Raisins are believed to date back to around 1500 BC and raisins are even mentioned in the Bible.
Muscat, oversized raisins with tiny seeds, were grown in Southern Spain and farmers in Greece grew tiny seedless, tangy raisin called currants. The name currant is probably a corruption of the word ‘Corinth’.
The ancient Phoenicians and Armenians took the first steps in perfecting viticulture, the process of grape growing and selection. It is well documented that the Phoenicians and the Armenians were the world’s first viticulture experts.
Between 120 and 900 BC, the Phoenicians started their vineyard colony in Spain and Greece. Concurrently, the Armenians began their vineyard in present day Turkey, Iran an Iraq.
These growing areas had the perfect climate for making raisins and were conveniently close to Greece and Rome, the first markets for raisins. Doctors of ancient Rome and Greece were using raisins to treat all sorts of problems, from joint aches to old age.
Romans often used them for money and awarded them to winners of competitors. Romans also valued raisins where two jars of raisin could be exchange for a slave.
Raisin didn’t become, popular in Europe until the 11th century when knights returning home from the Crusades brought raisins back with them from the Mediterranean and Persia.
In the 18th century Spanish missionaries helped farmers in California grow grapes for wine and marketable Muscat for raisin in the 1850s.
Around 1876, a Scottish immigrant, William Thompson, grew a seedless grape variety that was thin skinned, seedless, sweet and tasty. The first California raisins were produced in southern California during the 1850s using the Muscat of Alexandria variety. The industry soon moved north and was firmly established in the Fresno area by the 1870s.
History of raisins
