GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

06-04-2004, 09:51 PM

(Nick Maclaren) wrote in news:c4tml5$j7r$1
@pegasus.csx.cam.ac.uk:

There is very little written about how the common people cooked,
which doesn't help :-( Try and find anything written about how
the poorer people (or even somewhat richer people in poorer areas)
cookec in even 1950, for example, and it's hard. Try for 1850,
and it's diabolical. Try for 1750, and it's almost impossible.
And so on ....

My favorite quote from a book about Eleanor of Aquitaine appears in a
paragraph of 'filler stuff' about how there were a range of things to eat
in medieval England, not (shock horror) just turnips. It goes :

"Fruit grew on trees..."

A true classic!

My guess: people in the past had diverse tastes and views on what
constitutes food - like today's urglers.

Probably, some of them even ate nettle soup (ugh). Some people will eat
any damn thing! ;-)

Victoria
--
gardening on a north-facing hill
in South-East Cornwall
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