Vegetable - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Etymology

The term vegetable is attested in French since 1531 according to the historical Robert and comes from the Latin legumen , plant with pod. Female at its origin, it initially indicated seeds of leguminous plants and Céréale S in the past the base of the vegetable food.

Relation between vegetables and fruits

The vegetables and the fruits can both come to us from the crop plants or wild, the garden or the trees. Certain plant species include fruits and vegetables and one distinguishes them by softness from their savor, believed or cooked, and can thus prepare in a sweetened or salted way, and indifferently consume in entered, with the principal dish or the Dessert, according to the customs and regional habits.

Categories of vegetables

According to the part of the plant which is consumed, one distinguishes several categories of vegetables:

the vegetable-sheets, of which the salads constitute a particular category: Celery, cabbage, spinach, Fennel, Sorrel, white beet, Rhubarb, etc

the salad S, which are consumed only accompanied by a seasoning because of their natural insipidity: Endive, Lettuce, Corn salad, Roman, Endive, etc

the Vegetable-stems: Leek, Asparagus, Kohl-rabi, bamboo shoots, etc
the Vegetable-flowers which one consumes the Inflorescence S: Artichoke, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Caper S, etc
the vegetable-roots: Beet, Carrot and Parsnip, Turnip, Radish, Salsify, tuberous Chervil, etc
the Bulb S (often used like Condiment S): garlic, shallot, Onion.
the Tuber S: Crosne of Japan, Yam, Sweet potato, Potato, Jerusalem artichoke, etc
the dry vegetables, which one consumes the Graine S, primarily represented by leguminous , they are consumed fresh or dry, but can be preserved at the dry state: Broad bean, bean, lens, Garden pea, Chick-pea, Soya.
the vegetable-fruits, consumed as vegetables, but constituting the Fruit, with the botanical direction, of the plant: Eggplant, lawyer, Cucumber, Gherkin, Marrow, melon, Olive, Water melon, Sweet pepper, Pepper, Tomato, etc
“sweet herbs”, used like Condiment S: Chervil, Parsley, Tarragon, chive, bay-tree, etc

Production of vegetables

The family production of vegetables in the vegetable gardens is traditionally important in the rural regions but lost much importance with progress of the urbanization.

The professional or commercial production is generally the fact of specialized producers, the market-gardening , however certain vegetables give place to an important production of full field within the framework of traditional agriculture. It is the case for example of the Potato or the pea.

A long time, the truck farming developed in the vicinity immediate of the cities and their markets, exploiting the wet funds of valley near the agglomerations. One can quote the example of the Hortillonnages of Amiens. The development of the urbanization and the reduction in the costs of transport very often caused the migration of this activity in areas, even of the countries, more adapted to the various cultures and more specialized.

The produced vegetables enter is in the distribution system for the consumption in expenses, which passes by various stages and leads to the retail business, the stalls of the markets or in the super ones and hypermarkets of large distribution, that is to say in circuits of industrial transformation, Conserve S, Surgelé S, etc

In France, the gone of national interest of Rungis, located in the south of the Parisian suburbs, plays a very important part in the distribution of vegetables as well as other food products (fruits, meats, fish, seafood).

The vegetables are available in the trade in various forms, which tend to facilitate their employment and their availability throughout the year:

raw fresh vegetables (1st range);
vegetables out of preserve, appertized in metal boxes or bottles (2nd range);
frozen vegetables (3rd range);
fresh vegetables vintages ready with employment, packed - peeled, grated, etc (4th range);
vegetables cooked with the vapor, sterilized or pasteurized (5th range).

Starting from the 2nd range, the vegetables are marketed with a DLC (Deadline of consumption) or a DLUO (deadline of optimal use) obligatorily registered on the Emballage.

Fresh vegetables and seasons in France

One finds, in the networks of large distribution, of fresh vegetables apart from their traditional periods of harvest. Those generally come from export or heated greenhouses. Here the local seasons of harvest of principal vegetables or such quon finds them on the markets:

Vegetables the most cultivated in the world

Although being a fruit with the botanical direction, the tomato is entered like a vegetable by FAO

Modes of consumption

The vegetables can be consumed believed or cooked. They are generally used as accompaniment of the principal dish and can be prepared and cooked with the meat or separately. They can be also consumed in entry, for examples the dishes of Crudité S, or in the form of Soupe S and soups. The salads generally constitute a separate dish.

The consumption of vegetables was a long time local, the peasants consuming the products adapted to the local climatic conditions. With the development of the means of transport, the exchanges of vegetables strongly developed, at distances increasingly larger. Thus the French consumer can see himself offering, except season, of French beans produced in Kenya and transported by plane. The migrations also contribute to popularize more or less exotic vegetables.

They play a very important part, associated with the cérales and the fruits, in the modes vegetarians.

Nutritive value

The vegetables constitute an important food supply. They bring in variable proportions according to the species, the part of the plant concerned and the modes of preparation or conservation:

of the energy, it is especially the case of the Féculent S (potatoes, yam, beans, pea…) but the majority of vegetables are on the contrary far from heating. The fresh vegetables contain in general from 10 to 25 kcal to 100 G and can of this at will consumed fact being. They indeed practically do not contain lipids and very few proteins and glucids;
much of Eau (from 90 to 95% in fresh vegetables), which does of them one of the independent sources of water of the food intake;
of the Vitamin S, generally the Vitamin C and the Carotene, precursor of the Vitamine has, but also at some of the Vitamine B9 and the Vitamine K;
of the Rock salt, mainly of the Calcium, the Potassium and the Magnesium;
of the food fibers, mainly of insoluble fibers (cellulose and hemicellulose);
of the Protein S for the leguminous plants, which contain approximately 25% of them (nearly 40% for soya);
of other microphone-nutrients like the Flavonoïde S with the capacities antioxydant;

In the Western countries, where the food is in general too rich, the dieticians recommend to increase the share of vegetables in the food. This share had appreciably decreased in second half of the XXe century, while that of animal proteins strongly increased.

The such food of the animal kingdom, the vegetables can contain residues of Pesticide S and Herbicide S, particularly salads, beans, and in general all the plants directly exposed to the air treatments plant health and not cultivated in biological control (AB)

In addition, especially at those not having the habit to eat them, the vegetables can have certain less desirable aspects the such digestive difficulties due to:

Fiber S
sulfur Compounds, in particular the Liliaceous ones (garlics, onions, shallots, leeks…) and Brassicacées (cabbages, cauliflowers, radish…)
Nitrate S, particularly certain green vegetables (salads, spinaches, white beets…), carrots and beets. Seldom and only in the children of less than six months; and only when they are transformed into nitrites under certain particular conditions.

History

The diversity of the vegetables available to our time is impressive, even if consumption concentrates mainly on some species, in the order: potatoes, manioc, sweet potatoes, tomatos, cabbages, onions…

If one refers in Europe, certain vegetables are known and consumed since Antiquity. They are the broad beans, lenses and pea, the turnips, the headed cabbages, the onions, the carrots (and the well forgotten parsnip).

Other vegetables were introduced in the past, starting from Xe century, of the East: artichokes, spinaches, eggplants…

An important wave of introduction followed the discovery of America (1492): tomato, beans, sweet peppers and peppers, marrows…

Thereafter, a restricted number of new vegetables appeared, either following introduction, for example the crosne, plant originating in the Far East, or because they “were invented” like the Endive discovered by a Belgian gardener in the middle of the XIXE century.

Origin

The principal cultivated vegetables are distributed thus (according to J.R. Harlan) according to the large surfaces of origin:

the Middle East

garlic, beet, carrot, cabbage, lettuce, lens, turnip, onion, parsley, leek, pea, pea-scanty, radish,

Africa

yam, Gombo, gourd, Niébé,

septentrional China

Chinese cabbage, cucumber, waxy Marrow, Crosne of Japan, ginger, Bean azuki, turnip, Chinese radish, soya,

Southeast Asia

eggplant, yam, Taro,

Central America (Mexico)

common bean, Bean of Lima, manioc, sweet potato,

South America (the Andes)

marrow, common bean, bean of Lima, pepper, sweet pepper, potato, Quinoa, tomato, Jerusalem artichoke

Forgotten vegetables

The diversity of the species and varieties of consumed vegetables was strongly reduced during the XXe century with the development of novel modes of production and especially of novel modes of distribution which resulted in retaining only one restricted number of standardized forms of great diffusion. The action of some impassioned made it possible to give to the last style of secondary vegetables, known under “the forgotten” vegetable names, such as the Crosne of Japan, the Panais, the tuberous Cerfeuil. Others profited from effects of mode, thus certain species of Cucurbitacée S, the Pâtisson, the Potimarron, on the other side of the Atlantic know a certain passion in Europe since the development of the festival of Halloween imported in the years 1990.

Vegetables profiting from a label of origin

In Germany

Gherkin Spreewälder Gurken (IGP)
Horseradish Spreewälder Meerrettich (IGP)

In Denmark

Carrot Lammefjordsgulerod (IGP)

In Spain

Asparagus of Huétor-Tájar (IGP)
Asparagus of Navarre (IGP)
Eggplant of Almagro (IGP)
Broad bean asturienne (IGP)
French bean of El Barco de Avila (IGP)
Lens of Armuña (IGP)
Pepper of Rioja (IGP)
Pepper del Piquillo de Lodosa (AOP)
Shoveler duck of Valence (AOP)

In Finland

Potato Rabbit Puikula (AOP)

In France

pink Garlic of Lautrec (IGP)
Asparagus of Sands of the Moors
Coconut of Paimpol (AOC) (bean)
Fraise of Carpentras
Haricot tarbais (IGP)
Lentilles of Berry (IGP)
green Lentille of Puy (AOC)
Lingot of North (IGP) (bean)
Nantes Mâche (IGP)
Melon of Cavaillon
Melon of Haut-Poitou (IGP)
Melon of Quercy (IGP)
soft Oignon of the Cevennes (AOC)
Piment of Espelette (AOP)
Leeks of Credits (IGP)
Potato of Ile de Ré (AOC)
Potatoes bintje of Merville (IGP)

In Italy

Artichoke of Paestum (IGP)
Romanesco Artichoke of Latium (IGP)
white Asparagus of Cimadolmo (IGP)
green Asparagus of Altedo (IGP)
Chicorey Radicchio rosso of Trévise (IGP)
Chicorey Radiccio variegato of Castelfranco (IGP)
Shallot of Romagna (IGP)
German wheat of Garfagnana (IGP)
Bean of Lamon della Vallata Bellunese (IGP)
Bean of Sarconi (IGP)
Bean of Sorana (IGP)
Lens of Castelluccio di Norcia (IGP)
Tomato of Pachino (IGP)
Tomato San Marzano dell' Agro Sarnese-Nocerino (AOP)
Pepper of Senise (IGP)

In the United Kingdom

Jersey Potato Royal (AOP)

In Switzerland

Genevese thorny Cardoon (AOC)
Safran de Mund (AOC)

The vegetable in the current language

a “bigwig”, it is, familiarly, an important character.
a “vegetable” is said of a patient plunged in a vegetative state.

Vegetables enter generally pejorative expressions:

a “turnip” indicates a bad film;

See too

Leguminous List of vegetables
S
Vegetable of season
Consumption of vegetables in ancient Greece

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