Posted on 08/20/2005 9:03:36 PM PDT by nickcarraway
For a year five experts ditched theory for practice, running a Welsh farm using 17th Century methods. What lessons for modern living did they learn?
The BBC series Tales from the Green Valley follows historians and archaeologists as they recreate farm life from the age of the Stuarts. They wear the clothes, eat the food and use the tools, skills and technology of the 1620s.
It was a time when daily life was a hard grind, intimately connected with the physical environment where routines were dictated by the weather and the seasons. A far cry from today's experience of the countryside, which for many involves a bracing walk ahead of a pub lunch.
While few would choose to live a 17th Century lifestyle, the participants found they picked up some valuable tips for modern life.
1. Know thy neighbours. Today it's possible to live alone, without knowing anyone within a 20-mile radius (the same goes for townies). That was simply not possible in the past - not only did the neighbours provide social contact, people shared labour, specialist skills and produce. "And women were judged on good neighbourliness," says historian Ruth Goodman. "If you were willing to help others - particularly during and after childbirth - then others would be more prepared to help you in times of need."
2. Share the load. It was nigh on impossible to run a 1620s farm single-handedly, and the family - either blood relatives, or a farmer, his wife and hired help - had to be multi-skilled. Labour, too, was often divided along gender lines, but at busy periods, such as harvest time, it was all hands on deck.
3. Fewer creature comforts have some benefits. No electricity meant once daylight faded, work stopped in favour of conversation, music-making and knitting. And no carpets meant fewer dust mites, which are linked to asthma and allergies. "They scattered herbs on the floor which released scent when trodden on - this drove out flies and other insects," says Ms Goodman.
4. Eat seasonally. Today it's because of "food miles" and the inferior quality of forced products. In the 1620s, it was because foods were only available at certain times of year - and not just fruit and veg. Mutton, for instance, was in abundance in spring, soon after shearing time. This was because a sheep's wool quality plunges after eight years - thus animals of that age were killed after their final fleece was removed.
5. Tasty food comes in small batches. Today farmers' markets are a tourist attraction and many delight in regional specialities. For these producers play to the strengths of their ingredients, unlike, for instance, the makers of mass-produced cheese. This has to taste the same year-round, despite seasonal variations in milk quality. "So high-quality milk in the spring is downgraded so the finished product is consistent throughout the year," says Ms Goodman.
6. Reuse and recycle. Today we throw away vast mountains of packaging, food, garden waste and other materials. In 1620s, there was a use for everything, with tattered bed linens made into fire-lighters and animal fat into soap. Even human waste had uses. Faeces was a fertiliser, and urine was stored to make ammonia to remove laundry stains.
7. Dress for practicalities. Today fashion and social convention dictate our wardrobes. While polar fleeces and high-performance tramping boots may be all the rage when going rural, the wardrobe of 400 years ago proved more comfortable. "While the crew shivered in their modern garb, we never felt the cold in just two layers - a linen shirt and woollen doublet," says archaeologist Alex Langlands. Breeches meant no wet and muddy trouser legs, and staying covered up - rather than stripping off in the heat - prevented bites, stings, sunburn and scratches.
8. Corsets, not bras. "By that I don't mean Victorian corseting," says Ms Goodman. "Corsets support your back as well as your chest, and don't leave red welts on your skin like bra elastic does. They made it hard to breath walking up hills, but I get short of breath doing that anyway. And most people feel sexy in a corset."
9. Biodiversity protects against unforeseen calamity. While the developed world no longer counts the cost of crop failure in starvation and mass migration - the result of Ireland's Great Potato Famine in 1845 - the 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis decimated farms up and down the country as animals, the farmers' livelihoods, were put to death. The 1620s farm had grains, fruit and vegetables, and a range of animals - if one failed, alternatives were available.
9. Reliance on any one thing leaves you vulnerable. Hence the country ground to a halt during the petrol blockades of 2000, and a shortage of coal during 1978-9's Winter of Discontent caused electricity shortages. On the 1620s farm, when oxen used to plough fields fell ill, the implements were reshaped and horses did the job instead.
10. No pesticides means a richer variety of birds, butterflies and other insects, many of which feast on pests - a result as desirable for the gardener as the farmer. And the hedgerow and fields of wild flowers of the past are today making a comeback, as these provide habitats for these creatures and allow edible plants to flourish.
\Tales from the Green Valley will be broadcast weekly on BBC Two from Friday, 19 August, at 1930BST.
Someone told me once that chlorinating our drinking water is a problem, because it removes natural sulfur from the water.
Anyone know anything about that? That is supposed to be one factor in the relatively recent increase in cancer cases.
"It's hard to imagine what it would've been like to have been a mother hundreds of years ago and know that half of your children would die before 10 and you might very well perish yourself while bringing them into the world. It's unfathomable to most of us today, but it's what the majority of humans throughout history had to confront. It makes you realize just how much we take for granted today."
My grandfather was born in 1881 in South Dakota (Dakota Territory then).
He was in the middle of seven children. Three died before age 14; two in one week. Of diptheria. They gargled kerosene to "treat" the disease.
The four that survived lived long lives, my grandfather making 87. In his teens he rode a train west to Wyoming, to work for Bill Cody's Show.
Lived out his days in Wyoming, not marrying until he was 40.
I thought we are nuts, but it looks like the Brits are surpassing us. I wonder who is sponsoring this nonsense!
I respectfully disagree. Fleas can live in the cracks in hardwood floors. I don't have carpet in my house and if we don't keep our dogs on Advantage we will have flea problems. I have been bitten when the dogs are not in the same room I am in, but then I'm so sweet that fleas particularly like me. :)
That aside, my original point was that the plague was spread by fleas that Ms. Goodman's natural insect repellant didn't kill or repel.
Yes, yet another commonality! We really must find SOMETHING to differ on, again. LOL
Pleasant dreams, you kind lady, you.
Gout was pretty ubiquitous in England, but it isn't anymore.
Tooth decay and impacted wisdom teeth used to kill lots of people, but it doesn't anymore. And then there are carbuncles, goiter, and a host of other diseases that preindustrial and even early industrial peoples had, which nobody has anymore.
Don't forget wars. Women were encouraged to have lots of kids partly so they could help run things at home while Dad was away fighting the Scots or the French, or whomever.
Cancer has been around since the dawn of time.
My water ( well water ) has sulfur in it ( besides a lot of other nasty stuff) and we filter it out. They used to think that water containing sulfur and other nasty, smelly stuff could cure all kinds of things, which is why "spas" like the one at BADDEN BADDEN and Bath, sprung up and people went to literally TAKE THE CURE. They bathed in the water and drank the water and they it didn't really "cure" them of anything.
My great grandparents, whilst on GRAND TOUR, did the Baden Baden thing and my great grandmother died from cancer and that was before water was fluoridated and/or chlorinated.
You certainly are hair trigger tonight.
You have a problem with people who don't bow down to your vastly superior wisdom and knowledge, or what?
Maybe you need a nice glass of hot Ovaltine or something.
The BEEB started these shows and our PBS copied them. This show is but one in a series.
My knowledge of fleas is admittedly rather limited. The only time I had a problem was the short time I lived with carpets. Anecdotal.
Who urinated in your cornflakes? LOL
Interesting. Thank you for the post.
I'm no shepherd ... but he said "mutton" is available all year long, not wool. He wasn't talking about shearing them, but about slaughtering/butchering them.
In which case - and I freely admit my ignorance about such things - it seems to me to be true that "mutton is available all year".
Is there any reason that a sheep can't stick around for six or eight months after its last shearing?
You know from experience that fleas live in carpets.
And I know from experience that fleas can do quite well living in the cracks between 12x12 vinyl tiles.
What makes you so sure they can't live on plain wood floors?
I'll bet they could run a family out of the place.
Where in the article do they mention "rushes?"
Early midwestern settlers lived in them...two-thirds below ground to protect them from the elements; or sometimes into the side of a hill.
It is HIDEOUS! Dirt floors and walls; about 12'x15' with a five foot ceiling. Like living in a grave!
Can you imagine spending the five months of an Iowa winter inside of that?!
The people that settled this country were truly something.
Oh yes fleas can live on bare wood floors. Thanks to Advantage and Frontline fleas are not a problem anymore.
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