India, Nov. 13 -- "Brussels sprouts stand like soldiers,

Cabbages crouch in rows,

Leeks in their regimented lines

Defy the frost that grows", wrote Vita Sackville-West in her poem "A November Garden" in 1931.

As the rains ended and winter set in, the Europeans living in the nineteenth-century Poona eagerly awaited their favourite vegetables. With the arrival of the cold season, they hoped that the city's markets would fill up with winter produce - cabbages, cauliflowers, carrots, parsnips, and many more; the most awaited among them all being the cauliflower.

For a country like India, where the so-called "upper castes" practised vegetarianism, the Europeans found it surprising that more vegetables were not grown. Potatoes, carrots, to...