SC - guava

[Gaylin J. Walli]

The origin of the name guava is the word guayaba, which I think is either
Carib or Arawak, suggesting that the origin is further south than the
Bahamas. 

While guavas are commercially grown in Florida and California, I don't
believe they are native to either area.

If the guava made an early debut, it is probably recorded by Gonzales
Fernando de Oviedo y Valdez in his Historia general y natural de las Indias,
Islas y Tierra-Firme del Mar Oceano originally published in Toledo in 1526.
There is an early 20th Century Spanish edition of the book and there was
supposedly an English translation done in the mid 1980's.

Come to think of it, the guava may be mentioned in the Diario of Christopher
Columbus.  I'll have to check when I get home.

Bear

> Bear wrote in response to Olwen:
> 
> >Guava is a tropical New World fruit found in the Caribbean 
> islands.  So, it
> >is possible that it may have been used sometime after October, 1492.
> 
> Would it possibly be mentioned in the Lucayos cookbook from the
> Bahamas? I don't actually remember reading its name there, but
> I've not sat down and closely examined every page nor verified
> the veracity of the book itself. It might be worth a look, though.
> 
> Iasmin