Stems and Buds

I. Virginia references to artichoke, asparagus and celery

II. Discussion

A. Artichoke and Cardoon
B. Asparagus
C. Celery and Celeriac

 

I. References to artichoke, asparagus and celery in 18th century Virginia Records

Advertisements in Virginia Gazette:

Nov. 30, 1759, Christopher Ayscough, Govenor’s Palace
Italien Celery
Chardoon

Oct. 10, 1771, Mr. Campbell’s Store
Italien Celery Seed

Dec. 31, 1772, John Carter Store
Solid Celery Seed

Dec. 16, 1773, John Carter Store
Dwarf Celeriack seed

Jan. 3, 1774, James Wilson, College of William and Mary
Solid Celery

April, 6, 1775, John Carter Store
Solid Celery and dwarf celeriack

Feb. 3, 1776, Myles Taylor’s Store
Asparagus
Celery

March, 7, 1792, Minton Colllins Store
Solid Celery
Asparagus and artichokes

Jan. 24, 1793, Minton Collins Store
Cardoon           Solid Celery
Asparagus        Globe Artichoke

Jan. 4, 1799, Peter Bellet Nursery
Celery
Artichokes

Citations from local diaries:

1771, Order from Robert Carter Nicholas to John Norton Co.
Best Cellery                  Celleriack
Sollid Cellery

Memoradum Book of Richard Henry Lee
Asparagus (1787)         Asparagus (1789)
Artichoques (1789)

1797, Jones Family Papers, Bathurst, Essex Co.
Artichoke

Diary of Col. Francis Taylor, Dinwiddie Co. (first listing)
Asparagus (1788)         Celery (1792)
White Asparagus (1790)

Citations from Virginia Authors:

Treatise on Gardening, John Randolph, ca 1765
Artichoke with prickly leaves                Artichoke without prickles
Asparagus                                            Chardoon
Celery                                                  Celeriac

Joseph Prentis Monthly Kalendar 1775 – ‘79
Artichoke                     Celery
Asparagus

Thomas Jefferson’s Garden Book, (first listing)
Asparagus (1767)
Artichoke (1767)
Celery (1767)

 

II. Discussion:

This paper examines the artichoke and the closely related cardoon; Celery and the closely related celeriac and asparagus.  All of these crops have long been associated with wealth although asparagus has likely been gathered in the wild for thousands of years by all societal classes.  Cardoon has been used in southern Europe for several thousand years but the artichoke (at least the modern artichoke) appears to be a fairly recent development arising from the ancestor of both the cardoon and artichoke.  Both celery and celeriac are also recent additions to our culinary palate, arising from wild populations of Apium graveolens, known as smallage, and used until fairly recent times only as a medicine.  It is not clear when Asparagus officinalis emerged as a cultivated plant.  The earliest descriptions of asparagus seem to refer to the spiny aparagus, Asparagus acutifolius.  Asparagus officinalis may have been introduced to England during the Roman conquest but is not commonly cultivated until the 16th century (The Kitchen Garden, Stuart,1984).

Both Asparagus and Artichoke were introduced to North America in the first half of the 17th century.  Celery is not a common vegetable on the Virginia table until the 18th century.  Celeriac likely had a small presence in colonial Virginia and cardoon was known but seldom grown by the general population.  Neither celeriac nor cardoon are a significant part of the American diet to this day.

A. Artichoke and Cardoon

Artichoke (Cynara scolymus) and Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) were both developed in the Mediterranean basin.  The generic name is said to be derived from the Latin cinis, meaning ashes because, according to Columella (4 – ca 70 CE), land for artichokes should be manured with ashes (History of Cultivated Vegetables, Phillips, 1822).  Parkinson (Paradisi in sole, 1629) says it is so called from “the ash colour of its leaves.”  The name given by Ruellius to the artichoke in France (1536) is articols, from the Italian articoclos. He says it comes from arcocum of the Ligurians, cocali signifying the cone of the pine (Edible Plants of the World, Sturtevant, 1919).

The native Cynara cardunculus, var. sylvestris is recognized as the ancestor of both artichoke and cardoon although the history of the development of artichoke and cardoon is not yet clear   Both Greek and Roman writers’ record eating a plant that is often identified as cardoon but translations are uncertain.  The Greek scolymos (current species of artichoke) relates to spiny and could refer to any thistle (The Domestication of Artichoke and Cardoon, Sonnante et al, Annals of Botany, 100, 2007). 

In Sir Arthur Hort’s 1916 translation of Theophrastus’s (371-287 BCE) work, Enquiry into Plants it is recorded, “But the plant called kaktos grows only in Sicily, and not in Hellas [Greece].  It is a plant quite different from any other; for it sends up straight from the root stems…its leaf is broad and spinous: these stems are called kaktoi; they are edible, if peeled, and are slightly bitter.”   A characteristic of the cardoon that is either prized or disliked by modern diners is the bitter taste of the cardoon stalk, which, as the author points out, must be peeled.

In what is generally considered a reference to the cardoon, Pliny writes in Natural History (ca. 70 CE): “The fact is it is well known that at Carthage and particularly at Cordova crops of thistles yield a return of 6000 sesterces from small plots … since we turn even the monstrosities of the earth to purposes of gluttony, and actually grow vegetables which all four-footed beasts without exception shrink from touching.”

It is likely that Arabs played a large role in the domestication and dissemination of both the artichoke and cardoon.  Berbers in northern Africa name both cardoon (addad) and artichoke (taga) (Origin of Cultivated Plants, Candolle, 1885).  One of the first reliable European references to the artichoke (kharshaf) is found in the Book of Agriculture (1180 CE) written by Ibn al-Awwām in Moorish Spain (Garden Plants of Moorish Spain, Journal of Garden History, Vol. 20, No. 1, Harvey,1992).  Barbari, in In Dioscoridem corollariorum (1530) remarks that artichokes are not always found in Italian gardens in Venice but more commonly in the Moorish quarter (Did the Ancients Know the Artichoke, Wright, sub. Journal d’ Agriculture, 1996).

Columella (4 – 70 CE) records cinara cultivation in De re rustica and it is likely that cultivated forms of both the artichoke and cardoon were being developed during the first century CE but probably represented primitive forms of the plants. (The Domestication of Artichoke and Cardoon, Sonnante et al, Annals of Botany, 100, 2007).  Filipo Strozzi (1426-1491) records artichokes, apparently sent from Sicily, in Florence by 1460 (Mediaeval Gardens, Harvey, 1981).  Targioni writes in Cenni Storici that the artichoke was brought from Naples to Florence in 1466 (Origin of Cultivated Plants, Candolle, 1885).  The first reference to the artichoke in England is found in Fromond’s Herbys necessary for a gardyn by letter written about 1500 (Mediaeval Gardens, Harvey, 1981).  Turner records in A New Herbal (1551): “Carduus…is a sundry herb from cinara.  But other authors make only this difference, that carduus should be wild archychock, and cinara should be the garden archychock” which seems to differentiate between artichoke and cardoon.

By the last quarter of the 16th century the artichoke is better known in England.  Thomas Hill writes in The Gardener’s Labyrinth (1577): “The Artechoke which before grew wild in the fields came by diligence…to be carefully bestowed in the Garden, where through travell, brought from his wilderness, to serve unto the use of the mouth and belly.  The Artechoke growing with thick scaly eares, in forme to the pine apple, and sufficiently know to most persons.”  Hill is also the first to give instructions for its cultivation: “You must gather your Artechokes (cutting them almost a foot from the ground) when their top beginneth to open a little; and with your foot break off the stalk left on the ground, treading it aside on both sides.”

Different varieties of artichoke were recognized first in southern Europe.  In 1616 Gervase Markam published the Surflet English translation of the 1582 French work by Liebault and Esteinne titled Maison Rustique or The Countrey Farme.  “For of Artichokes there be divers kinds; as the round and the long, the red and the greene: the round, which is greene, is a good Artichoke, so is the red, although it be long, yet the soale is but thinne, neither is the leafe verie substantiall, onely it is exceeding pleasant in tast: the greene, which is long, is of all sorts the worst, for it neither beareth good soale nor good leafe, but is a loose open-leaved Artichoke, ever willowish and unpleasant: but the round large Artichoke, whose tops of leaves are red, being hard, firme, and as it were all of one piece, is of all other the best Artichoke, hath the deepest soale, the thickest leafe, and is the aptest to grow in anie soyle whatsoever: And therefore I would with everie man, as neere as he can, to make choice of this before anie other kind.

By the end of the 16th century there are two varieties of artichoke and the cardoion recognized in England. Gerard writes in The Herball (1597): “There be three sorts of Artichokes, two tame or of the garden; and one wilde, which the Italian esteemeth greatly of, as the best to be eaten raw, which he calleth Cardune.”

The two types of artichoke are described as: “The Great Artichoke - When the fruit is great or loosed of a greenish red colour within, and in the lower part full of substance and white.  The second great Artichoke differeth from the former in the colour of the fruit, otherwise there is little difference, except the fruit hereof dilateth it selfe further abroad, and is not so closely compact together.”

He calls the cardoon “The prickly Artichoke, called in Latine Carduus, or Spinosa Cinara, differeth not from the former, save that all the corners of the leaves hereof, and the stalkes of the cone or fruit, are armed with stiffe and sharp prickles.”

Thirty years later Parkinson writes in Paradisi in Sole (1629): “Of artichokes, whereof there be divers kindes, some accounted tame and of the Garden, others wilde and of late planted in Gardens, Orchards or Fieldes, of purpose to be meate for men.  The best kindes…which are eyther of a reddish browne, whiteish, or greenish colour, and in some broade at the ends, in others sharpe or pricky.  The white Artichoke is in all things like the red, but that the head is of a whitish ashe colour.  We have also another, whose head is greene, and very sharp upwards, and is common in many places.  There is another kinde, called the Muske Artichoke, which growth like the French kinde, but is much better in spending, although it have a lesser bottome.”

Never the less, the artichoke remained a curiosity in the English garden and was likely found only in the gardens of the aristocracy.  In the Parliamentary Survey of Wimbleton done in November, 1649 it is recorded: “There is one parcel of land belonging to the said upper garden, containing forty four perches of land, called the Hartichoke Garden…the ground whereof is ordered for the growth of hartichokes…for the roots and plants of hartichokes therein now growing and planted we value at £1. 10s (A History of Gardening in England, Cecil, 1896).  Evelyn writes in Acetaria (1699): “Tis not long since this noble Thistle came first into Italy, Improved to this Magnitude by Culture; and so rare in England, that they were commonly sold for Crowns a piece.”

The artichoke and/or cardoon had medicinal as well as culinary uses.  Lytes 1586 translation of Dodoen’s Cruydeboeck (1554) records: “they engender noughtie humours, especially being eaten raw and unprepared…the rote is good against the ranke smell of arme pittes, if after taking cleare away of the pith, the same rote is boiled in wine and drunken.  For it sendeth forth plenty of stinking urine, wherby the ranke and rammish savour of all the body is amended.”  The aphrodisiac powers of the artichoke are recognized by many authors.  In Maison Rustique or The Countrey Farme (1616) a powder is suggested for: “Weaknesse of the generative Parts.”  Catherine de’ Medici (1519 – 1589) was particularly fond of artichokes and she is often credited with introducing the artichoke to the French court upon her marriage to Henry IV in 1633.  On one occasion an elderly matron at a dinner party observed, disapprovingly: “If one of us had eaten artichokes, we would have been pointed out in the street.  Today young women are more forward than pages at the court”  (Food, W. Root, 1980).

The cardoon is much less familiar to the English than is the Artichoke.  Parkinson writes of the cardoon in Paradisi in Sole (1629): “the Chardon as they call it, because it is almost of the forme and nature of a Thistle, or wilde Artichoke.  John Tradescant assured mee, he saw three acres of Land about Brussels planted with this kinde, which the owner whited like Endive…Wee cannot yet finde the true manner of dressing them, that our Countrey may take delight therein.”

Although cardoon is described in many 18th century works it remains of minor importance.  Hanna Glasse, in The Art of Cookery (1747) includes only two recipes for “chardoon: Fry’d and Buttered and a la Framage.”  In French and Italian cuisine cardoons are blanched before cooking as explained in Evelyn’s translation of the French work Compleat gard’ner (1693), compiled by Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie, gardener to Louis XIV: “we have a mind to whiten them…first to tie up their Leaves with two or three bands, and some days after, we cover them quite up with Straw or dry Litter well twisted about them…These Cardoon Plants thus wrapt up, whiten in about fifteen days or three weeks, and grow fit to eat.”

Abercrombie in, Every man his own gardener (1797) gives a description of the cardoon that sounds as if his typical reader would not be familiar with it: “These plants are a species of artichoke (Cynara), their leaves being very like them; but it is the stalks of the leaves only of the cardoons that are used, which is principally in soup and for stewing; but he must first be rendered perfectly white and tender…otherwise would be intolerably bitter.”  He adds in The garden vade mecum (1790) that it “is but in small request, only in some particular families.”

The varieties of artichoke remain fairly consistent from the late 16th century through the 18th century though slight variations are recognized on the European continent.  Le Jardinier Solitaire,  an anonymous French work published in 1612 and translated to English by Gentil in 1706 describes three varieties: “le blanc, le rouge and le violet,”or white, red and violet artichokes.  In England the two varieties recognized by Gerard and Parkinson in the late 16th and early 17th century are the same varieties recognized by 18th century authors.  Philip Miller writes in The Gardeners Dictionary (1754): “There is at present but one Sort of Artichoke cultivated in the Gardens near London, which is that commonly known by the Name of the Red-artichoke: formerly the green French Sort was the most common; but since the red Sort hath been introduc’d, the other has been rejected, as being vastly inferior in Goodness thereto.”

By the end of the century this better form is generally known as the globe artichoke: “There are two sorts, the large globe artichoke, and the French or green oval artichoke; but the former is greatly preferable to plant for the general supply, the heads being considerably larger, and the eatable parts more thick and fleshy” (Every man his own gardener, Abercrombie, 1797).  The French artichoke had been considered an inferior variety for well over one hundred years by this time.  Parkinson writes in Paradisi in sole (1629): “The French Artichoke hath a white head, the scale whereof stand staring far asunder one from another at the ends, which are sharp…and are now almost cleane cast out again, none being willing to have it take up the roome of better.”

The Artichoke arrives in the American colonies in the 17th century.  An anonymous work written in England (perhaps authored by John Farrer) titled A Perfect Description of Virginia (1649) describes the gardens of Virginia as: “That they have Roots of severall kindes, Potatoes, Sparagus, Carrets, Turnips, Parsnips, Onions, and Hartichokes.”  This was written as an inducement to immigration to the colony of Virginia so can not be considered as a first person account but the artichoke is also recorded in the same year in North America by Adriaen van der Donck in A Description of the New Netherlands (1649).

In the early years of the 18th century the artichoke is found exclusively in the gardens of the gentry as related by William Hugh Grove who traveled in Tidewater, Virginia and recorded in his diary (1732): “Cabbbages & our Somer or green kale [?] Curl’d Savoys are Plenty but few Colyflowers or Hartichoak tho the Gentry sometimes raise a few.”  That the Virginia gentry are still learning the art of raising artichokes is described by Hugh Jones in The Present State of Virginia (1724): “The worst thing in their gardens, that I know, is the artichoak; but this I attribute to want of skill and good management.”  However, artichokes were clearly an important part of the gentleman’s garden.  William Byrd II records in his diary on June 10, 1711: “I ate some boiled pork for diner and was angry with Moll for neglecting to boil some artichokes for dinner.”  

By the second half of the 18th century artichokes are found on nearly all of the Virginia plantations.  Fithian records in his diary at Nomini Hall in Virginia, July 2, 1774: “Mr Grubb agreed to stay the night. We supt on Artichoks, & Huckleberries & Milk.”  In Williamsburg both John Randolph, in A Treatise on Gardening (ca 1765) and Joseph Prentis in his Monthly Kalender (1775 – 79) give detailed instructions for raising artichokes.

Landon Carter of Sabine Hall on the Rappahannock River in Virginia records in his diary on June 14, 1766: “My artichoke and asparagus beds which are Rich have now in 46 days many plants.”  His garden of artichokes is apparently prolific enough to supply his neighbors with plants.  On May 8, 1772 he writes: “I sent Gilberne 2 dozen Artichoke slips and Dr. Jones one dozen yesterday; and to Mr. Lee of Stratford this day 19 dozen.”  George Washington also has enough artichoke plants to share with others as recorded in a March 22, 1795 letter to his plantation manager William Pearce: “Tell the Gardener, when he dresses the Artichokes, to put up a number of Slips, securely, for a Gentleman of my acquaintance; and let them be went by the first vessel afterwards, to this City [Philadelphia].”

The same two varieties of artichokes known in England are known in America though two varieties of the globe artichoke are recognized by the early 19th century.  In Philadelphia Bernard McMahon writes in The American Gardeners Calendar (1806): “Of the French: The leaves are terminated by short spines, the head is oval, and scales do not turn inward at the top like those of the Globe Artichoke, the heads are of a green colour, the bottoms are not near so thick of flesh, and have a perfumed taste, which to many persons is very disagreeable; so that it is seldom cultivated where the globe kinds can be procured.”

“Of the second, there are two varieties, the green, and the red fruited, both extremely fine. The leaves of the Globe artichoke, are of a bluer cast, with more and deeper jags on the clifts, than those of the French, they have small inert prickles, like the latter but not so perceptible: the leaves of the French sort are larger, much wider, and of a paler colour.  The great openness of the scales in the head of the French artichoke is a leading character; it, also, rather draws up to a point in the middle, whereas the Globe kind is quite flat on top.  The colour of the fruit in the red variety of the Globe artichoke, is a reddish brown, or rather a dusky purple, with a tinge of green.”

However popular artichokes were with the Virginia gentry in the 18th century, they were probably seldom, if ever, found on the tables of the general population.  As late as 1861 Robert Buist writes in The family kitchen gardener, published in New York: “The Artichoke is principally cultivated in the gardens of the French, by whom it is considered more as a luxury than a profitable esculent.”  Six years later, in 1867, Peter Henderson records in Gardening For Profit, concerning the artichoke: “Although a vegetable as yet rarely seen in our markets, it is extensively used in Europe, particularly in France.”

The Cardoon is occasionally mentioned by American authors in the 18th century but it remains, to this day, a very minor part of the American diet and was likely found only in the gardens of experimental gardeners in the gentry’ class.

Today artichokes are grouped in three general classes; the French, Italian and Globe.  The Globe artichoke is the variety most commonly grown in this country.  An Italian variety known as Romanesco is a round, somewhat flattened fruit with reddish scales and appears to most closely resemble the artichoke described in 18th century garden books.

There are several varieties of cardoon known today but probably the oldest is the French Cardon de Tours.  This is a prickly cardoon with sharp spines on the leaves and is the best example of the 18th century type.  Vilmorin writes in the French work The Vegetable Garden (1880), translated to English by Robinson in 1885 of the Cardon de Tours: “This is one of the smaller varieties and has very thick and solid stalks or ribs.  On the other hand, it is the most spiny kind of all, which, however, does not prevent it form holding the first place in the estimations of the market gardeners of Tours and Paris.”  The Spanish Cardoon and the Artichoke-leaved cardoon are spineless plants and while several varieties are known in Europe the generic spineless cardoon is the variety most commonly found in this country today.

B. Asparagus

Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) is a native plant over a broad range from the Mediterranean to central Europe.  It is not certain when or where asparagus was first brought into cultivation.  The earliest references to asparagus by Theophrastus (371 - ca 287 BCE) and others was likely the spiny asparagus, A. acutifoius (Garden Plants of Moorish Spain, Journal of Garden History, Vol. 20, No. 1, Harvey,1992).  By the first century CE varieties of the spiny asparagus had been developed.  Pliny writes in Natural History (ca 70 CE): “Nature has made asparagus to grow wild, for anybody to gather at random; but lo and behold! Now we see a cultivated variety, and Ravenna produces heads weighing three to a pound. Alas for the monstrosities of gluttony!  Of all cultivated vegetables asparagus needs the most delicate attention.  Its origin from wild asparagus has been fully explained…In fact the kind that grows wild in the island of Nisita off the coast of Campania is deemed far the best asparagus there is.  No subject included by Cato is treated more carefully, and it is the last topic of his book, showing that it was a novelty just creeping in.”  Cato (234 – 149 BCE) had written in De Re Rustica that asparagus and cabbages are the finest of the vegetables.  It was probably the Moors, in mediaeval Spain, who discovered the superiority of A. officinalis (Garden Plants of Moorish Spain, Journal of Garden History, Vol. 20, No. 1, Harvey,1992).

In England asparagus is recorded by Turner in A New Herbal (1551): “Sperage is called in Latin, Asparagus…this is the common sperage which growth in divers gardens in England, and in some places by the sea side.”  After this time asparagus is recorded by all English garden writers as among the best vegetables that the kitchen garden provides as well as the observation that it can be found growing in the wild.  Thomas Hill devotes an entire chapter in The Gardener’s Labyrinth (1577) to: “What singular skill and secrets is to be known in the sowing , removing and setting again of the worthy hearb named Sperage.”  Gerard writes in The Herball (1597): “Of Sperage, or Asparagus: he first being the manured or garden Spearge, hath at his first rising out of the ground thicke tender shoots very soft and brittle, of the thickenesse of the greatest swans quil, in taste like unto the greene beane” and says that the wild form is no different, only in the “manuring” or garden culture. 

Parkinson (Paradisi in Sole, 1629) records: “Of the bignesse of an ordinary riding wand at the bottome or most, or bigger or lesser…The first shootes or heads of Asparagus are a Sallet of as much esteeme with all sorts of persons, as any other whatsoever, being boyled tender, and eaten with butter.”  

Asparagus has had many medicinal properties assigned to it over the centuries, the most common being the treatment of digestive and urinary complaints.  Culpeper writes in The Complete Herbal (1653): “The young buds or branches boiled in ordinary broth, make the belly soluble and open, and boiled in white wine, provoke urine, being stopped, and is good against the strangury or difficulty of making water.”

By the end of the 17th century asparagus was available in the London markets out of season through the use of hotbeds.  Meager writes in The English Gardener (1683): “you may sometimes see in London, Sparragus much earlier then its natural season, which hath given occasion of wonder to many.”  He then explains that market gardeners lay the asparagus roots on piles of hot dung and lightly cover them; “so the heat doth force forward a farewell Crop, but how good I cannot say, but undoubtedly it is welcome to such as love Rarities.”

In the 18th century the practice of forcing asparagus out of season is a common, and lucrative practice with market gardeners as explained by Bradley in New Improvements of planting (1739): “The Asparagus is one of the great Dainties of the Spring, and what I account to be part of the most necessary Furniture of a Garden; it brings great Profit to the Gardeners near London either propagated upon natural Beds, (as they are called) or when they are forced with Dung in the Winter.  I have heard, that a Gardener about Westminster has received above thirty Pound in one Week for forced Asparagus.”

Several varieties of asparagus are recognized by 18th century English authors though most attribute this merely to culture or local growing conditions.  The ability to improve asparagus through cultural technique is recognized early in the 17th century by the Italian refugee Giacomo Castelvetro in The Fruits, Herbs & Vegetables of Italy (1614): “When I see the weedy specimens of this noble plant for sale in London I never cease to wonder why no one has yet taken the trouble to improve its cultivation.”

Ellis recognizes four varieties in The gardener’s pocket-calendar (1776), viz., the Battersea, Deptford, Dutch and Gravesend, commenting, “The above Varieties are the same sort of Asparagus, only raised in the different places, and from the change of soil consequently have some difference in their flavor; each sort has its particular admirers.”  Abercrombie lists the same varieties with the addition of the Large Reading and observes:  “These are all of one sort, not differing in their growth, only are raised in greater perfection in regard to size of the shoots, in different places, as above.”  Hanbury, in A complete body of planting (1770-71) explains that not only are asparagus varieties of one sort, differing only in culture, but all are derived from wild asparagus: “There is but one real Asparagus, and that indeed is the Common Wild Asparagus which grows naturally in England, and several parts or Europe.”

Asparagus is listed among the kitchen garden plants in 17th century Virginia in A Perfect Description of Virginia (1649) and in New England in A Description of the New Netherlands, Adriaen van der Donck (1649).  John Lawson records in A New Voyage to Carolina (1709). “Asparagus thrives to a Miracle, without the use of hot beds or dunging the land.”  After this time asparagus becomes one of the most common vegetables in colonial Virginia.  William Byrd II records in his diary on April 15, 1709 while at home at Westover: “At noon I ate nothing but squirrel and asparagus.”  Nine days later while on his way to Williamsburg he writes (April 24, 1709): “We rode home to Colonel Ludwell’s again where we dined and I ate fish and asparagus.”  Four days after this, on April 28, 1709, while staying in Williamsburg he records: “Mr. President and Colonel Duke came to see me at my chambers…we went to dinner and I ate mutton and asparagus.”  John Blair records in his diary on March 20, 1751: “Col Cary dind here had asparag.”  Fithian records in his diary at Nomini Hall on March 16, 1774: “Mrs Carter shewed me her Apricot-Grafts; Asparagus Beds &c.”  John Harrower records in his journal on June 14, 1774: “For Dinner smoack’d bacon or what we cal pork ham is a standing dish either warm or cold.  When warm we have greens with it, and when cold we have sparrow grass.”  Landon Carter writes in his diary on April 22, 1777: “Everyday after dinner, though I eat but little, I am always taken very heavy and Sleepy.  Possibly Asparagus may occasion this. I must examine and see,” inferring that asparagus is eaten daily while in season. 

In Williamsburg John Randolph writes in A Treatise on Gardening (ca 1765) regarding the culture of asparagus: “A great apparatus was formerly made use of, but now seems on all hands to be disregarded.  Nothing more is necessary than to make your beds perfectly rich and light.”  Archeologists uncovered the remains of what presumably was the great apparatus he writes of behind the Peyton Randolph house in the form of two trenches. 

Two planting beds were excavated at the Randolph site that were 20’ x 8’ and 20’ x 4’, separated by a one foot alley and were between 9” and 1 ½’  deep.   Two later beds were found that were 32’ x 12’ and 29’ x 8’.  Both of these beds were of a richer soil composition than surrounding soil.   The first beds had bottoms lined with wine bottle fragments, animal bones and some ceramic shards.  The later beds were lined mostly with oyster shells and some bone (Recent Evidence of Gardening in 18th Century Williamsburg, Brown/Samford, 1987).

Excavating and lining beds for asparagus is a very old practice.  Giacomo Castelvetro writes in The Fruits, Herbs & Vegetables of Italy (1614): “First dig a ditch in the spot where you wish to grow the asparagus, say twenty feet long and ten feet wide and three feet deep.  Put the soil from it to one side, and sift it carefully to remove stones and pebbles.  Cover the bottom of this ditch with a layer of horns from bulls or heifers and over these a layer of the prepared earth four fingers deep.  Then on top of this, plant or sow the asparagus and sprinkle over it some fragments of horn left over from the manufacture of combs or post-horns; cover this with some more of the earth.  If this is done in the spring, the ditch should be left half full until the following autumn, when half the remaining earth should be thrown in.  Then nothing more needs to be done, apart from keeping it free from weeds.”
This practice persists in Williamsburg during the 18th century as described by Joseph Prentis for the month of March (Monthly Kalendar, 1775 - 79): “Set out asparagus as follows.  Dig a trench as wide as you intend your Beds to be, and two feet deep, lay a layer of Oyster Shells, six Inches, then lay on six Inches of Horse Dung, and as much Mould, continue so to do, till the Bed is done.”

The use of horns, as suggested by Castelvetro, for lining beds is also a very old practice and gave rise to the odd belief that ram’s horns actually produce asparagus.  Pliny the Elder records in Natural History (ca 70 CE): “I find it stated that corruda (which I take to be wild asparagus…) will also come up if pounded rams’ horns are dug in as manure.”  Thomas Hill writes in The Gardeners Labyrinth (1577): “There be which more marvellously report, even that the whole hornes of Rams, not broken asunder, nor cut into small pieces, but onely bored thorow in many places, and then bestowed in the earth, to bring forth or yield in short time Spearges.”  This same wisdom is repeated in Maison Rustique or The Countrey Farme by Liebault and Esteinne, (Surflet translantion,1616): “Others there are which say (though it be a wonderfull thing) that there must nothing be done to the hornes, but onely bored through, and to hide them in good ground, and that of them will breed and grow Asparagus.”  The use of horns in asparagus beds likely has a practical basis.  Horns are high in nitrogen and would produce more robust asparagus plants though not through spontaneous generation.

In this country, as in England, asparagus is available over an extended time through the use of forcing beds.  In Philadelphia Varlo records in A New System of Husbandry (1785): “Asparagus forced, to have a regular succession of it, from November to April, must be planted every month, and will be near a month before it is fit to cut.”  Hepburn and Gardiner, writing in Washington D.C., give us an idea of the scale of production in The American Gardener (1804) when they record for forcing asparagus: “Two hundred roots are necessary for a one light frame i.e. 4 ½ feet by 2 ½ feet.

C. Celery and Celeriac

The wild form of celery (Apium graveolens) is found over a wide range from Sweden to Algeria and in Asia from the Caucasus to Beluchistan .  (Beluchistan encompassed the present area of eastern Iran, south western Pakistan and southern Afghanistan). (Origin of Cultivated Plants, Candolle, 1885).  Theophrastus (373 – 287 BCE) describes horse celery (Alexanders), mountain celery (parsley) and marsh celery in Enquiry into Plants (Sir Arthur Hort translation, 1916) and distinguishes between a wild and cultivated form of the marsh celery.  Marsh celery may be the wild form of celery, called smallage by later authors but there seems to be much confusion over the translation.  He also relates the very long germination time cited by all later authors: “but celery germinates with the greatest difficulty of all; for those who make the time comparatively short say forty days, and others fifty.”  This is true for all members of this group.  John Randolph, writing in Williamsburg (A Treatise on Gardening, ca 1765), repeats the common wisdom concerning parsley seed “that the seed goes nine times to the devil before it comes up…in this it resembles celery.” 

Dioscorides (ca 40 – 90 CE) calls the marsh celery Selinum and distinguishes the cultivated form from the wild Eleioselinon (De Materia Medica, Goodyear translation, 1655).  Celery is thought to be the selinon of the Odyssey, the selinon heleion of Hippocrates, the eleioselinon of Theophrastus and Dioscorides and the helioselinon of Pliny and Palladius (Edible Plants of the World, Sturtevant, 1919).  Horace (65 – 8 BCE), the Roman poet, wrote of ache (smallage) as a preventative against hangovers: “Fill the cups with Massic wine, which makes us forget all our ills…and make haste crowns of ache and myrtle” (Food, W. Root, 1980).  This wisdom is repeated by Fuchs in Historia stirpium (1542) for smallage: “The seed, taken before, prevents drunkenness.”   It is not clear if the wild form of celery, known as smallage by later writers, was cultivated in gardens or gathered in the wild. 

The German monk, Walafrid Strabo is the first to use the word celery in his poem Hortulus (ca 840 CE) "Passio turn celeri cedit devicia medelae" (The disease then to celery yields, conquered by the remedy).  The word “celeri,” in this case translates as “quick-acting,” suggesting that the term celery arises from its medicinal properties.  All authors prior to the 17th century list only medicinal uses for the plant.  Jean Bauhin (1511 – 1582) classes smallage as: Apium vulgare ingratus, suggesting that it was not used for culinary purposes.  Dodonaeus, in Pemptades (1616), speaks of the wild plant being transferred to gardens but distinctly says not for food use. (Edible Plants of the World, Sturtevant, 1919).

In England Turner describes smallage in A New Herbal (1551) and perpetuates the confusion between the ancestor of celery (smallage) and parsley: “Elioselinon after the translation of Theophrasuts is called in Latin paludapium, in English smallage or marche…the apothecaries have long called this herb in Latin apium, but unjustly, for apium is not smallage but persely.”  In modern classification Apium is the genus for celery while parsley is classified as Petroselinum.  He also provides the warning against smallage as a promoter of epileptic fits that is repeated by many authors: “Divers practitioners hold that the herb both smelled and eaten is jeopardous for them that are in danger of the falling sickness.  For it maketh them fall straightway that they have smelled or eaten of it…for the cause above rehearsed I would advise men rather to use persely then smallage.”

Gerard (The Herball, 1597) is the first to suggest that smallage may be used as a culinary plant but the practice is uncommon: “Eleosilinum, sive Paludapium - Water Parsley or Smallage: this is seldome eaten, neither is it counted good for sauce, but it is profitable for medicine.”  Parkinson, in Paradisi in Sole (1629), acknowledges its use in Italy as a culinary plant: “Selinum dulce - Sweete Parsley or sweete Smallage…which soever you please to call it…The Venetians use to prepare it for meate many waies, both the herbe and the roote eaten rawe…or boyled or fryed to be eaten with meate.”  This is collaborated by the Italian refugee, Giacomo Castelvetro in The Fruits, Herbs & Vegetables of Italy (1614) written in London: “In early autumn the celery plants are dug up and earthed up close together in a trench about a yard deep, with the tops showing about four fingers above the earth, and left for fifteen to twenty days.  They will then have blanched and become good to eat…It is warm, and has great digestive and generative powers, and for this reason young wives often serve celery to their elderly or impotent husbands.”  Its reputation for eliciting carnal appetites by both sexes is often repeated.  Fuchs writes in Historia stirpium (1542): “It makes women more eager for love-making.”

It is during the 17th century in England that the modern celery (Apium graveolens, var. dulce) emerges as a culinary plant but is a rarity until the 18th century.  John Evelyn writes in Acetaria (1699): “Sellery, Apium Italicum, (and of the Pertoseline Family) was formerly a stranger with us (not very long since in Italy) is an hot and more generous sort of Macedonian Persley or Smallage.  The tender Leaves of the Blancht Stalk do well in our Sallet, as likewise the slices of the whiten’d Stems.”  This method of trenching celery to whiten the stems and produce a milder flavor was first developed in Italy and then adopted by La Quintinie, gardener to the Louis XIV in France as Evelyn describes in his translation of Quintinie’s work Compleat gard’ner (1693): “to Whiten Cellery, we begin at first to tie it with two bands when it is big enough…and afterward we Earth our Cellery Plants quite up…or else cover it all over with a good quantity of long dry Dung, or dry Leaves, as we do Cardoons.”

By the early years of the 18th century celery becomes a common vegetable in English gardens.  Laurence writes in A new system of agriculture (1727): “It is a generous sort of Macedonian Parsley, and hath not been long from Italy introduced amongst us: But now it most deservedly obtains a Place not only in raw Sallads, but also in Soops and Pottages.”  Twelve years later Bradley records in New Improvements of planting (1739): “Our Winter Sallets are likewise greatly improved by blanch’d Sellery, which is an hot herb.”  By the end of the century it seems to be nearly indispensible as suggested by Abercrombie in Every man his own gardener (1797): “In some families, these plants are required every day; but if the ground is frozen hard, you can not easily take them up; therefore, at the approach of severe weather, either cover some of the rows with dry long litter, which will prevent the ground from being frozen, and will also protect the plants.”

Throughout most of the 18th century there are no recognized varieties of celery (other than celeriac).  Phillip Miller recognizes only the Italian upright celery in the 1754, ’68 and ’71 editions of The Gardeners Dictionary.  Five years later Ellis records a new variety in The gardener’s pocket-calendar (1776) when he lists both the “Italian Upright Celery” and “The Solid-stalked Italian Celery.”  The original celery had hollow stems as explained by Abercrombie in Every man his own gardener (1797): “Let it be observed, there are two sorts of celery; one known by the name of Italian or upright celery; the other called celeriac, or turnep-rooted celery.  The first is that which is most commonly cultivated, and of which there are two varieties, viz. common upright celery with hollow stalks, and solid-stalked celery.”  However, there are apparently slight variations in form for seven years earlier Abercrombie listed three types of Celery in The garden vade mecum (1790) in which he list both the common upright celery and the large upright celery along with the solid celery.  Of the four varieties (including celeriac as the fourth) he writes: “Of the four varieties of celery, the first three are cultivated for the stalks of their leaves; but if which, the common upright celery is best for the main crops, and hardiest for Winter.” 

When celery first comes to North America is a mystery as it is not listed in any of the 17th century or early 18th century works in Virginia.  Italian celery is included in the extensive list of vegetable seeds advertised for sale in the Virginia Gazette by Christopher Ayscough in 1759.  Ayscough was serving as the gardener at the Governor’s Palace at this time and presumably was ordering extra seeds to sell along with the seeds ordered for the governor’s household which may suggest that celery was found only in gentry’ gardens.  Thomas Jefferson was apparently quite fond of celery for he writes his son-in-law, Thomas Mann Randolph, who was staying at Monticello, on June 24, 1793: “From a feeling of self interest I would propose a great provision of Celery plants to be made.”

By the 1770’s celery is listed by all stores that sell garden seed and also appears in diary accounts of kitchen gardens.  Bernard McMahon records in The American Gardeners Calendar (1806) in Philadelphia that: “There are several varieties, viz. common upright celery with hallow stalks, solid stalked celery; red-stalked solid celery, &c.” observing that “the best kinds to sow are the solid and red celery.”  Solid stalked celery almost entirely replaces the old hollow stemmed varieties in the 19th century and is the variety that is used today. 

Fearing Burr writes in Field and Garden Vegetables of America (1865) of the old Italian upright sort: “Italian Celery is synonymous with Giant Patagonian: tall, strong growing erect sort; leaf-stems deeply furrowed, sometimes a little hollow…not so crisp as the Common White Solid, and is suitable only for soups” (Patagonian celery is first listed by McMahon in 1806).

Celeriac is developed at almost the same time as celery.  The root of smallage, which appears to be the ancestor of both celery and celeriac was occasionally used.  In 1536, Ruellius records in the French work De natura stirpium that the root of ache (smallage) is eaten, both raw and cooked.  The German physician, Leonhard Rauwolf made a botanical expedition to the Middle East from 1573-75 and writes of  “Eppich, whose roots are eaten as delicacies, with salt and pepper, at Tripoli and Aleppo.”  Jo. Baptista Porta writes in Villae, published at Frankfurt in 1592: "There is another kind of celery called Capitatum, which is grown in the gardens of St. Agatha, Theano and other places in Apulia, granted from nature and unseen and unnamed by the ancients. Its bulb is spherical, nearly of the size of a man's head. It is very sweet, odorous and grateful. Except in rich land, it degenerates, until it differs from the common apium in no respects, except in its root, round like a head."  The French physician, Jean Bauhin, who died in 1613, describes celeriac as Selinum tuberosum, sive Buselini speciem, in Historia plantarum (1651) published posthumously (Edible Plants of the World, Sturtevant, 1919).

In England Stephen Switzer published a curious book titled: A compendious method for the raising of the Italian brocoli, Spanish cardoon, celeriac, finochi and other foreign kitchen vegetables (1729) but adds that he had never seen it; indicating that celeriac was little known in England at this date (Edible Plants of the World, Sturtevant, 1919).  By mid century celeriac is recorded by nearly all garden writers but is apparently of minor importance.  Hanbury writes in A complete body of planting (1770-71): “Celeriac is another variety of this species, but by far less delicate than the former sort.  Its chief excellence consists in the root, which will be very large, and as big as some Turneps, Hence the name Turnep-rooted Celery has been applied by some persons to this plant.”

Celeriac was even less common in North America.  In Williamsburg it is listed for sale only at the John Carter store in 1773 and ‘75 and Robert Carter Nicholas orders seed in 1771.  The listing of celeriac in Randolph’s Treatise can probably be discounted as he often merely lists plants found in Miller’s The Gardeners Dictionary.  Bernard McMahon lists celeriac in Philadelphia in The American Gardeners Calendar (1806) but has little to say about celeriac other than it can be dug and stored for the winter.  Thomas Jefferson, who experimented with virtually every vegetable variety of the time does not list celeriac in his expansive notes on vegetables in the Garden Book (1766 – 1824) or in his correspondence.