[Sca-cooks] Re honey

[Susan Lord]

In answer to questions on this topic, Chile is the Switzerland of South America. It has very strict laws on food production, importation, exportation etc etc. The pith of the country is based on Spanish and Germany heritage, not Spanish and Italian as in Argentina. In the middle of the 19th century, there was a bread famine in Germany. The Chilean government offered land free in the south if Germany settlers would occupy it. Henceforth, there is no 4 o’clock high tea in Chile, nor is there an 8 pm Spanish “merienda”. Laws are the tightest in South America where German kuchen with the American hot chocolate are served between 5 and 6 pm!

Here “organic” consists of lettuce and other salad goods in the Jumbo supermarket chain. There is a tiny “fair” Saturdays near my house which sells wilted veggies, homemade cheese and  herbs marked organic. Other “organic” markets investigated have the same wilting results. All are more expensive than Jumbo. We don’t have a whole foods market. 

We do not have handy Indian or Oriental stores.

Spain is much more up to date as far as being able to find medieval products. In Chile, I cannot even find trotters, cow or sheep livers to say nothing of goats. I have to order intestines a week in advance and it costs me gas and parking fees twice over. So when preparing medieval recipes, I do everything to avoid doubling the price to make the recipe but I cannot cut short on almonds and other expensive ingredients.

As far as mail orders are concerned it can take up to 3 months to receive the items and all items are half the total price when considering postage. Chile is at the other end of the earth. I had one order which after its arrival to Chile took 3 months to retrieve from customs as they wanted me to swear it was for my personal use. Another time pine kernels were confiscated from my suitcase as it is prohibited to import nuts. The Chilean police told me that if I every try that again they will fine me $500 and stick me in jail. That is no joke.

So when you tell me I need to look for organic, it can mean a 12 hour drive north or south to find the real mccoy.