When we think of food in the past, it is often images of Henry VIII with a table groaning with meat dishes that springs to mind. But in fact our ancestors knew more about the health benefits of eating salads—normally thought of as a cold dish of herbs or vegetables—than we might think. By looking back to the sustainable self-sufficiency of the past, we find there is a lot we can learn about the variety of the historical salad dish, which costs next to nothing, has no carbon footprint, and might even be beneficial to our health. The diarist, writer, and gardener John Evelyn (1620–1706) pursued his interest in salads in the mid-to-late 17th century. His model both defined the dish very broadly and showed how you could live on home-grown salads all year round. To Evelyn, the ideal kitchen garden was full of vegetables and fruits that could be grown simply …