History of peanut butter

About 3000 BC the people of Brazil and the Caribbean plated the peanut. At that times the Indians ground peanuts into a sticky paste.

Peanuts were grown by the Incas in Peru around 950 BC.  They made their ways from South America to Africa and then onward to Spain before finding their way to the American colonies. During 900 BC South American mixed ground peanuts and cocoa.

Butter was invented by Aztecs in the first century AD. Although roasted peanuts have been ground into a paste and mixed with honey and cocoa in South America for centuries, peanut butter as a North American food was apparently invented independently.

Originally, peanut butter was made from a combination of Spanish (whose high percentage of oil makes it especially flavorful) and Virginia peanuts.

The making of peanut butter was largely a local hit or miss operation until the Peanut Butter Manufacturers Association was organized about 1940.

In 1901, inventors F. V Mills and H. S Mills devised a machine that dispensed roasted peanuts for a penny. Peanut butter was dispensed from large open vats in grocery stores; then until World War II, it was sold in tins.
History of peanut butter

History of potato in Europe

The potato was introduced into Europe from South American sometime between 1565 and 1573.

It was first grown in Spain and tubers were exported to other parts of Europe. At first, yields were low in Europe because the potatoes from Peru were adapted to short-day growing condition and tuberised poorly in the days of European summers.

Eventually, selections were made for lines of potatoes that would initiate tubers under longer day growing conditions.

By the early part of the 17th century it was found in the botanical gardens of many European states.

The botanist Charles de L’Ecluse (Carolus Clusius) first describes the potato in his Rariorum plantarum historia of 1601 and then again in a section devoted to ‘American exotics’ in a 1605 work.

The cultivation then spread into Portugal, Italy, France, Belgium and Germany.

It was introduced into Ireland in 1585 or 1586 and in England in 1590. Ireland was the first country in Europe where the potato became a major food-crop.

The first certain mention of potato-growing in Ireland is in County Down in 1606, but its spread thereafter was rapid, By the end of the 17th century potatoes were the chief article in the diet of all the poorer classes in Ireland.

It was from Ireland that the potato was first introduced to the North American colonies. Its cultivation seems to have been begun by Irish emigrants to New England in 1718.

The first botanical description of the potato was published by the Swiss botanist, Caspar Bauhin in 1596.
History of potato in Europe

History of camelids

On the South-American continent, camelids are the largest wild herbivores. Camelids have served the needs of people for thousands of years and have provided them with food, fiber and fuel.

Camelids constitute a more reliable food source than agricultural crops because the herds are less influenced by local bad weather, except during the springtime birth seasons.

If a drought destroys a large portion of crops, camelids can survive because of their mobility and greater endogenous food reserves.

The Camelidae originated in western North American in the late Eocene, 40-45 million years ago and underwent millions of years of evolution before the appearance of the current species.

About two millions years ago camelids invaded the continents from North America over the Panama Bridge.

Domestication of South-American camelids has a history of between 6000 to 7000 years ago in Andes. Llama and alpacas were among the first recorded domesticated animals.

A remarkable increase in the camelids population occurred around this period, suggesting the establishment of predominantly herding economy.

Recent research also indicates that similar development occurred in a parallel in the region of the South-Central Andes of south Peru, northern Chile and northwestern Argentina.
History of camelids

History of passion fruit

The edible commercial species of passion fruit originated on the edges of South America rainforests in the Amazon region of Brazil and possibly in Paraguay and northern Argentina.

The passion fruit was cultivated by Inca in what is now know as Peru in about AD 1000.

It has been carried to all parts of the world. In many places it is grown only as a hot-house plant.

Its unusual flowers inspired the Spaniards to name it passion plant.

Passion fruit was given its name by Catholic missionaries in South America. The corona threads of the passion flower were seen as a symbol of the crown of thorns, the five stamens for wounds, the five petals and five sepals as the ten apostles (excluding Judas and Peter) and the three stigmas for the nails on the cross.

Native Americans used the flowers to heal bruises and wounds, calm and encourage sleep, and help settle the nerves.

American Indians used the leaves and the root as a poultice for injuries and boils and made a tea to calm the nerves.

The first written record of the medicinal use date back thousands of years, and in Peru, passion fruit has long been mashed and combined with water to make a refreshing, nutritious drink.

In popular usage, the fruit has been associated with the other ‘passion’ that is ‘sexual attraction’ and so has now become a sort of traditional dish or present for Valentine’s Day.
History of passion fruit