Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-08-10
WHERE VEGETABLES CAME FROM.

A customer in one of our markets
was in a reflective mood, the other
day, and would talk, and here are
some of the facts he has added to the
general store Of knowledge:
GLOW many of your customers
know anything about what they eatf
said he.
"They ought to-" said the market
man, )" they buy it and they order it. y
al don't mean that" was the reply
"of course they know what they eat
hut who OF them knows anything
about the stuff? Take vegetables for
instance"
"Oh, lots OF 'em know" said the
market man. "Here's potatoes, for
instance. They are native Ameri-
cans. guess Sir Walter Raleigh in
troduced them to Europe"
| "I guess he never ate one, for IN
his time they were not considered fit
to eat. They went to Europe from
the hills Of South America, and a
stranger matter OF fact, when you
come to think of it, is that in the
, United States, where, barring few
sections, vegetables grow in greater
abundance and beauty than any other
part of the world, none save maize and
the ground artichokes are native pro.
ducts"
Nonsense" calculated the amazed
marketman.
"NO nonsense about it," continued
the contemplative customer. ecu.
rope, Asia, Africa and South America
are all more richly endowed than we.
/ used to think the watermelon was
ours, but bless you, the North African
tribes grew the big juicy fellows and
gave us our first seeds. As to the
muskmelon, it is vegetable of such
lineage that, like the cabbage and let
tuce, nobody knows just who were
their first progenitors. The melon,
at any rate, came out of Persia as
developed table delicacy, while the
Adam of the cabbage family is agreed
by botanists to have flourished way
back there in Central Asia, where
they say the Caucasian race came
from. The Romans ate cabbage salad,
and, according to count, there are
nearly as many varieties of this sturdy
old green goods as there are different
races OF men.
"There is another Roman delicacy,"
continued the customer, pointing to
box Of beets. "They do say that the
Greek philosophers thought dish of
boiled beets, served up with salt and
oil, a great aid to mental exercise.
For my part, though, l don't know a
vegetable that should be prouder of its
family history than the radish. Red
ishes came from China, but scien-
tific journal the other day announced
the discovery from translation of
Egyptian hieroglyphics that Pharaoh
fed his pyramid builders on radishes.
He even went so far as to spend 1900
silver talents in order to regale his
mansion with the crisp and spicy root.
Again, if you will read the Old Testa-
ment carefully, you will be sure to
come across the announcement that
in Egypt the children of Israel ate
melons, beets, onions and garlic, and,
evidently in travelling through the
wilderness, Moses had great diff
Guilty in pursuing them to cease yearn-
ing after these Egyptian dainties.
"Besides the melons and peaches
and geraniums," continued the garru.
lous customer, for all of which we
have to thank productive Persia,
watercress comes from her valleys and
brooks, and she taught the world how
to grow head lettuce. However, the
Roman gourmands, who adopted both
these salads, ate green peas and string
beans that their gardeners found grow
ing in France and South Germany,
and cucumbers were as popular with
them as with the Jews and Egyptians.
"To Arabia honor is due for the
burr artichoke. They ate it for liver
difficulties-and, as a matter of fact
there is no vegetable so good for men
and women who lead sedentary life
just as carrots, that grew first in Bel
GUM, are an admirable tonic for the
complexion, spinach for the blood, po-
tatoes for the hair and celery for the
nerves. Rhubarb, they say, was never
know until the fifteenth century, when
the Russians found it on the banks of
the Volga, and if you will believe it
the only European people who appre-
ciate the eggplant rs we do are the
Turks. North Africa first produced
this vegetable; in France it is eaten
raw often as not, and in obstinate
England they use it for decoration.
The potato had to make desperate
struggle for popularity, and for nearly
century after it was imported and
grown in Europe nobody could be per-
suaded to touch it. Finally Parmen-
tier gave it a boom that in two centu-
ries has not in the least diminished,
and twice this little tuber has saved
Europe from what promised to be
cruel famine" Whereupon the Gus
toner hurried off down the street,
leaving the green grocer staring at his
stock of truck with refreshing ex-
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