15 Forgotten Vegetables Medieval Farmers Grew That NEED to Come Back

YouTube ^ | March 25, 2025 | Medieval Times Discovered

[SunkenCiv]

Did you know medieval farmers cultivated a variety of unique and nutritious vegetables that have almost disappeared from modern diets? From skirret to good King Henry, these forgotten crops were once essential for survival and they deserve a comeback!

In this video, we explore 15 incredible medieval vegetables, their health benefits, and why they should return to our gardens and plates today. Whether you're a history buff, gardener, or food lover, you won’t want to miss these lost gems of the past! 

15 Forgotten Vegetables Medieval Farmers Grew That NEED to Come Back | 22:55 
Medieval Times Discovered | 22.3K subscribers | 276,780 views | March 25, 2025

[Jamestown1630]

I’ve made this Ina Garten one before and it turned out very well; maybe best in the fall:

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/roasted-winter-vegetables-recipe-1914932

[metmom]

Yup, and turnips are RIDCULOUSLY easy to grow. Just throw some seeds in the ground and ignore them.

You’ll have more turnips than you can use.

I use them in beef barley soup as they don’t mush up like potatoes, and are lower car.

They are good mashed with butter and salt.

I want to try them as oven roasted some time, like I do for potatoes and carrots.

[SunkenCiv]

Yeah, but just to be on the safe side, didn’t misspell some of them the same way twice. :^)

Oooooh, online source of Roman Chamomile (the real chamomile, oddly, perennial, but just barely winter hardy around here):

https://sowrightseeds.com/collections/chamomile-seeds

[metmom]

Thanks for the list.

Never heard of most of them.

I’m going to try Jerusalem Artichokes this year. They’re native to the US so them being prolific and slightly invasive is not a problem. The deer would probably eat them anyways.

[metmom]

I tried the greens once.

NASTY!!!!!!!

[GaryCrow]

do they even sell turnips and parsnips and rutabagas anymore???

I live in Mississippi, turnips are everywhere here. They stink to high heaven when cooking so I tend to avoid them.

[Chode]

i was forcefed all of them as a kid, and swore i’d never eat them again when i moved out, and i haven’t

some people love them, i’m just not one

[metmom]

How many of these, if planted here, would be considered invasive?

Probably most. If they're not native, they are.

[Savage Beast]

No no no no no no no no no... It's one of my favorites.

My wife's got a smashing recipe for eggplant parmesan.

[Savage Beast]

A sweetheart once prepared rutabagas for me. It was her father’s recipe. Very good. (The sweetheart and the rutabagas.)

[Savage Beast]

I bought some quince recently. I didn’t like them. Maybe I didn’t know what to do with them.

[Chode]

lol...

[Chode]

interesting, sounds good

[gnarledmaw]

I have some experience with most of these.

Ive eaten medlars and had intended to plant some when I bought my farm but sadly it seems to be one of those things that I didnt get around to and doesnt make much sense any more.

I dont ever get much chickweed, that tends to go right into the chickens.

The lovage was doing really well. Very strong celery, mine didnt have any parsley flavor really. Mine were several years old when the farmer that rents some of my property came about 15 feet out of the normal field and ran through my medicinal and my cooking herb garden. The lovage along with most of it from that garden never came back, the wormwood has been escaping me and popping up everywhere ever since.

I was really disappointed by salsify. It was good enough for a vegetable especially if you are starving I suppose but I was really sold on this idea of an oyster flavored vegetable. Its not there, its not even vaguely there. Ive heard people claim that it has to do more with preparation and a particular stew. Pursued that but that turned out to be nonsense too. It just doesnt have enough of any distinct flavor for anyone to really like it.

Scorzonera and a couple of others fall into this category. They tasted well enough but didnt have enough flavor to make people champion its arrival on the table. Between that and people becoming too complacent, falling so far into normalcy bias, that the idea of a backup crop they one didnt have to worry about for when times went bad was just considered insane. Ive always been anti-lawn and very pro edible landscaping and some of these are interesting enough in appearance that they may be good for something like that if promoted the right way. Something like a jerusalem artichoke, its interesting to look at, you dont have to put effort into them, and they are waiting if you ever need them.

That doesnt explain turnips though. I dont know how many turnips the average American eats per year but Im that one weirdo doing some of the heavy lifting in those statistics. Easy to plant, grow almost anywhere and dont get lost to frost, get two different vegetables per planting, are flavorful (more than one flavor), and are easy to prepare.

Maybe the last two are part of the drawback. Baby turnips are wonderful just about any way but when eaten raw they are “like a box of chocolates”. Some are cabbagey, some are earthy, some have a mild radish bite, some are mildly sweet. Maybe not being able to rely on one flavor is a problem? Maybe the fact that farmers/distributors decided to screw over the consumer by trying to distribute and sell those giant punky softball sized ones finally got the better of people. When they get to that point they just really dont taste good. One in a giant pot of soup for cabbage flavor when you dont want leaves in it? A bit expensive for pig feed.

Maybe its because they werent all that easy to prepare for a long time due to the wax. What a giant PITA! You had to grow them yourself because they just werent worth all that extra effort if you bought them from the store. There are a couple of companies now bagging unwaxed ones but they tried to put oversized ones in. 4/lb is about the top of acceptable size for raw eating due to changes in texture and flavor but smaller is better. Those companies charge gourmet pricing though. If Im going to pay $5/lb then I might as well go get another pound of meat. There is a bulk producer that has shown up recently but they went right back to trying to sell pig feed and Im not buying that even for $.99/lb (and thats without the greens!).

[Chode]

*

[Savage Beast]

"Corn Salad = Poke Salad"

Never heard of it. But I'd never heard of fried green tomatoes until that movie came out. I'd also never heard of "bourbon and branch" or "low country boil" until I was grown.

[dennisw]

“Don’t like watermelon?!? It’s best eaten outdoors, which is convenient, because that’s where we grow them here. :^)”

I had a watermelon grow from seed i spat out. It got 12” long but too late in the season to mature. So I juiced it all and it tasted great.

[Ezekiel]

Root Vegetable
🆕
Approved in September 2024 as part of Emoji 16.0. Expected to arrive on platforms in late 2024 and throughout 2025.

🫜

https://emojipedia.org/root-vegetable

[Savage Beast]

I'm not so sure.

My wife and I had a dinner party and served eggplant Parmesan.

Everyone commented on how delicious it was, and many wondered what was in it.

When I said eggplant, many were astonished.

One man said, "I'm surprised because this is very good and I hate eggplant. It doesn't taste like eggplant."

Be sure to use good quality mozarella de bufala and parmigiano reggiano and serve with an extremely good, robust Italian red wine!

[metmom]

That doesnt explain turnips though. I dont know how many turnips the average American eats per year but Im that one weirdo doing some of the heavy lifting in those statistics. Easy to plant, grow almost anywhere and dont get lost to frost, get two different vegetables per planting, are flavorful (more than one flavor), and are easy to prepare.

They were apparently a staple for the early settlers.