Paintings and carvings inside ancient Egyptian tombs depict lettuce plants associated with Min, the god of vegetation and procreation. In ancient times the leaf was eaten as today, but lettuce seeds also were used. Lettuce seeds were pressed to extract oil, or crushed and prepared as bread.
American folklore assigns a magical, nutritive value to pot likker.
Both cooked and fresh turnip greens are associated with Southern-style home cooking. What Southerners call a bowl of wild greens commonly contains leaves of cowslip, cress, dandelion, pigweed, and turnip greens. Dandelion leaves often are used in salads or cooked as greens. Sometimes dandelion flowers are fermented and made into wine, while dandelion roots have found use as a coffee substitute. Tradition holds that the Caesar Salad was introduced to Americans dining in San Diego, California.