Ancient oats

Oats (Avena spp.) were one of the first cereals cultivated by man. They were first grown as weeds in barley and wheat fields in Mesopotamia in about 10,500 BC, though in cloudier, wetter and cooler Europe, oats were selected for cultivation over wheat and barley by about the 7000 BC.

The ancient Greeks are believed to be the first people to have made a recognizable porridge from oats.

Oats were also weeds in ancient fields of wheat and barley in the Near East and certain of them came to be cultivated, though at what date remains uncertain. The Roman historian, Pliny, complained that oats were a highly aggressive weed in cereal crops planted in moist environments though Pliny noted that oats were good for forage production.

In China oats were cultivated already in Han times. Some says that the early oats of China were Avena nuda, presumably introduced from an east European center of domestication.
Ancient oats

History of noodles in ancient China

Noodles almost certainly originated in ancient China and spread from there to India, the Middle East and finally to Europe. Noodles were first popular in the north of China, where the climate favored those cereal crops which are best adapted to noodle-making.

In 2002 a set of four thousand-year old noodles were unearthed at Laija, an archeological site in the Qinghai Province of northwestern China.

Eventhough the noodles were buried underneath more than 10 feet of dirt, they were still almost perfectly preserved. The noodles made from a type of grain called millet were the oldest noodles ever discovered.

When the invaders from the north and west overran northern China, beginning in the twelfth century, noodle making technology was carried down to the Yangzi basin and the all across the south.

One of the cultures of China was that when a woman neared her to give birth, her family would take noodles over three bridges with the belief that after eating the noodles, she would have a successful birth.

Noodle is likely that large scale commercial production was already well under way in Han dynasty, about AD 100, following the introduction of wheat milling technology imported from Middle East.

Noodles were first enjoyed by China’s ruler and then, as wheat became more widely available, by ordinary people.
History of noodles in ancient China

History of soy sauce

The words ‘soy’, ‘soya’ and ‘soja’ and the term ‘soy sauce’ came to English from the Japanese word shoyu via the Dutch. The first European language document in which the words for ‘soy’ or ‘soy sauce’ appeared was Dutch.

The origin of soy sauce is considered to be China where only soy beans are used as a raw material. According to hypothesis by Kinichiro Sakaguchi, soy sauce was derived from a Chinese food called ‘chiang’.

Book of Chou-li first recorded that chiang was made during ancient dynasty of Chou (1222 BC – 249 BC). The used soybean in chiang was originated sometimes between the Chou and Han dynasties, when the cultivation of soybeans prevailed.

In the sixteenth century a vegetarian seasoning came with Buddhism from China to Japan. After that soy sauce underwent considerable development in Japan. In the second half of the 17th century, the large scale industry production of soy sauce occurred, backed by a huge consumption in a large cities such Edo (Tokyo).

In 1837, Worcestershire Sauce made by Lea and Perrins, soon becomes the best known commercial soy product made in England. The main secret ingredient is soy sauce.
History of soy sauce

History of peaches

Peaches and nectarines are the same species Prunus persica. China is the center of origin of peaches.  

Chinese literature dates its cultivation in China to 1000 BC, when book of poems and songs was written describing pink peach blossoms and peach tree with ripe fruit. The Romans acquired the peach from Persia and named the fruit persica, assuming Persia to have been the center of origin of peaches.

The Romans spread peaches throughout their empire.

The peach is said to have been first cultivated in England about the middle of the sixteenth century, Gerard describes several varieties of peach as growing in his garden. Tusser mentions it among his list of fruits in 1557.

Peaches were introduced to the New World following the Spanish conquest.

In North America, it was only after the American Revolution in the 1770s when clonal propagation of peaches became a common technique.

Several peach cultivars were released between the 1770s and 1860s from selected seedling of unknown parentage.

A number of cultivars of unknown origin were released in the first half of the 1800s including Early Crawford, Late Crawford and Oldmixon Cling.

About 1850, Charles Downing introduced peaches directly from China to North America, from which emerged the Chinese Cling.  After Civil War, Samuel Rumph planted Chinese Cling in Marshallville, Georgia and released two important cultivars from that field, Elberta and Belle of Georgia.

Chinese Cling and its seedlings such as Elberta, Belle of Georgia, J.H Hale and their derivatives became important peach cultivars throughout the USA.
History of peaches