[Sca-cooks] My dinner de-brief

[David Friedman]

On 6/3/12 12:44 AM, Laura C. Minnick wrote:
> On 6/2/2012 10:04 PM, David Friedman wrote:
>>
>> Where are you imagining the feast happening? Lemons might have been 
>> available in Italy, but I'm not sure how much farther north. 
>> Wikipedia claims that lemons entered Europe no later than the 1st 
>> century AD, but were not widely cultivated, and that  " The first 
>> substantial cultivation of lemons in Europe began in Genoa in the 
>> middle of the 15th century."
>>
>
> Lemons travel pretty well, and in my time period the Franks had 
> control of Lombardy, which extended quite a ways into Italy. I'm also 
> looking to citrus on the Iberian peninsula, but that is sketchier- the 
> Saracens weren't exactly fans of Charles and I don't know how much 
> trade there was with them, if any.
Aside from an elephant?

I don't think the religious difficulties would have prevented trade. And 
lemons show up in the Anonymous Andalusian, which is 13th c., so not too 
far off. But I'm not sure I've ever seen evidence of fruit actually 
traveling very far early in period, and it seems less likely by land.

What's the earliest mention anyone here has seen of citrus fruits north 
of Spain and Italy?

-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/