SC - Re: food tithes

[LYN M PARKINSON]

The peasants who owed and paid food tithes did it 'in the raw'--the food,
that is.  So many bushels of grain, so many chickens, perhaps so many
eggs every so often.  The lord's steward, or reeve, would be the one to
receive these tithes at specific times.  The goods were then stored in
the lord's, or church's, tithe barn and used as needed.  I've seen an old
stone tithe barn, slate roofed, in a small town in Germany.  Now a suburb
of Stuttgart.  The stone and slate were used to prevent theft and fire,
and limit rats.  Still has cobblestones at the entrance.

The manor or church had its own fields, too, and the peasants were often
required to put in a certain amount of time cultivating those fields,
often before doing their own.  It doesn't seem to have been the fashion
to cultivate 'luxury crops' as is done today.  (Had avocado for dinner,
which makes me think of it)
If, however, crops other than various pulses--beans and peas--and grains
were grown, the lord or church could afford more varieties than the
peasants.  Most peasants had a kitchen garden.  Sylvia Landsberg's book,
The Medieval Garden, is great for giving us the picture of what was grown
in a yeoman's garden, a church garden, a retired peasant's garden (how do
you 'retire' as a peasant?) a noblewoman's herber, etc.  I don't recall
whether anything was required as a tithe from the personal gardens--a few
references I have handy don't mention tithing.

Regards,

Lady Allison
allilyn at juno.com
Master Chirurgeon, Orden des Linquistringes, Princess' Order of Courtesy

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