Tea at Trianon: A Once-Forbidden Fruit

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, August 9, 2021

A Once-Forbidden Fruit

From Modern Farmer:

Black currants are ubiquitous in many parts of the world—especially in Eastern Europe—where the succulent berry is used to make jams, jellies, syrups, candies and liqueurs. In the UK and Australia, the fruit is so prevalent that the purple Skittle flavor there is black currant, not grape, as it is here in the United States. Black currant is also the most common flavor descriptor associated with Cabernet Sauvignon, a popular red grape variety that makes up part of the blend in red Bordeaux wines. But ask your average American what a black currant tastes like or task them with identifying the fruit by sight and they’ll likely respond with a shrug.

That’s because its cultivation was banned for nearly a century, causing generations of Americans to go without hearing of the fruit or seeing it grow in their backyards or on farms. The prohibition dates back to the early 1900s, when a deadly fungal disease called blister rust arrived from Europe and began killing white pine trees, then the backbone of the country’s timber industry. The burgeoning logging industry put pressure on lawmakers to take action and eliminate currants, which were an intermediate host of white pine blister rust. In 1911, Congress passed a law that made it illegal to grow currants, and the once-popular fruit quickly disappeared from American diets and memories.

By 1966, new disease-resistant varieties of currants had been developed and the federal government relaxed its ban, turning it over to states to enforce or lift their bans. Yet many states—New York included—maintained them.

Black currants might still be illegal to grow today if it weren’t for Quinn, who found the still-existing ban to be outrageous. “White pines are certainly not the favored trees they once were…They’re not used as Christmas trees or grown for lumber any longer,” he says. “I thought that if I could in fact change the law, I’d not only have this cool, unique crop but what a great story.”

So, in 2002, Quinn confirmed with researchers at Cornell University that black currants could, in fact, be grown safely. Then he began driving up to Albany once a week to see if he could get in to talk to legislators about lifting the currant ban.

“I’d bring up a box of danishes and give them to the law clerks and the secretaries and ask them to sneak me in if there was a cancellation,” says Quinn. On the times he was welcomed in, the politicians would ask how big the black currant market was and how many farmers were involved and then ultimately dismiss Quinn’s requests when realizing no such market existed yet. (Read more.)