Thursday, December 4, 2008

Vegetables

Fresh Vegetables

Most people in the United States do not eat enough fruits and vegetables. The fast paced world we live in, our demand for convenience foods have made us “fast food” addicts. We are suffering from a “fresh” fruit and vegetable deficit that is growing larger each year. There is no such thing as a “convenience or fast food” that will make up this shortage.

Over the last few decades our growing connection with Asia has had a large influence on the food we eat today. Many of these plants originated from tropical parts of Asia, particularly China, where they have been cultivated and used for centuries. Most of these plants have strong and distinctive flavors, are fast growing, tender, and have a variety of parts of the plant that can be used.

At the end of this blog is a free site you can click on to research most of the vegetables the world has to offer. This site will give you a short history on the vegetable, its common and uncommon name(s), and the family or species name. It will also give a description of its appearance, its usage’s, nutritional values, when it should be available, and where possible, a photograph or illustration. The indigenous names mentioned in this site are the ones familiar to the ethnic groups who use them and may not be as well known in this country. There may be some commercial opportunities in growing some of the unusual vegetetables shown in this site.

I hope you enjoy the information made available at the following site. Please post your comments!


http://sites.google.com/site/worldvegetables/Home/a-guide-to-world-vegetab