To vegetable: Seasons that require us

Abstract

Domestication of cereals tracks with the natural life cycle of plants in the Poaceae family, but vegetables represent a different modality and often possess a truncated life cycle. The evolution of vegetable biodiversity required curatorial work each growing season that differed in important ways from curation of grains or perennial crops. Separate curation of short-lived vegetable plants may have provided expanded labor niches and nutritional diversity in newly settled agricultural communities. The word vegetable is a noun, but is also a verb. To vegetable is a specialized activity in agriculture that involves the modification of plants for the harvest of immature organs for food and the saving of propagules for curation and maintenance. Vegetabling has resulted in plants with truncated harvest schedules and high perishability whose longevity is prolonged by an extensive cold chain network and postharvest manipulation, requiring additional human effort and technology.