This file includes poems, quotes and page toppers about asparagus, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, celery, corn, cucumbers, onions, peas, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, sauerkraut, spinach, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, turnips, and miscellaneous vegetables.
Also see Misc Food, Main Dishes, Beverages, Cooking, Chocolate, Desserts and Snacks, Dieting, Fruits and Berries (includes rhubarb) and Health.

Miscellaneous Vegetables

Quotes and Page Toppers

• The act of putting into your mouth what the earth has grown is perhaps your most direct interaction with the earth. (Frances Moore Lappe)
• I would plant my own garden but you can't buy French Fry seeds!
• If vegetarians love animals so much, why do they keep eating all their food.
• If you sprinkle coconut oil on your kale, it makes it easier to scrape into the trash.
• Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon. (Doug Larson)
• Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet. (Albert Einstein)
• Vegetarian: A person who eats only side dishes. (Gerald Lieberman)
• A woman with a salad walked by me in a restaurant and said "You know a cow died so you could eat that hamburger". I said "if you weren't eating its food, it might have lived."
• Yummy, Yummy, Yummy
  I've got Veggies in my Tummy.

Vegetables

(Meish Goldish)

Eat your vegetables
Clean your plate
Eat your vegetables
Veggies are great
String beans, broccoli
lettuce and peas
Squash and brussel sprouts
More corn, please!
Cucumbers, eggplant
Beets and tomatoes
Celery, carrots
Spinach and potatoes
Radishes, cauliflower
Cabbage and cress
Peppers and onions
Asparagus? Yes!
Black beans, lima beans
Soybeans too
Eat your veggies
They're good for you.

Songs about Miscellaneous Vegetables

• Collard Greens and Black-Eyed Peas - Bernard Peiffer (2003)
• Eggplant that Ate Chicago - Dr. West's Medicine Show (1967)
• Greens and Beans - Johnny and the Hurricanes (1963)
• Grits Ain't Groceries - Little Milton (1969)
• Hominy Grits - Smiley Burnette (1946)

Asparagus

Quotes

• Asparagus inspires gentle thoughts. (Charles Lamb)
• Keep bees and grow asparagus, watch the tides and listen to the wind instead of the politicians make up your own stories and believe them if you want to live the good life. (Miriam Waddington)
• One word, in this place, respecting asparagus. The young shoots of this plant, boiled, are the most unexceptionable form of greens with which I am acquainted. (William Andrus Alcott)

Songs about Asparagus

• Asparagus - Mike Allen (2006)
• Asparagus and Mayonnaise - We Stain Porcelain (2005)
• I Still Don't Like Asparagus - Barry Louis Polisar (2003)
• Mushrooms and Asparagus - James K (2001)

Beets

Quotes

• The beet is the most intense of vegetables. The radish, admittedly, is more feverish, but the fire of the radish is a cold fire, the fire of discontent, not of passion. Tomatoes are lusty enough, yet there runs through tomatoes an undercurrent of frivolity. Beets are deadly serious. (Tom Robbins)
• Nobody ever says, "Can I have your beets?" (Bill Cosby)

Songs about Beets

• Beets - Roland P. Young (2005)
• Beets and Turnips - Charles Prince Orchestra (2010)
• Eat Beets - Genome (2006)
• Red Beet - DJ Tr62 (2009)
• Sugar Beet - Karyn Ellis (2004)

Broccoli

Quotes

• I do not like broccoli. And I haven't liked it since I was a little boy and my mother made me eat it. And I'm President of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli! (George Bush)
• If I could uninvent anything, I would uninvent Hitler's mum, guns and broccoli. (Dominic Monaghan)

Songs about Broccoli

• Broccoli - Jesse Calico (2002)
• Chicken and Broccoli - Tom Shillue (2007)
• Eat Your Broccoli - The La Las (2006)
• Mushrooms and Broccoli - The Unisex (2005)

Cabbage

Quotes

• Having a good wife and rich cabbage soup, seek not other things. (Russian Proverb)
• I like to get where the cabbage is cooking and catch the scents. (Red Smith)
• I want death to find me planting my cabbage. (Michel de Montaigne)
• Idealist: One who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup. (Henry Louis Mencken)

Songs about Cabbage

• Bacon and Cabbage - Mangrum and Shriver (2003)
• Boil Dem Cabbage Down - The Stanley Brothers (1956)
• Cabbage - Short Attention (2007)
• Cabbages and Peas - C.J. Masters (2005)
• Cole Slaw - Jesse Stone Band (1949)
• Cornbeef and Cabbage - Rick Whitfield (2008)
• Pickin' the Cabbage - Cab Calloway Orchestra (1940)
• Sidemeat and Cabbage - Little Jimmie Dickens (1953)

Carrots

Quotes

• Beets and turnips do well here...but not carrots. Back in Iowa, the carrots grew so big you couldn't pull them out by hand. You needed a shovel. (Roy Ellis)
• Carrots have Merits
• Eating a carrot a day is like signing a life insurance policy. (Irena Chalmers)
• I never worry about diets. The only carrots that interest me are the number you get in a diamond. (Mae West)
• Large, naked, raw carrots are acceptable as food only to those who live in hutches eagerly awaiting Easter. (Fran Lebowitz)
• Some guy invented Vitamin A out of a carrot. I'll bet he can't invent a good meal out of one. (Will Rogers)
• Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie. (Jim Davis)

Songs about Carrots

• Carrot - Alex Kash (2003)
• Carrot Cake - Eric Alexander (2001)
• Carrot Juice - Bruno Browning (2009)
• Carrot on a Stick - Richard Knechtel (2008)
• Carrot Soup - Harry Shearer (2008)
• Carrots - Eric Medley (1998)
• Peas and Carrots - Amy Loftus (2008)
• Why is a Carrot More Orange Than an Orange? - Amboy Dukes (1968)

Celery

Celery

(Ogden Nash)

Celery, raw,
Develops the jaw.
But celery stewed,
Is more quietly chewed.

Quotes

• If God had created celery, it would only have two stalks, because that's the most that almost any recipe ever calls for.

Songs about Celery

• Celery - William Ash (2004)
• Celery Stalks - Rom Morrell (2006)
• Celery Stalks at Midnight - Ray McKinley (1948)
• Celery Stick - Mury (2009)
• Parsley and Celery - Lisa and Linda (2008)

Corn

Quotes

• I know [my corn plants] intimately, and I find it a great pleasure to know them. (Barbara McClintock)
• Sex is good, but not as good as fresh, sweet corn. (Garrison Keillor)
• Shucked and boiled in water, sweet corn is edible and nutritious; roasted in the husk in the hottest possible oven for forty minutes, shucked at the table, and buttered and salted, nothing else, it is ambrosia. No chef's ingenuity and imagination have ever created a finer dish. (Rex Stout in Murder is Corny)
• Then plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep. (Benjamin Franklin)

Songs about Corn

• Corn-Fed - Shannon Brown (2006)
• Corn-Fed Arkansas Girl - Luke Wills (1948)
• Corn-fed Gal - Jerry Irby and His Texas Ranchers (1947)
• Corn Fritter - Victory Gin (2008)
• Corn on the Cob - Thomas Moore (2008)
• Hybrid Corn - Chet Atkins (1951)
• I Remember the Cornfields - Ralph Flanagan Orchestra (1951)
• Kiss, Kiss, Kissin' in the Corn - Captain Stubby (1947)
• Steak and Fries - Dub Fanatic (2008)
• Sweet Corn - Jerry Byrd (1955)
• Where Corn Don't Grow - Travis Tritt (1997)
• White Corn - Lloyd Maines (1997)

Raccoon Problems

(author unknown)

Of scare devices, the most elaborate security system I've heard of comes from Harrell Noble in southern Ohio. Raccoons were eating 95 percent of his sweet corn, and he didn't like that kind of arithmetic at all. He set a lighted lantern in the corn--probably the advice of a lantern salesman. The coons however did not know what a lantern was, and it took their counter-intelligence agents a week to determine the thing was harmless. By that time, sly Noble had picked the corn within the radius of the light's influence, which appeared to be about four rows wide and fifteen feet long, then moved the lantern up into the next maturing plot. The coons caught on to this little trick in no time, so Noble ran an extension cord out to the garden and replaced the lantern with a bulb. In the socket he put one of those coin-sized blinker units so the bulb winked all night long.

The coons winked right back after the third night of this nonsense, and kept on munching corn.

By now Harrell Noble, who is an engineer used to solving problems of great magnitude, was beginning to do a slow burn. Having consulted all the auguries of scientific and unscientific tradition, the next year he strung a line of twine around the garden about 18 inches off the ground, and painted it with creosote. Geronimo. The Nobles actually ate some corn that season, as it was late August before the coons wised up.

Noble was also getting wiser, but by 1976 you might have thought he was suffering from a relapse and had slipped his wig completely. Or that the summer carnival had wandered too far out of town and got lost in his corn patch. Lights now winked inside yellow plastic buckets. Between blinkings, doorbells rang. Yeah, doorbells. The noise joined quaintly with the heavy aroma of creosote dripping from a thousand strings in the night air.

A triumph of modern technology. The coons were baffled. For two weeks. The only lasting effect, say the coon hunters, is that all you have to do to bring home a pickup load of coons is go out in the woods south of Xenia and ring a doorbell.

Cucumbers

Quotes

• The cucumber is...about as close to neutrality as a vegetable can get without ceasing to exist.
• A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing. (Samuel Johnson)
• Pickles are cucumbers that sold out. (Mitch Hedberg)
• Raw cucumber makes the churchyards prosperous. (English Proverb)

Songs about Cucumbers

• Cucumber - ElectricHouse (2007)
• Cucumber Conspiracy - Keven Maroda (2009)
• Cucumber Salad - Kui Lima (2009)
• Cucumber Sandwiches - Chris Garrick (2009)
• Cucumber Soup - Raun MacKinnon Burnham (2010)
• Little Bit of Cucumber, A - Harry Champion (2006)

Onions

Quotes

• An onion can make people cry but there's never been a vegetable that can make people laugh. (Will Rogers)
• Life is like an onion: you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep. (Carl Sandburg)
• Onion soup sustains. The process of making it is somewhat like the process of learning to love. It requires commitment, extraordinary effort, time, and will make you cry. (Ronni Lundy)

Songs about Onions

• Farm-Fresh Onions - Robert Earl Keen (2003)
• Green Onions - Booker T. and the MGs (1962)
• I Love Onions - Susan Christie (1966)
• I'm a Lonely Little Petunia in an Onion Patch - D. Baker (1947)
• Onion Rings - Freddie King (1964)
• Onion Tops and Turnip Greens - Bob Prater (1997)

Peas

Peas

(author unknown)

I eat my peas with honey,
I've done it all my life.
It makes the peas taste funny,
But it keeps them on my knife.

Songs about Peas

• Cabbages and Peas - C.J. Masters (2005)
• Collard Greens and Black-Eyed Peas - Bernard Peiffer (2003)
• Peas and Carrots - Amy Loftus (2008)
• Pickin' Peas - The Carlisles (1956)

Peppers

Peter Piper

(author unknown)

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

Songs and Page Toppers about Peppers

• Bell Pepper - Kamuela Kahoano (2010)
• Chili Pepper - Todd Haaby (2010)
• Chili Pepper Chicken - Michael Ruff (2006)
• Chili Peppers are hot stuff!
• Green Peppers - Wes Montgomery (1989)
• Hot Chili Pepper - Joe McBride (2009)
• Hot Peppers - Jimmi Accardi (2007)
• Peppers and Tomatoes - Ralph Mctell (1995)
• Red Peppers - Meg Graf (2004)
• Peppers and Tomatoes - Bob Fox (2003)
• Pickled Peppers - Ruth Lauer Manenti (2009)
• Sweet Peppers - Marc Antona (2008)

Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes

(author unknown)

Mashed potatoes! mashed potatoes!
You're wonderful stuff.
I love you, mashed potatoes,
I can't get enough.
You're tasty and delicious,
And you're good with peas.
Mashed potatoes! mashed potatoes!
Oh, give me some more please.

Quotes

• For me, a plain baked potato is the most delicious one...It is soothing and enough. (Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher)
• If beef's the king of meat, potato's the queen of the garden world. (Irish Saying)
• My idea of heaven is a great big baked potato and someone to share it with. (Oprah Winfrey)
• What I say is that, if a fellow really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow. (A. A. Milne)

Songs about Potatoes

• French Fried Potatoes and Ketchup - Sammy Davis, Jr. (1957)
• Gravy for My Mashed Potatoes - Dee Dee Sharp (1962)
• Idaho Potato - Stefan Grossman and John Renbourn (1980)
• Mashed Potato Time - Dee Dee Sharp (1962)
• Mashed Potato Twist - Harvey Mandel (1995)
• Mashed Potatoes - Steve Alaimo (1962)
• Mashed Potatoes USA - James Brown (1962)
• Potato Peeler - Roy Buchanan (1962)
• Steak and Potatoes - Fathead (2005)
• Take an Old Cold Tater and Wait - Little Jimmie Dickens (1949)

Pumpkins

What do you get if you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its diameter? Pumpkin π

Pumpkin Page Toppers

• It's Pumpkin Time!
• Pick a Pumpkin
• Pickin' Pumpkins
• Picking the Best Pumpkin
• Pumpkins--an inside look
• Pumpkin Patch
• Pumpkin Time

Pilgrim Verse

(author unknown)

For pottage and puddings and custards and pies,
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies,
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon.

Sauerkraut

Quotes about Sauerkraut

• I didn't get this way from eating sauerkraut. (Ron Stratton)
• Sauerkraut and bacon drive all care away. (Pennsylvania Dutch Proverb)
• When General Lee took possession of Chambersburg on his way to Gettysburg, we happened to be a member of the Committee representing the town. Among the first things he demanded for his army was twenty-five barrels of Saur-Kraut. (Editor, The Guardian, 1869)

Songs about Sauerkraut

• Sauerkraut - Big Light (2007)
• Sauerkraut is Sweet - The Polkaholics (2006)
• Sauerkraut Sandwich - Addy van der Zwan (2009)
• Tijuana Sauerkraut - Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass (2005)
• When Did We Have Sauerkraut? - Lou and Peter Berryman (2004)

Spinach

Quotes

• I don't like spinach, and I'm glad I don't, because if I liked it I'd eat it, and I just hate it. (Clarence Darrow)
• I'm strong to the finish 'cause I eats me spinach. (Popeye the Sailor Man)
• On the subject of spinach: divide into little piles. Rearrange again into new piles. After five of six maneuvers, sit back and say you are full. (Delia Ephron in How to Eat Like a Child)
• Wouldn't it be awful if spinach hain't really healthful after all the th' trouble it takes t'git the sand out of it? (Kin Hubbard)

Songs about Spinach

• Creamed Spinach - Bigtruck (2007)
• Eat Your Spinach First - Eric Bailey (2007)
• Hooray for Spinach - The 3D's (2009)
• I'll Eat My Spinach - Sugar Chile Robinson (2008)
• Spinach - Tim Mungenast (2004)
• We Like Spinach - Jill Trinka (2007)

Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes and Philosophy

(Owen Wister)

Said Aristotle unto Plato,
'Have another sweet potato?'
Said Plato unto Aristotle,
'Thank you, I prefer the bottle.'

Songs about Sweet Potatoes

• Grasshopper Sitting on a Sweet Potato Vine - Bob Carlin (1995)
• No More Sweet Potatoes - Robert Pete Williams (2004)
• Roast Sweet Potatoes - Segeke (2007)
• Sweet Potato Fries - Steve Glotzer (2010)
• Sweet Potato Pie - Ray Charles and James Taylor (2004)
• Sweet Potato Soup - The Yards (2002)
• Sweet Potato Vine - Robert Bobby (2008)
• Sweet Potatoes - Geoff and Maria Muldaur (1972)

Tomatoes

Technically tomatoes are considered a fruit but I think most people will expect to find it in the vegetable file.

Quotes

• A cooked tomato is like a cooked oyster: ruined. (Andre Simon)
• The federal government has sponsored research that has produced a tomato that is perfect in every respect, except that you can't eat it. We should make every effort to make sure this disease, often referred to as 'progress', doesn't spread. (Andy Rooney)
• If life deals you lemons, make lemonade; if it deals you tomatoes, make Bloody Marys.
• It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato. (Lewis Grizzard)
• Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit...Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
• A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins. (Laurie Colwin)

Songs about Tomatoes

• Homegrown Tomatoes - Guy Clark (1983)
• Peppers and Tomatoes - Bob Fox (2003)
• Tomato - Giant Bear (2007)
• Tomato Paste - Flop (1991)
• Tomato Soup - Ken Gutherlet (2004)

Turnips

Quotes

• Do I look like I just fell off the turnip truck? (Old Proverb)
• One who is proud of his ancestry is like a turnip; there is nothing good of him but that which is underground. (Samuel Butler)
• Squeezing our money out of politicians is more difficult than squeezing blood from a turnip. (Cal Thomas)
• The turnip is a capricious vegetable, which seems reluctant to show itself at its best. (Waverley Root)

Songs about Turnips

• Beets and Turnips - Charles Prince Orchestra (2010)
• Cookin' Turnips - The Pal Studio Band (2010)
• Onion Tops and Turnip Greens - Bob Prater (1997)
• Turnip Greens - Darrel Higham (1999)
• Turnips - John Pinette (2008)
• Yesterday's Turnips - Jay Irwin (2003)

Some of the song titles on this page came from Eric's Thematic Songlists Some graphics on this site are from Public Domain Clip Art, Free Clip Art Library and Free Clipart Now.