There is a reason to eat your veggies besides their nutritional value. Packed into each bite are not just vitamins and minerals, but also the cultural history of their consumption.
'If we understand the circumstances, era and context of the domestication of our veggies, then both their culture and culinary enjoyment are immensely enhanced,' said Jim Nienhuis, professor of horticulture at UW-Madison. Nienhuis researches vegetable genetics and says he is fascinated with the origins of crops.
An in-depth look at the history behind some American favorite vegetables will prove if he is correct.
Tomatoes, peppers and potatoes are all in the same family and originated in South and Central America. However, to get to America, they first crossed the ocean to Europe through Spanish explorers, and the early settlers brought them back across the ocean to the United States.
Interestingly, while tomatoes, potatoes and chili peppers did not become a part of the cuisine of the native people in the United States, three other South American crops did.
'You can read it in the journals of Lewis and Clark that in North Dakota, the Mandan Indians had corn, beans and squash,' Nienhuis stated. 'But you don't see any tiles of the Sioux or Cheyenne saying 'I need some of those cayenne peppers.' They are just non-existent on the records.'
According to Nienhuis, it was likely the Toltec or Aztecs of ancient Mexico who first domesticated the tomato long ago, but even then, the tomato was not a major ingredient in their food.
'If you take your girlfriend to the best Mexican restaurant in Madison or Chicago and they bring you salsa with tomatoes in it,' said Nienhuis, 'you should stand up and walk out immediately. Authentic Mexican salsa doesn't have tomatoes.'
Europeans had no warm welcome for tomatoes either.
'They recognized tomatoes' resemblance to nightshade and belladonna and thought they would die if they ate it,' Nienhuis stated. 'It is in the nightshade family, but the alkaloids are in tomato leaves not the fruits.'
Eventually, the Italians took a chance on tomato, he said. From there the tomato became widely used in Europe.
Peppers share a similar story to tomatoes, being first domesticated in Central and South America and crossing the sea for use in other parts of the world before coming to North America.
Nienhuis stated that when they reached Europe, new varieties sprung up under the different climates.
'Then we got things like Hungarian pepper, or Paprika,' Nienhuis said. 'You might break a few Hungarian hearts if you told them peppers are not native to Hungary.'
Potatoes also had to cross the ocean twice to get to North America, arriving from Europe.
'The first record of potatoes in the Eastern Hemisphere is on the Canary Islands,' said United States Department of Agriculture researcher David Spooner, who works from UW-Madison. 'From there they were probably brought over to Spain and then to the rest of Europe.'
Spooner, along with scientists from Scotland, recently discovered that all potatoes are related to wild species in a single area in Southern Peru.
'This research answers some fundamental questions about the origins of crop plants,' Spooner said. 'And it completely changes ideas about where [the potato] did originate.'
'On a practical level, it can serve as a road map for plant breeders looking for a source of genes for disease resistance or other things beneficial to growing potatoes,' Spooner said.
Historically, whenever humans get a hold of a plant they modify it to their desire. Nienhuis compared this relationship between humans and vegetables to our relationship with dogs.
'Where is the dog native to'? he asked, 'Maybe Africa. It was this scroungy, smelly, yelping thing that chased gazelles around. Not very appealing, right? But humans domesticated them. And with domestication you have everything from the St. Bernard to the Pekinese. The same thing happens with vegetables.'
Irwin Goldman, professor of horticulture at UW-Madison said he thinks looking at crop origins can tell us a lot about ourselves.
'There is something deep in our desire to be able to cultivate and subdue the environment, to grow plants and modify them,' Goldman said. 'I think that an understanding of crop origins can help people see the value of our ancestors in a much more significant way.'
