food in the ancient world

My blueberries and strawberries are American?

I am shocked. I am distinctly dizzy. I have to sit down.

Seems I'm already sitting.

Man. Intense.

Nice find.

Very interesting but I'm not sure that it is completely accurate with respect to strawberries. It is certainly true that modern commercial strawberries are derived from plants originating in the Americas, but there are strawberries that grow wild in Europe. They produce much smaller fruit, but I think they are indigenous.

waylander said:

Very interesting but I'm not sure that it is completely accurate with respect to strawberries. It is certainly true that modern commercial strawberries are derived from plants originating in the Americas, but there are strawberries that grow wild in Europe. They produce much smaller fruit, but I think they are indigenous.

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Strawberries indigenous to the Americas also grow very tiny fruit. Large size, and small flavor, has been bred into them.

Strawberries do grow wild in parts of Europe, but even the wild ones were imported to Europe from the Americas.

That's what I thought. Wild strawberries are much sweeter than the big ones. But of course tiny.

I'd like to know for sure.

I'm not sure I always trust JAR's "facts".

With all due respect, of course.

So I'd still like to know.

My cursory reasearch has come up with the following non-verified facts:

"The first documented botanical illustration of a strawberry plant appeared as a figure in Herbaries in 1454."

"As far back as the 13th century,the Strawberry was used as ananaphrodisiac."

The English word "strawberry" could come from the Anglo-Saxon "streoberie", meaning strewn berrie, as in strewn on the ground.

And: "Medieval stonemasons carved strawberry designs on altars and around the tops of pillars in churches and cathedrals, symbolizing perfection and righteousness. During the same time period, strawberries were served at important state occasions and festivals to ensure peace and prosperity."

So I think this tasty berry managed to spread itself far and wide way before Columbus tried his shortcut-to-India trick.

I think...

I'm correct in saying that the commercial strawberry that we buy comes from American sources and is the result of crossbreeding N and S American varieties.

The wild strawberry is a native of Europe and did not come from the Americas. There are berry finds reported at Bronze Age sites and I'm nearly sure wild strawberries were part of the finds.

This is what my research is telling me.

This sparked my curiosity so I went searching.

And from what I've read... you could certainly have a character in a story set in Europe or the Mediterranean picking wild strawberries even if your story was set as far back as pre-historic times.

Quoted from http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch45.html :

"Prehistoric man had little value for the wild strawberry because of its inconvenience, though he certainly did consume his share. The plants were found in the woods, often covered by lush overgrowth. The season was brief, only a few weeks, and the berries were smaller than our wild strawberries today. Hardly worth the trouble, since early man did not know how to preserve and store foods. Yet, a few tiny strawberry seeds were discovered by archeologists in Mesolithic sites in Denmark, Neolithic sites in Switzerland, and Iron Age sites in England."


Or if your story was set in France, you could have a strawberries being cultivated (on a small scale) in the 1300s.

Again quoted from http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch45.html :

'Sporadic efforts of strawberry cultivation began in the 1300's with a few plantings of the wild fruits into home gardens. On a grander scale, King Charles V adorned his Parisian gardens at the Louvre with 1200 strawberry plants in 1368. A few years later, the Duke and Duchess of Burgundy had their gardener plant a four-block area of their property near Dijon with strawberries."

indian strawberries

the name for those tiny strawberries with the great flavor is french--something du bois--close to the spanish word for strawberry:fresas. i remember that name from the tag on the mail order plants. the tag said they were developed in france. (all i can think of is blanche du bois--t. williams character NOT a botanical). i have grown the smaller ones in the past and they are fun but a lot of work. one robin or one jay can pretty much wipe out the whole crop. i also grow the bigger berries. they thrive in the sand in this area but i have never seen any growing wild. i am wondering if maybe someone has confused edible strawberries with a wild plant that is a dead ringer for a strawberry. maybe a cousin? this plant grows in eastern kansas and western missouri but not western kansas. spot one and you think yum! pop it in your mouth and pucker and drool. we called them "indian strawberries" but i am sure they have a more politically correct name nowadays--s6

No, wild strawberries are delicious.

They do not have a French name in Europe. Except in France, I would imagine. In Britain they are called wild strawberries. In Norwegian (as an example, since I speak it) they are called markjordbær. This means "field strawberries". You find these in wooded hills and on the edge of forests. They're wild.

I don't know why you'd think we would be confusing these with some "indian" variety I, at least, have never heard of.

Frais du Bois

Egypt and old cities of Babylon are in the middle east right? So that website you quoted would it have the native foods on old time egypt? as I am working on a Egytain Fictional story been doing so for a very long time.

Monty said:

Egypt and old cities of Babylon are in the middle east right? So that website you quoted would it have the native foods on old time egypt? as I am working on a Egytain Fictional story been doing so for a very long time.

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Cheek out Coopers "Eat and Be sadisfided: A socail Hisory of Jewish food." It has a a list of foods known in Egyp in the begning.

Not sure I would trust it

There is a lot of misinformation out there about food in ancient Egypt and I certainly would not trust a book on Jewish food to get it right. I'm an Egyptologist and one of my specialties is food and more often than not the things you read about ancient Egyptian food are downright wrong. If you need assistance with ancient Egyptian food research, you can contact me through my Web site and perhaps I can be of assistance:

http://www.glyphdoctors.com

Interesting thread. My WIP is set in ancient Babylon so this discussion has my full attention! Currently I'm getting my information from EVERYDAY LIFE IN BABYLON AND ASSYRIA by Georges Contenau and BABYLON by Joan Oates as well as a lot of online stuff. I take most of it with a grain of salt and rely more heavily on photo plates of basalt and limestone inscriptions. Locusts appear to have been a particular delicacy. Ugh.
Linnea