SC - beets

[Dan Gillespie]

Elizabeth wrote:  "(Did people eat beetroot?).

As far as I can tell, no.  Every time I find a reference to beets, it seems
to mean greens.  Maybe beetroot got developed into something big enough to
be useful after our period?"

There is a mention of both white & red, or Roman beets, clearly as a root
vegetable in the 1633 edition of Gerard's Herbal; he says they're boiled &
eaten with oil, vinegar & pepper.  I haven't had a chance to look at the
earlier 1598 edition to see if this entry was included there as well.  His
description makes it sound like eating beet roots was not yet a strongly
established practice at the time the information was published.  They are
likely very late period at best.
                                Hope this helps,
                                        Antoine de Bayonne
Dan Gillespie
dangilsp at intrepid.net
Dan_Gillespie at usgs.gov
Martinsburg, West Virginia, USA 

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