[Sca-cooks] Noty or Notye

[Terry Decker]

> --- Johnna Holloway <johnna at sitka.engin.umich.edu> wrote:
>
>> So given these facts---What exactly leads you to believe that  they grew
>> Lemons
>> in Britain in the middle ages? Do you think that Britain was
>> all that tropical during the medieval period?
>
>
> As smart-alecky as that comment was meant to be...
>
> There are plenty of incidences of 'peculiar' or 'specialty' plants and 
> such being grown in
> ornamental and horticultural gardens in period, and I figured I might as 
> well peep in on the Royal
> Gardens and Orchards of the time, to see if I could hit any references to 
> the lemon tree.  The
> ships manifests are likely going to be more fruitful (pun intended), but 
> there is really no harm
> in looking at more than one source for the information.  I don't think I 
> really implied that there
> were massive groves of lemon trees dotting the British landscape.
>
> As for the climate of Britain during the middle ages, there is ample 
> evidence to suggest that
> Britain, and in fact all of Europe, was a tad bit warmer than it is today. 
> Peek at a few of the
> climatological studies on the internet or in the library.  Tropical?? No. 
> But then, lemons grow
> quite well in temperate climates, as well (as do the vast majority of 
> citrus fruits.)
>
> William de Grandfort

Lemons are rather particular about where they grow.  They grow best in a 
temperate to sub-tropical range above freezing and below extreme heat.  They 
also require a lot of water but little rain.  California and Sicily are 
perfect climates.  Florida tends to be too wet.  The temperatures were too 
extreme in Northern Italy in period for lemons to be grown there outside of 
a green house.  The climate in England is,and has been through recorded 
history, incapable of sustaining a commercial lemon crop.  The economics of 
green houses made commercial green house cultivation impractical until 
modern times.  So, other than the occasional specimen in some wealthy man's 
botanical collection, you can forget about lemons growing in England.

Waverly Root does mention that in 1494 lemons were being grown for export to 
England, but he doesn't provide a source reference.

Bear