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BY:SCOTT LUO/SEPT 30,2011 Imagine arriving in a brand-new country. The culture you find is different from that which you’ve left, and the people seem suspicious of you. But never mind that. You’re tired, hungry and willing to try anything – even corn products you know nothing about. You recognize wheat in the fields, and oats are familiar to you, too. You know rye and millet, but these people are growing something you’ve never seen. The plants are huge – taller than you are – and they seem to worship it. The seeds are large, too, much bigger than seeds you’ve ever seen. And the taste? Good stuff. Silky beginnings Although Columbus might have thought he’d just stumbled upon something grand and new when he loaded corn onto his ship for the voyage home, Native Americans had been growing corn for some 5,000 years before Columbus set foot in the New World. No one knows how the plant itself came into existence (Mayan culture says that corn was given to man by the feathered God Quetzalcoatl), but experts think it originated in Central America or Mexico and was traded hand-to-hand. Corn played an important part in Aztec and Mayan religion and cultivation spurred its spread northward. Scientists believe that corn became “domesticated” about 4,500 years ago. When Columbus finally returned from Cuba to Barcelona in 1493, great excitement surrounded his arrival. Though he hadn’t found the trade route he sought (he thought he had), he came back with many wondrous things that Europeans had never seen. In writing to his patron, a Spanish cleric described (in Latin) one of them: an amazing plant that Columbus said the natives called “mahiz” (or maize). It didn’t take long for maize to spread around Europe and Asia, or for confusion to reign. Twenty years after Columbus’ first voyage, Portuguese sailors took maize to China (where the Chinese tried to lay claim to its beginnings). Traders carried it to Turkey and India. The French called it Turkish wheat (and sometimes still do). Farmers in several countries on three continents swore that the crop originated in their area. European botanists couldn’t wait to get their fingers on “Corne.” Related links: (wow gold) http://www.wow77.com (buy wow gold) (wow gold) http://www.wow-gold-team.com (buy wow gold) (diablo3 gold) http://www.diablo3us.com (diablo 3 powerleveling) (wow gold) http://www.wowgold-use.com (buy wow gold) (wow gold) http://www.85wowgold.com (buy wow gold)
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