Footnotes to a Conversation, March 4, 2024
I woke up to moonlight streaming through my bedroom window. A clear sky promised a sunny day and definitely lifted my spirits. I hope your day is equally promising. [the photo is of a sunny Sunday morning in Nice]
Talent in Unexpected Places
Vanilla grows as a vine with orchid flowers. It grows wild in Mexico where it is pollinated by one species of bee only found in Mexico. The ability to grow vanilla commercially is thanks to an enslaved 12-year-old Black boy on the island of Réunion. After carefully observing an orchid vine, Edmond Albius “worked out that the male and female parts of the flower were separated by a slim membrane, which he punctured, bringing the two organs together.” It’s an extraordinarily delicate operation but one now replicated on vanilla plantations around the world. Once the orchid has been fertilized, it takes a year for the pod of aromatic seeds to develop. [Nautilus]
Putting Children First
Spartan society stressed the importance of raising healthy children which had a significant impact on how the society was structured. Healthy children required healthy parents so both men and women were expected to exercise. Husbands and wives lived separately as it was believed that this would increase desire, which in turn would lead to healthier children. Women could have more than one husband.
“One way plural marriage could work involved a young woman married to an older man. Since the woman would be considered healthier than her husband, the couple could get her another, younger partner. The ‘superior’ children conceived in this way would join the older husband’s household.”
Brothers could share a wife so that their inheritance remained intact, and a woman with two husbands could still conceive children when one of her husbands was away on a military campaign. [JSTOR Daily]
Gift of the Gab
Flattery, compromise, and a good story are just some of the strategies recommended by highly persuasive people. [The Guardian]
Nice Flavour
I was determined to eat socca, a pancake made with chickpea flour, while I was in Nice so I joined a long line-up with other people who had the same idea. It didn’t quite live up to expectations, but that may be because it was too big a portion for one person (it would have been better as a snack rather than a main course) and it had cooled off by the time I finished it. It is, however, vegetarian, which is definitely a point in its favour.
“The legend of its creation is an entertaining tale. One story goes that the Roman forces once stationed in the area that is now modern-day Nice would light a fire under their shields and use the platform as a griddle top to fry their hasty mix of chickpea flour and water. Another purports that socca was born under siege, as the people of Nice sustained themselves in times of Turkish invasion with the two cupboard staples they had – chickpea flour and olive oil.
“The truth, however, is unclear. Socca’s origin is aggressively disputed by different towns, cities and even countries. To the Genoese, it’s called farinata, and is served as an alternative to freshly baked focaccia. To the Marseillais, it’s known as panisse, and the batter is set and cut before frying. You can find versions of socca in cities across Sardinia, Gibraltar, Algeria and Argentina. The likely origin story is that all of these cities – busy, hungry port cities – swapped recipes with one another somewhere along the line and forgot to keep track.” [Culture Trip]
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. I also post occasional articles on other dates, including frequent book reviews and travel tales.
If you share my love of nature, check out EcoFriendly West, an online publication encouraging environmental initiatives in Western Canada, and Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces.