SC - Re: Almonds and Sundry Nuts and Seeds

[Daniel Phelps]

Regarding almonds, it is my understanding that honey from their blossoms is
poisonous does anyone recall period references to this?

By the by, if you are in search of a really good reference on the topic of
nuts you might try "The Book of Edible Nuts" by Fredric Rosengarten, Jr.
1984, Walker Publishing Co., Inc.  ISBN: 0-8027-0769-9, Library of Congress
Catalog Card Number 83-40389.  The author holds the "Order of the Quetzal"
from Guatemala for his agricultural development effort there.  He is a
fellow of the Linnean Society and an Associate in Economic Botany in the
Botanical Museum at Harvard.

My copy is an autographed first edition and never leaves the house except
for copying but the book should be available on inter-library loan.  I'm
hoarding it on the hopes someone will offer me my weight in little airline
bottles of Fra Angelico for it.

Within the chapter  titled Twelve Selected Edible Nuts it has great short
sections with fairly detailed histories, including archeological evidence
and numerous period botanical woodcuts, on such nuts period to western
European and Mediterranean basin,  as almonds, chestnuts, coconuts (referred
to in period as Indian Nuts), pistachio, filberts (hazelnuts),  and walnuts.
Twenty pages on almonds and 25 pages on walnuts alone.

The section chapter titled "Thirty other Edible Nuts" covers such things
period as acorns, beechnuts, cola nuts, pine nuts, and sesame seeds.  Five
pages are devoted to pine nuts and  two and a half to sesame seeds.

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