On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 19:14:53 +0100, "Christophe Bachmann"
> wrote:

>Frogleg wrote :
>
>> On Tue, 17 Feb 2004 10:39:47 +0000, Lazarus Cooke
>> > wrote:
>>
>>> Frogleg > wrote:
>>>
>>>> The idea of lying in a hammock and plucking fruit from
>>>> surrounding trees, supplemented by trapping a few fish or shellfish
>>>> sure sounds good. Not many opportunities for same in, say, northern
>>>> Europe.
>>>
>>> Why? Strawberries, mushrooms, apples, blackberries still grow wild
>>> all over the place. Northern seas are far more fruitful for fish than
>>> tropical ones, and the rivers run with salmon and trout.
>
>Apples don't grow wild all over the place, they only grow wild where they
>have been abandoned, any modern fruit must be grafted on a parent stalk to
>grow, and thus any fruit planted is likely to give only crabapples or wild
>pears etc...

Apples from seed almost never produce edible fruit (see: 'The Botany
of Desire'). Apple seeds/trees rarely produce pears. :-)

<snip>
>
>But then again you need quite a roaming space to get enough, medival
>peasants were often reduced to grinding and eating acorns despite it's
>bitterness, after having eaten everything around them.

I wasn't arguing there were were no 'wild' foods available in any
particular area. My comments followed another on the wisdom (and
relative labor involved) in changing from a hunter/gatherer lifestyle
to a fixed location and purposful agriculture and animal husbandry. In
*that context*, life in the tropics might be the model of maximum
benefit from minimum labor. "Temperate" climates pretty much shut down
the production of handy foodstuffs in winter. Hence, an increased need
for labor to gather and preserve. My hypothetical hammock is slung
between coconut palms with a jungle of fruits and veg to one side, and
tidal pools to supply fish and shellfish. I'm hoping for a ship full
of spices to founder offshore soon...