HERB - Timeline of Food

[Jenne Heise]

On Thu, 25 Jun 1998, Rhiannon Meaduewolf wrote:
> Hops were used in England for many years before 1525, they were just
> illegal. This reference comes from a poem that tells that revolution and
> hops came in the same year.  Andrew Boorde quotes it in his Doctor
> Physike.

?? My sources say that they were unpopular and considered unhealthy, but
not illegal. Certainly, because they happened in the same year doesn't
mean they are 

> When ale was brewed in England, the popular stuff was made with a gruit
> (herbs and spices) that the recipe for was a closely guarded secret.
> The license was owned by the Catholic Church and dispensed by the
> Guilds.  This represented a huge income for these institutions, so when
> the Flemish showed up with hops, which worked better at preservation,
> and made the beer even more palatable, the Bishops immediately made them
> illegal to use in ale.  The fight was on, and hops are quite a bit like
> kudzu, they grow prolifically just about anywhere.

I'd like to see a source for this. Certainly Bishops had very little power
in England to declare things ILLEGAL, though they could certainly
denounce them and declare them unhealthy.  It's certainly possible, but I
would want to see the citation. (Whenever I hear statements that involve
the Church in something considered 'bad', especially in English & German
sources, I get suspicious. Much history has been twisted to fit
anti-papist rhetoric in the past 400 years.)

> Now, the use of hops in herbalism is mainly in their soporific
> properties.  They are used in pillows to help a person sleep with nice
> dreams.  Still are today.

Hops, at least by the looks of Culpepper, were also used as a diuretic...

Jadwiga Zajaczkowa (Shire of Eisental; HERMS Cyclonus) 
         aka Aunt Bunny, mka Jennifer Heise	
jenne at tulgey.browser.net

"And I think it's gonna be alright; Yeah, the worst is over now--
The mornin' sun is shinin' like a red rubber ball."

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