A really good european overview....

[allenrmaher]

It is a nice overview, the world of food, land use and trade is a much more ambitious project than any article can handle.

You do a fairly good job of European centric food history, though you miss out on the evolution of the styles of cuisine (sniffle). The history of food/spices and trade in the Indian subcontinent, or in Asia is likewise very interesting. The peoples of the new world had some of the most amazing and diverse food bases, they also had trade routes from Patagonia to the Arctic prior to European contact.

I like your article. There are so many food stories to tell, like the history of the carrot from purple root in Persia to the modern orange grocery variety. Or how the rise of empires in India was financed by spices.

I look forward to more. Thanks for writing this one.

[Jennifer]

It is a nice overview, the world of food, land use and trade is a much more ambitious project than any article can handle.

You do a fairly good job of European centric food history, though you miss out on the evolution of the styles of cuisine (sniffle). The history of food/spices and trade in the Indian subcontinent, or in Asia is likewise very interesting. The peoples of the new world had some of the most amazing and diverse food bases, they also had trade routes from Patagonia to the Arctic prior to European contact.

I like your article. There are so many food stories to tell, like the history of the carrot from purple root in Persia to the modern orange grocery variety. Or how the rise of empires in India was financed by spices.

I look forward to more. Thanks for writing this one.

Thank you!

As I was mentioning elsewhere, I wanted to run through the traditional expectations of the Euro-centric hack n' slashes before venturing off in less-known territory.

The first three articles were about plants you'd identify and eat.

The next three are on plants and medicine, specifically;

emergency in-the-field medicine
medicine from actual healers and salves and ointments and stuff
and a rundown of different symptoms of accidental and purposeful poisonings, which comes with charts to determine severity and symptoms of unknown plants


I'm now working on the third set which is plants in magic and folklore. This will include plants in religion, plants in folklore, and plants as adventure hooks. All of them will have specific plot hooks for people to embellish their games with from a variety of background and climates.

From there I'll probably back up and go into specifics of some things I skipped over (i.e. wetlands, trade routes and the Silk Road, new world plants, getting water from plants, etc). It should be a pretty awesome compendium by the time I get done.

Then I'll start working on animals.... :D