: SC - Coconuts in Period
Decker, Terry D.
TerryD at Health.State.OK.US
Thu Dec 14 12:36:10 PST 2000
Great! Now we need to document pineapple and rum so we can serve Mai Tai's next
war!
Where was that rock again?
Selene
Daniel Phelps wrote:
> Was written:
>
> Coconuts in the New World occurred only on
> >the Pacific coast having been carried there by winds and currents and not
> >yet having been domesticated.
>
> Odd historical note regards Palm Beach, Florida. Legend has it called so
> because coconut palms grew there. Legend says that a cargo vessel with
> coconuts aboard sank off shore and the coconuts were washed ashore and grew.
> This occurred in either the late 16th or 17th century if I remember
> correctly what I read. Coconuts were apparently available in Colonial
> America by the way.
>
> Rosengarten writes regards the coconuts origin that it clearly orginated in
> the Pacific Ocean but that there are two theories; an Old World and a New
> World one. It is apparently clear, according to him, that it was well
> established on the Pacific coast of Panama before the first Spanish
> explorers got there. Paleobotanical evidence of fossil coconuts from the
> late Tertiary exists in New Zealand. The strongest theory in his estimation
> postulates a western Pacific or eastern Indian Ocean origin with a gradual
> east and west spread either naturally via ocean currents or by man. Vasco
> da Gama in 1498 found it in Mozambique in East Africa. According to
> Rosegarten, "It is generally agreed that the coconut was not found in the
> Atlantic Ocean basin until the Portuguese brought it there after 1500, when
> they introduced the palm to West Africa and Brazil. In the early sixteenth
> century the Spanish carried it to the Caribbean." He further states that it
> was rapidly spread throughout the Caribbean and South America.
>
> Daniel Raoul
>
> ============================================================================
>
> To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
> Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".
>
> ============================================================================
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list