I hear they would have a central bakery so the local Lord charged the peasants for turning their own flour into bread.
A monopoly!
I read somewhere that when knitting was first invented, during the Middle Ages, it was illegal, because peasants could make their own clothes instead of using the loom owned by the local lord.
Most families had neither ovens, nor nor any of the bowls, pans and other hardware needed to produce bread. So those who did have such things, usually produced more than they needed, and sold, or exchanged, the excess.
Only (in England)it wasn't the Lord of the manor, but the Lady, or the Squire's, or most prosperous local farmer's, wife. By custom and tradition, if not the letter of the law, the profits the Lady made baking bread, or brewing beer, for her neighbors who did not have the capital to bake and brew for themselves, were hers to dispose of as she pleased, and not controlled by her husband.
I don’t know about that, but fees for milling the grain INTO flour were a constant source of aggravation.