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thingfishs


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various thoughts on agriculture
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My Medieval Farming Calendar

A few words about this calendar are probably in order. My main sources are English and Irish, so the dates are most appropriate to central and northern Europe. In southern Europe the growing season is going to be longer and drier and the winter not as harsh. I was unable to find clear harvest dates in my medieval books for certain crops (e.g. peas), so I have filled in the gaps from modern sources in the assumption that the nature of peas has not changed significantly since then. I have tried to make useful suggestions for activities during the winter months, but I'm sure that most time and effort, especially for poorer households, was spent just getting through it.

January: Clear ditches; cut wood; breed sows; spread manure; "camping"; early lambs born.

February: Prune grapes and fruit trees; prune and mend hedgerows; mend fences; kill moles; plant willow; add lime, chalk and manure to soil; lambing continues; calving begins.

March: Plow and harrow as soon as the ground is soft enough; sow spring grains; calving continues.

April: Plant onions and leeks; plant flax; wean calves; get milking and dairy work underway; farrowing (birth of piglets).

May: Weed winter corn; remove moss from thatched roofs and repair; sow pulses; capture swarming bees; mark sheep; plant beets, carrots, cabbages, and other garden vegetables.

June: Wash and shear sheep; shear lambs later in the month; start mowing hay.

July: Keep mowing that hay; harvest flax and hemp; begin harvesting winter corn.

August: Finish harvesting winter grain, begin on spring grain; gather in straw; plant turnips.

September: Harvest peas; breed cattle; harvest honey; plow fields for winter grain; sow winter wheat and rye; harvest apples, blackberries; take excess stock to market.

October: Sow winter barley and oats; harvest grapes; make wine and verjuice; breed sheep; let pigs forage on acorns and beechnuts.

November: Unsuspecting pigs get fatter and fatter; take in firewood; threshing and winnowing continue through the winter.

December: Slaughter hogs; never too early to shovel manure; Merry Christmas!




Types of crops: (Spring)  barley, vetches, oats, peas, beans,

(Autumn) Wheat, rye,






- On the continent there were a lot of vines grown and wine produced. England had a flourishing wine industry in the early medieval period, when the climate was unusually warm here, but the climate cooled in the thirteenth century and the vines died off.

- Also flax, sometimes hemp for making rope. Wheat, barley and rye were cash crops, for the most part. Vegetables were grown in smaller "gardens"...a plot about an acre in size and in villages they were mostly a family crop. In and around the larger towns, as in the cities, the farmers specialized, some growing grains, some vegetables, which they then took to market to sell/trade for the things they didn't grow themselves.

- The rye and wheat, in addition to being sold for cash, were used for bread. The barley was used for beer and the hay and oats were fed to the horses and other livestock such as oxen. To get the fields in proper growing condition, the farmers used oxen to plow the land. Most farmers did not own enough oxen themselves, so plowing was a communal activity.

Three Field System

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Additionally, the sowing of the fields was on a three year cycle. For any particular field, it was sown for two straight years, and the left fallow for the third. This allowed the soil to regain nutrients, to be ready to host another crop again soon, and to produce more. Also, because they grew more than one crop, they employed a system of crop rotation which is still used today. In crop rotation, different crops are planted on the same field in different years. One year they might plant wheat. The next year they might plant barley. Barley and wheat use different nutrients. That way the nutrients barley uses will build up in the soil while wheat is growing. Then barley is grown which uses up the nutrients in the soil. While the barley is growing, nutrients that wheat uses collect in the soil. The next year wheat is grown again. The cycle continues. Fertilizer was also commonly used. A common technique was called marling. The marling process consisted of spreading clay containing carbonate of lime onto the soil, thus restoring much needed nutrients to grow crops. The also used manure to fertilize, which came from the livestock that they raised, such as sheep, pigs, cows, chickens, and the occasional goat.

- Ninth-century farmers used two fields -- one active at a given time, and the other one idle (or fallow). This kept them from robbing the soil of nutrients and leaving it unproductive. Then someone found that a field could be used two years out of three if it were planted with one crop in the fall and a different crop in the spring, a year and a half later.

This meant farmers had to break their holdings into three fields -- one to be planted with wheat or rye in the fall, for human consumption; a second to be used in the spring to raise peas, beans, and lentils for human use and oats and barley for the horses. The third field lay fallow. Each year this use was rotated among the three field



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Simarillion


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Agricultural production

Four interrelated factors determined the work organization of medieval agriculture: the economic self-sufficiency of the manor, the development of mixed agriculture based on crops and livestock, such technological improvements as the heavy wheeled plow and rigid horse collar, and the system of land tenure and division of holdings. Each peasant household produced nearly everything it needed. Exceptions included the use of a feudal mill or winepress for which the peasants paid not in money but with a percentage of the crop being processed.

While stock raising and crop production had been separate enterprises in antiquity, the two were combined during the Middle Ages in northwestern Europe. Livestock was raised for use as draft animals and for food, and, because the yield of the grainfields did not greatly exceed human requirements, stock was pastured on poor land or harvested fields. Thus, a certain amount of land was reserved for pasturage, and some villager, usually an older member of the community, became a herdsman.

Communal organization was favoured by the land-tenure arrangements and by the way in which arable land was divided among villagers. In order to assure an equitable apportionment, the land was divided into large fields. Each peasant held strips in each field, meaning that the work of plowing, planting, and harvesting had to be done in common and at the same time.

The wheeled plow, gradually introduced over several centuries, further reinforced communal work organization. Earlier plows had merely scratched the surface of the soil. The new plow was equipped with a heavy knife (colter) to dig under the surface, thereby making strip fields possible. Yet because the new plow required a team of eight oxen—more than any single peasant owned—plowing (and indeed all heavy work on the manor) was pooled. Such a system allowed little room for individual initiative; everyone followed established routines, with the pace of the work set by the ox team.


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Simarillion


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Ever wondered what your calender would look like in practical terms?
Here it is (well, part of it).



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thingfishs


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It would be nice to have some other types of crops as well. I wonder what other citrus and more standard fruits & vegies may work.



Persian orange

The Persian orange, grown widely in southern Europe after its introduction to Italy in the 11th century, was bitter. Sweet oranges brought to Europe in the 15th century from India by Portuguese traders quickly displaced the bitter, and are now the most common variety of orange cultivated. The sweet orange will grow to different sizes and colours according to local conditions, most commonly with tencarpels, or segments, inside.



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Simarillion


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Crops: segale, spelta, orzo, grano saraceno, miglio, avena, sorgo (after 1400 ca. rice)
Garden veg: cavoli, barbabietole, cipolle, agli, carote
Fruits (south): limoni, cedri, arance amare, melograni, mele cotogne, uva, fichi, datteri
Fruits (north): mele, pere, prugne, fragole, uva

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