The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-02-15
WHERE VEGETABLES CAME FROM.
Few Know where Common Table
Dishes Of Today Originated.

Few Know where Common Table
Dishes Of Today Originated.
TIE customer at a Lewiston market
was In a reflective mood Saturday morn
Ing and would talk.
How many OF your customers know
anything about what they eat7" said he.
They ought to- said the blue frock,
''they buy II and they order IT,"
II don't mean that" was the reply. ''Of
course they know what they eat, but who
of them knows anything about the stuff?
Take vegetables. for instance"
''Oh. lots of 'em know said the mar
ket man. Here's potatoes for instance.
They are native Americans. I guess Sir
Walter Raleigh introduced them to Eu-
rope"
II 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 II. Is that
In the United States. where. barring a
few sections. vegetables grow In greater
abundance and beauty than any other part
OF the world. none save maize and the
ground artiehokes are native products
NONSENSE" calculated the amazed mar
ketman.
mo nonsense about f." continued the
contemplative customer. Europe 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 gaze US our first seeds
As 10 the musknelon. It is a vegetable Of
such lineage that, like the cabbage and
lettuce. nobody knows just who were their
first progenitors. The melon. at any rate,
came out Of Persia as a developed table
delicacy. While the Adam OF the cabbage
family Is agreed hy hotRulsis 90 have
rourished way back there In Central Asia.
whore 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 deicacy," con-
tlnuca the customer pointing TO box OF
hects. They do say that the Greek pholiso-
piers thought dish OF boiled beets, served
w with salt and oil. great aid TO mental
exercise. For my part, though. | don't
know a vegetable that should be prouder
Of its family history than the radish.
RadishcS came from China but scien-
tiac journal the other day announced the
discovery from a translation Of Egyptian
hicroslyphics that Pharaoh led his pyramid
builders on raGisheA. He even weut so
far as 10 spend 800 silver talents In order
TO regale his masoHs with the crisp ana
spicy root Again, II you viii read the
Old Testament carefully, yoa Will be sure
to come across the Announccrn ent that
IN Egypt the children Of Israel ate melons.
bects onions and garlic. and evidently
In travelling through the Wilderness Moses
had a great deal Of difficulty In perxuaaink
them To cease yearntng after these Egyp-
iian dainties.
Besides the melons and peaches ard
geraniums," continued the garrulous GUS
toner, FOR all Of which we have to thank
productive Persia. watercress comes from
her valleys and brooks and she taught N.
world how 10 grow and head lettuce
However. the Roman gourmands, who
adopted both these salads. ate green peas
and string beans that their gardeners
found growing In France and south Ger
many, and cucumbers were as popular
with them as with the Jews and Egypt
iAns
TO Arabia honor Is due for the burr
artichoke- They ate II for liver difficult
ties--and, as . matter OF fact, there is