The earliest example of domesticated barley has been found in Aceramic Neolithic sites in the Near East. It has for instance been encountered in Syria. Barley is believed to be one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East, together with einkorn and emmer wheat. For the ancient Egyptians, barley and emmer wheat where the two most important types of cereal and they were used to make both bread and beer.

In Tibet, Tibetian barley has been a staple food for centuries and is chiefly eaten in the form of tsampa. Tsampa is roasted barley flour mixed with salty yak butter tea. Sometimes wheat flour or rice flour is included in the dish. Before you can roast the barley, you must cover it with water and leave it to soak for at least 8 hours. Traditional tsampa is always made from tea, but today you can find tsampa made from beer or water as well.

About ¾ of the world’s vanilla production takes place on Madagascar, Comoros and Réunion, three islands located off Africa‘s south-eastern coast. Major producers can also be found in Indonesia, Tahiti, Tonga – and of course Mexico.

Reunion has a special place in the history of commercial vanilla cultivation because this island was the home of Edmond Albius, the man who invented a modern technique of hand-pollination that is still in use today. This new method made vanilla cultivation much more efficient than before since the old methods used for hand-pollination were highly time consuming. In the wild, the vanilla orchid is pollinated by the Melipone bee but this bee only exists in Mexico.

Unfortunately, only ten paintings and 35 drawings have survived into our time. A notable amount of works rests on the bottom of the Baltic Sea. They were taken as war booty by the Swedes but never reached Sweden.

Until the late 19^th century, many of Matthias Grünewald’s paintings were erroneously believed to have been painted by Albrecht Dürer. They are now considered each others stylistic antithesis and Grünewald’s expressive use of colours is a sharp contrast to Dürer‘s works.

Interestingly enough, Matthias Grünewald is not his real name. The use of the name Grünewald is a mistake made by 17th-century writer Joachim von Sandrart. The real name of this painter remains undecided, but we know that he used both Gothart and Neithardt. He is also known as “Mathis der Maler” (Mathis the Painter).