SC - Beer (from whiskey thread)

[Woeller D]

In a message dated 97-11-19 04:09:26 EST, you write:

<< Pineapple, I can see. They are sweet which was craved. They are 
 unusual which makes them ideal for gardens of exotics.
 
 Same goes for peppers and perhaps for Turkeys. They fill a percieved
 need.
 
 But green beans?>>

As noted in my previous post, the percieved need was filling bellies. The
planting of a single seed and harvest mutiple seeds only a few weeks later
would have assured it's place in the garden. With an average household
(including servants) of 20 moutyhs to feed this shouldn't be too hard to
grasp. :-)

To add to the green bean post> Jane Grigsom in her "Vegetable Book"  (as does
Toussaint-Samat clearly staes that the word "haricot" as used by the English
meant dried beans while SAME word in France denoted "green beans".

Such a dual purpose food which had the advantage of looking very similar to
an already known product, favas, would not have had the problem of exceptance
that such foods as tomatoes or potatoes would have (and did).

In storage dreid beans keep very weel while dried favas loose there flavor
and become rather insipid. As green beans they could have been eaten
throughtout the growing season and yet would have provided a crop of seed for
next year.

Add the ability to be substituted for favas in any recipe and thereby
producing a far more palatable product, it is not at all surprising that it
rapidly gained acceptance. When clamte is taken into account, the use of
dried beans by the English and green beans by the French is readily apparent
as it would have been easy for the French to produce two or even three crops
a year where England would have produced one.

<< Stefan li Rous >>

Ras

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