Corn salad was originally foraged by European peasants.
Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie, royal gardener of King Louis XIV, introduced it to kitchen gardening.
It has been eaten in Britain for centuries and appears in John Gerard's Herbal of 1597.
It was grown commercially in London from the late 18th or early 19th century and appeared on markets as a winter vegetable, but it only became available in modern supermarkets there in the 1980s.
American president Thomas Jefferson cultivated mâche at his home, Monticello, in Virginia in the early 1800s.

The common name corn salad refers to the fact that it often grows as a weed in cornfields, ("corn" is used in the sense of "cereal", not the US meaning of maize).
Corn salad was originally foraged by European peasants. Jean-Baptiste de La Quintinie, royal gardener of King Louis XIV, introduced it to kitchen gardening. It has been eaten in Britain for centuries and appears in John Gerard's Herbal of 1597. It was grown commercially in London from the late 18th or early 19th century and appeared on markets as a winter vegetable, but it only became available in modern supermarkets there in the 1980s. American president Thomas Jefferson cultivated mâche at his home, Monticello, in Virginia in the early 1800s.
The common name corn salad refers to the fact that it often grows as a weed in cornfields, ("corn" is used in the sense of "cereal", not the US meaning of maize).
Valerianella locusta