Surviving Winter in the Middle Ages

YouTube ^ | December 16, 2022 | MedievalMadness

[SunkenCiv]

How did people live and die during the harshest months of the year? How did they stay warm? What did they eat? How did they keep themselves entertained in an age before modern day luxuries like electric blankets, double glazing, and Netflix? The onset of the Little Ice Age, between 1300 until about 1870 meant that the long, dark winters of the Late Middle Ages were colder and more dangerous. With starvation and death from illness always threatening to strike, winter was a frightening time. Welcome to Medieval Madness.

Surviving Winter in the Middle Ages... | MedievalMadness | 178K subscribers | 605,503 views | December 16, 2022

[Jonty30]

That’s why you learn how to winter garden. It is possible to grow vegetables in December in northern climates in the ground, if you know what you are doing.

[healy61]

At 94 my grandfather set out on foot with suitcase to walk to our house 65 miles away. He made about 25 miles, and got a ride the rest of the way. Stayed two days, and headed home on foot. He thought nothing of walking like that.

[SunkenCiv]

We’ve got a bunch of topics about it, not sure if the keywords are still there, though. :^)

https://freerepublic.com/tag/536ad/index

https://freerepublic.com/tag/ad536/index

https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/756422/posts

[sauropod]

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[SunkenCiv]

My folks ended up with a diary from a very, very distant cousin we'd never had any idea about, circa 1840s (I can't recall offhand, and I'm too lazy to look for it). It was found by non-relatives during remodeling, and had been used apparently during an earlier renovation (circa 1940) as insulation inside a wall (not an uncommon end for old books, new books, newspapers, comic books, mail order catalogs, etc). There's a single sheet from an old "Morton Salt Girl" scratch pad with a handwritten note that the book had been used "a hundred years ago" by this distant cousin, which is how the earlier renovation date can be ballparkeed.

('Civ catches his breath)

Anyway, the finder gave it to one of my first cousins (this happened out of state) who said they were the only people they knew with the same last name as the diary keeper. That cousin left it here with my folks because they had no further interest in it.

The book started out in upstate NY (east of Watertown) in a place name that consists (or did when I visited it one time) of a self-serve gas station and convenience store, as a docket for a j-o-t-p. His son took the barely-used book with him when he went west, then wound up serving as a j-o-t-p in his new home"town". Eventually the book served as his diary (he kept a lot of of weather observations, important for a farmer), a place for his thoughts (essays, an early form of FR), various frontier remedies for ailments, and such.

The tail end of those diary entries paint a bleak picture of a dying man in legal trouble in an unforgiving society.

Building a personal anecdotal database of weather was important for future planting and harvesting etc.

[Bob434]

I woild imagine that i stead of electric blankets, that They heated up rocks or water bottles to put in their beds to heat the beds before bedtime likely. Lots of folks did that in the old days in America. And that was back before they had wall.and ceiling insulation. I was caretaker on old bison ranch that was uninsured, and the wind was brutal in that area. We stayed warm in winter with a wood furnace and by working hard, and turning in early. We didn’t have time to be cold lol. Keeping up with the wood for the furnace was a full time job in itself almost. More ings though were brutal, but we’d warm up fast enough just taking care of the feeding and watering of animals. Had to carry 5 gallon pails,of water to,the trough from the house as the water to the barn was shut off in winter because of freezing. Again, too busy to be cold. New day, same old grind.

[oldasrocks]

In the old days you body got used to the cold and adapted. Compare to now. In the fall when it drops to 50 you are freezing. In the spring when it gets up to 50 it feels not.

[cld51860]

I toured a museum in Dublin years ago that had recreated the average person’s domicile during the Middle Ages. It was fascinating. I said to one of the docents that it seemed to me people had to concentrate primarily on where they would get their next meal. He said this was true. There were no grocery stores on every other corner, and you had better hope the market - if there was one - had vittles at all and those that you could afford.

[sjmjax]

This doesn’t surprise me. I suspect that real, tangible danger is less mentally damaging than the imaginary dangers of modern life.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks everyone for the replies, kind remarks, and well-wishes, and Merry Christmas to all!

The short version is, they ate whatever was available, labored during the warmer parts of the year to put food into storage, and most obviously, experienced shorter life expectancy, high infant mortality, and were much more physically active than we all tend to be.

When the bubonic plague hit, it carried away a significant chunk of the population of Europe, but hit harder in some areas than in others. That led to the disruption of the feudal hierarchy via the disappearance of the labor force that supported them.

Labor became something for which laborers had to be paid, led to openly practiced trades, what we call private enterprise or even the gig economy.

It took a long time to die, but large off-limits ranges where poaching had been furtively practiced were opened up either for a cut, or de facto thanks to a lack of personnel to enforce the will of the local landed lord.

By the time of Liz I in England, these trades in England were under a burden of taxation. Shakespeare's dad wound up financially ruined by getting caught in the bootleg woolens trade (he was a glover and needed the skins).

[ealgeone]

Bookmark for later.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

It was easy. Just make yourself pretty and team up with the best hunter in your tribe. Bear him lots of stalwart children. He'll keep you warm and fed. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“What struck me, seeing these cabin ruins, is how very small the cabins were - basically one room with a stone chimney.”

When I bought my other farm there was a Homestead House in the far corner of the property. It was just as you described, but it was built into the side of the hill with a stone foundation - where they kept a cow and a pig and some chickens. They lived there while building ‘the big house’ which was a basic 4-square colonial. Such luxury!

Quite practical, actually - one room, one fireplace, and the heat rising from the animals below you. (Not to mention the smells, LOL!)

[Bob434]

The global warming rising upfront the animals below kept em warm lol

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“It is possible to grow vegetables in December in northern climates in the ground, if you know what you are doing.”

I have an unheated greenhouse. I broke my record this year - I had salad greens that I harvested on December 23rd!

If we get a good dump of snow BEFORE the cold hits, I’ve harvested Brussels sprouts, kale, spinach and onions in the spring that made it through the winter.

Elliot Coleman is the expert on growing food all winter in unheated greenhouses - in Maine! His books are awesome. :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

There’s lots to be said for Body Heat - no matter WHOSE body it’s coming from! :)

[RightField]

bookmark

[SunkenCiv]

Of course, the down side is, he gets stomped by a mammoth, but the second husband isn’t worried about beatin’ the kids, since everyone beats their kids (they needed it) and the widdah has crazy cookin’ skills, plus that snuggy, soft bearskin bed...

[Vaduz]

Surviving Winter in the Middle Ages

Many 3 dog nights

[DownInFlames]

It was called deforestation. Until coal was the accepted method of staying warm, wood was the preferred method of staying warm in mud huts for the peasants. We’re heading this way again. We are about to become serfs again. Serfs with high capacity guns.