An Test was Re: SC - Truck Crops

[Decker, Terry D.]

> I was under the assumption that the Moors originated (or at least spread
> out 
> from) the African continent.  Yes...No?
> 
Moors are a mixture of Berber and Arab dating from early in the spread of
Islam inhabiting North Africa.  However, for this discussion, they must be
looked at in the context of the Islamic expansion.

Mohammed began teaching in 610, essentially held Arabia by 628, and died in
632.  Persia was all but finished by 637.  Egypt as conquered by 642.  Islam
spread across North Africa creating the Moors and in 711 the Moors took
Andalusia.  By 712, the Arabs were in Northern India.  In 827,  Sicily was
invaded from North Africa and conquered after 51 years of fighting.

Until the 10th Century, the Islamic empire was ruled from a single capital
controlling trade from Northern India to Syria to the southern border of
France.  Food stuffs found during the expansion were quickly adopted and
imported to other parts of the empire; not just spinach, but sugar cane,
rice, bananas, etc.  While Sicily was Moorish, it was also part of a greater
world, al-Islam.


> >  >  Green Beans ---  France, I believe, for the "string" or "french"
> bean, 
> >  though Haricot Beans were introduced into France from North America in
> the 
> >  14th century (presented to Catherine de Medici as a gift from Pope
> Clement 
> >  the Seventh).  "
> >  
> >  Try 16th Century, Catherine's marriage was in 1533.  This tale of
> >  introduction is apochryphal.
> 
> Why do you say it is apocryphal?  I have seen two (admittedly modern and 
> undocumented) references to this introduction (even though my date is 
> wrong....when the age is in, the wit is out, I guess).  Do you mean there
> is 
> no documentation to support this?  Or do you have documentation to the 
> contrary?
> 
 tend to consider all stories about Catherine's marriage as apocryphal
unless there is evidence to back it.  Too many of the stories are at odds
with the available historical evidence.

IIRC, and my memory may be faulty, there is documentation that haricots
arrived in Catherine's court via France's ambassador to Spain much later
than 1533.

As for her uncle, Pope Clement VII, giving her the beans, Waverley Root's
version is more likely.  Root states that Pope Clement received the beans in
1528 (documented gift from the Spanish court and part of Hernando Cortez's
loot from Mexico).  He in turn gave them to Canon Pietro Valeriano of
Florence, who potted and raised them.  Canon Valeriano shared them with
Alessandro de' Medici, and it was Alessandro who gave the beans to Catherine
in 1533.  (FYI, Allessandro was probably the illegitimate great grandson of
Lorenzo the Magnificent in the senior line (making him Catherine's brother)
and became the Duke of Florence in 1532.)

BTW, Root also says, "...fagioli refers specifically to the New World bean."
Fagioli also refers to the black-eyed pea, which is definitely Old World in
origin.

> >  >  Sweet Potato --- South America or Africa
> >  
> >  Ipomea batatas found in the American tropics and in part of Polynesia
> >  (believed to have been imported by trade with the Americas).  Commonly
> >  called a yam, but it's not.
> >  
> >  Yams are of African origin.
> 
> Hence the reference for both America and Africa.  You never know which one
> is 
> meant from one person to the next.
> 
> The two plants are not related.  Yams are members of the genus Dioscorea
> and I have a page full of species names and have barely scratched the
> surface.  And while casual usage makes sweet potatoes into yams, I have
> yet to hear anyone call a true yam, a sweet potato.  In any event, the
> object is to clearly communicate what is meant, which is why I try to use
> scientific nomenclature when responding to questions about plants and
> animals.
> 
> 
> >  >  Squash --- This depends on which type of squash you are referring
> to...
> >  
> >  Well, maybe, there is some very technical argument about some members
> of 
> the
> >  genus Cucurbita having come from Asia, but for practical purposes the
> >  Cucurbita are all of New World origin.  There are no Cucurbitas known
> to be
> >  in Europe before 1492.
> 
> I wasn't sureif he was refering to squash as in zuchinni, or squash as in 
> gourds.  Gourds, I believe, were used in Roman times.
> 
> In American English, squash refers to members of genus Cucurbita.  Gourd
> is more generic being used for several genera of true gourds and as a
> catch-all for members of the family Cucurbitacea having hard durable
> shells.  Admittedly, terminology has changed since 1492 and in recipes
> from the 16th Century, it is difficult to determine whether gourds or
> squashes are meant without some serious research and deduction.
> 
> The gourds of Roman times are most likely members of genus Lagenaria
> (bottle gourds).  
> 
> Some other genera are Cucumis (cucumbers and melons), Citrullis
> (watermelon), and Luffa (loofahs).
> 
> Only Lagenaria is found in both the New and Old Worlds.  It is believed to
> have African origins and was imported into the Americas by ocean drift.
> Diffusionists differ declaring it to be evidence of trade between the Old
> and New Worlds.
> 
> 
> >  >  Egg Plant  --- India, cultivated in Italy by the late 15th
> >  
> >  Solanum melongena is of southeast Asian origin.  The variant esculenta,
> >  which has the purple fruit is an Indian hybrid.  Eggplant was adopted
> by 
> the
> >  Arabs after they conquered northern India and was imported into the
> Moorish
> >  regions of Europe.
> 
> As is common, I assumed he was referring to the purple eggplant, since the
> 
> white is difficuylt to find in some areas.
> 
> Balthazar of Blackmoor
> 
I am informed there are also light purple and purple and white striped
varieties, but I have yet to see them.   The fact that purple eggplant is
the most common modern variety does not negate the possibility that medieval
cooks used some other variety.  In this case, I would say that the because
the purple eggplant was available in India when the Arabs invaded, it became
the most widely used variety of eggplant.


Bear