A Seed Saver's Garden

[Zeedman]

One of the best things about visiting Hawaii is waking up to a big glass of POG-- passionfruit, orange and guava juice. It may well be one of the best beverages out there. And for some reason you never see it in the refrigerator section anywhere but in Hawaii. Man, do I ever miss that stuff. Sweet memories.

I would only add carambola (star fruit) to that list. That is another great tropical juice fruit. I enjoyed that when visiting places in the Pacific. Hard to find good carambola here, they are very tender & don't ship well, so most of those I've seen here were picked & shipped green.

 

[heirloomgal]

So I guess you're saying they taste better with your eyes closed?

Yup.

Years ago carambola used to be quite widely available, I used to buy them sometimes. In the last decade I never see them anymore. I agree, they were delicious. But I can see what you mean about being picked green as they often had a green tint to them and you could almost tell that these were not picked ripe, they sometimes a tartness to match. I'd love DD to try them, I think she'd really like them.

 

[heirloomgal]

Weird fruit nerd factoids. A strawberry isn't a berry. But a banana is. What is this world coming to?

 

[flowerbug]

Weird fruit nerd factoids. A strawberry isn't a berry. But a banana is. What is this world coming to?

it is a berry crazy place!

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

it is a berry crazy place!

 

[Triffid]

Part of why I find this interesting is, being a bean grower, that I feel this is the case with common belief in the origin of Phaseolus vulgaris. The story that it was introduced to Europe from the New World just doesn't make any sense given the ancient story of Jack and the Beanstalk, thousands of years ago. It's one of the oldest written stories in history. Clearly Europe was in possession of very tall plants that grew beans, so how did the story get so convoluted? This documentary explains how these things go wrong with traditional archaeological narrow thinking.

I'd be wary of some statements made by the documentary makers because I think they are misinterpreting a study on folktales. The paper's author found that the classification of stories to which Jack and the Beanstalk belongs may have Proto-Romance origins. That story archtype is 'The Boy who Steals Ogre's Treasure'. The specific bean adaptation of this archtype is from 18th-century England.

 

[flowerbug]

beans being introduced to the old-world is not pre-history...

 

[Pulsegleaner]

I'd be wary of some statements made by the documentary makers because I think they are misinterpreting a study on folktales. The paper's author found that the classification of stories to which Jack and the Beanstalk belongs may have Proto-Romance origins. That story archtype is 'The Boy who Steals Ogre's Treasure'. The specific bean adaptation of this archtype is from 18th-century England.

As I think I said before, the original beanstalk was probably supposed to be a broad, or fava, bean plant. Those WERE in England since time immemorial. Plus, sine favas grow straight up without support, it actually fits the legend better.

 

[ducks4you]

I could just see some eyeglass adjusting nerd interrupting a child's "Jack and the Beanstalk" play performance with corrections that split hairs about fava beans.

 

[heirloomgal]

I'd be wary of some statements made by the documentary makers because I think they are misinterpreting a study on folktales. The paper's author found that the classification of stories to which Jack and the Beanstalk belongs may have Proto-Romance origins. That story archtype is 'The Boy who Steals Ogre's Treasure'. The specific bean adaptation of this archtype is from 18th-century England.

The documentary I mentioned in the post was about archeology and interpretations of ancient human structures like Gobekli Tepe, there were no ideas on beans offered in there, I was just sharing my own thoughts about the origins of P. vulgaris.