[Sca-cooks] Beets and backfiles was Beets

[Huette von Ahrens]

While Johnnae quotes the OED for the word "beet",
here is the OED entry for the word "beetroot":

The root of the beet ... 1579 Langham 'Gard.
Health' "Strake a little salt on a beete roote,
and plant it into the fundament."

I am not sure what that means, but I present it
anyway. :-)

Huette

--- Johnna Holloway
<johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu> wrote:
> According to OED---Beet was
> 
> A plant or genus of plants (N.O.
> Chenopodiaceæ), having, in cultivation,
> a succulent root much used for food, and also
> for yielding sugar. There
> are two species, the Common or Red Beet (Beta
> vulgaris), found wild on
> the British coasts, and cultivated in several
> varieties, both as an
> esculent, and as an ornamental foliage plant,
> and the White Beet (B.
> cicla), chiefly used in the production of
> sugar. Formerly almost always
> spoken of in plural `beets,' like beans, pease,
> greens, etc. Now usu. in
> sing. form, but the pl. form is still current
> in the U.S.
> 
>     * C. 1000 Sax. Leechd. II. 226 Þás wyrta
> sindon.;éað beeatra, béte
>       and mealwe;
>     * 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. xxii.
> (1495) 616 Men may graffe
>       on a bete stocke as men doon on a
> Caustocke.
>     * A. 1400 Cov. Myst. 22 Erbys and gresse,
> both beetes and brake.
>     * C. 1440 Promp. Parv, 34 Betys herbe,
> beta.
>     * 1551 Turner Herbal. (1568) F iij a, There
> are twoo kyndes of
>       Betes, the white bete whyche is called
> sicula, and blake betes.


=====
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they 
shall never cease to be amused.

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