SC - Cracknels?

[Bonne]

I did a little melon research for an event lunch a while back...

Melon is one of the dishes served in 1443 at the feast given by John
Stafford at his installation as Archbishop of Canterbury.

   page 166 in A Feast of Fruits by Elizabeth Riely NY: MacMillan 1993
"...shows themelon's Near Eastern origin... Via Arabs and Moors the
fruit found its way to Spain... ; There are countless varieties of
melon, Cucumis melo, ... ; These members of the squash, or gourd, family
cross pollinate so promiscuously that farmers know they must plant them
well separated from each other... ; the musk melon ... includes what the
Americans call the cantaloupe...; The Persian melon is another larger
musk melon...; The skin can be ridged in segments, but always has the
characteristic raised netted pattern on the skin." 

   page 49 in Food in History by Reay Tannahill NY: Stein & Day 1973 
"The (early) people of the Indus valley ate wheat and barley ... and
seasoned it with mustard, or possibly turmeric, or ginger...; Melons and
dates, and perhaps lemons and limes all figured in the diet." 

  from Plants of the Bible by Harold N. Moldenke Waltham, Mass. Chronica
Botanica Company 1952 " Numbers 11:5 - We remember the fish, which we
did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks,
and the onions, and the garlick." 

  page 188 in Medieval Culture and Society edited by David Herlihy NY:
Harper and Row 1968 ( RE:Florence in 1336-38): " We have discovered by
the tax at the gates that every year Florence imported upwards of 55,000
cogna of wine...; The city required every year about 400 cows and
calves; 60,000 muttons and sheep; 20,000 she-goats and he-goats; and
30,000 pigs. In the month of July through the gate of San Frediano
there entered 4000 loads of melons, which were all distributed in the
city." 
- -- 
Ian Gourdon of Glen Awe 
- - Companion of the order of the Greenwood Company
http://web.raex.com/~agincort
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