[Sca-cooks] sugar and rice in Iberia

[Diane & Micheal Reid]

 I was  away for a week and did not get my two cents in on this topic nor do 
I wish to cause an explosion.
 However Being as the the Visagoths were allies to the Romans before they 
got royaly stabbed in the back and the Romans copy much of the developments 
of Greece, being as it is generaly accepted that Alexander the great brought 
rice back to the Med, it is quite possible that they knew of rice if not of 
its growing. Since they most likely knew of rice they would have found the 
Moores of Africa a viable trading partener from whom they could have aquired 
rice. Thus setting up the invite to the moores to come across in 711 by a 
Visagothic prince( rather kryptic that date). So whilst we can not prove 
rice was grown in Iberia before then we can accept I believe that it was 
maybe not in common ussage but still there.
 Cane I believe comes from Egypt so again since the Romans and Visagoths had 
connections they would have known sugar. So both items are to my mind anyway 
extremely likely to have existed in Iberia(Spain) prior to 711 if as trade 
goods if nothing else.
 Cealian