SC - Friday Feasts

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Huette wrote:

>Okay, Nanna, but _when_ did these countries start
>eating corn, that is the real question.  Most, if not
>all, of these countries didn't start eating corn until
>after 1600, true?  Not true?


Well, the actual question here was if maize was eaten in Europe before WW II
... However, maize was, for instance, grown and eaten both in Sicily and in
northern Italy in the 16th century. To quote Clifford A. Wright´s A
Mediterranean Feast:

"Once maize was introduced from the New World to northern Italy, shortly
after 1500, it replaced panic (foxtail millet), millet, and sorghum in the
Veneto and polenta evolved into what we know it as today. ... Whatever the
story, we do know that maize, popularly called corn, was first known as
maizium (from the Arawak-Carib word mahiz) and sorgo-turco (Turkish sorghum)
or grano-turco (Turkish grain) and that it was being cultivated in Polesina
di Rovigo and Basso Veronese in 1554."

I believe maize cultivation didn´t begin in Romania or Hungary until the
17th century (it was introduced by the Turks) but there are accounts of
maize being grown in Crete in 1523, and in France by the mid-6th century. In
Portugal and Spain (especially Andalusia), maize was grown from the early
16th century onwards. The Portuguese were introducing maize to China, the
Philippines, western Africa and lots of other places in the first half of
the16th century.

The question, of course is did people eat it themselves, or was maize just
used as cattlefeed? In some of these countries, at least, maize was indeed
eaten, probably mostly by poor people

Nanna