MAGIC in a test tube

Your test tube contains the seed of modern varieties of 'Meso-American Gone International Crops' (MAGIC for short).

Ancestral farming communities in places we know now as Mexico and Peru created tasty, productive and nutritious varieties for many of the food crops we enjoy today. In search of spice and other riches, European explorers began returning home with these new ingredients in the late 1400s. Adding to the examples shown below were other nutritious crops from the Americas including potato, peanut, sweet potato, quinoa, avocado, pineapple, chocolate, vanilla, papaya, chia and amaranth.

A transformation in European cooking and diet began, and continues today at the University of Warwick. EATWISE TEST KITCHEN and Warwick Crop Centre have joined forces to choose tasty varieties of MAGIC crops which will be suitable ingredients for cooking and serving in food venues across campus.

GODIVA beans, HABANADA chili pepper, BLUE BANANA squash and SHIMMER tomato are front-runners for future cooking and serving.

If you're curious, and have a pot of soil, try growing GODIVA using seed from your test tube.

Here are some helpful instructions to get you started growing your own MAGIC plants.

To cook your own from scratch, GODIVA beans are on sale at ZEROSTOREs in Leamington Spa and Stratford-on-Avon.