From: BillK (bill@wkidston.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Mon Jun 23 2003 - 10:02:59 MDT
The Food Timeline has been created by the Morris County Library.
'Information is checked against standard reference tools for
accuracy--The Oxford Companion to Food (Davidson), The Cambridge World
History of Food (Kiple & Ornelas), Larousse Gastronomique (New American
Edition, Lang [1988] and Revised/Updated English edition [2001]), The
Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink, (Mariani), Food in History
(Tannahill), History of Food (Toussaint-Samat), and other sources as
needed. As with most historical topics, there are some conflicting
stories in the field of food history. We do our best to select and
present the information with the most documented support.'
http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/food.html
The food timeline page agrees that agriculture started around 10,000 BC
when bread and beer appeared. (By the way, don't you think that giving
up hunter gathering for the beer was a good exchange?)
sheep and goats - 9,000 BC
lentils - 8,000 BC
pork and beans - 7,000 BC
But wild rice is a much older plant with the genus going back to the
early Cretaceous period of more than 130 million years ago. If you
follow the links, an interesting history is described.
'Cultivation of the wild prototypes preceded domestication. Rice grains
were initially gathered and consumed by prehistoric people of the humid
regions where the perennial plants grew on poorly drained sites. These
people also hunted, fished, and gathered other edible plant parts as
food. Eventually, however, they developed a liking for the easily cooked
and tasty rice and searched for plants that bore larger panicles and
heavier grains.'
This seems to be claiming that stone age man could have been eating wild
rice as part of his diet. The Paleo diet enthusiasts would surely
disagree with that?
BillK
looking forward to his Chinese chicken and char sui pork tonight ;)
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