the body very little nourishment, and the same nothing good at all: for as Plummes do very quickly rot, so is also the iuice of them apt to putrifie in the body, and likewise to cause the meat to putrifie which is taken with them... Dried Plums, commonly called Prunes, are wholsomer, and more pleasant to the stomack, they teeld more nonrishment, and better, and such as cannot easily putrifie..."

Pine tree
"Pinus sativa, sive domestica. Of the Pine Tree.
The kernels of these nuts...[?] yeeldeth a thicke and good iuice, and nourisheth much, yet it is not altogether easie of digestion, and therefore it is mixed with preserues, or boyled with sugar."

Pinks
"Caryophyllus. Pinks or wilde Gillofloures.
The conserue made of the floures of the Cloue Gillofloure and sugar, is exceeding cordial, and wonderfully aboue measure doth comfort the heart, being eaten now and then."

Pistachio
"Pistacia. Of Fisticke Nuts.
The kernels of the Fisticke Nuts are oftentimes eaten as be those of the Pine Apples; they be of temperature hot and moist; they are not so easily concocted, but much easier than common nuts... The kernels of Fisticke nuts condited, or made into comfits, with sugar, and eaten, doe procure bodily lust, vnstop the lungs and the brest, are good against the shortnesse of breath, and are an excellent preseruatiue medicine being ministred in wine against the bitings of all manner of wilde beasts."

Pomegranate
"Malus Granata, siue Punica. Of the Pomegranat tree.
As there be sundry sorts of Apples, Peares, Plums, and such like fruits, so there are two sorts of Pomegranates, the garden and the wilde... the fruit of the garden Pomegranat is of three sorts; one hauing a soure iuyce or liquor; another hauing a very sweet and pleasant liquor, and the third the taste of wine... The iuicie grains of the Pomegranate are good to be eaten, hauing in them a meetly good iuice: they are wholesome for the stomacke..."

Poppy
"Papauer. Garden Poppies.
...This seed, as Galen saith in his booke of the Faculties of nourishments, is good to season bread with; but the white is better than the black. He also addeth, that the same is cold and causeth sleepe, and yeeldeth no commendable nourishment to the body; it is often vsed in comfits, serued at the table with other iunketting dishes. The oile which is pressed out of it is pleasant and delightfull to be eaten, and is taken with bread or any other waies in meat, without any sence of cooling."

Potato
"Battata Virginiana, siue Virginianorum, & Pappus. Virginian Potatoes.
The temperature and vertues be referred vnto the common [sweet] Potatoes, being likewise a food, as also a meate for pleasure, equall in goodnesse and wholesomenesse vnto the same, being either rosted in the embers, or boyled and eaten with oyle, vinegar, and pepper, or dressed any other way by the hand of some cunning in cookerie."

Quince
"Malus Cotonea. Of the Quince Tree.
Quinces be cold and dry in the second degree, and also very much binding, especially when they be raw: they haue likewise in them a certaine superfluous and excrementall moisture, which will not suffer them to lie long without rotting. they are seldom eaten rawe: being rosted or baked they be more pleasant... Simeon Sethi writeth, that the woman with childe, which eateth many Quinces during the time of her breeding, shall bring forth wise children, and of good vnderstanding.
The Marmalade, or Cotininate, made of Quinces and sugar, is good and profitable for the strengthening of the stomacke, that it may retaine and keepe the meat therein vntill it be perfectly digested... which Cotiniate is made in this manner: Take faire Quinces, pare them, cut them in pieces, and cast away the core, then put vnto euery pound of Quinces a pound of sugar, and to euery pound of sugar a pinte of water: these must bee boiled together ouer a still fire till they be very soft, then let it be strained or rather rubbed through a strainer, or an hairy sieue, which is better, and then set it ouer the fire to boile againe, vntill it be stiffe, and so box it vp, and as it cooleth put thereto a little Rose water, and a few graines of Muske, well mingled together, which will giue a goodly taste vnto the Cotiniat. This is the way to make Marmalade:
Take whole Quinces and boile them in water vntill they be as soft as a scalded codling or apple, then pill off the skin, and cut off the flesh, and stampe it in a stone mortar; then straine it as you did the Cotiniate; afterward put it into a pan to drie, but not to seeth at all: and vnto euery pound of the flesh of Quinces, put three quarters of a pound of sugar, and in the cooling you may put in rose water and a little Muske, as was said before... Many other excellent, dainty and wholesome confections are to be made of Quinces, as ielly of Quinces, and such odde conceits, which for breuitie sake I do now let passe."

Radish
"Raphanus sativus. Radish.
...Radish are eaten raw with bread in stead of other food... for the most part, they are vsed in sauce with meates to procure appetite, and in that sort they ingender blood lesse faulty, than eaten alone or with bread onely..."

Rape-Cole
"Caulorapum rotundum. Of Rape-Cole.
There is nothing set downe of the faculties of these plants, but are accounted for daintie meate, contending with the Cabbage Cole in goodnesse and pleasant taste."

Rice
"Oryza. Rice.
...In England we vse to make with milke and Rice a certaine food or pottage, which doth both meanly binde the belly, and also nourish. Many other good kindes of food is made with this graine, as those that are skilfull in cookerie can tell."

Rose
"Rosa. Of Roses.
The distilled water of roses... being put into iunketting dishes, cakes, sauces, and many other pleasant things, giueth a fine and delectable taste...
The conserue of Roses... is thus made: Take the leaues [petals] of Roses, the nails cut off, one pound, put them into a clean pan; then put thereto a pinte and a halfe of scalding water, stirring them together with a woodden slice, so let them stand to mascerate, close couered some two or three houres; then set them to the fire slowly to boyle, adding thereto three pounds of sugar in powder, letting them to samper together according to discretion, some houre or more; then keepe it for your vse.
The same made another way, but better by many degrees: take Roses at your pleasure, put them to boyle in faire water, hauing regard to the quantity; for if you haue many roses, you may take the more water; if fewer, the lesse water will serue: the which you shall boyle at the least three or foure houres, euen as you would boyle a piece of meat, vntill in the eating they be very tender, at which time the roses will lose their colour, that you would thinke your labour lost, and the thing spoyled. But proceed, for though the Roses haue lost their colour, the water hath gotten the tincture thereof; then shall you adde vnto one pound of Roses, foure pound of fine sugar in pure powder, and so according to the rest of the roses. Thus shall you let them boyle gently after the Sugar is put therto, continually stirring it with a woodden Spatula vntill it be cold, whereof one pound weight is worth six pound of the crude or raw conserue, as well for the vertues and goodnesse in taste, as also for the beautifull colour.
The making of the crude or raw conserue is very well knowne, as also Sugar roset, and diuers other pretty things made of roses and sugar, which are impertent vnto our historie, because I intend neither to make thereof an Apothecaries shop, nor a Sugar bakers storehouse, leauing the rest for our cunning confectioners."

Rosemary
"Rosmarinum Coronarium. Of Rosemarie.
Tragus writeth, that Rosemarie is spice in the Germane Kitchins, and other cold countries... The floures made vp into plates with sugar after the manner of Sugar Roset and eaten, comfort the heart, and make it merry, quicken the spirits, and make them more liuely."

Saffron
"Crocus. Saffron.
...The chiues steeped in water, serue to illumine or (as we say) limne pictures and imagerie, as also to colour sundry meats and confections. It is with good successe giuen to procure bodily lust. The confections called Crocomagna, Oxycroceum, and Diacurcuma, with diuers other emplaisters and electuaries cannot be made without this Saffron."

Sage
"Saluia. Sage.
No man needs to doubt of the wholesomnesse of Sage Ale, being brewed as it should be with Sage, Scabious, Betony, Spikenard, Squinanth, and Fennel seeds.."

Sesame
"Sesamum, siue Sisamum. Of the oylie Pulse called Sesamum.
...Men do not greedily feed of it alone, but make cakes thereof with honey, ... it is also mixed with bread..."

Sorrell
"Oxalis. Sorrell.
Sorrell doth vndoutedly coole and mightily dry; but because it is soure it likewise cutteth tough humors. The iuyce hereof in Sommer time is a profitable sauce in many meates, and pleasant to the taste... The leaues of Sorrell taken in good quantitie, stamped and strained into some Ale, and a posset made thereof, cooleth the sicke bodie, quencheth the thirst, and allayeth the heat of such as are troubled with a pestilent feuer, hot ague, or any great inflammation within. The leaues sodden, and eaten in manner of a Spinach tart, or eaten as meate, softneth and loosneth the belly, and doth attemper and coole the bloud exceedingly."

Spinach
"Spinacia. Spinach.
It is eaten boiled, but yeeldeth little or no nourishment at all: it is something windie, and easily causeth a desire to vomit: it is vsed in sallades when it is young and tender. This herbe of all other pot-herbes and sallade herbes maketh the greatest diuersitie of meates and sallades."

Sugar Cane
"Arundo Saccharina. Sugar Cane.
...Of the iuyce of this Reed is made the most pleasant and profitable sweet, called Sugar; whereof is made infinite confectures, syrups, and such like, as also preseruing and conseruing of sundry fruits, herbes, and flowers, as Roses, Violets, Rosemary flowers, and such like, which still retaine with them the name of Sugar, as Sugar Roset, Sugar violet, &c. The which to write of would require a peculiar volume... it is not my purpose to make of my booke a Confectionarie, a Sugar Bakers furnace, a Gentlewomans preseruing pan..." [followed by a short description of sugar refining]

Sunflower
"Flos Solis maior. the floure of the Sun, or the Marigold of Peru.
...the buds before they be floured, boiled and eaten with butter, vineger, and pepper, after the manner of Artichokes, are exceeding pleasant meat, surpassing the Artichoke far in procuring bodily lust. The same buds with the stalks neere vnto the top (the hairinesse being taken away) broiled vpon a gridiron, and afterward eaten with oile, vineger, and pepper, haue the like property..."

[Sweet] Potato
"Sisarum Peruvianum, siue Batata Hispanorum. Potato's.
The Potato roots are among the Spaniards, Italians, Indians, and many other nations common and ordinarie meate; which no doubt are of mighty and nourishing parts... being tosted in the embers they lose much of their windinesse, especially being eaten sopped in wine.
Of these roots may be made conserues no lesse toothsome, wholesome, and dainty than of the flesh of Quinces: and likewise those comfortable and delicate meats called in shops Morselli, Placentulae, and diuers other such like.
These Roots may serue as a ground or foundation whereon the cunning Confectioner or Sugar-Baker may worke and frame many comfortable delicate Conserues, and restoratiue sweete meates.
They are vsed to be eaten rosted in the ashes. Some when they be so rosted infuse them and sop them in Wine; and others to giue them the greater grace in eating, do boyle them with prunes, and so eate them. And likewise others dresse them (being first rosted) with Oyle, Vineger, and salt, euerie man according to his owne taste and liking. Notwithstanding howsoeuer they bee dressed, they comfort, nourish, and strengthen the body, procuring bodily lust, and that with greedinesse."

Tarragon
"Draco herba. Tarragon.
...Tarragon is hot and drie in the third degree, and not to be eaten alone in sallades, but ioyned with other herbes, as Lettuce, Purslain, and such like..."

Tomato
"Poma Amoris. Apples of Loue.
...In Spaine and those hot Regions they vse to eat the Apples prepared and boiled with pepper, salt, and oile: but they yeeld very little nourishment to the bodie, and the same nought and corrupt. Likewise they doe eat the Apples with oile, vineger and pepper mixed together for sauce to their meate, euen as we in these cold Countries doe Mustard."

Tulip
"Tulipa. Tulipa, or the Dalmatian Cap.
...The roots preserued with sugar, or otherwise dressed, may be eaten, and are no vnpleasant nor any way offensiue meat, but rather good and nourishing."

Turnip
"Rapum majus. Turnep.
...The bulbous or knobbed root, which is properly called Rapum or Turnep... is many times eaten raw, especially of the poore people in Wales, but most commonly boiled... It auaileth not a little after what manner it is prepared; for being boyled in water, or in a certaine broth, it is more moist, and sooner descendeth, and maketh the body more soluble; but being rosted or baked it drieth, and ingendreth lesse winde, and yet it is not altogether without winde... The young and tender shootes or springs of Turneps at their first comming forth of the ground, boiled and eaten as a sallade, prouoke vrine."

Violets
"Viola. Violets.
"There is likewise made of Violes and sugar certain plates called Sugar Violet, or Violet tables, or Plate, which is most pleasant and wholesome..."

Walnut
"Nux Iuglans. Of the Wall-nut tree.
The fresh kernels of the nuts newly gathered are pleasant to the taste... The dry nuts are hot and dry, and those more which become oily and ranke... The greene and tender Nuts boiled in Sugar and eaten as Suckad, are a most pleasant and delectable meate, comfort the stomacke, and expell poyson... Milke made of the kernels, as Almond milke is made, cooleth and pleaseth the appetite of the languishing sicke body."

White Endive
"Intybum satiua. Garden Endiue.
...Endiue being sowen in the spring quickly commeth vp to floure, which seedeth in haruest, and afterward dieth. But being sowen in Iuly it remaineth till winter, at which time it is taken vp by the roots, and laid in the sunne or aire for the space of two houres; then will the leaues be tough, and easily endure to be wrapped vpon an heape, and buried in the earth with the roots vpward, where no earth can get within it (which if it did, would cause rottennesse) the which so couered may be taken vp at times conuenient, and vsed in sallades all the winter..."

See Cindy Renfrow's Culinary Gleanings
.