[Steppes] Living in the Past....Could you really do it??

[lizdenpeters@juno.com]

Meat was also an expensive and precious commodity.  If you killed the cow
for meat and leather, you had no milk, cream, butter or cheese.  If you
killed the sheep, you had no wool or milk or cheese.  If you had too many
animals to feed, you traded them for other goods you needed. Also, all
meats went bad very quickly if they were not dried, smoked or salted.
Late summer, just before harvest was the "hungry time" because grain
stores were low if not exhausted and the fruits of harvest were not ready
yet.  If there was an infestation of insects in the grain, many times
they were ground with the grain because they had nothing else.  From the
limited studies I have done, it indicates that most subsisted on dairy
and grain products.  We take the vast variety of foods available today
for granted.  It was not that way then or even when I was growing up to a
certain extent -- apples in the fall, tomatoes in the summer, tender
lettuces in early spring, various berries in mid to late summer.  Now, if
you are willing to pay, you can have fresh strawberry pie at Christmas.

I freely admit that I am spoiled by todays conveniences: freezers, A/C,
refrigeration, clean water(running hot and cold), dependable sewage
disposal (they had open sewers in the streets and sometimes the streets
were the sewers), antibiotics, indoor plumbing, dental care, etc., etc. 
However, having lived without some and all of these, I don't take them
for granted.

Lady Fionnghuala the Fair  ~ "Nuala"
"It seems the less a statesman amounts to, the more he loves the flag."
                      ~~~~~Kin Hubbard~~~~~~



On Tue, 7 Sep 2004 00:54:14 -0500 "Scot and Michelle Henry"
<cshenry at ev1.net> writes:
> And don't forget that there were many "no meat" days for various 
> religious
> purposes.  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: steppes-bounces+cshenry=ev1.net at ansteorra.org
> [mailto:steppes-bounces+cshenry=ev1.net at ansteorra.org] On Behalf Of 
> Vicki
> Marsh
> Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 4:21 PM
> To: Barony of Steppes - SCA, Inc.
> Subject: RE: [Steppes] Living in the Past....Could you really do 
> it??
> 
> Ummmm. Gabrielle,
>  (I can't help myself....I'm a Laurel)
> 
> There *were* vegetarians in period.
> 
> There were "heretical", dualist christian sects who chose to forsake 
> meat
> and sex, among other things. The Albiginsians and the Bogomils were 
> two of
> them.
> 
> Physicians would often prescribe vegetarian diets for gout 
> sufferers.
> 
> There are other examples, of course:)
> 
> Xene
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: steppes-bounces+xaraxene=comcast.net at ansteorra.org
> [mailto:steppes-bounces+xaraxene=comcast.net at ansteorra.org]On Behalf 
> Of
> Jann Mays
> Sent: Friday, September 03, 2004 9:57 AM
> To: Barony of Steppes - SCA, Inc.
> Subject: Re: [Steppes] Living in the Past....Could you really do 
> it??
> 
> 
> Ughhh.  That really lends credibility to the SCA motto, "We live not 
> as it
> was, but as it should have been." (or something like that).  I think 
> I would
> have become a vegetarian really quick.  It wouldn't surprise me to 
> find out
> that the herbalists back then stuck to eating plantlife and leaving 
> meats
> alone.
> Gabrielle
> 
> Su
> 
> HL Gabrielle Honorie de Saint Pierre
> 
> "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more 
> than our
> abilities." - Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Chamber of 
> Secrets.
> J.K. Rowling, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1998.
> 
> 
> 
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