[Sca-cooks] Sugar Cane

[Carper, Rachel]

Much wonderful information. Would you mind if I used you as a source
when I document my piece? 

Elewyiss

-----Original Message-----
From: sca-cooks-bounces at ansteorra.org
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces at ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of Volker Bach
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2004 5:00 AM
To: Cooks within the SCA
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Sugar Cane



On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 19:59:59 -0400, "Carper, Rachel"
<rachel.carper at hp.com> 
wrote :

> Howdy everybody. As I plan Olwen's AoA scroll I need a little 
> information. Is sugar cane period? If not did they use anything else 
> besides Honey as a sweetner?

Sugar cane is period in that its existence was known from the beginning
of 
the Middle Ages onwards (it may be mentioned in Pliny - there is debate 
whether he isn't describing another type of reed - and was certainly 
described by a source close to Alexander's campaign, most likely
Nearchus. 
Herodotus is usually credited with the firtst mention of sugar in
European 
culture. By the 2nd century AD, 'saccharum/sakkharon' was a familiar 
substance to doctors, listed by Galen and Discurides.  

However, in spite ofsome claims to the contrary I know of no evidence 
forsugar cane in the Byzantine territories prior to their loss to the 
Islamic world. Sugar cane was probably grown in Persia (Euphrates/Tigris

delta) as early as the 6th/7th century AD, and made it to Egypt prior to

1000. The Crusaders encountered sugar cane in the Levant and Syria, and
by 
the 12th century the Kitab al-Felah from al-Andalus lists it as a
familiar 
cash crop. Presumably it would also have been found in Sicily. By the
14th 
century it was becoming a staple cash crop in Sicily and the southern 
Iberian peninsula, the Balearics, and parts of the Middle East (North 
Africa, too, most likely, though I have found no mention of it outside 
Egypt), and by the 15th century had been transplanted to the Cape Verde 
Island and Canaries. The the New World encountered it within Columbus' 
lifetime (Portuguese-style island plantations were an early business
model 
for the Conquistadors). 

However, sugarcane does not grow very far north (Spain and central Italy
is 
about the limit), so most medieval Europeans (as opposed to most
medieval 
North Africans or Syrians) would not know sugarcane, just possibly know 
about it (and considering how many Brits were prepared to believe in the

spaghetti harvest in the 60s, I wonderhow many would). Sugar processing
was 
usually done on the spot as the cane deteriorates rapidly after
harvesting. 

Does that help?

Giano
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