SC - gravlax- late reply

[Stefan li Rous]

Angus replied to my comment:
> >Thanks for the personal experience with making the gravlax. You question 
> >whether the Vikings would have had the dill and white pepper. I would
> >question, if not more so, the Norse having the sugar. The amount of
> >sugar required would seem to put it out of reach in this time period
> >from what I've seen mentioned on this list earlier. When even several
> >hundred years later sugar was treated more like a medicine and rationed
> >out carefully, it would seem that using it to preserve fish would not
> >have been done.
> 
> Sorry for the very late reply but ut slipped my mind =(
> I don't know anything about bee keeping so I can't say if it was too cold or not to keep bees at Birka during the Viking Age.  From what I've read the southern regions of Sweden kept bees and had (I suppose) a good supply of honey which was traded with the northern communities.  I have a copy of Else Roesdahl's 'The Vikings' at home but I've only browsed it.  I'll take a deep dive into it and see if I can find anything.

Honey was a major export from Russia during early and medieval times. I believe
it was mostly gathered wild, like the furs that were also traded, rather than
from cultivated hives. This would imply that bees did live as far north as
Birka. Whether the bees were cultivated or raided in that area is still a
question. But even if not, honey might be traded for from the regions to
the east. Even if expensive, it would still be cheaper than sugar from
the Middle East.
- -- 
Lord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris             Austin, Texas           stefan at texas.net
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