Spring has sprung and with the warmer weather, many people are getting their gardens ready for the summer growing season. With the pandemic, more people are turning to gardening as a pastime. An increased interest in locally grown and sourced produce is also increasing public interest in hobby gardening. Tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, strawberries, and apples are common plants that are found in grocery stores, farmer’s markets, and in backyard gardens. But there are many edible plants that have disappeared or are no longer in common use. Vegetables and fruits disappear as tastes change, new varieties are introduced; and because of effect of commercialized farming. Many of these forgotten plants are seeing a revival as more people take up gardening and become interested in foods of the past.
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| Still Life with Quinces, 1888 by Vincent van Gogh. Quinces are still grown today but do not have the same popularity as they enjoyed historically. Source. |
Skirret (Sium sisarum)
Skirret is a perennial plant grown as a root vegetable. It is part of the Umbelliferae family which also includes more familiar plants such as carrots, dill, parsley, and coriander. Skirret grows a cluster of white roots about 15-20 cm (5-7 in) long; these roots can be boiled, baked, stewed, roasted, fried, or even used raw. It is a starchy vegetable, with a floury texture similar to a potato. Skirret may have developed in China, but it was used in Europe as far back as the Roman empire, where it was prized for its natural sweetness. Skirret shows up across history on different tables and historical cookbooks provide a staggering array of recipes for preparation, including skirret pie, skirret with bacon, and fried skirret. Skirret was eventually uprooted (no pun intended) by two introduced crops. Sugar cane was much more appealing as a sweetener than the skirret root – the same displacement happened with the sugar beet, which was a main source of sugar for centuries. The other crop was the potato, which had a much higher yield and became the main starchy staple as it was easier to mass produce. Skirret now is almost impossible to find at stores or markets, but specialty growers do carry seeds. It is apparently quite easy to grow if you do find it!
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| This image shows the cluster of roots on a skirret plant. Source. |
Skirret is often compared to parsnips as both are starchy root vegetables. Parsnips were used in a similar manner to skirret but retained their popularity – but only in some places. Parsnips remained popular on English tables, eventually bringing the parsnip to America where it retained its popularity. However in Italy, the parsnip became unused and forgotten.
Salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius)
Another starchy root vegetable, salsify, has retained some popularity into the present day. Salsify belongs to the Asteraceae family along with daisies and dandelions and is cultivated for its root and greens. It also is known by a variety of interesting names, including oyster plant, Jerusalem star, and goatsbeard. It is native to the Mediterranean region but has been introduced to Britain, Northern Europe, and North America, where it often grows wild as a weed. The young root tastes somewhat like asparagus, while the mature root has a taste similar to oysters, hence the name oyster plant. Salsify comes in two varieties, white and black. Black salsify (Scorzonera hispanica) has retained popularity, particularly in the Mediterranean region where it is commonly called scorzonera or Spanish salsify. Historically, it was thought that salsify was an anecdote for snake bites and the bubonic plague. Seeds for scorzonera can be found online at heirloom seed retailers.
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| Scorzonera, or black salsify, has a black skin with a white interior. Source. |
Medlar (Mespilus germanica)
Medlar is the fruit of the medlar tree. The plant is indigenous to southeastern Europe and southwest Asia, and has been cultivated for thousands of years. The medlar fruit is unique in that it is one of the few fruits that are available in winter, making it an important source of food for year-round gardening. It is also one of the few fruits that need to bletted to eat. Bletting is a process of softening that certain fruits go through in order to become edible. Bletting is necessary to increase natural sugars and decrease acids and tannins that make fruits astringent and unpalatable. Bletting can be achieved through prolonged storage or with frost, which helps break down the fruit. Other fruits that must be bletted before eating include persimmons and quince. When medlars are unripe they are reddish-brown and hard, but after bletting, they take on a wrinkled, brown appearance which may lead some to think they have spoiled. The shape of the fruit, with a wide blossom end, may have led to a rather rude name: “open-arse” or in French “cul de chien”.
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| Medlar fruit on the tree before they have been bletted. Source. |
Despite these colourful names, the medlar was an important fruit throughout history. It was first mentioned by the Greeks as far back as 700 BCE, after which it was introduced to the Romans. Charlemagne included the medlar on a list of plants in his gardens. By medieval times, it was a planted in monasteries, royal gardens and village greens. Medlar trees and fruit are mentioned in The Canterbury Tales, Don Quixote, several of Shakespeare’s works, and are seen in contemporary illustrations. Medlar fruit was eaten raw as a dessert or made into a jelly. It’s most interesting use was as medlar cheese which is not a cheese at all but a type of paste made from fruit and sugar that is then cooked in a mould. Despite their long-lasting historic popularity, medlars became virtually unknown by the mid-20th century.
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| Three Medlars with a Butterfly, Adriaen Coorte, 1705. Source. |
As produce production became increasingly commercialized, the medlar was not commercially viable. The bletting process reduces the period of debility – it must be eaten as soon as it is ripe or it will truly go rotten. This reduces shelf life and makes transporting and other logistics complicated. Despite the medlar fading from common use, trees can still be found in public spaces and the tree is seeing a resurgence in popularity.
Quince (Cydonia oblonga)
Another fruit that still has some popularity today, quince can be hard to find and challenging to those unfamiliar with it. Quinces are large, knobby yellow fruits that look like a cross between an apple and a pear. They are astringent and rock hard when raw – cutting into them requires a strong arm and very large knife. But they have a wonderful aroma, somewhere between a mix of apple, citrus, and vanilla. When cooked, quince turns rosy pink and is deliciously sweet. It can be poached like pears, served alongside rich meat, and cooked into sweet jelly. Quince paste, called membrillo, is popular in Spain and makes a tasty counterpart to cheese. But while its apple and pear relatives are found in supermarkets and orchards, quinces are difficult to find commercially. Quinces originated in Iran and were part of ancient Greek and Roman cuisines. Like the medlar, they were commonly found in gardens throughout history. Many historical cookbooks list a variety of uses for quince. Quince paste called chardequince and chardewarden (warden meaning pears as the dish was made of a mixture of quince, pear, and egg) was a popular medieval dish. By the 16th and 17th centuries, quince pastes were called cotoniack and quiddany; these were prescribed by apothecaries to help with digestion. Quince pastes were often pressed into carved wooden moulds to give them a decorative appearance.
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| A reproduction of 17th century moulded quince paste, or cotoniack. Source. |
Settlers brought quinces with them to America, where they became an important fruit crop because of their high concentration of pectin, which is used for setting jam and jelly. However, the popularity of quinces began to decline with the invention of commercial gelatin and pectin in the 1890s. Consumer tastes trended towards fruits that were easier to eat and prepare and did not require long ripening periods. The quince has remained popular throughout the Mediterranean and Southwest Asia; it is still found in Iranian, Armenian, and Lebanese cuisines. My Italian grandparents remember quinces growing in their hometowns, where it is called mela cotogna. Quince was planted in Canada as a flowering shrub, and can still be found in older neighbourhoods where beautiful pink blossoms come out every spring. Quince fruit is carried in specialty grocers and ethnic food stores, where it is season from October to December.
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| In December I bought a case of quinces at an Italian wholesaler. Photo courtesy of Natalie Scola. |
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| I used the quince to make a tasty jam! The white flesh of the fruit turns pink when cooked. Photo courtesy of Natalie Scola. |
Despite its name, the Jerusalem artichoke has no relationship to Jerusalem, nor is it related to the artichoke. It is actually a type of sunflower, native to North America. The plant is cultivated for its tuber, which was a staple food crop of many Indigenous groups prior to European contact. The plant is easily cultivated, which is seen in its wide ecological distribution across North America. The long-lasting tubers were sent back to Europe where it became a popular foodstuff and naturalized. The plant was well suited to the European climate and was eaten widely as well as being used for animal feed. There are different theories about why the plant is called “Jerusalem”. Some theorize it is a corruption of the Italian word for sunflower, girasole, probably called so because of its yellow flowers. The taste of the tuber itself somewhat resembles an artichoke, giving it the second half of its name. The Jerusalem artichoke reached the peak of its popularity in the 19th century, after which consumer taste changed. In the 1950s, a marketing campaign to revive the tuber renamed it as “sunchoke”, which has become another common name for the plant. The plant has seen a revival in the last 20 years, becoming available at grocers, farmer’s markets, and to grow at home. The tubers can be roasted, pureed in soup, or even sliced and fried like potato chips!
The pawpaw is a fascinating, if under recognized tree. It is the largest fruit-bearing tree native to North America, and is the only temperate climate tropical fruit. It is part of the same family as custard apples, cherimoya, and soursop, but is not related to the papaya, which is sometimes also called pawpaw. The tree is small, growing about 11 meters (35 feet) high and produces large green-yellow fruits. These fruits can grow to be 15 cm long and weigh half a kilogram. The flesh of the fruit is soft and pulpy and is said to taste similar to bananas, mangos, and pineapple. The fruit is commonly eaten raw but can also be used to make baked desserts, jams, and jellies. The pawpaw is native to a large part of the Eastern United States, from the coast to Indiana and Missouri, and south to Florida. Its northmost range extends into southern Ontario, where it is one of the rarest plants in the province – it was part of the Carolinian forest system which was decimated by settler clear-cutting. The tree primarily spreads through clonal colonies, using its root system to send up shoots and create new, genetically identical plants; this is why many pawpaws are found grouped together. Some plants do grow from seed, but this is much more uncommon. There are no native animals that eat the large fruit or equally large seeds, leading some scientists to speculate that prehistoric megafauna ate the fruit, and then spread the still viable seeds after digestion. Scientists have found fossilized pawpaw leaves from the Cretaceous and Eocene eras – dinosaurs may have enjoyed snacking on pawpaws! The pawpaw survived the extinction of the dinosaurs and other ecological events and became widespread, colonizing floodplains and understory forests. Indigenous groups cultivated orchards of the plant, helping spread its range. The scientific name for the pawpaw, Asimina triloba, comes from the Powhatan word for the plant. Despite its fascinating history, the pawpaw is little known and has never been cultivated on a large commercial scale like other fruits.
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| Pawpaw fruit showing the soft flesh and large seeds. Source. |
The largest problem is that pawpaws do not tolerate shipping well. They also spoil shortly after harvesting, giving them a very short shelf life and restricting markets to a local radius. Pawpaws have low pollination rates, leading to lower fruit production. Unlike most fruits and veggies, pawpaws are not pollinated by bees. Instead, the red flowers emit a curious carrion smell that attracts beetles and flies, which are less efficient pollinators than bees. Scientists are trying to breed tougher plants that will increase shipping abilities and have higher pollination rates, but the pawpaw still remains widely unknown. The genetic diversity of pawpaws have declined, with varieties disappearing as urban sprawl decreased habitat and farmers turned to more profitable fruits. However, it does have pockets of recognition: Athens County, Ohio is home to the world’s largest and longest running pawpaw festival; Carolinian Canada, a wildlife charity, holds an annual Pawpaw parade to encourage awareness of the plant; and many native-plant nurseries have started carrying pawpaw seedlings. As a native plant important to the ecological makeup of southern Ontario, the pawpaw deserves more awareness – and a spot on our plates!
Lost but Not Forgotten...
There are a great variety of food crops in traditional food systems, but many of these foods are not part of current markets and diets. The increased commercialization of crops and changes to traditional foodways have impacted which foods are widely available. As shown with the foods in this article, foods fall out of use when they are not marketable, relegating lesser-known crops to hobby growers and farmers markets.
Lack of knowledge of traditional crops creates barriers in their use and promotion, which can lead to the loss of local culinary traditions. However, there has been a revival in growing forgotten or lost vegetables, as more people want to reconnect with culinary heritage. What foods are understood as “forgotten” or “lost” is often a matter of age and opinion. In France, for example, rutabagas have seen a steady revival: during the Second World War, rutabagas were eaten when there were mass food storages and restrictions, thus having a negative connotation in the public memory and were not commonly eaten after the war. Ethnobotanist François Couplan published a list of forgotten vegetables in 1986, which included dandelion and cardoon. These may have been forgotten to city dwellers, but many people living in rural areas would be familiar with these crops and use them in their everyday cooking. Of course, these are now commonly found in supermarkets (I saw cardoon at Longo’s this week!), showing how times have changed.
Interest in reviving forgotten culinary traditions is happening globally. Cook and See is project by food designer Akash Muralidharan. The 100 day project was meant to bring back local produce that was disappearing from South Asian homes. Muralidharan was inspired to start the project after looking through his grandmother’s copy of Samaithu Paar (Cook and See), a 1951 cookbook, which listed vegetables that Muralidharan had never heard of. Muralidharan went to local markets, spoke to produce suppliers, scavenged through kitchen gardens, and polled family, friends, and neighbours to discover the lost vegetables. He found veggies like elephant yam, sunberries and red okra, detailing his finds on Instagram along with the origin of the plants.
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There are many other edible plants that have faded from use, including rampion, orache and crosne. Others forgotten plants are seeing a revival thanks to the dedicated efforts of plant enthusiasts. Plants grown hundreds of years ago had unique, complex flavours and were not designed for a commercialized world. it will be interesting to see what other lost and forgotten plants return to our gardens - and which fruits and vegetables from today become things of the past.
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