Observations on Vegetables

“The quality of vegetables depends much both on the soil in which they are grown, and on the degree of care bestowed upon their culture; but if produced in ever so great perfection, their excellence will be entirely destroyed if they be badly cooked. With the exception of artichokes, which are said to be improved  by two or three days keeping, all the summer varieties should be dressed before their freshness has in any degree passed off (for their flavour is never so fine as within hours of their being cut or gathered); but when this cannot be done, precaution should be taken to prevent their withering. The stalk-ends of asparagus, cucumbers, and vegetable-marrow, should be placed in from one to two inches of cold water, and all other  kinds should be spread on a cold brick floor. When this has been neglected, they must be thrown into cold water, for some time before they boiled, to recover them, though they will prove even then but very inferior eating.”

Eliza Acton, The Elegant Economist, page 61