The vegetables we eat today are made up of a surprisingly small number, just ask some one to name five and you will be sure to hear the same ones repeated again and again. Why is this?
Today in Britain farmers produce over one million tons of carrots, nearly fifty thousand tons of leeks, they do also grow over one hundred thousand tons of brassicas but the vast majority of these are made up of cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts, however things used to be very different.
The vegetables grown and eaten it Britain use to be made up of a very different array of more diverse and interesting selection, some so abundant that their very name used to be a slang word for dinner.
Traditional British foods were made up of things that could be easily grown in the temperate island climate such as curly kale. Curly kale has been grown in the UK for well over two thousand years, a staple in Scotland for most of this time it is a main feature of the famous Scotch broth. It is as packed with vitamins as spinach and a tasty as a savoy cabbage but sadly went out of fashion when more trendy massed produced veg was introduced.
Another traditional British food classic is the beetroot, sadly its reputation has been tarnished by the use of malt vinegar. The poor vegetable has been peeled and doused in the stuff for many years now. The pickling process kills off the fantastic natural flavours and leaves us with something that can only be used as a salad item.
Celeriac is another long forgotten traditional British food, still sold in supermarkets during its short season most people could barley recognise this flavoursome noble classic. The celeriac has a myriad of uses; whether pealed and put in a salad or a healthy alternative to mashed potato to sit on top of a shepherds pie.
Alongside these other traditional British foods the celeriac deserves a place back in all of our veg patches and our dinner plates.
