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Nick Maclaren · 29-01-2008, 11:26 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In article ,
Anne Jackson writes:
| The message from contains these words:
| On 29 Jan, 18:24, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
| Bananas, okra, yam, chillis, soursop, sweet potatoes, moonflower etc.
|
| Rather exotic. What is moonflower, honeysuckle? And soursop? Where you
| in west africa in the 40s?!

Where I was then, it was apples that were exotic :-)

Ipomoea alba, a.k.a. Calonyction bona-nox, a.k.a. Ipomoea bona-nox.
An excellent annual to grow in a conservatory or even south facing
room.

I was indeed in West Africa - I was born in Nigeria in 1947! To be
strictly truthful, I was rather young and the time, and cannot swear
that my mother had a garden there - but that is the sort of thing she
would have grown if so. We moved to Zambia (Northern Rhodesia) in
about 1950.

| Groundnut stew - or, for even more authenticity, palm oil stew.
| The former needs a team to make it properly, and isn't worth it
| for less than a dozen people. *Follow it by fried plantains.
|
| Plantains? From the Carribeans?
|
| Many of the Caribbean islands were part of the British Empire.
| Of course they sent us food!

I have never been there. They were and are also widespread throughout
the suitable parts of Africa.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.