Here is another piece from the eleventh–century collection of blessings for food, the Benedictiones ad Mensas by Ekkehart IV of St Gall. Following fruit, this addresses herbs and vegetables. I suspect the two parts may have been seen as belonging together.
203 May the cross cause these radishes to have a sweet taste
Gustu radices faciat crux has fore dulces
204 May the Lord let this kind of seed give health
Seminis hanc speciem dominus det ferre salutem
205 May Christ make these cabbage seeds lighten the stomach
Hoc holeris semen stomacho fac Christe levamen
206 May this medicine be blessed under the holy cross
Sub cruce divina benedicta sit hęc medicina
207 May the highest giver expel all bitterness from this herb
Summus ab hac erba dator omnia pellat acerba
208 May the fruit of the gardens be blessed by the holy cross
Hortorum fructus sancta cruce sit benedictus
209 May God who creates all good things bless this cabbage
Hoc benedicat holus qui cuncta creat bona solus
210 May the cross render the cooked and the raw leeks free from fever
Coctos seu crudos Porros crux det febre nudos
211 May blessing fill the mushrooms boiled many times
Sępius elixos repleat benedictio fungos
212 May the blessing make all kinds of cabbage agreeable
Caules omnigenas faciat benedictio sanas
213 Mighty Christ, place your sign upon these melons
Christe potens pones super hos tua signa pepones
214 May the garlic give weakened stomachs their customary strength
Virtutem stomachis solitam dent allia lassis
215 But may it not give the kidneys thousands of stones
Sed non millenas renibus operentur arenas
216 May the pumpkin be blessed with the name of the highest Lord
Nomine sit domini benedicta Cucurbita summi
217 May the lettuce from the garden be blessed by the powerful cross
Lactucis horti benedictio sit cruce forti
218 May the cross place chopped bitter herbs in vinegar
Concisas erbas in acetum crux det acerbas
I am not quite sure how this section fits together conceptually, but I think it relates to the garden and may belong together with the previous one. To us, grouping herbs and vegetables is not unusual, but we tend to separate the culinary and the medicinal sphere. Ekkehart IV doesn’t, and it would be quite out of character for the era to do so.
Unfortunately, we do not get much useful information from these blessings. Even designations can be very broad. The radix of #203 and semen of #204 are simply ‘root’ and ‘seed’, and while it is at least probable the former refers to radishes, the latter could be any edible seed. Whether the cabbage seeds in #205 are intended as food or medicine is uncertain, but possibly the distinction is artificial anyway.
Leeks and cabbage are two vegetables that we are still familiar with, and both were common. Leeks, both cooked and raw (#210) are also referenced in other contexts and sometimes associated with milk, so cooking them in milk is both justifiable and attested in later sources. For the cabbage, we have no such guidance. They were very likely cooked, possibly with meat or other flavour-enhancing ingredients. Incidentally, we encounter two words for cabbage: holus (#209) and caules (#212). Possibly the first refers to loose-leaved types while the second, a plural, refers to cabbage heads, but that is speculative.
We do not know what kind of mushrooms were served or whether the species was considered important, though given the differences in flavour, I suspect there was more art to it than is acknowledged here. Boiling mushrooms repeatedly was a customary way of reducing the harmful qualities they were credited with, so that is not surprising.
The melons (pepones) of #213 and pumpkins (cucurbita) of #216 are also hard to identify. A pepo could be a melon, but also possibly a kind of gourd. The cucurbita is slightly clearer. While the word is used exclusively for New World pumpkins today, here it must refer to the bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria). Wahlafrid Strabo write in his 9th century poem on horticulture that it is fried in fat. Perhaps a similar preparation was still enjoyed by Ekkehart.
The lettuce of #217 is interesting, but we learn nothing about how it was eaten. Hildegardis Bingensis (Physica xc) suggests adding garlic, dill, or vinegar to counteract its harmful effect. That is not implausible, at least, and it would mesh with #218. The herbs referred to here could be a relish or seasoning, but they could as well describe what we think of as a salad. Equally, of course, this could be a reference to the Passover meal. Clerics in the eleventh century were steeped in Old Testament symbolism and familiar with all the key passages considered foreshadowings of Jesus Christ.
The Benedictiones ad Mensas were produced by Ekkehart IV of St Gall, most likely initially written during his tenure as head of the Mainz cathedral school between 1022 and 1031, but expanded and revised until his death in St Gall in 1057. They are a collection of blessings to be spoken over food. Written in short rhyming couplets in Latin, they are unusual in their attention to the diversity of foods and preparations. This is not a serious work of theology or medicine, but an intellectual diversion, playful verse meant to show off a broad vocabulary and facility with Latin. That is what makes them very valuable – they give us a glimpse of the mental horizon of a senior cleric of the 11th century at the table.