Wednesday, July 31, 2013

SUNFLOWER TALES 


Sunflowers originate from North America but would travel to the Old World and back – and back again - in their centuries old journey to become the plant we know today. They were probably one of the first crops to be grown in the Americas. Before this they were picked by hunter gatherers as a natural source of fat. The seeds could be ground up and mixed with flour to make bread much like the pita variety we eat today. Around five thousand years ago people began to farm them in the south-western parts of North America in what is now Mexico. As they were cultivated over the generations the plants were encouraged to produce ever bigger seeds – and many more of them as well. So, the sunflower we have now bears no resemblance to how it started out as the human race has interfered with its characteristics for all these thousands of years.
It has been suggested that the sunflower was even domesticated before corn. It was during this time that the Cherokee and other Native Americans also began to farm sunflowers. They became an important part of the diet of these peoples as a good source of fat – which hunter gatherer societies needed to supplement the lean meat they would eat. Down south in Mexico the Aztecs were also cultivating the plant but also they also worshipped it. In their temples to the sun, the priestesses would wear headdresses made of sunflowers to give themselves the air of the divine. The past of the sunflower, then, already reveals some ‘secrets’.

Yet no one would have guessed what the future of the sunflower held – and the travels it would endure.

As today, the sunflower seed was cracked and snacked on - something you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite - albeit a much healthier snack than many we eat today. There are early records of the oil being squeezed and used to make bread too. However, the sunflower was not only a food source. It was used to create a dye of a purple color which was used then to enhance clothing, paint bodies and decorate objects. Other parts of the plant were used to make medicinal remedies for snake bites and ointments. The seed oil was used to lubricate hair and skin. As ancient societies could not afford to waste anything the stalks were dried and then used as a building material.



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