melting pot

the community of plants in the community garden has quite a mixture of origins...the sweet cron and potatoes in the top photo are from the new world...the potato from the andean region of south america and maize from central mexico, as is the hopi blue in the second photo...the beets that are with the hopi blue were first domesticated in the middle east and eastern mediterranean...the flowering cucumber in the third photo was originally domesticated on the indian sub-continent while the flowering zucchini in the fourth photo was originally from the new world ( like all squash ) it was developed into its present form in italy...the tomatoes in the garden are another new world crop that made its way to the old as opposed to the egg plant which found its way here from southeast asia...the collards are the odd fish of the lot...termed a "dinosaur vegetable" because its origins are unknown ad it seems to have been in both the old and new world...both native americans and romans knew the collard and it has a long culinary history on both continents...the red nordlands in the bottom photo are in their home hemisphere and are even more obviously signaling the end of their season this morning