One first hears of lettuce in an “herbal” or book about medicinal plants
written in Babylon in 800 BC. A plant happiest in cool temperatures, lettuce
probably did not come from the desert regions of Babylon. Experts
have guessed at lettuce’s origins in places as diverse as Siberia, the
Mediterranean or the Middle East but no one knows for sure.
We do know that the Persians and the Egyptians of about 500 BC enjoyed
lettuce and that lettuce seeds have turned up in Egyptian tombs. The lettuce
these ancient people grew was nothing like what we eat today. What they
ate were the leaves of the plant’s tall seed stalks. If you’ve ever
planted lettuce at home and seen it “bolt” or send up seed stalks once
hot weather arrives, you’ve seen ancient Egyptian lettuce.
Even the Greeks ate lettuce of this type, calling it “asparagus,” a word they used for many stalk-like vegetables. The Romans tamed the stalks into recognizable heads, but probably not until at least 300 AD. Many Romans ate lettuce with dressing, sometimes to lead off the meal, sometimes to close. Diocletian, Roman Emperor from 284-305 AD, best known for his vicious persecution of the fledgling Christians, had one redeeming quality—he was a gardener, and a lettuce lover. When he quit his job as Emperor to return to his plants , his successor, fearing for his life, begged him to return to office. Responded Diocletian, “If you saw what beautiful lettuces I am raising, you would not urge me to take up that burden again.”
The Chinese grew lettuce beginning in the 400’s but we don’t know much about its travels elsewhere in Asia. Wild lettuce seemed to thrive in much of Europe after the Romans, with some people cultivating the plant and others simply picking the wild leaves. Italian clerics brought a certain type of lettuce from Rome to France in the 1300’s. It was the long tall variety we call Romaine. It was a lettuce of Rome, hence Romaine, but it had another name as well. The Romans themselves called it “cos” lettuce because they obtained it originally from the sunny Greek island of the same name.
During the Middle Ages people grew lettuce for themselves in small home gardens. The English finally began cultivating lettuce in the 1400’s but the vegetable didn’t become a market crop until late in the 1500’s.
Salads became exotic affairs once Europe’s royalty became lettuce-mad. In the 1600’s Louis XIV of France munched his lettuce seasoned with basil and tarragon. The English aristocrats of the following century loaded up lettuce with fish preserved in oil, and topped with mustard.
No one is clear as to when lettuce came to North America. It could have been with Christopher Columbus in 1492, or in the late 1500’s with colonists from Spain. The English, Dutch and other immigrants to North America certainly had lettuce in the early 1600’s.
Presumably lettuce seeds were easily carried west by any number of people—seeds for hundreds of lettuces can fit into a small paper packet—and people grew differing varieties for years in their own gardens.
Lettuce is grown everywhere in North America today with the largest scale California commercial operations taking off in the 1930’s. California produces two thirds of the total lettuce produced in the U. S.
Raphael
Tuck 1907 postcard which leaves space for “Lettuce…
be married, dear.” Too bad the lettuce looks like a Savoy cabbage
Dog
On Good ca. 1930 - Collection of Tom Fay Original
“Land
of the Big Lettuce” Exaggerated postcard from Yuma, Arizona
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