[Sca-cooks] OT - A little history

[jenne at fiedlerfamily.net]

Brandu said
> >> What does appear clear, though, is that until the early 19th Century,
> >> when
> >> Jefferson "proved" their safety and made a big deal of feeding them
> >> to his
> >> ambassadorial guests, the Tomato did not appear as a common European
> >> foodstuff, even in Italy.
jadwiga replied
> > Well, Gerard was of the opinion that they were commonly eaten in Italy
> > when he wrote his herbal, and that was in the late 16th century, or if
> > it
> > was an unmarked addition by Johnson, it was early 17th century.
> >
> > So I think it's NOT clear that Europeans didn't eat tomatoes.

Doc replied
> I'd say that called it into question if *Italians* ate tomatoes in the
> late 16th or early 17th century, but it's still fairly certain that
> they weren't common in 14th century England, or 13th century France, or
> even 15th century Denmark.
> Period for one place and time < > period everywhere in Europe.

Allow me to restate that I believe Gerard's statements actually call into
question Brandu's allegation that "it does appear clear that.. until
the early nineteenth century... Tomato did not appear as a common
European foodstuff, even in Italy."


-- Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa, Knowledge Pika   jenne at fiedlerfamily.net
"History celebrates the battlefields whereon we meet our death, but scorns
to speak of the plowed fields whereby we thrive. It knows the names of the
king's bastards but cannot tell us the origin of wheat. This is the way of
human folly." -- Jean-Henri Fabre