Vegetables With a Past
EAT YOUR VEGETABLES: Joannah Hill posts on vegetable gardening each Tuesday.
It caught my eye because it was such a pretty little plant, with its varigated white and lime green leaves. I stopped and picked it up because of its name: Baltimore Fish Pepper. I was sure that, like all heirlooms, the fish pepper had a story to tell.
The fish pepper dates to the mid-1800s and was popular in the African-American community. It was grown primarily in the Baltimore region and used in place of cayenne in cream sauces for fish. The plant I had in my garden last year was an abundant producer and the peppers were tasty, but rather mild when I used them in stir-fry.
Heirloom plants went high profile when several old vegetable varieties were included in the White House vegetable garden. The White House got its seeds from the Monticello Foundation, a great resource for heritage plants. It's fun to think the Obamas will be dining on Prickley Seed Spinach and Marseille figs, as Thomas Jefferson did.
Heirloom or heritage plants, however, are not all about nostalgia; they have a distinct pedigree. Heirlooms are not hybridized. They are open-pollinated and breed true to type year after year. Plants grown before the industrialization of agriculture are generally considered to be heirlooms. Many heirlooms are tough customers, but some can be fussy and prone to disease. All contribute to biodiversity in our gardens.
Another heirloom with roots in Maryland is the Anne Arundel melon, grown in Anne Arundel County in the very early 18th century. The lobed-exterior of the melon makes it look like a cross between a muskmelon and a canteloupe -- the flesh is green with a tinge of orange in the center. The melon nearly became extinct, but was rediscovered in the 1990s by noted seedsman and heirloom expert William Woys Weaver.
The Anne Arundel melon also had an illustrious career as an artists' model in the late 18th to early 19th century. The melon was featured in numerous paintings by Philadelphia's noted Peale family of artists. Raphaelle Peale, who specialized in still-lifes, did a number of paintings of the Anne Arundel. It makes you think, if that melon could talk, the stories it could tell...
Comments
I'd love to try that fish pepper!
Here's a rose with a local connection - "Baltimore Belle" introduced in 1843 by the Baltimore nurseryman Samuel Feast. It's not known for whom who this rose was named. I read on Helpmefind.com/roses that he died in Cockeysville in 1868. I hope to add this pinkish-white climber to my garden soon.
I got my fish pepper plant at the Baltimore Herb Festival — for $1! Thanks for the great info on the Baltimore Belle. I may have to seek that one out. — Joannah
Posted by: Maureen | April 28, 2009 9:06 AM
Re: Baltimore Belle: For twenty years, this impossibly demure rose has been the only once-bloomer allowed in among three dozen other mostly antique varieties. Don't believe the 10-15 feet stat - she will blow right past that, even in shade. She blooms in huge clusters of tiny, way too-fleeting roses, so take time to enjoy the buds as they swell and fade in colour, opening to the most etheral, pale shell pink. The only real annoyance is the endless pruning and tidying-up after the enormous (an understatement) flush. As a Baltimore City native and lifelong resident, I've proudly grown Baltimore Belle for its provenance, but also because its once-a-year show, occuring just after the Bourbons and everything else have ringed my garden with a thousand or more blooms, reminds me of the gift of second chances.
Posted by: Donna Beth Joy Shapiro | April 29, 2009 7:10 AM
I rarely comment on blogs but yours I had to stop and say Great Blog!!
Posted by: propecia | June 7, 2009 8:21 PM