Medieval Harvest Season and Cooking on an Anglo-Saxon Homestead | Historic Vegetable Garden скачать в хорошем качестве

Medieval Harvest Season and Cooking on an Anglo-Saxon Homestead | Historic Vegetable Garden

As the summer progresses, the vegetables are ready to harvest; Medieval white beetroot and yellow carrot, parsnip, onion, field beans and kale. All varieties that were likely grown by the Anglo-Saxons. The carrots and beetroot have flourished, with some beetroot growing larger than my fist, despite some mice damage. The parsnips are still very small, and perhaps need to be left longer or thinned out more next year. The onions had a very slow start so are still small, but tasty! The kale and beans have been prolific, despite sharing the bounty with caterpillars and other insects! The harvested vegetables were used to prepare a simple Medieval meal of fried beans with onions, spiced with hogweed seeds which have a great citrus-cardamom flavour, and stewed beetroot, carrot and greens including the kale, carrot and beet tops. Cheese and butter were served alongside. This meal omits meat entirely, which may well have been quite common in the Medieval period, especially for the lower and middle classes, where livestock were far more precious kept for their milk, wool and eggs than killed prematurely for meat. Meat was likely available when animals were slaughtered due to old age or sickness, but apart from that, the Early Medieval diet was mostly vegetarian, supplemented with dairy, eggs, fish and occasional game. Archaeological analysis of clay pots and strontium analysis of teeth allows archaeologists to work out historical diets likely eaten by people in the past. I am so pleased to be harvesting my first vegetables! Despite a wet spring full of slugs and a slow start for my seedlings, my vegetable plot has become thriving swathe of vegetation. I feel that the heavy mulch has helped retain lots of water, so I have been able to relax a bit on watering. Although I’m sure these beautiful roots are more a result of the rich loamy soil here, rather than the little gardening skill I can muster! Although not the largest or most colourful vegetables, I think they taste great, with the white beetroot tasting crisp, nutty and a little sweeter than the usual red and the yellow carrot tasting rooty and herby and at least more ‘interesting’ than the usual orange, if not as sweet or tender. With thanks to: Grzegorz Kulig, Silversmith, for making the pattern-welded knife. If you would like to support me further, you can become a patron here:   / gesithasgewissa   Join this channel to become a member:    / @gesithasgewissa   Or make a one-off donation: https://paypal.me/gesithasgewissa   / gesithasgewissa     / gesithasgewissa