SC - Peppers?

[Huette von Ahrens]

- --- "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
wrote:
> There is not a lot readily available on the subject.
>  Most food histories
> tend to date the arrival of capsicums in Eastern
> Europe to 1526, coinciding
> with the Ottoman conquest of most of Hungary,
> however the actually date of
> introduction could be anytime up to around 1621,
> when the Turks were pushed
> out.
> 
> The earliest published reference from the area can
> be found in Leonhard
> Fuchs' Primi de Stirpirum published in Basil in
> 1545.  Fuchs was a physician
> and naturalist who was living in Tübingen (south of
> Stuttgart on the Neckar
> River).  There are three plates on pages 425-427, 1)
> Capsicon rubeum &
> nigrum - Roter und brauner Calcutischer Pfeffer, 2)
> Capsicum oblongius -
> Langer Indianische Pfeffer, and 3) Capsicon latum -
> Breyter Indianische
> Pfeffer.  Fuchs appears to have been familiar with
> the plants, but confused
> about their origins.
> 
> The fact that Fuchs very carefully and correctly
> pictures the capsicum
> plants suggests that they were available to him and
> that the 1526 date for
> the introduction of the plant into Eastern Europe
> may be correct.  
> 
> If you are interested, Fuchs' work has been webbed
> at:
> 
> http://www.med.yale.edu/library/historical/fuchs/
> 
> 
> Capsicums were also reported as being grown in a
> monastary garden in Brno,
> Moravia in 1566, but I haven't found the source of
> the report.
> 
> Bear

Ah, but were they grown as an ornamental, as a
curiosity or as a food?  That I think it the prime
question.

Huette


=====
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they 
shall never cease to be amused.

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