SC - Oats (was Is Medieval Food yucky?)

[david friedman]

At 9:02 AM -0700 5/4/98, Marisa Herzog wrote:


>But Gooseberries are large (thumbnail sized) and green... so I don't think one
>would call currants "gooseberries".

Currants and gooseberries are apparently close relatives; my Western Garden
Book classifies both as "Saxifragaceae," and in both cases says "for
ornamental relatives, see Ribes." Under "Ribes" it says "Those without
spines are called currants, those with spines, gooseberries."

>But this leads me to understand that at
>least for England "real" currants would be *very* late period?

Probably, although the OED only gives a "before X" date, presumably because
X is the date they are first mentioned.

> Duke
>Cariadoc... did the OED say where they were introduced to England from?

No. Sorry. The Western Garden Book says that some species of Ribes are
native to California, but I don't know if others are old world.

David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/


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