Traveller's food old style
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Yes. Thank you.
Makes awesome juice. And liqueur. Hell to pick though, worse than Sloes.
On the west coast, you all know that the 5 species of salmon are the staple.
Harvested, dried and smoked to this day by the thousands.
Single car garages become smoke houses, maybe 200 fish in a load.
Starchy aquatic root crops. Clams by the thousands.
Those were often shelled and dried, threaded together like beads for storage.
When I'm in the mood for it, I have a few "patches" of berry bushes that I harvest in July.
Cleaned, scaled and bagged for the freezer, I can pick more than 5lbs per hour Saskatoons = Amelanchier alnifolia.
That's in the city, along the river. Tarp on the ground, bend the bush over, strip it, do the next one.
Rough cleaning on a blanket.
It backfired badly out here in McBride. I dug up 8 quality Saskatoon bushes, various mountain side valleys, and planted them in my back yard.
The robins eat the individual berries as they ripen in each cluster. It finally dawned on me that these bushes are really
attractive because they are so uncommon here. Near the city or any river bottom land, the bushes almost grow side by side and the birds can't eat enough to notice.
By contrast, Vaccinium (blue berry) forms the understory in some forest patches, 3 different species, no less. As far as you can see.
You can pick enough wild strawberries to be useful. Great lawns of the things over a gravel or clay base.
However, their principal value was the tendril runners, used in tribal medicines. Wild raspberries we take for granted.
We've got 2 native species of Sorbus, what you would call Rowan. Damn hard winter when you see those berries finally eaten.
Honestly, working at it all day, every day, for all the opportunities, I'm not certain that I could harvest and prepare enough food to see me through a winter.
Has to be a co-operative effort. There's an estimated 30,000 cobs of corn/maize stored in Bat Cave, New Mexico.
Suggests to me that those people had the agriculture thing figured out 12,000 years ago.
Let's assume that I have a massive pit house and both heat and light are not issues at all.
Harvested, dried and smoked to this day by the thousands.
Single car garages become smoke houses, maybe 200 fish in a load.
Starchy aquatic root crops. Clams by the thousands.
Those were often shelled and dried, threaded together like beads for storage.
When I'm in the mood for it, I have a few "patches" of berry bushes that I harvest in July.
Cleaned, scaled and bagged for the freezer, I can pick more than 5lbs per hour Saskatoons = Amelanchier alnifolia.
That's in the city, along the river. Tarp on the ground, bend the bush over, strip it, do the next one.
Rough cleaning on a blanket.
It backfired badly out here in McBride. I dug up 8 quality Saskatoon bushes, various mountain side valleys, and planted them in my back yard.
The robins eat the individual berries as they ripen in each cluster. It finally dawned on me that these bushes are really
attractive because they are so uncommon here. Near the city or any river bottom land, the bushes almost grow side by side and the birds can't eat enough to notice.
By contrast, Vaccinium (blue berry) forms the understory in some forest patches, 3 different species, no less. As far as you can see.
You can pick enough wild strawberries to be useful. Great lawns of the things over a gravel or clay base.
However, their principal value was the tendril runners, used in tribal medicines. Wild raspberries we take for granted.
We've got 2 native species of Sorbus, what you would call Rowan. Damn hard winter when you see those berries finally eaten.
Honestly, working at it all day, every day, for all the opportunities, I'm not certain that I could harvest and prepare enough food to see me through a winter.
Has to be a co-operative effort. There's an estimated 30,000 cobs of corn/maize stored in Bat Cave, New Mexico.
Suggests to me that those people had the agriculture thing figured out 12,000 years ago.
Let's assume that I have a massive pit house and both heat and light are not issues at all.
Agreed. Gathering is hopeless, out of season. Hunting takes time you might not have.
What sorts of trade goods might you have had in the Middle Ages to barter for food?
What sorts of trade goods might you have had in the Middle Ages to barter for food?
Travelling people did not barter they had money.
As I wrote earlier, the farmers went to the nearest town to sell off ( or barter) the excess crops and live stock, a couple of times a year.
To meet people, to get drunk. To find a woman. To marry in front of a priest and to baptize children.
That is if the village they lived in had no priest, visiting or resident, or if the far was out away from villages, like in many farms in Scandinavia and Russia.
As I wrote earlier, the farmers went to the nearest town to sell off ( or barter) the excess crops and live stock, a couple of times a year.
To meet people, to get drunk. To find a woman. To marry in front of a priest and to baptize children.
That is if the village they lived in had no priest, visiting or resident, or if the far was out away from villages, like in many farms in Scandinavia and Russia.
Anyone use the Tianjin preserved cabbage? It's superb in noodle soups, stews etc. It seems many races have a preserved cabbage recipe.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin_preserved_vegetable
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin_preserved_vegetable
European ( German, Austrian, Polish and Czech or home made) sauerkraut is excellent in stews too. A vital ingredient in Szegedin goulash.
You know that they had money before it was invented? The proble is what did they do before?
Deprnds on the time frame. I assumed it was within the last 2 millenia.
Before money were invented I guess they helped out on the farmsteads for a bowl of potage and a sleeping under roof?
During the Great Depression that was also common.
Before money were invented I guess they helped out on the farmsteads for a bowl of potage and a sleeping under roof?
During the Great Depression that was also common.
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I meant to back up a few thousand years. Paleo. What was traded? Leather, flint, metals. Fiber? Pottery? Fire lighting goods? Candle fat? Salt?
Kurlanski says that every place in the UK where the place name ends in ". . . . wich" was a salt making place.
Barter trading among First Nations here has not stopped.
Not the prevalence that it one had and that's not much more than a couple centuries ago.
Everybody walked, prior to raiding Spanish camps and stealing horses in the mid 1500's.
Some suggest that horses didn't reach the First Nations of western Canada until the mid-late 1700's.
That was something to barter with!
Kurlanski says that every place in the UK where the place name ends in ". . . . wich" was a salt making place.
Barter trading among First Nations here has not stopped.
Not the prevalence that it one had and that's not much more than a couple centuries ago.
Everybody walked, prior to raiding Spanish camps and stealing horses in the mid 1500's.
Some suggest that horses didn't reach the First Nations of western Canada until the mid-late 1700's.
That was something to barter with!
I think you just answered it!
But, the Paleolithic era finished what, 10 000 BC? I do not think we know much about their trading.
We know though they liked their women to look like the Kardashians and Nicki Minaj!
Tin was a precious commodity that was needed to make Bronze. First mined in central Europe, what, 5000 years ago(?) then they found deposits in a couple of places around Europe, one of them in Cornwall, UK.
Salt was hugely important and precious. Without salt - difficult to preserve meat and fish. There was (is still?) a Russian custom to greet guests with a hunk of bread and a bowl of salt.
As it was so damn expensive, mankind found out a combination of low salt use and lactic acid fermentation ( yep, that again!). A low salt brining of head less baltic herring, tightly packed in barells and some months later you can eat Surströmming ( soured herring). A Viking era midden in Scotland was found to contain lots of herring bones, but no head bones. Only process where you need to remove the head is the surströmming souring.
In Norway the same process with trout. Rakkeørret I think they call it.
The Islanders did it even more cheaply. They buried a dead shark on the high tide mark, some months later it was nicely fermented and very delicious! Some Islanders stuffed a seal skin full of unplucked birds and let them mature.
But that was done recently, we do not know if the Paleo Europeans did this.
Amber was a mythical material, was traded across Europe from the Baltic Sea.
I do not think pottery was traded much that early, but it was later, during the Roman era.
I doubt food was traded much across Europe. Too slow, would not last.
We know the ancient Minoans, Phonicians and Greeks traded extensively across southern Europe.
But, the Paleolithic era finished what, 10 000 BC? I do not think we know much about their trading.
We know though they liked their women to look like the Kardashians and Nicki Minaj!
Tin was a precious commodity that was needed to make Bronze. First mined in central Europe, what, 5000 years ago(?) then they found deposits in a couple of places around Europe, one of them in Cornwall, UK.
Salt was hugely important and precious. Without salt - difficult to preserve meat and fish. There was (is still?) a Russian custom to greet guests with a hunk of bread and a bowl of salt.
As it was so damn expensive, mankind found out a combination of low salt use and lactic acid fermentation ( yep, that again!). A low salt brining of head less baltic herring, tightly packed in barells and some months later you can eat Surströmming ( soured herring). A Viking era midden in Scotland was found to contain lots of herring bones, but no head bones. Only process where you need to remove the head is the surströmming souring.
In Norway the same process with trout. Rakkeørret I think they call it.
The Islanders did it even more cheaply. They buried a dead shark on the high tide mark, some months later it was nicely fermented and very delicious! Some Islanders stuffed a seal skin full of unplucked birds and let them mature.
But that was done recently, we do not know if the Paleo Europeans did this.
Amber was a mythical material, was traded across Europe from the Baltic Sea.
I do not think pottery was traded much that early, but it was later, during the Roman era.
I doubt food was traded much across Europe. Too slow, would not last.
We know the ancient Minoans, Phonicians and Greeks traded extensively across southern Europe.
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Trader yes, cargoes on boats and maybe pack ponies. Lone traveller I was thinking of but maybe you could sign on to a caravan as a porter or guard. If I were a trader in the Bronze Age I would concentrate on salt and honey. Non- perishable with care and somewhat addictive.
If you have not read these books, put them on your Birthday wish-list. You will not be disappointed whatsoever.
Nathaniel's Nutmeg by Giles Milton. ISBN: 0-965-17412-3. The authentic story of a spice trader (British?) in the years following Marco Polo.
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlanski. ISBN: 0-676-97535-6. Far more entertaining read than you might ever guess from the title.
Family have given me a stack of books to read and I bought a dozen regarding PacNW native arts but want to read 'Salt' again.
Nathaniel's Nutmeg by Giles Milton. ISBN: 0-965-17412-3. The authentic story of a spice trader (British?) in the years following Marco Polo.
Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlanski. ISBN: 0-676-97535-6. Far more entertaining read than you might ever guess from the title.
Family have given me a stack of books to read and I bought a dozen regarding PacNW native arts but want to read 'Salt' again.
You forgot the book 'Cod' by Kurlanski. ISBN: 0-09-926870-1
Incredibly informative too, but he forgot the for Europe and Caribbean hugely important Cod fishery in Norway and specially the Lofoten Islands!
Those three books are a must read.
In addition the book 'Book of Eels' by Tom Fort is superb too. Almost better than the Cod book! ISBN: 0-0-711593-8
Incredibly informative too, but he forgot the for Europe and Caribbean hugely important Cod fishery in Norway and specially the Lofoten Islands!
Those three books are a must read.
In addition the book 'Book of Eels' by Tom Fort is superb too. Almost better than the Cod book! ISBN: 0-0-711593-8
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