What is the history of asparagus?

Answer 1

By around 20,000 BC, asparagus was being eaten near Aswan in Egypt. It has been used as a vegetable and medicine, owing to its delicate flavour, diuretic properties, and more. It is pictured as an offering on an Egyptian frieze dating to 3000 BC. Still in ancient times, it was known in Syria and in Spain. Greeks and Romans ate it fresh when in season and dried the vegetable for use in winter; Romans would even freeze it high in the Alps, for the Feast of Epicurius. Emperor Augustus reserved the Asparagus Fleet for hauling the vegetable. There is a recipe for cooking asparagus in the oldest surviving book of recipes by Apicius in the third century AD. Ancient Greek physician Galen mentioned asparagus as a beneficial herb during the 2nd Century AD/CE, but lost popularity after the Roman Empire ended. By 1469 asparagus was cultivated in French monasteries. Asparagus was introduced in England until 1538, and in Germany until 1542. France's Louis XIV had special greenhouses built for growing it. The finest texture and the strongest and yet delicate taste is in the tips, which were known as points d'amour or "love tips" for their supposed power as an aphrodisiac. Asparagus became available to the New World around 1850, in the United States.