Do you know? Cucumbers were introduced to China via the Silk Road
Cucumbers originated in northeast India and were introduced to China via the Silk Road
In 1494, Columbus, a Spaniard, experimented with growing cucumbers in Haiti.
The journey of cucumbers to the Americas began: in 1535 Canada had a record of cucumber cultivation; In 1584, cucumbers became a daily vegetable variety in Virginia, USA; In 1609, farmers in Massachusetts, USA, began to grow cucumbers...
As a vegetable, cucumbers have been aggrieved many times in history.
Cucumbers originally originated in the tropical rainforest region of the southern foothills of the Himalayas, which are warm and humid and suitable for wild cucumbers. British scientist Canapei believes in "The Origin of Cultivated Crops" that according to the names of cucumbers around the world and the cultivation records of ancient regions, cucumbers originate in northeast India. This discovery was confirmed: British botanist Cook discovered wild cucumber types from Bhutan to Sikkim; Japanese scientists again discovered wild cucumbers in the Himalayas at an altitude of 1300 to 1700 meters in 1952.
Cucumber in ancient Japanese paintings
Cucumbers arrived in the Middle East early, and cucumbers were cultivated in Egypt in 1750 BC, and cucumbers were spread as a vegetable. It is recorded in the Bible that when the Israelites were in Egypt, they had cucumbers, watermelons, leeks, onions, and garlic to eat.
But cucumbers first appeared in Europe as antipyretics, and were the exclusive favorite of the princes and nobles. Nero, the fifth emperor of ancient Rome, accepted the advice of the imperial doctor and ate cucumbers to reduce fever when he was sick. To this end, he also specially designed the technique of growing cucumbers.
Health-conscious English began cultivating cucumbers in 1327. In 1531, the famous British scholar Elliott said in "The Fortress of Health" that eating cucumbers can produce a kind of "cold and viscous bodily fluids that can reduce people's sexual desires", and for hundreds of years, there has been an idiom in England that "cool like a cucumber", meaning "calm and composed".
It wasn't just the British who initially misunderstood cucumbers. In Japan, cucumbers were once banned, and there were records of cucumber cultivation in Japan in the 10th century, but Japanese special books believe that "cucumbers are cold and harmful" and "cucumbers are melons", which once became the mainstream voice of Japanese society. In 1842, during the shogunate era, the Tokugawa shogunate also banned cucumber cultivation.
The ancients used cucumbers as a medicine, not without reason. Modern science has confirmed that cucumbers are sweet and cool, have the effect of clearing heat diuresis and detoxification, and have obvious effects on dehumidification and analgesia.
Cucumbers, like carrots and peppers, were introduced to China through the Silk Road, so they are also known as "courgettes".
