Sarah Yammoul

Food and Gastronomy in Latin America

Final Paper Topic

March 4th, 2022

South America’s New World Crops

Maize, Amaranth, Rice, and Quinoa were some of the most important crops to exist in Mesoamerica. As we have seen so far, Maize, or Corn, is one of the most eaten crops in the world, before and after Columbus' arrival. It was cultivated by the Aztecs, Mayan, and Incan farmers, where they found several other seeds (still corn) with a variety of types of corn.

Legums are also important for this time. Beans, peanuts, and others were found and brought to the world by Europeans, because of becoming one of the world’s most important foods. Squash and pumpkin were also important for the Indigenous population, for them to be considered a fruit and important for their seeds.

Fruit was also present. Either tropical or subtropical fruits, we were able to find amonas, guava, jaboticaba, and mamey, but these were not very successful at making it to the famous after Columbus’ era.