Food+and+Drinks

 __** Food and Drinks **__ by: Caroline Yeo Ong

 Food falling everywhere! People in the Middle Ages had a lot of food to eat, but it was hard work for Serfs or Peasants to grow their own food and give their lords some of their food. Everything they ate came from nature. They ate corn, pears, tomatoes, cherries and strawberries. The vegetables came from the ground. Such as, cabbages, carrots, turnips and salt. The fruits came from the trees and bushes. From the Oceans came the fishes, and clams. From the sky came the ducks and swans.

To get their own food or grow it, they need tools right? They used small hand-held tools. They used seed baskets-woven from straw to pick up seeds., sickles to cut wheat, scythe for mowing or reaping crops,hoes, spades, rakes, flails to beat and separate grain, and heavy plows. They also used, harrows to break soil and remove weeds,padded horse collar to pull a plow with greater strength, horseshoes so the horses could walk faster. The also used dams,drainage,tunnels, and canals to move water to and from fields, water wheels to lift water from rivers to irrigate their crops.
 * __ Tools: __**

**__Medicines:__**  They also had different food for medicines. Here are some of the examples. Mint and anise were used for bad breath and myrrh was used for cuts and scrapes and Frankincense for sinuses. Ginger for stomach aches and cloves and sage for toothaches. Wormwood was used for poisoning and almond oil for coughs. Pepper for chills, fever and stomach aches. So maybe you would like to try using them for medicine and see if it works.

**__Preparation for feast:__** To prepare food for a feast, they used large pots and cauldrons to cook soups and stews which they hung over the fire. Their favorite stew was pottage which was made out of vegetables, herbs, bread crumbs, and sometimes bacon for extra flavor. They also made ale by mixing barley and rye with herbs, honey and water. They made barley into bread, pancakes or pizza. Getting hungry? Licking your mouth? Don’t go and get your snacks,there’s more! **__Ways of Storing food:__** Since they didn’t have any refrigerators that time, they used different ways to store food. Here are some ways: they dried fruits to make raisins, prunes, dried peas and dried apples. They pickled vegetables, meat and fish in brine. They used salty water for pickles and garum for fish sauce and used fermented grape juice, apple, barley to make wine, cider and beer for yogurt and cheese. They smoked meat from pigs to make ham and bacon. They covered the foods with salt to keep it from getting destroyed.

**__Food for Special Occasions:__** On special occasions, the table was full with food. There were mostly meat such as beef, bacon, chicken stew, good bread, ale, peacocks, and swans.There was also a Yule boar, full boar with an apple, gingerbread, sweet plum pudding, and sweet cakes. There were also loaves of bread, oat cakes and frumenty. Most of all, they drank lots of beer!

The kings and nobles had a lot of food to eat every day, even in the winter but there were never enough food for the peasants and serfs even though they worked very hard to get their food to eat!
 //**< Bibliography >**//

Websites I used that you might like to try: [] [] []

Book I used that you might like to try: **< Food and Feasts in the Middle Ages**  **>** //written by Elliot, Lynne, published by Crabtree, 2004//