"Do you suppose this could be the 'bitter vetch' they used to put in cross-word puzzles?"

Bitter vetch (V. ervilia) was one of the first domesticated crops.

Carbonised seeds of emmer, barley and bitter vetch were found.

Bitter vetch was considered a famine food.

Bitter vetch grain when split resembles red lentils.

Rambam says that onycha was rubbed with bitter vetch to remove impurities.

Owing to this bitterness, it is unlikely that someone would accidentally confuse bitter vetch with red lentils.

Bitter Vetch may refer to:

Among the pulses, lentils dominate, but peas, vetch and bitter vetch are represented as well.

Vicia ervilia, the bitter vetch, is an ancient grain legume crop of the Mediterranean region.

Bitter vetch (Vicia ervilia)

Plant remains at the site were floated by Mark Nesbitt and indicated evidence for bitter vetch, pea and lentil, the domestication of which was not determined.

The crops grown were cereals and pulses such as naked-six row barley, emmer wheat, lentils, peas, and bitter vetch.

Lathyrus niger, also known as black pea, blackening flat pea and black bitter vetch, is a perennial legume that is native to Europe.

Lathyrus linifolius (Bitter Vetch/Heath Pea)

The Next Day-Dutchman's Hook America's Cup had become bitter vetch for the British, who had pursued it futilely with a dozen challenges.

But that was only dressing, the sauce on the salad, and down below there was as much bitter vetch in that salad as there was cool cucumber.

The eight Neolithic founder crops (emmer wheat, einkorn wheat, barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax) had all appeared by about 7000 BC.

Local herbs include Forester's Woodrush (Luzula forsteri), Bitter Vetch, Alder Buckthorn and Wood Fescue (Festuca altissima).

The wild strains of bitter vetch are limited to an area that includes Anatolia and northern Iraq, with an extension south along the Anti-Lebanon Mountains of Syria and Lebanon.

Species of plants include Common Cow-wheat, Bitter Vetch, Black Spleenwort, Harebell, Nettle-leaved Bellflower, Bluebell and Viper's Bugloss.

It was not until after 9500 BCE that the eight so-called founder crops of agriculture appear: first emmer and einkorn wheat, then hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax.

Legumes included the lentil, chickpea, bitter vetch, broad bean, garden pea, and grass pea; Pliny names varieties such as the Venus pea, and poets praise Egyptian lentils imported from Pelusium.

Broad beans, chickpeas and lentils are the only legumes mentioned in the Bible but lentils, broad beans, chickpeas, fenugreek, field peas and bitter vetch have been found at Iron Age Israelite sites.

The Fertile Crescent region of Southwest Asia is the centre of domestication for three cereals (einkorn wheat, emmer wheat and barley) four legumes (lentil, pea, bitter vetch and chickpea) and flax.

Lathyrus linifolius (Bitter Vetch/Heath Pea)