Gardening and Food

The human kitchen draws its resources from three fields of endeavour: farming and agriculture, gardening, and hunting and foraging in the wild world. We understand our diet better if developments in each of these are fully appreciated. Not least that of gardening to which we owe not only the bulk, but also the variety of produce that we store in our larders. Productive gardens (as opposed to ornamental ones) are differentiated from agricultural land by cultivation methods and crops. Gardens are weeded, dug, hoed, and harvested by hand whereas fields are cultivated by machines or animal-drawn implements. Garden vegetables, salads, soft- and tree-fruit are largely confined to orchards and gardens.