Guest Author - Alena K Shumway

People in the middle ages got their food from four sources: the field, the garden, the surrounding territory, and from faraway locations.

The Field:
Medieval people ate a lot of grains. In fact, entire meals were composed of grains, either baked into bread or boiled in a porridge. Today we might have bread in a sandwich, or a piece of bread on the side of a meal, but in the middle ages, bread was the most important part of the diet. There are many different grains, like wheat, barley, rye, and oats; in the middle ages peas were counted as a grain, but rice and corn did not grow in Europe. Grains were grown in the fields that surrounded castles, manors, and villages. Almost everyone worked the fields, in spring during planting and again in the fall to harvest the grains.

The Garden:
Not all of the food producing plants were grown in fields. Vegetables, fruit, and herbs were grown in small gardens found behind every noble’s manor and every villager’s home. The garden was the wife’s domain and was tended almost all year round to add variety and needed nutrition to meals. Women grew Lettuce, spinach, cabbage, and other greens in their gardens. They grew carrots, turnips, broccoli, celery, onions, and beans in rows in the garden. A garden might also contain an apple or pear tree, berry bushes and other fruit bearing plants. Herbs were also an important part of the back-yard garden. They were used to season food, to cure illness, and to perfume the air inside of houses.

Another important food source found around the houses and in the yards of most homes were livestock: Chickens, pigs, possibly even a cow. Meat was only eaten once a week if at all in the middle ages, so milk, cheese and eggs were important sources of protein.

Surrounding Territory:
People would also gather food from the land and water close to their homes. Wild plants and mushrooms were gathered in the woodlands and fields, wild animals were hunted for meat. Nobles would hunt deer, boar, ducks and geese, and the larger animals; peasants would hunt rabbit and squirrel, pigeon and the smaller animals. Rivers and oceans were also good sources of food: Fish was plentiful and well loved, fresh water and salt water shellfish were eaten, even seaweed was used to spice up a meal.

It was also part of everyday life to trade with your neighbors. If one neighbor had a cow and you had eggs it was expected that you would trade. If someone’s onions did well, maybe another person baked some extra bread. Most villages did not have a market, but neighbors traded with neighbor so that everyone had a little variety in their meals.

Distant Treasures:
Though travel was a painstaking process, dangerous and extremely tedious, people and goods did travel all over Europe. In England it was possible for even the remotest of villages to get goods from foreign places. Wine and olive oil were both beloved quantities. Dates and figs, lemons and limes were prized in the winter, and spices like pepper and cinnamon were shipped from far off shores.



Though most people in the middle ages consisted almost entirely on bread and porridge, there were usually other food available to relieve the monotony: garden vegetables, wild gathered foods, a bit of meat, even spices from the Mediterranean or farther away.