Re: Bread and cheese


<am05@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1131546506.138758.193410@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> David Read wrote:

<snips for brevity>

>> > What is _green_ cheese? That semisoft thing which is a little bit on a
>> > stinky side
>> > and is supposed to be a delicacy?
>>
>> Fresh, immature cheese.
>
> Any type of it?

As far as I know.

<snip>

>>
>> Piers is a ploughman, not a farmer,
>
> Means 'just a worker for hire'?

Well probably more than that.

>Was he supposed to provide his own
> food?

That would depend upon just how much in demand an agricultural labourer''s
services were. And that would be seasonal and market related.

Read the poem, particularly Passus VI.


> Usual arrangement with the hired workers in Russia was that their
> employer
> feeds them.

When?
>
>>and would have had only his own garden
>> or smallholding in which to keep livestock and grow foodstuffs .
>
> Well, I can't comment on the English livestock but in some other places
> chicken tend to require much less space. Afaik, you can't keep a cow in
> your
> garden (providing you want some vegetables for yourself) but you can
> keep the
> chicken in your yard. Probably a cow is held on some common pasture and
> he
> has to pay something to a person who overlooks village's herd. Or he
> has to have
> a sizeable piece of his own land to provide grass and hay. To think
> about it, he
> still has to have some land to provide hay for horse and cow during the
> winter.
>
> So, he is just saying that _he_ does not have some quite common food
> available
> to his family (not the luxury items) as a sign of his honest poverty?

No. As I have said, this relates to ther "Hunger Gap" before the harvest.
>
>> Langland is not describing the state of Piers' diet throughout the year,
>> but
>> the "hungry gap", where bread was scarcer and food generally less varied
>> and
>> nutritious during the summer months before harvest time.
>
> This is when chicken come handy. :-)

Of which there is not an infinite supply, and whose costs will rise in times
of high demand.
>
> Peter is not the brightest apple on a tree but is his wife just as
> stupid as he husband?

No.

<snip>

>> Branston pickle isn't my favourite either. However, there are plenty of
>> other brandname pickles hot, sour, acidic, etc.to choose from that you
>> might
>> prefer. Inevitably, the best home-made ones are always preferable. Most
>> pubs, however, seem to regard Branston pickle as being de rigeur with
>> their
>> ploughman's lunches,
>
> Never managed to attract any attention to my person in English pub (not
> that I
> visited too many of them): everybody was busy watching football and I
> had no
> clue if I should come to the bar and ask for service or quietly wait to
> be served
> (the 2nd model clearly did not work).

Tourist. :-)
>
>>which themselves can be highly variable in quality. Of
>> course, you still might yearn for babushka's salt cabbage,
>
> Actually, being born in post-Domostroy times, _I_ was doing the
> salting....
>
>> fatty cuts of
>> meat
>
> Why do you think that I like _fat_ meat? Ukrainian 'salo' excepting, of
> course (and it is
> not a meat, justsalted fat).
>
> As one smart doggie said: "People think that we like bones but actually
> we like meat."
>
>
>> and distilled potato juice,
>
> Potato vodka is more typical for Poland.....
>
>>but fortunately I don't have *that*
>> problem.
>
> David, you are thoroughly mistaken about the 'nostalgic items' of my
> diet but I'm
> glad to know that you don't have the dietary problems. :-)

I'm glad you're glad. :-)
>

--

cheers,

David Read


.

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