History (continued)
About one hundred years after the Greeks were commonly using walnuts, the Romans discovered their merits and were willing to pay dearly for the luxury of serving them along with fruits for dessert. In the ruins of Pompeii whole, unshelled walnuts were among the foods on the table at the Temple of Isis on that fateful day (24 August 79 BCE) when Mount Vesuvius erupted.
Walnuts may have journeyed from Kashmir to China during the Han dynasty, some time between 206 BCE and 220 CE. Since trading existed long before written records, merchants, explorers, and conquerors were credited with bringing the walnut from the Mediterranean into Europe, possibly during the third century BCE. Some historians question this theory because of archeological evidence discovered in Switzerland. It is possible that during the last Glacial Period walnut trees disappeared from the frozen earth of the Northern European countries and that the barbarian invaders and Greek and Roman conquerors brought the trees back to Europe.
The first mention of the walnut's arrival in the British Isles appeared in the Encyclopaedia Britannica dated 1567. However, walnuts were only acceptable served at the end of a meal along with port and Stilton cheese. English merchant sailors transported walnuts across the globe during Medieval times. Walnuts became so associated with the English that they were often called English walnuts. However they didn't really penetrate the English soul until after World War I when they became a commercial enterprise.
Unlike the English, the French embraced the walnut. Cultivation began during the fourth century. Charlemagne, eighth to ninth century, ordered his gardeners to plant walnut trees on his extensive properties. Walnuts were so highly regarded that during the eleventh century, French peasants were expected to tithe walnuts to the church. From Medieval times until the end of the 18th century, Europeans were blanching, crushing, and soaking walnuts and almonds to create a rich, nutritious milk, a common household staple. While the poor dined on the wild walnuts, the rich were able to afford the larger, more expensive, cultivated variety. In the French countryside, it was tradition to hang a bag of walnuts from the ceiling beam in the kitchen to represent abundance. Walnuts also represented longevity. Some young men believed the walnut tree possessed aphrodisiac powers and attempted to sneak a leaf into the shoe of a young woman they admired. Toward the end of the 17th century, walnuts along with chestnuts became important staples in France.
