[Sca-cooks] SAD

[Pixel, Goddess and Queen]

> > Things like fish couldn't go far, because the fish were dead.
>
> Except, of course, salted, dried, or pickled fish.

And live fish wrapped in wet weeds, and live fish in barrels, and live
fish kept in fishariums (vivariums, but fisharium sounds cooler). Remember
that most of Europe lives fairly close to a body of water that had fish in
it in the MA--but even local fresh fish would have been terribly expensive
in the colder months. This was especially true in Lent, when the demand
was up.
 >
> > Since fruits would be picked ripe, unlike the fruits of today, they
> > wouldn't last terribly long, but could be transported some distance.
> > Some fruits store for a while, such as apples and pears, and quinces
> > store even longer.
>
> Techniques for stretching harvest times and for preserving grapes, etc.
> were apparently in use by the end of our period (_Charleston Kedding_)
 >
>
> -- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa   jenne at fiedlerfamily.net

Also, during most, if not all, of our period, in various parts of Europe,
the weather was mild enough to have a second crop of grain during the
winter. Europe in general is warmer than the US, because more of the land
area is close to major bodies of water. A large body of water is a giant
thermal mass, which moderates cold weather by releasing trapped heat, and
warm weather by sucking up heat. The reason Siberia is so desolate and
nasty in the winter is the same reason that the Dakotas and Manitoba are
so desolate and nasty in the winter--no big lakes or oceans nearby to
provide heat, and not a whole lot of anything to block the winds coming
down from the arctic.

Margaret, in MN where it is finally snowing