We have got a bumper crop of aubergines in the garden this year because they were only thing that loved the intense heat and I’ve just finished cooking and freezing some of the surplus. They seemed very exotic when I was growing up and I don’t think I ever saw one when I was a child. Certainly my grandfather didn’t grow them on his allotment, and probably wouldn’t have known what they were, but in fact they’ve been grown in Britain since the 16thc.
Aubergines are in the same family (the Solanaceae) as potatoes, tomatoes and peppers, but also tobacco and deadly nightshade. That might help explain why, like potatoes, tomatoes and peppers, they took a long time to enter our diet and were probably first grown as ornamentals.
But do you know where they originated or how they have evolved? I thought I knew but actually, as so often, I was way off track.
These days we’re all used to the idea of gardens, exercise and sport as being good for our health and well being but I recently discovered the same thing had been recognised over 200 years ago when I found a book containing “A Collection of Sociable Garden Games and Rural Amusements involving physical exercise, particularly recommended for people whose occupations require them to sit for long periods, and entirely in accordance with Hufeland’s system of preserving health through exercise and good spirits.”
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