Medieval Cooking

This is the first week with the chickens and I must say that I am extremely enchanted with them.  They are sweet-natured birds and are wonderful pets with benefits (the benefits being that they provide breakfast).  I was put in touch with a wonderful man in Illinois that is an amateur historian of all things poultry and he told me a bit about the history of the breed:

the earliest references for them date to about 1470 when Isabel of Padua married Casimir the IX of Poland…her great grandson Casimir the XII proposed to Elizabeth Tudor and sent her a dozen fighting cocks and hens…she refused him and gave the royal gift to the Norfolks who gave the breed the name Polish…but really, the rest of the Continent calls them Paduans.

So, I have a starting point to talk about the chickens that I now have in a medieval context and I am drawn to start working on a project where I create a medieval dish that includes only items that I grew, raised, or created myself in some way.  I’d have to come up with some reasonable exceptions (like spices) but it would be cool to do something like that.  I already liked getting eggs out of the henhouse, rinsing them, and then making breakfast with them.  I think that I’ll like making something even more complicated with them, too.  I did find some information about the Paduan breed here and some additional useful information at the Florilegium so I feel like I have a reasonable set of starting resources.  Now, for the three-ring binder.

The garden is continuing to grow.  We lost a few tomato plants to frost that hit us a couple of days ago, but that’s fixable.  I honestly have so many plants that we’re doing really well with having enough.  The collard greens and brussels sprouts are thriving and I couldn’t be happier with them.  I still have to get the corn into the ground.  It was been growing really slowly and I didn’t want to toss it outside until I felt like it had a fighting chance.  I don’t feel good about whether or not we can get the corn to work, but it’s worth a shot.  Generally, I’ve hit the point in the garden that it’s all weeding and waiting.  I just hope that some of this works out.  The beans and peas are growing happily, but they’re still pretty small.  I think that next year I need to start my plants much earlier so that what I’m putting in is older when it hits the ground.  It may be worth putting up some kind of greenhouse or frame where I can do that outside, but I don’t want to spend the money on heating another building.  It sounds like a research project to me, so that’s what I’ll take my time doing this season - making things better for next year.

I have also been considering ways to improve the coop and run for the ladies.  I want to put a better roof on the coop that has room for a light (for heat).  I have also considered putting a roof on the run for when the winter hits.  If the run is covered, I can then cover the sides to reduce the amount of wind that gets through to the chickens and therefore keep them a bit warmer.  In their previous urban dwelling, they had a fence and buildings around them to keep them warm.  Out here we have trees and that’s about it.

I never expected to find myself as a suburban farmsteader as I approached forty.  I am finding that I love the hard work and the anticipation of what is going to happen next.  It has brought a sense of contentment that I hadn’t expected and I am incredibly happy for.

Tags: victory garden