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Watermelons-art - 8/12/07
"Regarding Watermelons" by THL Johnnae llyn
Lewis.
NOTE: See also the files: fruits-msg, fruit-melons-msg,
berries-msg, Period-Fruit-art, fruit-citrus-msg, pomegranates-msg, figs-msg,
bananas-msg, Africa-msg.
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NOTICE -
This article was submitted to me by the author for
inclusion in this set of files, called Stefan's
Florilegium.
These files are available on the Internet at:
http://www.florilegium.org
Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the
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While the author will likely give permission for this work
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Thank you,
Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous
stefan at florilegium.org
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Regarding Watermelons
by Johnnae llyn Lewis, CE
Questions arise each
summer with regard to the origins of Watermelons and if one should serve them
at events. Given that they are so deeply associated with the American South, it
is felt that they must be New World in origin, right?
In this case watermelons
come originally from Sub-Saharan Africa and were eaten not only by Africans in
Central and West Africa but also by the Egyptians, and even by the Romans and
Greeks. Andrew Dalby believes the sikyos
pepon of the ancient Greeks may indeed be a watermelon. As one might
suspect, they came to be grown in and around the Mediterranean Lands by the
Turks, the Moors, and even by the Italians. Recipes are few, although the Kitab Wasf Al-At'ima Al-Mutada speaks of
using watermelon stalks when cooking meat. Giacomo Castelvetro's 1614
manuscript on the fruits and vegetables that he had known in Italy in the later
half of the 16th century says of them:
"early in June we
have watermelons, which some claim to be another kind of cucumber. They are
extremely thirst-quenching, being little more than a pleasant, sweet-tasting
juice which fills the mouth and is marvelously refreshing."
Watermelons began to
appear in still life paintings in Northern Europe after circa 1450 and can be
found in a number of printed herbals, including the New Kreuterbuch of 1563. John Gerald writes about muske-melons,
millions, melons and pompions as well as gourds in a series of chapters in his Herball. Thomas Hill's The Gardener's Labyrinth had already
included a short section on how one might achieve success in growing melons in
the uncertain climate of English gardens in 1577.
As to the deep association
with American South, it is felt that watermelon seeds traveled directly to the
Americas from Spain and Portugal and also from West Africa with the slave
trade, beginning in the 17th century. The fruit proved easy to grow in the warm
climate and was adapted readily. William Weaver writes that they appear already
in accounts from 1629 Massachusetts and notes that they seem to have been
growing in and around the Delaware River by the 1640's.
I have not found that
garnishing melons in the fashions employed today was done prior to 1600, but
again it seems the decorative, inexpensive, and festive thing to do. It's also
fun and relatively easy, if one has the proper garnishing knives and saws.
(It's something else to do with those pumpkin carving kits.) Rest assured that
they can indeed be served at events and as Castelvetro noted, they can be
marvelously refreshing on a hot day.
Selective Sources include:
Rodinson, Arberry, and
Perry. Medieval Arab Cookery, 2001.
Andrew Dalby. Siren Feasts, 1996. Giacomo Castelvetro
(trans. Gillian Riley) The Fruit, Herbs
& Vegetables of Italy, 1989.
Thomas Hill. The Gardener's Labyrinth, 1577, 1987.
William Woys Weaver. Heirloom Vegetable Gardening, 1997. Alan
Davidson. The Oxford Companion to Food,
1999.
Contributed by THL Johnnae
llyn Lewis
"Regarding
Watermelons" appeared in the August 2006 PALE, in the late Winter 2006
Artes Draconis; and Mead Meat and More
in June 2006.
------
Copyright 2006 by Johnna H.
Holloway. <Johnna at mac.com>. Please don't reprint without permission
from the author.
If this article is reprinted in
a publication, I would appreciate a notice in the publication that you found
this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so
that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.
<the end>