Monthly Archives: April 2013

Muslim food comes to Europe

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Ruth

The Middle Ages can be said to begin as Mohammed’s successors began to conquer weary, disease-struck regions of the Eastern Roman Empire, and to end as the Muslim-convert Turks finally brought down the walls of Eastern Rome itself: Constantinople. Contact … Continue reading →

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Kitchen gardens

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Ruth

Most medieval houses made it a priority to use even a small bit of exposed earth to make a garden. Deep in cities, people who lived in rooms and flats didn’t even have this much; but country people certainly did, … Continue reading →

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Medieval bees

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Ruth

Beekeeping was well-established by the Middle Ages in the Mediterranean region, of course. Farming bees presented more challenges in colder climates, where Charlemagne had mandated that every royal estate must keep bees. In the Mediterranean countries, every region had its … Continue reading →

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Charlemagne’s vegetables

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Ruth

He wanted his stewards to send him all wolf hides caught and tanned on his estates, feed his hunting dog puppies at their own expense, and use barrels instead of leather bottles. He wanted them to be sure that the … Continue reading →

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Charlemagne the Farmer: Pt. 1

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Ruth

The earliest detailed document we have about food in Dark Ages Europe is the set of regulations that Emperor Charlemagne imposed on his archipelago of manor farms. A king’s court was too large to stay in one place for long, … Continue reading →

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Medieval farming takes on horses

Posted on April 4, 2013 by Ruth

The new iron-shod moldboard plow could open up fields on land that had looked off limits, and it doubled grain yield per acre. Every 50 years, some higher altitude lands were a few degrees warmer, so farming spread upward, away … Continue reading →

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Dark Ages grain farming

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Ruth

Dark Ages farming in Europe had to adapt Mediterranean Roman techniques to a different climate and soil. At first, fields were planted one year and left fallow the next, to avoid exhausting the soil. Roman farmers had discovered crop rotation … Continue reading →

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Dark Ages animals

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Ruth

So we travel back to the Dark Ages, the early medieval years when constant migration of barbarians kept civilization to a lower level than Rome had reached. Most of Europe is heavily forested. Settlement tends to be along rivers and … Continue reading →

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New series: medieval food

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Ruth

If I start a series on food in the Middle Ages, I’ll take my time and meander through time and region. I’m one of those “begin at the beginning” fanatics. So I’m thinking I’d start with what Europe had as … Continue reading →

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