Food available in the UK only - our seven day challenge

[Des]

From paragraph 77 (introduction to "Making Bread")

it is the custom to allot to labourers " a
potatoe ground" in part payment of their wages!
This has a tendency to bring English labourers down
to the state of the Irish, whose mode of living, as to
food, is but one remove from that of the pig, and of
the ill-fed pig too.

ina, bless you for introducing me to Mr Cobbett! I have a feeling he and I will get along splendidly...[/quote]

[fenwoman]

I'm just re-reading "Cottage economy" by William Cobbett - written in 1821. (I think I posted something on that ages ago.) He reckons you can feed your family (and a cow!) on a quarter of an acre... And families back then were a little larger than nowadays!

What people forget though is that back then there was common land to graze the cow on and pigs fed themselves in the woods. There was little in the way of bought in concentrate and even if it was available it was way out of the reach of the average cottager. To be frank, there was little left by way of 'scraps' to feed a pig on even since 'scraps' were eaten by humans too.
It may be possible to grow enought fruit and veg on 1/4 acre as long as you can graze your beasts for free on common land, collect enough gleanings to grind into flour and religously pick all the wild food you can find and preserve it.Don't forget wild rabbits and fish and wild birds like crows and pigeons to add meat to your diet.
And don't forget to eat less too. Only one main meal per day, no meat every day, everyone lived on far far fewer calories than today, malnutrition was common among lower classes. Breakfast was often nothing more than bread and dripping, lunch more bread, maybe cheese or a bit of bacon fat and some kind of cooked, carbohydrate high meal in the evening made from grain, water, vegetable, herbs, onions, dumplings and meat if any, going mainly to the man who needed his strength to earn money for the family.
The high level of carbohydrates in the diet helped supply energy for the hard manual work involved in doing a day's work outside the home, then coming home and working hard again growing your own food in the garden without which your children would starve, it also helped your body stay warm in icy draughty damp cottages in winter.

[ina]

Cobbett does distinguish between those who had access to a common, and those who didn't - yes of course, the former had it much easier. But he also does feed his one cow on a quarter acre... By constantly working the land and planting at regular intervals almost throughout the year. To be fair, the grain needed to make the bread (of 60 lbs flour each week ) was not grown on that land. Oh, and he thought greens were much better fed to the cow and pig than eaten...

[fenwoman]

Cobbett does distinguish between those who had access to a common, and those who didn't - yes of course, the former had it much easier. But he also does feed his one cow on a quarter acre... By constantly working the land and planting at regular intervals almost throughout the year. To be fair, the grain needed to make the bread (of 60 lbs flour each week ) was not grown on that land. Oh, and he thought greens were much better fed to the cow and pig than eaten...

The book sounds very intersting in any case and I'll try to get a copy for my early dark nights reading. Things were certainly different way back then. I'm glad I live now where I can take the bits I want and leave the bad bits like bed bugs, plague, ague and boils At least my half an acre isn't the difference between me starving or not although I have often fantasised about if something terrible happened and there was some kind of terrible depression at least I would be able to feed myself and immediate family even if we weren't in paid employment. With my land, my skills and knowledge and my son's muscles, we would live very well indeed.

[ina]

I think we'd find it quite hard to follow Cobbett's instructions to the letter - at least I don't see "that bit of hoeing" as no work at all, and milking the cow as no work either, because it is done before and after the rest of the day's work... A day's work is sun up to sun down - which would be roughly 20 hours in summer ! At least up here in the north, anyway.

But even if we can't do it all like him (and quite honestly, I won't give up tea and potatoes!), it is a very interesting picture of life in those times.

[fenwoman]

I think we'd find it quite hard to follow Cobbett's instructions to the letter - at least I don't see "that bit of hoeing" as no work at all, and milking the cow as no work either, because it is done before and after the rest of the day's work... A day's work is sun up to sun down - which would be roughly 20 hours in summer ! At least up here in the north, anyway.

But even if we can't do it all like him (and quite honestly, I won't give up tea and potatoes!), it is a very interesting picture of life in those times.

There are a few copies on ebay which I looked at and when I am in funds again I will certainly get a copy if not for the practical advice but for the social history interest which is a particular 'thing' of mine.
If anyone else is, then I can also recommend a book called 'Domestic life in England' by Norah Lofts (an authoress who's books I collect) She usually writes fact based historical novels based around this area of the country but has written some non fiction books, this being one of them. It is absolutely fascinating to anyone who runs a home and does housework. It explains about the origins of 'spitz' dogs with their curled over tails. Bred to turn the roasting spit by running in a little wheel placed high on a wall like a hamster wheel where a normal long non curled tail would get rubbed and sore or caught in the wheel. Betcha didn't know that!

[ina]

You are right - I didn't know that! I mean I knew they were used for the spit turning, but I had no idea that they were bred with the curly tail for that particular purpose... I find these social history books great, too. Especially when you find that often they had the same problems 200 years ago that we have now...