Lettuce was first domesticated and grown as a food crop in ancient Egypt? Paintings and carvings inside ancient Egyptian tombs depict lettuce plants associated with Min, the god of vegetation and procreation. In ancient times the leaf was eaten as today, but lettuce seeds also were used. Lettuce seeds were pressed to extract oil, or crushed and prepared as bread. [10: 8]

Lettuce sometimes is called Green Gold in California? Lettuce is the most important vegetable grown in California, and about 70% of lettuce grown in America is produced in the "golden" state. [10: 11]


Pot likker is juice left in the pot after vegetables are cooked? American folklore assigns a magical, nutritive value to pot likker. Both cooked and fresh turnip greens are associated with Southern-style home cooking. What Southerners call a bowl of wild greens commonly contains leaves of cowslip, cress, dandelion, pigweed, and turnip greens. [10: 9]

The word dandelion comes from the French, dent de lion, meaning lion's tooth? Dandelion leaves often are used in salads or cooked as greens. Sometimes dandelion flowers are fermented and made into wine, while dandelion roots have found use as a coffee substitute. [10: 10]

Caesar Salad, made using romaine lettuce, garlic, olive oil, croutons, Parmesan cheese, Worcestershire sauce, egg yolks, lemon, and anchovies, was first created by Caesar Cardini in the 1920's in Mexico? Tradition holds that the Caesar Salad was introduced to Americans dining in San Diego, California. [10: 12]


During Fall, 1998, the Space Shuttle, Columbia, carried five potato sprouts? According to Astronaut reports, four of the sprouts produced marble-sized potatoes, the first food ever grown in space. Their cell structure and nutrient composition were identical to potatoes grown on earth. [10: 14]

Lettuce can be used to make skin lotion, soap, and toilet water? Lettuce also has been smoked as a tobacco substitute? [10: 13]

Parsley originated in the Mediterranean and was popular as a green vegetable among the ancient Greeks and Romans? Some scholars suggest that parsley was introduced to England from the island of Sardinia in 1548, and that parsley reached America by 1806. [10: 15]