VEGETARIAN AMERICA

I haven't read it yet, but this Boston Herald story makes "Vegetarian America" sound like an interesting and illuminating history. Some of the tidbits: "[D]id you know that among the earliest colonists to settle this area were a number of vegetarians? It seems hard to imagine that in an unforgiving climate, and with foodstuffs of all sorts scarce, that these first non-native New Englanders would have rejected a meal of any variety. But even at the very first Thanksgiving, there might have been diners who passed up the turkey for the pumpkin." (Well, yeah, assuming there was turkey, which is far from certain.) And this: "Boston Common was the site of what was likely the country's very first natural-food store, run by the American Physiological Society. This 1830s version of Whole Foods provided local residents with grains, corn, beans, tapioca and dyspepsia bread, as well as produce grown without manure or fertilizer" - what the - !! Veganic gardening in 1830!? Am I the only one who didn't know about this?