SC - Re: Don't crush that dwarf, etc.

[D. Clay-Disparti]

Ras wrote:
>A phone call to a
>horticuluralist that I know is interested in historical horticulture
offered
>the intriguing opinion that medieval beets were rounded at the top and then
>tapered to a point resembling an over sized squat carrot rather than the
>ball-like form we normally associate a beet with in the current middle
ages.
>He has promised to try to find me the source of this info if he can.


To quote Davidson´s Oxford Companion to Food again:

"Red beet, known as Roman beet, and yellow-rooted varieties spread through
Europe and Asia in succeeding centuries.
In Europe a yellow kind developed into fodder beet. In Germany it was known
as Mangoldwurzel (beet root), which was corrupted to Mangelwurzel (root for
time of need) because it would only be eaten when nothing else was
available.
However, until well after medieval times, beet roots remained long and
relatively thin. The first mention of a swollen root seems to have been in a
botanical work of the 1550s and what is recognized as the prototype of the
modern beetroot, the "Beta Roman" of Daleschamp, dates back only to 1587.
In Britain the common beets were originally all light in colour. The red
beet, when introduced in the 17th century, was described by Gerard (1633)
with some enthusiasm ..."

Nanna

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