From the islands of Scotland, which was called Caledonia by the Romans, we move across the globe to Oceania and visit New Caledonia, located on the Tropic of Capricorn in Melanesia, 450 miles east of Australia. New Caledonia is a possession of France, and is made up of Grand Terre, the main island, the Loyalty Islands, Isle of Pines, the Chesterfield Islands and the Belep Archipelago. The combined population of these islands is roughly 280,000. The official language is French,…
The cuisine of the Hebrides is not much different from that of the rest of Scotland. Long traditions of crofting and fishing have shaped the cuisine of the islands and resulted in the prominence of game, fish, seafood, oats, barley and seaweed as key ingredients. Oats and barley were much easier to cultivate on the islands than wheat and therefore oatcakes and porridges are commonplace. The incredible bounty of fresh seafood can be enjoyed fresh, cured or smoked. The many…
The earliest music in the Scottish Isles was perhaps performed by traveling bards who accompanied their songs with harp. The old church music of the Hebrides has been claimed by a surprising number of researchers to be the real beginning of gospel music, which most assume to have originated from Africa and the slave experience. There were many Scottish immigrants who settled in North Carolina in the 1700s. Many of these individuals and even some of their slaves, spoke only…