# The Vikings, grapes & butternuts **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 8, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vikings-grapes-butternuts/730372 "2015-09-08T19:47:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Madman2001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aca169/32.png) [@Madman2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madman2001)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vikings-grapes-butternuts/730372/1 "2015-09-08T19:47:58Z")
Regarding the northern limit of grapes (and butternuts), this Vikings in the New World period is part of the Medieval Warm Period. It was warm enough for medieval farmers to live and prosper in Greenland. Therefore, it seems to me that grapes very probably grew further north than they do today. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vikings-grapes-butternuts/730372/2 "2015-09-08T21:08:30Z")
[Link.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2000/did-leif-erikson-once-live-in-cambridge-massachusetts) ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vikings-grapes-butternuts/730372/3 "2015-09-09T02:12:10Z")
The northern limit of grapes during the Medieval Warm Period was approximately 300 miles north of its current position. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vikings-grapes-butternuts/730372/4 "2015-09-09T07:58:24Z")
> [@John\_W.Kennedy](#): > > The northern limit of grapes during the Medieval Warm Period was approximately 300 miles north of its current position. That’s probably true for Europe and Greenland, but it’s important not to make too many extrapolations from that about general climate, as some might be inclined to do. It’s especially disturbing to find that “300 miles” quote in an article from the [conservative Hoover Institution](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Hoover_Institution_on_War,_Revolution_and_Peace) which naively tries to argue that a warming climate is just peachy-keen beneficial without accounting for the almost universal downsides of uncontrolled, destabilizing rapid climate change. Wine growing is [a poor proxy for temperature](http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/07/medieval-warmth-and-english-wine/), but the most important thing is that global temperatures were[neither as warm as the present day during that period, nor were they globally synchronous](http://www.meteo.psu.edu/holocene/public_html/shared/articles/medclimopt.pdf), and there appears to be little evidence of warmth in other parts of the northern hemisphere and especially not in the southern hemisphere. ---
**Author:** ![qazwart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/5fc32e/32.png) [@qazwart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/qazwart)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vikings-grapes-butternuts/730372/5 "2015-09-09T17:02:27Z")
> [@Madman2001](#): > > Regarding the northern limit of grapes (and butternuts), this Vikings in the New World period is part of the Medieval Warm Period. It was warm enough for medieval farmers to live and prosper in Greenland. Therefore, it seems to me that grapes very probably grew further north than they do today. Or, the whole thing could have been just another deceptive sales tactic. Look at _Greenland_ for example. Where is there _Green_? Greenland has always been colder than Iceland which itself was named before you could join a monastery and major in Advertising. I imagine something like this said by one real estate sales agent: > [@](#): > > Okay Greenland was a wee bit icier than you anticipated. However, we do have space in Vineland! Yup, you can have a vineyard all year round, and the natives are friendly! Just sign here… ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2015, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vikings-grapes-butternuts/730372/6 "2015-09-10T02:33:06Z")
Perhaps the question submitter was confusing Leif Erikson and [Leif Erickson](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002063/?ref_=nv_sr_1). ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vikings-grapes-butternuts/730372/7 "2015-09-14T15:32:53Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > That’s probably true for Europe and Greenland, but it’s important not to make too many extrapolations from that about general climate, as some might be inclined to do. It’s especially disturbing to find that “300 miles” quote in an article from the [conservative Hoover Institution](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Hoover_Institution_on_War,_Revolution_and_Peace) which naively tries to argue that a warming climate is just peachy-keen beneficial without accounting for the almost universal downsides of uncontrolled, destabilizing rapid climate change. > > Wine growing is [a poor proxy for temperature](http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/07/medieval-warmth-and-english-wine/), but the most important thing is that global temperatures were[neither as warm as the present day during that period, nor were they globally synchronous](http://www.meteo.psu.edu/holocene/public_html/shared/articles/medclimopt.pdf), and there appears to be little evidence of warmth in other parts of the northern hemisphere and especially not in the southern hemisphere. As opposed to left wing whackos like Al Gore who will say one year a warm winter is due to global warming and the next year a cold winter is due to climate change or whatever new moniker these con men have come with. But hey, in January 2006 Al Gore predicted the earth will cook in 10 years. Right up there will the rain forest hysteria of the late 1980s or the population time bomb lunatics who in the early 1970s predicted 400 million Indians would starve to death in the 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-vikings-grapes-butternuts/730372/8 "2015-09-14T16:51:52Z")
Is this Al Gore who’s a whacko in any way related to the Al Gore who was formerly vice-president of the US? That must get awkward at family reunions.