Friar Tomas de Berlanga and banana

One of the first records of bananas dates back to Alexander the Great’s conquest of India where he first discovered bananas in 327 BC. During the 1500's, as Spanish Explorers began to visit the New World, the banana traveled with them.

According the Spanish history, Friar Tomas de Berlanga brought the first banana root stocks from a Portuguese settlement in the Canary Islands, to the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, or present-day Dominican Republic.

In 1516, De Berlanga set up the first New World banana plantation in the rich, fertile soil of the tropics, thus beginning the banana’s future in American life. Banana plantations were soon established throughout European colonies in the Caribbean, as well as in South and Central America.

Export trading in bananas started with small shipments from Caribbean to the United States of America early in the nineteenth century; these consisted of bunches, probably Gros Michael, transported in unrefrigerated space on schooners.

But the early twentieth century shipbuilders had built refrigerated ships. They painted them white to reflect the hot tropical sun.
Friar Tomas de Berlanga and banana

History of walnut

Walnuts belong to the genus Juglans, of the walnut family Juglandacae. Ancestral forms of walnut once spanned Europe, Asia and the Americas as far as north as Alaska.

Climate changes altered the geographic distribution and further evolutionary pressures resulted in the 21 species of Juglans in existence today.

All species produce nuts but the Persian or English walnut (Juglans regia) is the only species widely cultivated for nut production. The name Persian walnut is descriptive of its origin. Since Roman times, the English walnut had been cultivated commercially in Europe.

The walnut tree was introduced into Europe by the Romans and has been grown there since the 4th century. The Greeks cultivate the tree intensively, mainly for walnut oil, and the Romans regarded it as a sacred tree.

The word walnut may be derived from ‘wealh nut’, ‘wealh’ meaning foreign in Anglo-Saxon or old German. Trees of the species were in England by 1562 and nuts were brought to America by the earliest settlers.

The American colonist are said to have called the species ‘English’ walnut because it was brought to America on English ship and to distinguish it from the native American eastern black walnut (J. nigra). Black walnuts are native to the Central Mississippi Valley and the Appalachian region of North America. Black walnuts were an important source of food for the American Indians and early settlers.
History of walnut

History of pumpkin seeds

The pumpkin is thought to have originated in Central America. Archeological remains, dated about 8750 BC, have been found in Mexico. Pumpkins appear in the Southwest in precermamic levels at Bat Cave and Tularosa Cave at about 1000-500 BC; by that time they were probably widespread in Mesoamerica and were present in the Midwestern United States.

Pumpkins are considered to have been the first food to travel from the New World to be cultivated in Europe. The English name pumpkin dates back to sometimes before the 1600s, but the fruit has its true roots in American soil.

Pumpkins were a staple in the Native American diet and a part of their healing medicines long before the pilgrims showed up and claimed it for their Thanksgiving day meal. The Iroquois used an infusion of pumpkin seeds to treat children with reduced urination.

The Menomini used the seeds of pumpkin to facilitate the passage of urine. The seeds were pulverized in a mortar and the powder mixed with water. Catawba Indians chewed pumpkin seeds fresh or dried and swallowed them as a kidney medicine.

As an early introduction to Europe, the sixteen-century German herbalist Fuchs recommended pumpkin seeds, which he lumps together with cucumbers, melons and cantaloupe – an ambiguity perhaps reflecting its recent arrival from America - ‘when the bladder is being difficult,’ as prescription that coincided with the modern use of extract of pumpkin seeds for urinary and prostate problems.

Pumpkins were easy to cultivate and became a common food at meals, particularly in New England. They were baked, fried, mashed, roasted and stewed and eaten as an accompaniment to meat. Pumpkin seeds were eaten like nuts, raw or roasted, or fried in deep fat and salted to give ‘pepitos’.

In some parts of Central America the roasted kernels are combined with a sticky syrup to form ‘pepitorio’, a sweet confection. They are common in Mexican and Native American cuisines. Today, pumpkin seeds are produced commercially by the United States, China, India and Mexico.
History of pumpkin seeds

History of Wheat

Food History

Wheat is an ancient grain. Thought to have originated in southwestern Asia, it has been consumed as a food for more than 12,000 years.

It played an important role of religious significance and was part of the sacred rituals of many cultures. Greek, Roman, Sumerian and Finnish mythology had gods and goddesses of wheat. This exceptionally nutritious grain is still considered to be sacred in some areas of China.

Wheat was not native to the Western Hemisphere and was only introduced here in the late 15th century when Columbus came to the New World. While wheat was grown in the United States during the early colonial years, it was not until the late 19th century that wheat cultivation flourished, owing to the importation of an especially hardy strain of wheat known as Turkey red wheat, which was brought over by Russian immigrants who settled in Kansas.

As rice has been the dietary staple of Asia, wheat has served this role for many of other regions of the world. It is estimated that approximately one-third of the world's people depend upon wheat for their nourishment.

The collection of wheat offered man a number of advantages. Grains could be stored without spoiling. They could be stocked or carried from place to place and prepared in any number of ways. Grain could be traded for other essentials or comforts, eventually leading to the development of commerce and a means of supplying food for city populations from distant fields.

Today, the largest commercial producers of wheat include the Russian Federation, the United States, China, India, France and Canada.

Food History