[Sca-cooks] suggestions

[Terry Decker]

> Wouldn't that depend on the definition of 'Virginia' at the time?  We know 
> that sweet potatoes were being grown in the Caribbean, South America and 
> tropical North America at the time, so it's quite possible that (except 
> for the effects of the 'little ice age' in America), sweet potatoes may 
> have been growing in what is now North Carolina.
>

Virginia has a specific meaning in this context and it relates directly to 
the first Roanoke Colony founded on Roanoke Island in 1585 and returned to 
England in 1586.  Thomas Hariot's "A Briefe and True Report of the New Found 
Land of Virginia" (1588) describes the plants being grown by the natives 
and, glory be, potatoes of any description are not among them.

> Of course, calling something 'Virginia' anything doesn't necessarily have 
> anything to do with the *origin* of an item, only where it was 
> *encountered* by the person whose name for the item stuck:  Jerusalem 
> Artichoke, Brussel Sprout, Raisins of Corinth, Plaster of Paris, Boston 
> Fern, Yorkshire Pudding, etc.
>
> Someone earlier mentioned introducing sweet potatoes to England and I 
> question that, since sweet potatoes can't grow in that cold of a climate 
> (and, no, I reject the idea that the entire British Isles are covered with 
> green houses :) ), especially during the 'little ice age'.
>

You can't grow sugar cane in England, but 16th Century England did a lot of 
cooking with sugar and cinnamon and ginger and nutmeg.  There are some 
English recipes for sweet potato from the late 16th and early 17th Century 
and a couple of quotes from Shakespere, that suggest England knew and ate 
sweet potatoes.  While England probably wasn't covered with greenhouse, many 
large estates had them and used them to experiment with new plants.

> More likely that Drake found white potatoes in Columbia, not Chile.
>
> -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
> Tom Vincent
> -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Really?  Most modern potatoes are derived from Chilean plants which were 
better adapted to altitude, weather and temperature differences than the 
High Andean potatoes.

According to "The famous voyage of Sir Francis Drake into the South Sea, and 
hence about the whole globe of the earth, begun in the year of our Lord, 
1577,"
Drake anchored at an island off the coast of Chile on 29 November 1578, 
where he made contact with the natives and, "...people came down to us to 
the waterside with show of great courtesy, bringing to us potatoes, roots, 
and two very fat sheep..."

Drake knew sweet potatoes having eaten them during his initial sea venture 
under John Hawkins in 1568, so it is believed that the potatoes mentioned 
are sweet potatoes.  The "roots" are believed to have been white potatoes. 
There are other primary sources about the voyage I have not tracked down, so 
further information about the foodstuffs may be available.

So in all deference to the speculation, it is equally as likely that Drake 
encountered white potatoes in Chile and in Columbia.

Another speculation is that Gerard received samples of Apios americana 
rather than Solanum tuberosum and it was A. americana that was described as 
"Potatoes of Virginia."  The American groundnut was being grown and eaten in 
Virginia at the time, so it is as reasonable an explanation as any. 
Basically, it's a case of pick yer poison when it comes to what and how 
Gerard received his samples.

Bear