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Spring Harvest

Cookery from Experience : A Practical Gu... (by Paul, Sara T)
Vegetables (by Beaty-Pownall, S)
How to Cook Vegetables (by Rorer, Sarah Tyson Heston, 1849-1937.)
The Book of Vegetables and Garden Herbs;... (by French, Allen)
How to Grow Vegetables and Garden Herbs;... (by French, Allen)
Gardening À la Mode : Vegetables (by De Salis, Mrs. Harriet Anne)
My handkerchief garden. Size 25 x 60 fee... (by Barnard, Charles)
Pictorial Practical Vegetable Growing; A... (by Wright, Walter Page)
Vegetables and vegetable cooking (by Ewing, Emma (Pike), Mrs.)
Dressed Vegetables a la Mode (by De Salis, Mrs. Harriet Anne)
The Book of Vegetables and Garden Herbs;... (by French, Allen)
The Book of Rarer Vegetables (by Wythes, George)
The Book of Vegetables and Garden Herbs;... (by Wythes, George)
The English Vegetable Garden, Written by... (by Country Life Limited)

With winter stores consumed, spring traditionally served as a time of hunger. In pre-industrial societies that didn’t enjoy tropical weather and year-round harvests, spring brought both hope and hardship. People planted and hoped and ate the young, tender meat of newly born livestock until summer’s harvest yielded much-needed vegetables.

Autumn customarily receives the credit for bounty; however, the spring season offers an astonishing array of fresh, grown vegetables: artichokes, arugula, asparagus, beets, Belgian endive, broccoli, cherries (e.g., Bing and Rainier), chicory, chives, collard greens, dandelion greens, fava beans, fennel, fiddlehead fern, garlic scapes (aka green garlic), grapefruit, horseradish, kale, kiwis, kohlrabi, kumquats, leeks, lemons, lettuce, limes, morel mushrooms, mustard greens, nettles, new potatoes, papayas, parsley, pea greens, pea pods, peas, radishes, radicchio, ramps, rhubarb, shallots, snow peas, sorrel, spinach, strawberries, sweet onions, swiss chard, turnips, vidalia onions, and watercress.

Before refrigeration and hothouses became common, anyone who could do so planted vegetable gardens. They had no access to mail order seeds or seedlings and had to cultivate their own from the plants they grew the season before. Many gardeners offered their expertise in growing bountiful vegetable gardens by publishing gardening guides that covered a comprehensive array of plants:

The Book of Rarer Vegetables by George Wythes
The Book of Vegetables and Garden Herbs; A Practical Handbook and Planting Table for the Vegetable Gardener by George Wythes
The English Vegetable Garden, Written by Experts by Country Life Limited
The Book of Vegetables and Garden Herbs; A Practical Handbook and Planting Table for the Vegetable Gardener by Allen French

Of course, once the gardner harvested his vegetables, he had the issue of what to do with them. Never fear, Mrs. Harriet Anne De Salis happily came to the rescue with her many practical handbooks, including Dressed Vegetables à la Mode. Not to be left out, Sara T. Paul shared her tasty expertise in Cookery from Experience: A Practical Guide for Housekeepers in the Preparation of Every Day Meals, Containing More than One Thousand Domestic Recipes, Mostly Tested by Personal Experience, with Suggestions for Meals, Lists of Meats and Vegetables in Season, Etc. Housewives and hired cooks could avail themselves of the full variety of methods for cooking vegetables from the following books: Vegetables by S. Beaty-Pownall, How to Cook Vegetables by Sarah Tyson Heston Rorer, and Vegetables and Vegetable Cooking by Emma Pike Ewing.

Experts advocate adjusting one’s diet to seasonal offerings, if only because doing so takes advantage of the best times to eat those particular fruits and vegetables. Eating in season and availing oneself of locally grown and foraged foods helps local economies and boosts the nutritional value of fresh fruit. It has not lost nutrients from sitting on boxes and shelves during days or even weeks of transportation. Eating locally grown and harvested foods in season also cuts down on fossil fuels and reduces one’s overall carbon footprint.

By Karen M. Smith