SC - Interkingdom Anthropology??

[maddie teller-kook]

In a message dated 1/12/99 7:28:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, meadhbh at io.com
writes:

<< wish there was but there isn't. mostly due to the fact that the chili
 peppers were not available during that time period. oh, how i wish they
 were!!! >>

Actually your wish is granted. Capsicums were one of the first New World foods
introduced by Columbus. Although there are no recipes that I am aware of from
pre-1600 C.E., they most certainly were known and being grown in the
Mediterranean Valley well at least 75 yrs. before then. I have read and can't
locate the source, unfortunately, that capsicums were a major agricultural
crop in the Mediterranean valley by 1523. Until I locate the source of that
information (which I think was in one of the USDA Agricultural Yearbooks), I
would take it with a grain of salt. 

However, there is little reason to believe that they were not being grown as a
novelty at least. But then again so weren't tomatoes and potatoes which were
not widely eaten either.

Ras
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