SC - Getting people to eat period food

[CorwynWdwd@aol.com]

In response to Thomas Gloning, i'm forwarding a message that 
Christine A Seelye-King was kind enough to send me. It has been 
slightly edited for layout, but i have not changed the content.

>--------- Forwarded message ----------
>From: khkeeler <kkeeler at unlinfo.unl.edu>
>To: herbalist at Ansteorra.ORG
>Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 08:09:30 -0500
>Subject: Re: HERB - the period pumpkin
>Message-ID: <35472688.4C44 at unlinfo.unl.edu>
>References: <bc7ceb2e.3546cb1e at aol.com>
>
>RAISYA wrote:
>>  I've been working on figuring out what the period pumpkin is, and 
>>I'd like to
>>  hear from other people.
>>  There's an illumination of the period pumpkin in the 14th century TACUINUM
>>  SANITATIS.  Both the leaves and fruit of the plant look like a butternut
>>  squash.  The modern pumpkin and most squash belong to Cucurbita pepo and
>>  Cucurbita maxima which originated in N. and S. America, while the butternut
>  > squash belongs to Cucurbita moschata.
><snip>
>  > I think the butternut squash makes the most sense, but maybe 
>there's something
>>  I haven't come across.  Has anyone else looked into this?
>>  Raisya Khorivovna
>
>My sources are
>NW Simmonds, Evolution of crop plants (Longman 1976)
>JF Hancock, Plant evolution and the origin of crop species (Prentice 
>Hall 1992)
>BB Simpson and MC Ogorzaly Economic botany: plants in our world
>(McGraw-Hill, 2nd ed. 1995).
>
>As you say, New World plants are
>Cucurbita pepo (summer squash, marrow, pumpkin, zuccini, acorn squash,
>crookneck, spaghetti, ornamental squashes)
>but also
>C. moschata (winter squash, butternut squash, pumpkin)
>C. maxima (winter squash, pumpkin, winter marrow)
>C. mixta (winter squash, hubbard squash, turban squash, pumpkin)
>C. ficifolia (fig-leaf gourd).
>Simpson and Ogorzaly suggest ways to distinguish the above (p. 126).
>
>Totally separate and much more complicated are Old World members of this
>family (Cucurbitaceae).
>Cucumis sativus (cucumber) originally from India,
>Cucumis melo (muskmelon, cantalope) Africa, India,
>Citrullus lanatus (watermelon) South Africa ,
>Languinaria siceraria (white-flowered gourd) Africa, the Americas
>Luffa acutangula, L. cylindrica (luffa) Asia.
>Watermelons are very old:  appear in Dioscorides, were being grown in
>China by 1200 AD
>Cucumis melo doesn't occur in Egyptian or Greek writing, does in texts
>from the end of the Roman empire--current varieties include cantaloupe,
>Perisan, musk, Cranshaw and honeydew melons
>Cucumbers are known from ancient Egypt, were widely dispersed across the
>OW
>white-flowered gourd - known from Ecuador and Peru 7,000 yrs ago, Egypt
>3,000 yrs ago- currently thought to be a natural disjunction with the
>plant naturally occurring both places.
>Simpson and Ogorzaly call the Old World cucurbits "dessert foods", the
>New World "staple foods" which fits the distribution given above.  But
>is a problem for interpretting Period pumpkins.
>On the other hand, the Simmonds book makes a casual reference to a firm,
>hard greenish watermelon called citron, used for feeding livestock (but,
>likely in S. Africa)- so there may be more varieties of these fruits
>than my sources deal with.
>   Good question, I'll see what less direct references suggest.  
>Agnes deLanvallei, Mag Mor, Calontir
>--
>mka Kathy Keeler
>kkeeler1 at unl.edu
>===================================================================
>Go to http://www.ansteorra.org/lists.html to perform mailing list tasks.


Some other messages in the thread indicate that "family" is used 
where "genus" should have been used.
Also as there has been some botanical reorganization, some plants 
appear in more than one species, because they were so listed in 
different books.

If i am understanding correctly, the long, pale green Italian gourd 
is a Languinaria. Please, anyone, correct me if i have confused 
things. The plant that Pinetree Seeds is selling under Italian 
Vegetables - Gourds-Edible
- --- from on-line catalog ---
IT66. CUCUZZI (55 days)
Italian edible gourd. You can tell that these are truly gourds from 
the leaf shape and the white flowers, but when harvested young, the 
uses are identical to zucchini. The flavor is stronger, 
however--difficult to
describe. Vines are long and spreading. As with the zucchetta 
tromboncino, if you don't harvest them young, these will grow to a 
remarkable length, close to 4 feet. 20 seeds .55
- --- end quote from catalog ---

I could find no gourds on-line at Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Anahita al-shazhiyya