[Sca-cooks] OT: food paintings

[Angie Malone]

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This may turn out to be a long e-mail.
I was looking through some online heirloom seed catalogs, and I found some
where that sells
Long Island Cheese pumpkin seeds.  For those of you not from New Jersey/NYC
area these are also called milk pumpkins, cheese squash.  They look a lot
like a cinderella pumpking but are more of a tan color.  They make the best
pumpkin pie you have ever had.  Anyway, here's the listing:

Long Island Milk Pumpkin From eastern Long Island, NY. Similar to other tan
cheese pumpkins, tan rounded and flattened like old time rounds of cheese,
excellent eating, range from 10-20 pounds. This variety has minute traces
of white on the skin which differs from other types we have seen. Cheese
squashes were first listed in America in 1815, but was depicted much
earlier in a painting by Lucas Van Valkenborch (C. 1530-1597) Offered by 0
of 255 seed companies.(Long Island Cheese, offered by 3 of 255 seed companies)

Now when I saw that I thought...hmmm... wonder if it's true and if so what
does it mean?   I didn't realize at the time I had seen some of Van
Valkenborch's paintings.  Anyway, I went searching google for this
painting.  I haven't found it yet but I did find the one listed
below.  Which is a painting of (I think) two people going through the
market and purchasing food.  They are some pretty interesting things in the
painting (that I recognize)    artichokes, perhaps fava beans, carrots(they
look orange), turnips, something in a basket that I swear looks like cherry
tomatoes, but is probably some sort of fruit.

http://www.galleryvpitchal.com/Expo/valkenborchF.html

Does anyone know of the painting they describe in the pumpkin ad above.  I
may have already seen that picture but don't realize it.

Anyway, just thought it was an interesting thing to stumble over at 12:43am
EST.

         Angeline
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