SC - trencher history guesses

[LYN M PARKINSON]

>> (albeit it's not too clear what the lower classes might have done
about Lent and such; almonds were probably more expensive than meat, so
almond milk pottages probably weren't common for them).<<


Studies of British gardens, farms, etc., have revealed widespread
plantings of hazel.  There are a few recipes, but not enough to account
for the many bushels of nuts there must have been.  The cook books we
have are for upper class and nobility; almonds were imported to many of
the countries, although I believe they grew well enough around the Med. 
Any rural farmer, or cottager with a yard, or farmer with a hedgerow,
might have grown his own hazel bushes.  Or gone nut picking in the wood. 
What do people think of the idea that the hazelnut frumenty and porridge
may have been a local 'everybody knows that' sort of food?  Has anybody
else noticed the sparsity of hazelnut recipes?


Bear, have you found any hazelnut flour?  Hazelnut bread?  We know they
ate some acorn flour in times of famine; hazelnuts are good stuff so they
wouldn't have missed out on those.  


Regards,

Allison
allilyn at juno.com, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, Pittsburgh, PA
Kingdom of Aethelmearc

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