Buckwheat and cucumbers are so familiar and familiar to many millions of Russians that they seem to be primordially Russian products. Indeed, it is difficult even to imagine that once it was possible to do without buckwheat porridge, so tasty, satisfying and healthy. Or without cucumbers, which are very good both fresh and salted. Nevertheless, these products are "aliens". They came to Russia from abroad.
Where did cucumbers come from?
The homeland of this popular vegetable is the northern regions of India. In the wild, the cucumber still grows in the forests at the foot of the Himalayan ridge. From India, this plant got to other countries, including Russia.
However, the Bible mentions that cucumbers were grown in Egypt.
Cucumbers began to be cultivated in Ancient Greece, and after its conquest by Rome, these vegetables became very popular among the ancient Romans. After the invasion of the barbarians, cucumbers gradually spread throughout Europe.
However, despite the fact that Ancient Russia had close trade contacts with Europe, cucumbers came to their ancestors not from the West, but from the East. They were brought by the Mongol-Tatars, who made a number of aggressive campaigns against the Russian principalities in the first half of the 13th century. At first, people were suspicious of unfamiliar vegetables, but gradually cucumbers became popular.
They were consumed fresh, and also harvested for the winter: salted, poured with vinegar. They were served on the festive table, cut and mixed with honey. And after a while, pickled cucumbers began to be used in the preparation of delicious first courses: kalya, pickle, hodgepodge. This is how gradually this newcomer vegetable began to be considered primordially Russian.
The first written mention of cucumbers in Russia was made by the diplomat Sigismund von Herbershein in his book "Notes on Muscovite Affairs".
The book was published in Latin in 1549.
How buckwheat got to Russia
There are many legends and stories about buckwheat. Someone considers it to be Russian bread, but it did not appear in Russia. The native land of the buckwheat plant is also North India. In the wild, buckwheat still grows in abundance on the western slopes of the Himalayan foothills. This plant was cultivated about 5 thousand years ago. Local residents called her groats "black rice".
Around the 15th century BC, buckwheat began to be grown in China, from where it came to Korea and Japan. A little later, buckwheat spread throughout Central Asia, the Middle East, and then came to southern Europe. And in the 7th century it was brought to the territory of Ancient Rus by Greek merchants from Byzantium. Therefore, the Slavs began to call the unfamiliar cereal buckwheat. However, there is another version of the name, according to which this plant was grown by Greek monks who brought Christianity to the land of Russia. In Ukraine, buckwheat is called a Tatar.
