How Carrots Won the Trojan War

by Rebecca Rupp

  For additional information on Bernard M’Mahon or McMahon, see Peter J. Hatch’s “Bernard McMahon, Pioneer American Gardener” in the Twinleaf Journal (January 1993) from Monticello. The text can be found online at www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/bernard-mcmahon-pioneer-american-gardener.

  For more on pickles, see David Mabey and David Collison’s The Perfect Pickle Book (Grub Street, 2007), a celebration of all things pickled.

  For more detailed information on Henry Heinz, see Robert C. Alberts’s The Good Provider: H. J. Heinz and His 57 Varieties (Houghton Mifflin, 1973).

  The story of Burma’s Cucumber King is found in G. E. Harvey’s History of Burma (Asian Educational Services, 2000. First published 1925): 18–19.

  Eggplants

  For additional general information about eggplants, see: Daunay, Marie-Christine and Jules Janick. “History and Iconography of Eggplant.” Chronica Horticulturae 47, 2007: 16–22.

  For an account of the Chinese eggplant domestication hypothesis, see: Wang, Jin-Xiu, Tian-Gang Gao, and Sandra Knapp. “Ancient Chinese Literature Reveals Pathways of Eggplant Domestication.” Annals of Botany 102, no. 6 (2008): 891–897.

  Illuminations and text from the medieval Tacuinum Sanitatis can be found online at www.godecookery.com/tacuin/tacuin.htm.

  The history of Delmonico’s is described in the American Heritage Cookbook and Illustrated History of American Eating and Drinking (American Heritage Publishing, 1964).

  An account of the Middle Eastern fat-tailed sheep appears in Reay Tannahill’s Food in History (Three Rivers Press, 1988).

  For more on phenolic compounds in eggplants, see: Stommel, J. R. and B. D. Whitaker. “Phenolic Acid Content and Composition of Eggplant Fruit in a Germplasm Core Subset.” J. of Amer. Soc. for Horticultural Science 128, 2003: 704–710.

  For information on the Colorado potato/eggplant beetle, see Andrei Alyokhin’s “Colorado Potato Beetle Management on Potatoes: Current Challenges and Future Prospects.” Fruit, Vegetable and Cereal Science Biotechnology 3: 10–19. See an online version at www.potatobeetle.org/Alyokhin_CPB_Review_reprint.pdf.

  The description of the “cannibal tomato” is found in Berthold Seemann’s “Fiji and Its Inhabitants,” included in Vacation Tourists and Notes of Travel in 1861 (Francis Galton, ed., Macmillan and Co., 1862): 249-292.

  For more on Carl Sandburg’s wonderful Rootabaga Stories, see Ross Simonini’s “Carl Sandburg Stops Making Sense” at www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/article.html?id=238530. The 1922 edition of Rootabaga Stories, complete with illustrations, is available online at www.gutenberg.org/files/27085/27085-h/27085-h.htm.

  Lettuce

  A translation of the Historia Augusta can be found online at http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta.

  For information on lettuce latex, see: Hagel, J. M., E. C. Yeung, and P. J. Facchini. “Got Milk? The Secret Life of Lactifers.” Trends in Plant Science 13, no. 12 (December 2008): 631–639.

  An article on the mysterious aphrodisiacal Egyptian lettuce is Rosella Lorenzi’s “Egyptians Ate Lettuce to Boost Sex Drive” ABC Science, 29 June 2005. Find it here: www.abc.net.au/science/articles/archive/.

  de Vries, I. M. “Origin and Domestication of Lactuca sativa L.” Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 44, no. 2 (1997): 165–174.

  Illuminations and text from the medieval Tacuinum Sanitatis can be found online at www.godecookery.com/tacuin/tacuin.htm.

  For more on Thomas Jefferson’s lettuce, see “Lettuce: Monday Morning Madness” by Peter J. Hatch, Twinleaf Journal, 2008. The text can be found online at www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/twinleaf-journal-online.

  For information on chlorophyll f, see Ferris Jabr’s “A New Form of Chlorophyll?” in Scientific American (19 August 2010). The article is online at www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=new-form-chlorophyll. Also see Rachel Ehrenberg’s “Chlorophyll gets an ‘F’” in ScienceNews 178, no. 6 (September 2010): 13. The article is online at www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/62400/title/Chlorophyll_gets_an_‘f’.

  For the chlorophyll craze of the 1950s, see Paul Sann’s “The Time of the Green” in Fads, Follies, and Delusions of the American People (Bonanza Books, 1967: 131–135) and Dick Dempewolff’s “The Bright Green Chlorophyll World” in Popular Mechanics Magazine (January 1953: 8–10, 30).

  Also see: Galston, Arthur W. “An Uncolored View of Chlorophyll.” Engineering & Science16, no. 4 (1953): 17–19. Available online at http://calteches.library.caltech.edu/144/01/Galston.pdf.

  Melons

  For the tangled interrelationships of cucumbers and melons, see: Ghebretinsae, Amanuel G., Mats Thulin, and Janet C Barber. “Relationships of Cucumbers and Melons Unraveled: Molecular Phylogenetics of Cucumis and Related Genera (Benincasea, Cucurbitaceae).” Amer. J. of Botany 94, 2007: 1256–1266.

  Sebastian, P., H. Schaefer, I. R. H. Telford, and S. S. Renner. “Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) and Melon (C. melo) Have Numerous Wild Relatives in Asia and Australia, and the Sister Species of the Melon Is from Australia.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 107, no. 32 (August 2010): 14269–14273.

  For general information on watermelon, see: Maynard, Donald N., Xingping Zhang, and Jules Janick. “Watermelons: New Choices, New Trends.” Chronica Horticulturae 47, no. 4 (December 2007): 26–29.

  For information on lycopene in watermelons, see “Watermelon Packs a Powerful Lycopene Punch” in the June 2002 issue of the USDA’s Agricultural Research magazine. The article is online at www.ars.usda.gov/is/ar/archive/jun02/lyco0602.htm.

  For information on citrulline, see “Watermelon May Have Viagra-Effect” in ScienceDaily (1 July 2008), online at www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080630165707.htm.

  The National Watermelon Promotion Board website is at www.watermelon.org.

  Mark Twain’s disgraceful watermelon performance is shamelessly described in “The Watermelon” in his book Plymouth Rock & the Pilgrims and Other Salutary Platform Opinions (Charles Neider, ed. Harper & Row, 1984): 278–282.

  Queen Anne’s Pocket Melon is described in Jack Staub’s Alluring Lettuces: And Other Seductive Vegetables for Your Garden (rev. ed., Gibbs Smith, 2010).

  Onions

  For general information on onions and kin, sources include Eric Block’s Garlics and Other Alliums: The Lore and Science (Royal Society of Chemistry, 2009), Penny Woodward’s Garlic and Friends: The History, Growth, and Use of Edible Alliums (Hyland House, 1996), and Marilyn Singer’s The Fanatic’s Ecstatic Aromatic Guide to Onions, Garlic, Shallots, and Leeks (Prentice-Hall, 1981).

  For images and information on the Babylonian culinary tablets, see the Yale Babylonian Collection, established in 1909 with a gift from J. P. Morgan. The website is found at www.yale.edu/nelc/babylonian.html.

  The Forme of Cury (1390) is online at Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8102. Also see Lorna J. Sass’s To the King’s Taste: Richard II’s Book of Feasts and Recipes Adapted for Modern Cooking (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975).

  For onion superstitions, see Frederick J. Simoons’s Plants of Life, Plants of Death (University of Wisconsin Press, 1998).

  O. Henry’s short story “The Third Ingredient,” originally published in 1920, can be read online at www.classicreader.com/book/978/1.

  On the medicinal (nutraceutical) onion, see:

  Desjardins, Yves. “Onion as a Nutraceutical and Functional Food.” Chronica Horticulturae 48, no. 2 (2008): 8–14.

  Galeone, C., C. Pelucchi, F. Levi, E. Negri, S. Franceschi, R. Talamini, A. Giacosa, and C. La Vecchia. “Onion and Garlic Use and Human Cancer.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 84, no. 5 (November 2006): 1027–1032.

  The story of the Semper-Augustus-chewing sailor is repeated in Mike Dash’s Tulipomania (Three Rivers Press, 1999): 109.

  Peas

  For the vast diversity of legumes, see: Doyle, Jeff J., and Melissa A. Luckow. “The Rest of the Iceberg: Legume Diversity and Evolution in a Phylogenetic Context.” Plant Physiolo
gy 131, no. 3 (March 2003): 900–910.

  A translation of the Historia Augusta can be found online at http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Historia_Augusta.

  For more on Jefferson’s annual pea contest, see “Jefferson’s Horticultural Neighborhood: A Rational Society of Gardeners” by Peter J. Hatch in Twinleaf Journal (2007), online at www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/twinleaf-journal-online.

  Philip Miller’s The Gardener’s Dictionary (1754) “printed for the author and sold by John and James Rivington” is available online through the Internet Archive at www.archive.org/details/gardenersdictio03millgoog.

  An account of Thomas Knight’s work can be found in Noel Kingsbury’s Hybrid: The History and Science of Plant Breeding (University of Chicago Press, 2009).

  Mendel’s famous pea experiments are described in Robin Marantz Henig’s The Monk in the Garden (Mariner Books, 2001).

  For the genetic secret behind Mendel’s wrinkle-seeded pea, see: Bhattacharyya, M. K., A. M. Smith, T. H. Ellis, C. Hedley, and C. Martin. “The Wrinkled-Seed Character of Pea Described by Mendel is Caused by a Transposon-Like Insertion in a Gene-Encoding Starch-Branching Enzyme.” Cell 60, no. 1 (January 1990): 115–122.

  Peppers

  Good general references on peppers include Jean Andrews’s classic Peppers: The Domesticated Capsicums (University of Texas Press, 1984), and almost anything by Dave DeWitt, such as DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach’s informative The Whole Chile Pepper Book (Little, Brown, and Co., 1990).

  Jack Turner’s Spice: The History of a Temptation (Vintage Books, 2004) is a fascinating story of the profitable spice trade from ancient times through the Renaissance, with considerable information about black pepper.

  A list of English words derived from the indigenous languages of the Americas (including Aztec or Nahuatl) can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_words_from_indigenous_languages_of_the_Americas.

  For information on using starch grain samples to track plant domestication, see Donald Smith’s “Chili pepper starch grains linked to ancient settlement sites across the Americas” in Inside Smithsonian Research 16, Spring 2007. Also see: Perry, Linda, Ruth Dickau, Sonia Zarrillo, Irene Holst, et al. “Starch Fossils and the Domestication and Dispersal of Chili Peppers (Capsicum spp. L.) in the Americas.” Science 315, no. 5814 (February 2007): 986–988.

  Bernardino de Sahagún’s Florentine Codex (General History of the Things of New Spain) is available as a 12-volume set (Arthur J. O. Anderson, ed., University of Utah Press, 1950–1982). Also see: Reeves, H. M. “Sahagún’s ‘Florentine Codex,’ a Little Known Aztecan Natural History of the Valley of Mexico.” Arch Nat Hist. 33, no. 2 (2006): 302–321.

  On pepper hotness, see: Mullin, Rick. “Red-Hot Chili Peppers.” Chemical & Engineering News 81, 44 (3 November 2003): 41.

  On discouraging bears, see: Smith, Tom S., Stephanie Herrero, Terry D. DeBruyn, and James M. Wilder. “Efficacy of Bear Deterrent Spray in Alaska.” The Journal of Wildlife Management 72, no. 3 (2008): 640–645.

  For more information on Joshua Tewksbury and directed deterrence, see: Borrell, Brendan. “What’s So Hot About Chili Peppers?” Smithsonian magazine, April 2009.

  Tewksbury, J. J., and G. P. Nabhan. “Seed Dispersal: Directed Deterrence by Capsaicin in Chilies.” Nature 412, no. 6845 (July 2001): 403–404.

  Tewksbury, J. J., K. M. Reagan, N. J. Machnicki, T. A. Carlo, D. C. Haak, A. L. Calderon-Penaloza, and D. J. Levey. “The Evolutionary Ecology of Pungency in Wild Chilies.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 105, no. 33 (2008): 11808–11811.

  Paul Rozin’s “constrained risk” theory is described in Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen (rev. ed., Scribner, 2004).

  On the pepper-induced heat sensation, see: Caterina, Michael J., Mark A. Schumacher, Makoto Tominaga, Tobias A. Rosen, Jon D. Levine, and David Julius. “The Capsaicin Receptor: A Heat-Activated Ion Channel in the Pain Pathway.” Nature 389, October 1997: 816–824.

  On peppers and tarantula bites, see: Siemens, Jan, Sharleen Zhou, Rebecca Piskorowski, Tetsuro Nikai, Ellen A. Lumpkin, Allan I. Basbaum, David King, and David Julius. “Spider Toxins Activate the Capsaicin Receptor to Produce Inflammatory Pain.” Nature 444, November 2006: 208–212.

  Albert-Szent Györgyi’s Nobel Prize-winning discovery of vitamin C in peppers is described on the Nobel Prize’s official website: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1937/szent-györgyi-bio.html.

  On capsaicin and prostrate cancer, see: A. Mori, S. Lehmann, J. O’Kelly, T. Kumagai, J. C. Desmond, M. Pervan, W. H. McBride, M. Kizaki, and H. P. Koeffler. “Capsaicin, a Component of Red Peppers, Inhibits the Growth of Androgen-Independent, p53 Mutant Prostate Cancer Cells.” Cancer Research 66, no. 6 (March 2006): 3222–3229.

  The story of pirate Lionel Wafer and the bell pepper is recounted in Diana and Michael Preston’s biography of William Dampier, A Pirate of Exquisite Mind (Walker & Co., 2004).

  For more on son-of-a-bitch stew, see Jane and Michael Stern’s Chili Nation (Clarkson Potter, 1999), which covers the history of chili and includes a chili recipe for every state in the United States.

  Potatoes

  Helpful potato books include James Lang’s Notes of a Potato Watcher (Texas A&M University Press, 2001), John Reader’s Potato: A History of the Propitious Esculent (Yale University Press, 2009), and Larry Zuckerman’s The Potato: How the Humble Spud Rescued the Western World (North Point Press, 1998).

  The theories of Pye Henry Chavasse are described in Judith Flanders’s Inside the Victorian Home (W. W. Norton, 2004).

  Thor Heyerdahl describes his sweet-potato-chasing journey to Polynesia in Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft (reprint ed. Skyhorse Publishing, 2010). Also see: Montenegro, Alvaro, Chris Avis, and Andrew J. Weaver. “Modeling the Prehistoric Arrival of the Sweet Potato in Polynesia.” Journal of Archaeological Science 35, no. 2 (2008): 355–367.

  For the history of scurvy, see Stephen R. Bown’s Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail (Thomas Dunne Books, 2003) and David I. Harvie’s Limeys: The Conquest of Scurvy (Sutton Publishing, 2005).

  For a history of Mr. Potato Head, see Funny Face! An Amusing History of Potato Heads, Block Heads, and Magic Whiskers by Mark Rich and Jeff Potocsnak (Krause Publications, 2002).

  For the story of the Irish potato famine, see Cecil Woodham-Smith’s The Great Hunger (Penguin, 1991) and James S. Donnelly, Jr.’s The Great Irish Potato Famine (History Press, 2008).

  For information on Phytophthera infestans as a potential biological weapon, see the Monterey Institute of International Studies (Middlebury College) Chemical & Biological Weapons Resource Page at http://cns.miis.edu/cbw/possess.htm.

  For more on Luther Burbank, see Jane S. Smith’s The Garden of Invention: Luther Burbank and the Business of Breeding Plants (Penguin Press, 2009).

  On the Defender potato, see: Novy, R. G., S. L. Love, D. L. Corsini, J. J. Pavek, et al. “Defender: A High-Yielding, Processing Potato Cultivar with Foliar and Tuber Resistance to Late Blight.” American Journal of Potato Research 83, 2006: 9–19.

  For information on the genetics of P. infestans, see: Haas, Brian J., Sophien Kamoun, Michael C. Zody, Rays H. Y. Jiang, et al. “Genome Sequence and Analyis of the Irish Potato Famine Pathogen Phytophthora infestans.” Nature 461, September 2009: 393–398.

  For a history of French fries, see Maryann Tebben’s “‘French’ Fries: France’s Culinary Identity from Brillat-Savarin to Barthes” in Convivium Artium (Spring 2006). The article is online at http://flan.utsa.edu/conviviumartium/Tebben.html.

  For more information on Civil War army rations, see “Army Rations” in John D. Billings’s Hard Tack and Coffee: Or, the Unwritten Story of Army Life (1887) (Corner House Publishers, 1980).

  Pumpkins and Squashes

  Paul Dudley’s prolific pumpkin is mentioned in Jonathan Edwards: A Life by George M. Marsden (Yale University Press, 2003),
66, and in L. H. Bailey’s The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture (Macmillan Company, 1914), 1505.

  For Thomas Jefferson, the Comte de Buffon, and the degeneracy debate, see Richard Conniff’s “Mammoths and Mastodons: All American Monsters” in Smithsonian magazine (April 2010), Keith Thomson’s “Jefferson, Buffon and the Moose” in the American Scientist 96, no. 3 (2008), and Lee Alan Dugatkin’s Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose (University of Chicago Press, 2009).

  For the story of enormous pumpkins, see Susan Warren’s Backyard Giants: The Passionate, Heartbreaking, and Glorious Quest to Grow the Biggest Pumpkin Ever (Bloomsbury, 2007); also see Jules Janick’s “Giant Pumpkins: Genetic and Cultural Breakthroughs.” Chronica Horticulturae 48, no. 3 (2008): 16–17.

  On early American cucurbits, see: Smith, Bruce D. “The Initial Domestication of Cucurbita pepo in the Americas 10,000 Years Ago.” Science 9 (May 1997): 932–934.

  Radishes

  On radishes and witches, see T. F. Thiselton Dyer’s The Folk-Lore of Plants (Echo Library, 2008. First published 1889) and Ruth Edna Kelley’s The Book of Hallowe’en (Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. First published 1919).

  The adulterers’ radish is described in Danielle S. Allen’s The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens (Princeton University Press, 2000).

  For the history of the fairy tale “Rapunzel,” see: www.surlalunefairytales.com/rapunzel.

  Spinach

  For a summary of the Popeye controversy, see “Spinach, Iron, and Popeye” by law professor Mike Sutton at www.internetjournalofcriminology.com/Sutton_Spinach_Iron_and_Popeye_March_2010.pdf.

  The Forme of Cury (1390) is online at Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8102. Also see Lorna J. Sass’s To the King’s Taste: Richard II’s book of feasts and recipes adapted for modern cooking (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975).