The Evolution of Corn (Maize)-It Did Not Originate In North America

Of all the strange, unknown plants that explorers found in the New World, corn is arguably the second most important.

The native Inca population called it “maize” and the harvest of maize could mean the difference between abundance and starvation for these highly advanced peoples.          

Corn or maize (zea mays, is a domesticated grass and like many other indigenous plants; beans, squash, melons, and tobacco for example, it is of South American origin- so much for the claims of some Canadian and United States of the Americas First Nations tribes.

European colonists quickly adopted maize agriculture from the natives of Central and South America. These crops quickly spread to other parts of the world as well.

Over a period of probably thousands of years, the Incas and some other tribes of South America purposefully transformed maize through special cultivation techniques. Maize was developed from a wild grass (Teosinte) originally growing in South America and as far up as southern Mexico. The ancestral kernels of Teosinte looked very different from today’s corn. These kernels were small and were not fused together like the kernels on the husked ear of early maize and modern corn.

By systematically collecting and cultivating those plants best suited for human consumption, native South Americans encouraged the formation of ears or cobs on early maize. The first ears of maize were only a few inches long and had only eight rows of kernels (much like the tiny cobs sometimes used in Chinese food). Cob length and size of early maize grew over the years and gradually increased the yields.

Eventually the productivity of maize cultivation was great enough to make it possible and worthwhile for a family to produce food for the bulk of their diet for an entire year in a small area although agriculture permitted a family to live in one place for an extended period of time, the commitment to agriculture involved demands on human time and labour and often restricted human mobility. The genetic alterations in Teosinte changed its food value as a food resource and at the same time affected the human scheduling necessary for its effective procurement.

As the life ways of mobile hunting and gathering were often transformed into sedentary agricultural customs, very slowly the cultivation of maize, along with beans, squash and tomatoes was introduced into the southern parts of North America The practice of maize agriculture did not reach the southern parts of what is now the United States of North America until about a thousand years ago.

The Origins of Some Well Known North American?? Vegetables and Fruits

Detailed Contents                                                            

The Origins of Some Well Known; North American?? Vegetables and Fruits: Beans, Corn, (Maize), Melons, Potatoes, Squash, Tomatoes

Beans, Corn (Maize), Melons, Potatoes, Squash, Tomatoes

There is considerable confusion and some controversy as to the true origins of these vegetables. The confusion is seen to arise from the fact that for some never to be known reason the United States loves to insist that known untruths are truths and that much of what is none factual is indeed factual.

For example the United States still has Columbus Day, when they celebrate his having "discovered" some mythical, country, nation, place or thing called America.

The rest of the world now recognizes that he simply got lost while attempting to follow some five hundred year old sailing charts of Norse origin.—that at the very most, and that too is very debatable, he" discovered" actually "rediscovered", only some small islands that were unknown to most European navigators or at least did not show up on most maps.

Possibly, as claimed by the United States, one was Cuba and one might have been Trinidad. Actually, as stated above; if, and where, Columbus made any landfall is still very much in dispute. We do know it would have been somewhere in the Bahamas, Bermuda, or the Caribbean.  

Columbus supposedly spent five days exploring the first island before sailing to another island which may, although it is highly unlikely have been Cuba. If the Island was Cuba, the existence of the American continents (the distance between the two being 90.3 miles) definitely would have been known. Why then, if he really was looking for China and India, would he not want to at least make land fall on the mainland? The existing records of his journey have no mention of a larger land mass.

We know from the second journal-strangely Columbus's original journal and ships log were lost.—that he picked up a small pole which appeared to have been worked with iron.             Draft animals and metals other than gold were unknown in North and South America, prior to the first European settlement; so where did this small pole come from?      In order to have made such a discovery, Columbus would have to have been much further north; in the area of Cape Breton Island, Newfoundland, or Nova Scotia and have stumbled upon an old site of Norse origin. As defined by the United States of America, he would not then have been in any part of “America”.

Or perhaps the continent of Atlantis arose from the deep, just for those five days: but Atlantis also is not America.

We also know, from this journal, that where ever it was he landed "They go as naked as when their mothers bore them, and so do the women, although I did not see more than one girl. They are very well made, with handsome bodies and very good countenances".

Only four things have any ring of credibility:

§  He may have" discovered" some small islands which he took to be part of the East-Indies

§  He never, set foot on North or South America and had no idea that either continent existed.

§  He was not Spanish born.

§  If the United States wants to continue their claim that the Spanish discovered America, then Cortez, and not Columbus, was the first Spaniard known to have set foot on any of the Americas.

On 24 June 1497, John Cabot, sighted Cape Breton Island, and Nova Scotia, thus, supposedly, "discovering" the mainland of North America; this was only about 600 years after the Norsemen had already done so.

Yes, the first Europeans known definitely to set foot in the Americas were the Norse. Beginning in the eighth century, they burst out of their cultural homeland in Scandinavia in a series of expansionist waves of migration, likely triggered by over population, food shortage and by disease. It is very probable that the Russians had also.

The term Viking, though commonly used to denote ship-borne explorers, traders and warriors, is actually a verb, not a noun, and describes the acts of the Norsemen who originated in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Greenland, and raided the coasts of the British Isles, France and other parts of Europe and North America from at least the late 8^th century to the 11^th century. This period of world history (generally dated 793-1086) is referred to as the Viking Age. Famed for their navigation ability and long ships, the Norsemen in a few hundred years colonized the coasts and rivers of Europe, the islands of Shetland, Orkney, the Faeroe Islands, Iceland and for at least a short while also Newfound land.

About (1000 AD), nearly half a millennium before Columbus, the Norse, (possibly Leif Eriksson or Eric the Red), were the first of the "Old World Peoples" to set foot in North America.

It has also been proven that in the year 1481 the British, having been led by the Norsemen, had a fishing colony in Newfoundland. The colony was named after the British leader of the expedition. His last name sounded very much like America.

While a number of other theories regarding the origin of the name America have been advanced, none have been proven true (very strange, if it were true that the name first came into existence after 1492, but it is not)

First and the most generally accepted theory (the United States excluded) is that the name America is derived from an ancient Norse term, in very common use by the North Atlantic sailing fraternity from about that magical year 1000 AD.

Then too, the United States continues to refer to “third world” countries of the Middle East, Asia and Africa, ignoring the truth that we are the new comers and the true third world, that our alphabet, much of our modern science, mathematics, religion, the bible, democratic government, law, and the very basis of much of the Constitution of The United States originated in these same countries.

On top of this, if you are a Christian, the son of the very God in whom you believe and in whom the United States currency claims to trust was born in the Middle East.

Queen Isabella of Spain was desperate to find a short route to Cathay (China) and to develop other rich markets. This factor alone prompted the journeys of Columbus and facilitated the greatest hoax of all time.

The United States of America has always believed they own or should own all of the Caribbean (actually that they are destined to be world dictators) but then they have to, in order to lend any credibility whatsoever to the ridiculous claim that Columbus discovered America; which to their way of thinking is the United States – only the United States.

Much of the so called "Cuba Crisis" came about because Fidel Castro informed them that his country is Cuba- not America, not American, and not located in any of the three Americas. Of course, then, in order to retain Cuban sovereignty and avoid an American invasion, he had little choice but to align himself closely with Russia.

Looking at the situation from U. S. perspective

A.    If Cuba and Trinidad are not part of America.

B.     If the Caribbean is not part of America.

C.     If Columbus never saw or set foot on North or South America;

D.    If Canada, Mexico and South America ,with a total population of approximately 590,000,000 people and total area of 30,000,000 square kilometers are not part of what the United States considers to be America

E.     If the United States of America with a population of 300,000,000 people and an area of only 9,631,418 square kilometers, less than a third of the Americas, comprises all of America.

F.     And a continent or even a country named America cannot be found in any world atlas. Not of this world at least.

G.    Then America does not exist. So Columbus could not possibly have discovered it and the people of that area now called the United States of America have no right to call themselves by American. Therefore, the citizens, or peoples, of the United States of America, remain what they always have been; a loose union, or collaboration, of peoples of mixed races and cultures, a conglomerate of different geological areas and territories, without a nationality, because they are union of states and have never become true a country or nation any more than the European Union, Soviet Union, or United Kingdom is, or was, a single country or nation. They are simply the United States “of” North America.

If Columbus discovered an America, it must have, like the mythical island, continent or nation of Atlantis, mysteriously slipped beneath the waves of the Atlantic.

America and Americans (if used other than as a description of all peoples living in North or South America) just does not make sense, and like the legend of Atlantis is-strictly an unsubstantiated myth, folk-lore, or the product of overactive imagination.

Instead of the United States claiming they do not recognize parts of Canada as being Canadian territory and do not recognize some other governments and religions as being legitimate; it should be Canada and the rest of the world that do not recognize any peoples or territories claiming to be America, or American.

Back in the days or Abraham Lincoln, many politicians in the United States bragged that their country "will become the “terror” of the modern world" (documented in the movie Young Lincoln). Today, people of our world must realize that much of this bragging has materialized and the United States of America are terrorists.

An absolute disregard on the part of the United States for: truth, liberty, freedom, territorial boarders, historical facts, or human rights, coupled with an absolute paranoia towards anything or anyone different, or that does not fully capitulate and accept their ideas and way of thinking, have caused a great amount of confusion, suffering and dying in our world.

Too many, this seems to be of little consequence for we are supposedly American allies. But, it also means that many things long thought to have originated, or been invented in the United States did not or were not.        For example:

All, of the above listed vegetables, long claimed to have originated in America, (see also—Where did the automobile come from? page 196) originated either in the deep southernmost part of Mexico, or on an entirely different continent, South America, with the Aztec or Incas, people having a much different, origin, culture, and life style than the much stereotyped North American native.

While it is accepted by anthropologists and scientists that North America was settled from the north by peoples emigrating across the Bering Straits it is also very, very evident that South America had by far the older and more advanced civilizations. It is just as evident that these peoples were not all of the same race or origin, and all very different from the North Americans. There is also a question in North America as to the origins of blue eyed Cherokee and other natives that existed before the first recorded arrival of any known Caucasians

The fore mentioned vegetables could not possibly have been developed by a nomadic, hunter gather, culture; but required the techniques of a much more advanced peoples, with a more sedentary life style, written language, superior architecture, some idea of irrigation, more attuned to agriculture, and several hundreds, if not thousands of years.

 Think about this: if these vegetables were developed in North America over the time it would require, that would make the North American culture older than most of the countries of Europe and Asia. Why then, if they had all this know how did they not; these war-like peoples; also have the skills to make any of the basic developments in herding, animal husbandry, armament, architecture, metallurgy, irrigation, plumbing, sewage and drainage systems, transportation, or any other forms of agriculture so common in the rest of the world for hundreds if not thousands of years?

Could it be that the indigenous North American tribes are, as science claims, really relatively new comers to North America; and in fact the descendants of some of the weaker, less advanced, Mongolian tribes, that were driven out of Asia during its stone age, and had never developed much further? Could it be that it required the superior civilizations of South American, the original American civilizations, the only peoples to have a true written language, and the only people capable of keeping the necessary records, in order to achieve such developments?

Some things can be passed on successfully basically by word of mouth and by material evidence; others just cannot, especially in a culture in which the average life span is less than forty years and there was very little communication between the various tribes or nations.

Could it also be that the North American native, living in probably the most primitive civilization on earth, survived only because, for a time, they were so isolated?

We, in Canada, need to change either our concept of history or the concepts of the native peoples.

There still exists a serious question as to whether the bean, corn, squash, potato, and tobacco, were not cultivated in China ages before being introduced to the Americas. A recent traveler says, “The interior of China along the course of the Yang-tse-Kiang is a land full of wonders. In one place pisicultural nurseries line the banks for nearly fifty miles. All sorts of inventions, the cotton-gin included, claimed by Europeans and Americans are to be found there forty centuries old. Plants, yielding drugs of great value without number, the familiar tobacco and potato, maize (white and yellow corn) and other plants believed to be indigenous to the Americas, have been cultivated there from time immemorial. To add more credence to this argument; a great number of tomato sauces (including, but not limited to, ketchup, the most popular tomato sauce of them all) were known in China long before they came to the rest of the world

©Al (Alex-Alexander) D. Girvan. All rights reserved.

Potatoes are Not Irish, Origin of the Potato.

Potatoes are Not Irish.

All forms of the potato, like beans,and corn or maize originated in the Americas; just not in North America or the present day  United States of the Americas.

Like corn (maize) and the tomato; the potato, was introduced to Europe

From South America in the sixteenth century,

Probably by the Spanish.

But Germans credit Sir Francis Drake with the introduction 1580.

Yukon Gold, German Butterball, Irish Cobbler,

Yellow Finn, Bannock Russet.

The potato is truly what the French have called it:

Pomme de terre, the apple of the earth.

The history of the potato, like that of beans, corn, squash and tomatoes, probably has its roots in the windswept Andes Mountains of South America.

Like much of Canada, South America is an austere region plagued by fluctuating temperatures and often poor soil conditions. Yet the tough and durable potato is believed to have evolved in its thin air (elevations up to 1500 feet), climbing ever higher like the people who first settled the region.

These tough pre-European farmers first discovered and cultivated the potato some 700 to a 1000 years ago (about the same time as the present North American natives were crawling out of caves- somewhere else in the world). They were impressed by its ruggedness, storage quality and its nutritional value.

 Western man did not come in contact with the potato until as late as 1537 when the Spanish Conquistadors tramped through Peru. And it was even later, about 1570, that the first potato made its way across the Atlantic to make a start on the continent of Europe.

Though the tuber was productive and hardy, the Spanish put it to very limited use. In Spanish Colonies potatoes were considered food of the under classes, when brought to the Old World they would be used primarily to feed hospital and prison inmates.

It would take three decades for the potato to spread to the rest of Europe. Even so the potato was cultivated primarily as a curiosity by amateur botanists. Resistance was due to ingrained eating habits, the tubers reputation as a food for the underprivileged and perhaps most importantly its relationship to poisonous plants

It is still commonly believed that the tomato is the only edible member of the night shade family. In fact, eggplants, potatoes, and tomatoes are all members of this family.

Because the potato, like the tomato is a member of the nightshade family, like the tomato its leaves are indeed poisonous. A potato left too long in the sunlight will begin to turn green. The green skin contains substance called solanine, which can cause the potato to taste bitter and even cause illness in humans. The active ingredient (drug) atropine can also cause delirium, but usually just leads to disturbed sleep and dreams. Such drawbacks were understood in Europe, but the advantages, generally were not.

Europe would wait until the 1780’s before the potato gained prominence anywhere. About 1780 the people of Ireland, many of whom considered themselves to be under privileged, and oppressed, adopted the rugged food crop. The other main reason for its acceptance in Ireland was its ability to produce abundant, nutritious food. Unlike any other major crop, except beans, another product of South America that had not really come into vogue, potatoes contain most of the vitamins needed for sustenance. Perhaps more importantly, potatoes can provide this sustenance to nearly ten people on an acre of land. This would be one of the prime factors causing a population explosion in the early 1800’s Of course by the mid 1800’s the Irish would become so dependent upon this crop that its failure would provoke a famine.

While in Ireland, the potato gained acceptance literally from the bottom up, in France the potato was imposed upon society by an intellectual. Antoine Augustine Parmentier saw that the nutritional benefits of the crop combined with its productive capacity could be a boon to the French farmer. He was a pharmacist, chemist, and employee of Louis XV. Parmentier discovered the benefits of the potato while held prisoner by the Prussians during the Seven Years War. He was so enamoured by the potato that he determined that it should become a staple of the French diet. After failing by conventional means to convince Frenchmen of its advantages, he determined upon a surreptitious means of making his point.

Parmentier acquired a miserable and unproductive spot of ground on the outskirts of Paris. Here he planted fifty acres of potatoes. During the day, he sat guard over it. This drew considerable attention in the neighbourhood. In the evening the guard was relaxed and the locals came to see what all the fuss was about. Believing the plant must be valuable; may peasants “acquired” some potatoes from the plot, and soon were growing the tuber in their own garden plots. Their resistance was overcome by their curiosity, greed, and desire to better their lot with the obviously valuable new produce.

Soon the potato would gain wide acceptance across Europe and eventually even make its way back over the Atlantic to North America. As time passed, the potato would become one of the major food stuffs of the world, and as such would naturally be “claimed” by the United States. But not without a few bumps in the road. The 1840’s saw a disastrous potato blight. This terrible disease was caused by a fungus known as Phytophthoran infestans. With the devastation of the potato crops, throughout Europe came the destruction and dislocation of many of the populations that had become dependent upon it. The Potato Famine in Ireland would cut the population by half (through both starvation and emigration) and was the reason some of my on ancestors emigrated from Scotland. An effective fungicide was not found until 1883 by the French botanist Alexander Millardet.

It is hard for North Americans to imagine a time when potatoes were not a daily dish. Yet a little over 450 years ago they were known only to the Incas of Peru, who had an elaborate agricultural system and developed this tuberous vegetable until they had many varieties, all sizes, shapes, and even colours. Like tomatoes, squash, beans, and corn, potatoes were native only to South America and explorers took them to Europe.

The Irish took the simple bland tuber and brought it back to North America as the Irish potato, the variety most widely grown and eaten in this country. We regularly depend on three types: the common mature (or stored) potato for boiling, mashing, hash-browned, and cooking with meats; the elongated baking potato with its fine mealy texture; and the new potato, waxy and smooth, which is delicious sautéed and the best choice for potato salad. There are probably more recipes for preparing potatoes than for any other vegetable in the world. No wonder they are now almost as basic as bread in our diet.

Potato or white potato, is a common name for a perennial plant (Solanum tuberosum) of the family Solanceae (like the tomato, and of which there is now a hybrid form, which produces tomatoes above and potatoes below ground level, of the night shade family) and for its swollen underground stem, a tuber, which is one of the most widely used vegetables in Western temperate climates. The plant is probably native to the Andes, where it was cultivated by the Incas. Its history is difficult to trace, partly because the name potato was also used by early writers for the Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) and for other unrelated plants Spanish explorers are believed to have brought it in the 16^th century from Peru to Spain, whence it spread north and west throughout Europe. It was brought to North America by European settlers; thus like the closely related tomato, it is a reintroduced food plant in the New world.

The potato was first accepted as a large scale crop in the British Isles. It became the major food crop in Ireland during the 18^th century and is hence often called Irish potato to distinguish it from the sweet potato. The potato was also important to the course of history in the 20^th century in Europe, especially in Germany, where it kept the country alive during two world wars. With its high carbohydrate content, the potato is today a primary food of Western peoples, as well as a source of starch, flour, alcohol, dextrin, and fodder (chiefly in Europe, where more is used for this purpose than for human consumption). Because of its origin, it grows best in a cool, moist climate; with acid soil such as much of Canada (especially parts of British Columbia and Nova Scotia) which produces what are known as the best potatoes in the world. Germany, Russia, and Poland are the greatest potato countries of Europe. Potatoes are usually propagated by planting pieces of the tubers that bear two or three “eyes”, the buds of the underground stems. The plant is sensitive to frost, is subject to certain fungus and virus diseases (e.g. Mosaic, wilt, and blight), and is attacked by several insect pests, especially the potato beetle.

Nutritionally, the potato is high in carbohydrates and a good source of protein, vitamin C, the B vitamins, potassium, phosphorus, and iron. Most of the minerals and protein are concentrated beneath the skin, (in the part most of us throw away) and the skin itself is a source of food fiber; health authorities therefore recommend cooking and eating it unpeeled.

General Cooking Hints

·        Whenever possible, cook potatoes in their skins to preserve the valuable fibre, minerals and vitamin C which lie in or just under the skin, peel after boiling, if necessary.

·        While, as previously stated, baking is the best method to secure the desired results of cooking vegetables while still preserving vitamins and minerals, steaming is now the second most common method of cooking potatoes in restaurants and a very good way of retaining their shape and texture.

·        Unfortunately many restaurants have adopted the practice of wrapping unpeeled potatoes in aluminium foil then steaming or boiling them. This is done for several reasons: to preserve oven space, to save time, and to disguise the fact that the potatoes are often not properly washed or prepared for cooking.

·        The more water you use to boil potatoes, the more nutrition, goodness, and flavour is lost. Use as little water as possible, and avoid fast boiling, which causes the outer cells of the potatoes to break and makes them go mushy.

·        When recipes call for peeled potatoes, rather than throwing the skins away I like to peel them thickly and use the skins to make

OVEN CHIPS.

Put peelings in a bowl with a tsp. of oil-more if there are a lot of skins- season well, and stir around until skins are lightly coated with oil. Bake in a greased dish in a moderate oven until they are golden brown, puffed up and crisp.

Peeled potatoes will blacken when exposed to the air. Cook them immediately if possible; if they have to be kept, cover with cold water.

Blackening after cooking is caused by acid and iron in the potato, or by the water in certain areas. A little lemon juice or vinegar added to the cooking water helps prevent this.