What vegetables were there in ancient times that are not often eaten now? The vegetable varieties in ancient times may not be as diverse as those in the vegetable market today, but many vegetables that people ate at that time are really rare now. But it may be because they don't taste very good, so they are constantly replaced by new and more delicious vegetable varieties.

In the history of China, the lives of many peasant families were often below the subsistence level, which meant that the so-called self-sufficiency in grain production could not be realized in many cases. In this case, many cultivated plants that are not specially used as vegetables will also be eaten as vegetables.

Alfalfa, for example, was first widely cultivated as horse feed. However, many people are forced by life and gradually pick alfalfa seedlings to eat.

in the Tang dynasty, alfalfa was once popular in Guanzhong area. At that time, a court official named Xue Lingzhi wrote a poem on the wall while chatting with friends. The poem said: "The Asahi is in the group, so I can see Mr. Pan. What's in the plate? Alfalfa is dry. It's hard to swallow a spoon when rice is astringent, but it's easy to widen a soup when it's thin. You can only find the morning and evening, why not spend the cold! " As a court official, I live in poverty, and what I usually eat is nothing but coarse dishes like alfalfa soup. However, many people like alfalfa and think it is a good vegetable, because it can be eaten as a soup and dried into dried vegetables.

It is the real life situation of most poor farmers in ancient China to pick young leaves of plants to eat when food is tight. Besides alfalfa leaves, young leaves of trees are often eaten. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, many elms were planted in Hebei, and

the poor local people often used their tender leaves as soup. Similar situations are often recorded in Qi Min Yao Shu, pointing out that people not only picked young leaves of elm trees to eat at that time, but also picked elm pods to make "elm sauce".

There are many similar special vegetables, which reflect the poverty of the people in ancient times. Now that people's living standards have improved, these foods will naturally not be common on the table.