Lore - Vegetables and other edible plants

Gardening is an inexact science and surrounded by centuries of tradition, folklore, myth and superstition. Hidden amongst it is some age old wisdom and also some age old cobblers. 

Connected pages  Botanic Latin | Christmas | Cures and gardening tips | Trees | Vegetables  / edible plants /  Wild plants

Beans

Scattering the flowers is thought to placate demons in many countries particularly in the Far East, being associated with death and the spirits of the dead. If one bean in a row should come up white instead of green, an English tradition associates this occurrence with death, and in the south west it was once believed that 3rd May was the best time to plant kidney beans to ensure a successful crop. (My Granddad always said plant them on the 1st of May under cover and then plant them out in the garden on the 1st of June).

Broad beans were thought to possess the soul of the dead, and when in flower it was believed that accidents were more likely to happen. If it was a leap year it was thought that the bean would grow upside-down. The shape of the bean was thought to be associated with death and ghosts. Scattering some around the outside of the house would stave off such attentions for 12 months.

Broad beans have also been associated with forecasting the future. A European belief was that three beans should be prepared in different ways to produce an outcome and then hidden on Midsummer Eve for the enquirer to find. The untouched bean indicated wealth, the half-peeled bean indicated a comfortable life, whilst the third fully peeled bean indicated poverty. The future was revealed by which bean was found first. 

The ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras (he of the theorem) founded a religion one of the basic tenets of which was the sinfulness of eating beans.

Blackberries and bramble bushes

Creating a natural arch out of any forms of brambles and passing someone who is ill underneath was reputed to cure the affected. Blackheads, rheumatism, boils and whooping cough were also thought to be helped by eating the fruit. 

This fruit has over time has also become associated with the Devil in France and England. In France it was thought that the color of the fruit resulted from when the Devil spat on it, whilst in England it was thought that picking fruit after 11 October (old Michaelmas Day) would bring bad luck as the Devil was believed to have fallen into a thicket and had left a curse on the thorns which had hurt him.

Caraway

Use to combat burglaries. Place among your valued possessions, if the thief manages to get into the house then the caraway will transfix the person until rescue arrives. For women worried about their husbands wandering off with other women, placing some caraway in the pocket will do the trick - a similar principle with pigeons - a little in their food and they'll never want to find another coop. 

Carrots

Carrots contain chemicals that are the precursors to retinol the chemical found in our retina that is vital to us being able to see. So there is some basis of truth in the belief that eating a lot of carrots will improve the eyesight. 

The story of WW2 British RAF pilots being fed on a special diet of carrots is false (originally invented to explain away the RAF being to "see in the dark" by using the newly invented RADAR) but typical of the claims made of this vegetable. Eating large quantities of boiled carrots was thought to help asthmatics (by relieving constriction of the bronchial tubes). Also thought to be an aphrodisiac (as is just about everything else in the world that shape).

Trick - write the word "carrot" on a piece of paper and hide it. Ask some-one to quickly answer your questions, ask "what is 1 + 1?", "what is 2 + 2" etc. until the answer is 128, then ask them to quickly name a vegetable, they will almost always answer with "carrot" - reveal your paper and pretend to be magic or something.

Basil - according to the druids

Chicory

Who needs a magic cloak like Harry Potter when there's chicory about, not sure how you use it though. Can also be used to open locked chests on July 25th (St. James's Day). Hold a golden knife and some chicory leaves against the lock, and it will open - but only in silence, if a word is spoken "death will soon be upon you". (How do stories like that start? Lots of dead chest-crackers holding golden knives and chicory?). Early American settlers and prospectors are said to have carried a piece of chicory with them for good luck.

Garlic

 In the Far East it is believed to have the power to bring back lost souls being heavily used in religious ceremonies. It is also seen to be an effective aphrodisiac. 

Garlic juice is an antiseptic and antibacterial agent like many other members of the onion family to which it belongs, used frequently through the ages to clean wounds, particularly in battle.

Lettuce

A bit of a contradicting lore here, the Romans believed that the lettuce plant was a powerful aphrodisiac. It was also served in quantity at feasts and weddings for these reasons and also because it was thought to prevent drunkenness. 

In England on the other hand country people traditionally believed that planting lots of lettuce in the garden could prevent conception!

Mushrooms and toadstools

Scientists suspect that lunar cycles affect their growth. Japanese believed that mushrooms and toadstools were engendered by thunder. Greeks and Aztecs believed they were engendered by lightning. It was thought that they sprang up overnight and disappeared the next day. The Aztec's even had a mushroom and toadstool god Tlaloc. He was represented wearing a serpent headdress.

Edible mushrooms were considered the food of the gods in ancient Greece and Mexico. They were called Teonanacatl, Flesh of the Gods. In Central America, where the rites of the sacred mushroom were conducted. Guatemalan mushroom rites date back to at least 1000 B.C.

Toadstools have always been associated with fairies. A circle of taller, darker grass within a ring of toadstools, sometimes accompanied by a ring of dark earth is often called a Fairy Ring. They were believed to be caused by the path of dancing fairies, elves, fire-breathing dragons, lightning strike or witches. Stepping into a fairy ring could bring good or bad luck, cause or cure illness. (Basically not a lot of use then!)

A fairy ring in a field beside a house was believed to bring good fortune. Harm was believed to come to a cow that stepped within the circle or ate its grass. It was also thought that you would become enchanted if you entered a ring during a full moon.

Christians believed that mushrooms sprang up where St. Peter spat bread on the ground, toadstools where the devil spat. 

Peas

Finding a single pea in a pod when shelling them is a sign of good fortune. Finding nine means that you can make a wish once you've thrown one of the nine over your shoulder. Sounds like a good way of keeping someone going while shelling peas to me and also bothering with the short skinny ones with not many inside!

Pineapples

In 1493, Columbus came across the pineapple, Ananas comosos,  on the island of Guadeloupe. The natives who cultivated these fruits called them ananas and believed that they had been brought from the Amazon many generations earlier by the warlike Caribs. (This oral history may be true, as pineapple-shaped jars have been found in pre-Incan burial sites in Brazil.)

A few explorers had observed that Indians used pineapple poultices to reduce inflammation in wounds and other skin injuries. Native people also drank the juice to aid digestion and to cure stomach ache. In 1891 an enzyme that broke down proteins (bromelain) was isolated from the flesh of the pineapple, accounting for many of the pineapple's healing properties. It has been found that bromelain can also break down blood clots, which consist mainly of protein. Research continues. This enzyme may well play a major part in heart attack treatment in the near future, as well as in the treatment of burned tissue, abscesses, and ulcers. 

Parsley

Traditionally associated with death and disaster. Bad luck will come your way especially if you cut some for your cooking and you are in love at the same time, or transplant it, or give it away. 

Like Rosemary, it is reputed to grow best if the woman of the household is dominant. It was associated with death by the Ancient Greeks who dedicated it in funeral rites and scattered it on graves. It was also woven into crowns for victors of sporting games (and fed to the chariot horses before the races).

It is also believed that babies could be discovered in parsley beds, and that unmarried girls could put matters to right if they chewed parsley three times a day for three weeks. When scattered in fishponds it can reputedly heal sick fish too. The Romans used to line their graves with Parsley to keep the Devil away, and also to avoid their plants falling into someone else's hands as this was considered to be like throwing luck away. In Britain it was also once believed that to sow parsley was to encourage the conception of children so be careful next time offers you some parsley seeds! 

According to my granddad, parsley seeds take so long to germinate because they have to go to the devil and back seven times first.

Rosemary

It is believed that this plant grows in abundance where the woman rules the home but it is probably best to say that the strong flavored evergreen shrub is associated with remembrance, with sprigs often being placed in funeral wreaths or carried at country funerals.