Wednesday, August 7, 2013

A Step Back

Today let's cast our imaginations into the past to the early days of man...first order of business is hunger,let's get something to eat! Some of the foods we eat today with little thought must have been a great trial and error with early man. Many times I have been involved in conversations wondering how certain items ever became foods. One of the most frequent of these foods is the artichoke,oddly the artichoke is one of the oldest  foods known to humans. The reason how they came to be recognized as food is never clearly stated,but my thought on this is early man watching animals eating thistles. Artichokes are a member of the thistle family in case you were wondering about the resemblance. Then there is the "story" of a cook attempting to poison George Washington by fixing a stew containing tomatoes. The story never really happened other than in a  Ellery Queen story,again the story is based somewhat in fact as tomatoes are part of the nightshade family and several members of that family are poisonous. The most difficult for me to wrap my mind around is the egg. Did early man see a bird lay an egg and think,"Hey! I bet that would be good eating!" It doesn't seem like a likely scenario to me. I am guessing that again it was by watching another animal eat an egg that tempted man to try one. With that thought in mind,I wonder how long early man tried to feed on grass and other foliage before gaining a balance to his diet?
artichokesFresh Tomatoes

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