[Sca-cooks] taro, ginger beer etc.

[Stefan li Rous]

Madhavi asked some questions to ??rfinnr Hr??geirsson, and I wanted to comment on some of this, separate from this translation effort.

<<< "Taro seed"- what was the original term? Do you mean Colocasia esculenta? Because I grow Colocasia esculenta, and it has no seeds. The parts you eat are the root (actually a corm) and the leaves. It's an elephant ear plant.  >>>

Where and when was taro used in medieval times? I have only a small file on taro in the Florilegium, 
taro-msg (4K) 2/10/14 Use of the taro plant in period.
and my knowledge of taro is minimal, mostly from grade school social studies classes. I'd love to get more info, an article, bibliography etc. to put in the Florilegium.

<<< often sweetened and spiced like a medieval ginger beer. >>>
Again, a subject I have little info on. I would love to get more info on ginger beer, ginger tea etc. What is the difference between ginger tea and ginger beer? If the latter alcoholic and the former isn't?

Thanks,
    Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
   Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          StefanliRous at gmail.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/marksharris
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****