[Sca-cooks] Compost

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Bronwynmgn at aol.com:
>In a message dated 2/22/2004 12:56:43 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>StefanliRous at austin.rr.com writes:
>
><<This brings up an idea for modern compost that has similarities to my
>understanding of how period compost was done. Since the various items
>that compose compost ripen at different times throughout the year, I
>believe each was picked at their optimum time, chopped and placed in
>the pickling solution. When the next item was available, it was
>chopped, placed in the solution and more solution added if needed. Etc
>until the harvest is finished.>>
>
>Well, that is contrary to the Forme of Cury recipe, which clearly says that
>all of the vegetables are to be  cooked at the same time to be put in the
>pickling mixture.  And a lot of people don't realize that, while 
>turnips and other
>root vegetables are commonly grown as spring vegetables (the seed packets
>often say to start as soon as the ground can be worked in spring), 
>they can also
>be done as fall vegetables.  Here in Southern Pennsylvania, if I start a crop
>of root vegetables, especially turnips, right after I get home from Pennsic, I
>can harvest them in late October or early November, right about the time when
>the pears come in and when I see huge piles of cabbages at the local farm
>stands.

Stefan is presumably referring to the recipe in le Menagier, which 
starts you processing green nuts as the first ingredient in late 
June, and then has you add different fruits and vegetables as their 
harvest time arrives. While this recipe is not called compost, it's 
not called anything else, either, and the ingredients and processes 
are sufficiently similar to think of it as a French version of 
compost.

Adamantius