- Mark -How about black cumin - Nigella sativa? Cheers, Ann Butler
>-- Original Message --
>Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 09:14:28 +0100
>Reply-To: The archaeobotany mailing list <[log in to unmask]>
>From: Mark Nesbitt <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Cumin cultivation in Britain
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>I have had an enquiry from a local historian working on Hundred Rolls from
>Steeple Aston, Oxfordshire (date 1279). She has come across a reference
to
>a
>tenant paying 1 pound of cumin every year to his lord.
>
>Cumin (Cuminus cyminum) is seemingly well documented as being used in
>Anglo-Saxon & Medieval times, but does not occur in the online version
of
>the
>Archaeobotanical Computer Database (ABCD). Today Cumin is regarded
>as difficult to grow for seed in the UK - it has to be sown early in Spring,
>initially under glass. Instead, cumin is imported from India, Turkey etc.
>Two questions: first, is there evidence from farmers' manuals or similar
>for
>cumin cultivation in medieval England and, second, if cumin was grown
>here, was the climate warmer?
>Thanks!
>Mark
>
>*********************************
>Dr Mark Nesbitt
>Centre for Economic Botany
>Royal Botanic Gardens
>Kew
>Richmond
>Surrey
>TW9 3AE
>UK
>
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