Monday, February 19, 2018

Initial Plans for a Winter Feast

Last year I decided to try growing all the food for a medieval feast for about 50 people. I did cook for a small event in the fall after working in the garden and barnyard for most of the summer. I learned a great deal.

I decided to take what I learned last year and try it again. This time I am going to try to follow along on this blog.

One of the things I did not address last year, was the difference between heirloom varieties of vegetables and the modern ones. I was more interested in getting produce that I could count on. So this year I took more time looking up available varieties of heirloom vegetables. Not all vegetables have heirloom varieties available, and lots of heirlooms only date back to the 1800s. My guess is that Keeping heirloom varieties was probably not nearly as important as producing new varieties for many years. After looking through many sites online, and catalogs, I found some varieties listed as being around for many generations.

I am looking to work on a feast this year in January (I guess that is actually next year). The vegetables I pick need to be dried, or kept in the ground until January in Massachusetts. I will probably cheat on a couple and freeze them. The following picture shows the seeds that I have gotten so far. The two columns on the right are heirloom seeds including two runner beans, turnips, peas, cabbage, leeks, onions, gourds and kale. I am also looking to produce beets, carrots, parsnips, wax beans, watermelon and kohlrabi.


When I searched for pictures of vegetables from pre-1600, I was surprised at the number of still life paintings I found from the mid to late 16th Century. Many of the vegetables looked very similar to modern varieties. I was especially taken with the cabbages. The tacuinum Sanitatis shows pictures of cabbage harvest which show a loose leaf variety, but the 16th Century painters clearly depict head cabbages, including purple cabbage.

Last year we grew hull-less barley, but we did not get enough to use in the feast. we decided to grow a winter crop of barley using the seeds we harvested. The barley came up beautifully in the fall, and we are hoping to see a good harvest this year. I will be starting the onion and leek seeds in about a week indoors. I am not terribly confident about starting them from seeds, but I figure if I screw it up I can still order plants.

I am looking forward to a full year of planting weeding and harvesting.

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