I've just been watching a TV cookery programme and noticed something I thought was odd. He went into his garden and picked some "wild rocket". This made me think surely its not wild, its in your garden ! So does this mean you could be going to a restaurant and eating "wild" something or other, that is actually a breed or strain of the item that originated in the wild but is now hand reared/cultivated ?

Steve

I have bought some wild garlic plants, which I have planted in my garden, I think the word "wild" refers to the strain of plant, rather than the location it is grown in. I could of course be wrong.:)

Great question!

As rocket is 'Eruca sativa' and wild rocket is 'Diplotaxis tenuifolia' they are botanically totally different. However as wild rocket is also known as "perennial wall-rocket" that would suggest it is better cultivated up a man-made wall?

Its now making me wonder how many things are mis-named .. "steak with wild mushrooms".. but they are grown in a factory etc.. !

Steve

I also have wild garlic in my garden, which was given to me by friend. It did originate from the wild.

I also have a lot of lambsquarter, http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=lambsquarter&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=5WQ&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=nKjGTfmDMMa5hAfusdSFBA&ved=0CDwQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=685, growing in me vegetable and flower beds, which originally grew by itself in the soil landscapers put in from outside in new beds. Now I save a couple of plants to seed and sprinkle their seeds around a bit. It is a wild plant, but now cultivated by me. In India, it grows wild in abundance in wheat fields and sold in all vegetable shops during the season. I have seen it growing in a cold country like Russia and even in Spitsburgen. But people do not generally know that it is food! If I remember, may be we will make a few Lambsquarter chapatties on the course next week ;-)!

I can't get the link to work, so please copy and paste it.

interesting that the word 'sativa' means cultivated!!

The word 'strain' is usually applied to bacteria! Veg, would have varieties, or if cultivated to be true from generation to generation, would be cultivars.

I beleive, as a nation, and as human beings in general, that language is deteriorating at an alarming rate. We may have made, already, a generation who cannot communicate effectively, ''''init m8, your fired''''.

True Lapis, i had the expecting a BBC news kind of english but when I landed here, i though they were speaking a different language which i strained to understand ;).

Holy moly, just noticed.....previous post should have been "I had been expecting a ..."

Getting old .....innit blad ;)