Did you know medieval farmers cultivated a variety of unique and nutritious vegetables that have almost disappeared from modern diets? From skirret to good King Henry, these forgotten crops were once essential for survival and they deserve a comeback! 🍽️
In this video, we explore 15 incredible medieval vegetables, their health benefits, and why they should return to our gardens and plates today. Whether you’re a history buff, gardener, or food lover, you won’t want to miss these lost gems of the past!
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💬 Which vegetable surprised you the most? Let us know in the comments!
25 Comments
Medlar is not a forgotten fruit for i have one of many years of age in my garden here in france. It's also known as Dogs Arse
The word you meant to say is "Catholics" not "religious folks".
When I was a kid in the outer suburbs of Sydney, Australia, our greengrocer was Italian. There were few cars around just after the war, so my mother placed an order on Thursday or Friday, and Sam would come around on Saturday afternoon with a box packed with the order.
My parents were interested in less traditional foods and Sam — or his wife, Elizabeth — would often put a bunch of something extra in the box, stuff they and their family ate. I remember turnip tops and zucchini flowers among those. Even late in life, my mother often made battered zucchini flowers as part of a meal.
There was a Chinese student who worked with my father who visited our home several times. He showed us some of the weeds in our yard which would be considered edible in (I think) Singapore, where he was from. Included was Fat Hen.
I don't remember that we tried any, but we did sometimes eat what was known as "New Zealand Spinach", now more commonly "Warrigal Greens" (Tetragonia tetragonioides) which grew just back from the shoreline around where we used to go for holidays. Pick a few hands-full, and they would go into the pot with whatever else we were having for tea. Handy in Australia and New Zealand, but not so mediaeval.
In Germany Scorzonera and corn salad are still on the market and on the table. Lovage is the basis of one the most popular condiments and still grows in most gardens. Turnips are just coming back with the recipies still in the cookbooks.
Some of those plants still grow everywhere around my hometown in germany.
Welsh onions are a trademark in our province. It's usually called "Oignons verts".
My parents had these onions in the garden when I was growing up! A HUGE row of them!
i fux w this channel
"Medieval" 😀 We still use plants like lovage or rumex in Eastern Europe
You're stressing Cornsalad wrong. It's CORNsalad. You'd only say cornSALAD if you'd been talking about CORN chips so you'd stress SALAD to make the distinction. It's called Deaccenting. I bet you'd not talk about corn CHIPS, and repeat it endlessly like that. If you're going to present videos you should really know how English works and it's your own native language so how do you not know? It's a natural as a blink. Stresses change to draw emphasis and give meaning. BOND, JAMES bond. Not BOND james BOND. Every English speaker knows this instinctively, you're hypercorrecting yourself. It makes you sound like you don't have a clue! Besides it's one word, not that that matters since you're speaking not writing, so using the rules of English, the language you're speaking you stress the first syllable. You only stress the final syllable in French because French stopped pronouncing many of their final syllables and to keep the stresses the same, as is natural, they ended up, appearing to, stress the final syllable, but you aren't speaking French anyway.
Carrots don't demand "constant attention", lol. One of the easiest veggies I grow! And some varieties can overwinter in the ground – even in Colorado.
Turnips & salsify are not forgotten
Alexanders grow everywhere around here
The 'Welsh' in Welsh Onion simply means 'foreign'.
If anyone can do it, the fellows @FallowLondon can find a way to bring these back.
@Medieval Times Discovered, mostly correct however as you are not from Europe you know very little about some of the plants and their absence from everyday cooking……. The Tansy, not only is it an acquired taste but unlike most vegetables, it is quite toxic to consume in large amounts. Then there is the Sea Kale, not as easy to grow far inland like the Cabbage is, despite both originating from the same environment in the wild, due to this it was over-harvested from the Coast along with other Coastal herbs like Rock Samphire and Sea Holly leading to them becoming quite scarce, and in the case of the Kale and the Sea Holly, they are now protected Wild plants
😮 Great 😊 So many things we didn't know 😅 But , also thanks to the SMART Era we get to know some ❤
How does anyone know the taste or nutritional value of any of these?
1:00 so much for plants being peasant food propaganda lol.
:p (but we knew this if we looked at old cook books)
Medlars are available in season at our local healthfood store. Bletted medlars are delicious! Tastier than apples.
this guy has a lot of uninvited guests
Good
This is fascinating. I was a crop scout last summer and I saw so much chickweed everywhere! It cannot be stopped. It is interesting how the medieval solution to weeds is "they're just as much food as the crop we planted."
Too many fucking adverts
I love how this immediately opens up by just straight up fucking lying. Carrots don't need constant attention what the hell are you talking about? You're just making shit up out the gate!!