[Sca-cooks] Rotten meat and spices...

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 07:03 PM 4/12/2005, you wrote:

>Sure.  But the Chaucer tale indicates the widow had a few pigs, so I am 
>assuming she had them for
>food or (as Lainie mentioned) for breeding/selling purposes.  However, I'm 
>more inclined to think
>that they were on hand for the food they supplied.  And, a good part of me 
>(yes, there is at least
>one) wants to think that she would have kept more than just a rasher or 
>two of bacon.

Three pigs. That's very few pigs. The farm next door when I was growing up 
never had fewer than eight. You have to remember, William, that this widow 
is most likely relying on the pigs for _income_, not just food. Three pigs 
is barely enough to have a breeding group. When you have that few, you 
don't butcher them out- you breed them for a couple of years to build up 
the stock. If you're smart, you'll trade a couple out with the farm down 
the lane,so they don't get too inbred. But when you've only three, you 
don't eat them.

'Lainie
___________________________________________________________________________
O it is excellent to have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous To use it 
like a giant--Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act II