Lee Wrote:
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> Stephanie,
>
>
> It's not quite the same thing, but if you go to
> Rome and observe the local tribe you'll see that
> their culture has been vastly altered by products
> introduced from the other direction --
> particularly, of course -- the TOMATO (all bow
> down) and chocolate; and don't forget pasta from
> the Chinese. They could have left Zucchini behind
> IMHO, but we’d still have it here, I guess.

Not Zucchini per se, as might be guessed from the widespread (well, except in England, which calls them "marrow" squash) use of an ITALIAN name, that particular incarnation of summer squash was bred in Italy out of squash imported from the Americas.

Our "American" zucchini was imported here from Europe.... and while it's ancestors were domesticated by Indians right here in North America, it's morphology was atypical of the native strains (it was a sport occasionally found among straightneck & crookneck summer squash, or maybe a cross of them on one of the round ornamental C.pepo, I'd heard different theories proposed).

Doesn't Italian cooking also rely fairly heavily on chile peppers, though? And (phaseolus vulgaris) beans?

> There’s no special point here except to note that
> the influences of the new world and old worlds
> have, in certain areas, perhaps most notably food
> products, been reciprocal.

Something like 2/3 of the worlds food crops, and something like 3/4 of calories used for human consumption, are from Native American domesticates.

Pretty good track record for those old Indian farmers.... especially when you remember that these figures are as high as they are despite the fact that many regions persisted in keeping their own traditional grains as a staple (rice in asia, wheat/barley/etc in Europe & the Near East, etc).

> What is strange to me is that corn, so important
> in North/Native A diets, has never caught on in
> Europe. I was able to get some lovely corn on the
> cob while living in Berlin (American military
> Commissary I could use because my dad was Army),
> but German friends turned their noses up pretty
> far. I guess the one exception re: corn that I
> can think of is North Italy where polenta is a
> regular part of the diet, but from what I can
> figure they don’t use just plain corn as a
> vegetable either.

Several things factored in:

1) The initial introductions were tropical corns (MOSTLY Caribbean, later Mexican & South American) strains... that were not well adapted to being grown in most parts of Europe, they were too long season.

2) Many of these were flint & popcorns, harder to grind than European grains were.

3) #1 & #2 conspired to make corn more commonly used for livestock feed (if a crop didn't mature one year, it was still good silage to feed the critters. And you could feed hard corn to pigs & horses & cows without having to grind it.... at most, you'd soak it overnight to soften).

4) Europe had trouble conceptualizing a crop that was BOTH a grain AND a vegetable, initially got corn from a people who rarely ate green corn ("corn on the cob" was less eaten in the caribbean, there is only a narrow window during which the local pop & flint corns can be eaten that way), & so developed a stereotype of how to use corn that persisted.

Most northern European (the exception being England, that picked up sweet corn during the mid-18th century from it's colonies) countries got corn that was bred specifically for livestock use... and tastes pretty lousy as corn on the cob. Having centuries of experiance with corn like that, you can understand why they have trouble believing that corn CAN taste good!

> I wonder, by the way, whether the demand for wool
> is being filled by NZ and Australia. New Zealand
> seems to be the preferred source for carpets being
> made in India, Pakistan and China. But that’s
> been true for a while, and the prices are just
> falling now? Is there some particular product
> this wool is most used for? You mention rugs.
> Does you grandmother sell to buyers who are
> looking for a particular grade and type of wool
> which is suddenly less fashionable?
>
> Lee

As I understand, when prices went up a few decades back, NZ & Australia & other places drastically upped production.... which glutted the market a bit.

The price drop has hurt them as well, but they've the advantage of scale (mass production, better infrastructure) & a wetter climate (more grass per acre!).

They are also going for higher quality wool, putting serious effort into breeding & nutrition research. Heh, one company even raises it's sheep ENTIRELY indoors, pampered like hell in sheds with padded walls. The idea is to raise them entirely stress free, walking as little as possible (more metabolic energy to grow wool with?), and with no sunlight or abrasion or dirt on the wool. They get paid obscene figures for THEIR crop!

Kenuchelover.