A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food & Drink

A Second Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Food & Drink

Author: Ann Hagen

Publisher:

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 432

ISBN-13:

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Food production for home consumption was the basis of economic activity throughout the Anglo-Saxon period and ensuring access to an adequate food supply was a constant preoccupation. Used as payment and a medium of trade, food was the basis of the Anglo-Saxons' system of finance and administration. Information on the production and distribution of food from the fifth to the eleventh centuries from literary and archaeological sources has been brought together for the first time to give fascinating insights into this important aspect on Anglo-Saxon life. This second handbook complements the first and brings together a vast amount of information on livestock, cereal and vegetable crops, fish, honey, and fermented drinks. Related subjects such as hospitality, charity and drunkenness are also dealt with. The extensive twenty-seven page index enables the reader to find specific information quickly.


The Barbarian's Beverage

The Barbarian's Beverage

Author: Max Nelson

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2005-02-25

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 1134386710

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Comprehensive and detailed, this is the first ever study of ancient beer and its distilling, consumption and characteristics Examining evidence from Greek and Latin authors from 700 BC to AD 900, the book demonstrates the important technological as well as ideological contributions the Europeans made to beer throughout the ages. The study is supported by textual and archaeological evidence and gives a fresh and fascinating insight into an aspect of ancient life that has fed through to modern society and which stands today as one of the world’s most popular beverages. Students of ancient history, classical studies and the history of food and drink will find this an useful and enjoyable read.


Say what I Am Called

Say what I Am Called

Author: Dieter Bitterli

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 0802093523

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Perhaps the most enigmatic cultural artifacts that survive from the Anglo-Saxon period are the Old English riddle poems that were preserved in the tenth century Exeter Book manuscript. Clever, challenging, and notoriously obscure, the riddles have fascinated readers for centuries and provided crucial insight into the period. In Say What I Am Called, Dieter Bitterli takes a fresh look at the riddles by examining them in the context of earlier Anglo-Latin riddles. Bitterli argues that there is a vigorous common tradition between Anglo-Latin and Old English riddles and details how the contents of the Exeter Book emulate and reassess their Latin predecessors while also expanding their literary and formal conventions. The book also considers the ways in which convention and content relate to writing in a vernacular language. A rich and illuminating work that is as intriguing as the riddles themselves, Say What I Am Called is a rewarding study of some of the most interesting works from the Anglo-Saxon period.


Anglo-Saxon Farms and Farming

Anglo-Saxon Farms and Farming

Author: Debby Banham

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 353

ISBN-13: 0199207941

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Farming was the basis of the wealth that made England worth invading, twice, in the eleventh century, while trade and manufacturing were insignificant by modern standards. In Anglo-Saxon Farms and Farming, the authors employ a wide range of evidence to investigate how Anglo-Saxon farmers produced the food and other agricultural products that sustained English economy, society, and culture before the Norman Conquest. The first part of the volume draws on written and pictorial sources, archaeology, place-names, and the history of the English language to discover what crops and livestock people raised, and what tools and techniques were used to produce them. In part two, using a series of landscape studies - place-names, maps, and the landscape itself, the authors explore how these techniques might have been combined into working agricultural regimes in different parts of the country. A picture emerges of an agriculture that changed from an essentially prehistoric state in the sub-Roman period to what was recognisably the beginning of a tradition that only ended with the Second World War. Anglo-Saxon farming was not only sustainable, but infinitely adaptable to different soils and geology, and to a climate changing as unpredictably as it is today.


Make Mead Like a Viking

Make Mead Like a Viking

Author: Jereme Zimmerman

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1603585982

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A complete guide to using the best ingredients and minimal equipment to create fun and flavorful brews Ancient societies brewed flavorful and healing meads, ales, and wines for millennia using only intuition, storytelling, and knowledge passed down through generations--no fancy, expensive equipment or degrees in chemistry needed. In Make Mead Like a Viking, homesteader, fermentation enthusiast, and self-described "Appalachian Yeti Viking" Jereme Zimmerman summons the bryggjemann of the ancient Norse to demonstrate how homebrewing mead--arguably the world's oldest fermented alcoholic beverage--can be not only uncomplicated but fun. Armed with wild-yeast-bearing totem sticks, readers will learn techniques for brewing sweet, semi-sweet, and dry meads, melomels (fruit meads), metheglins (spiced meads), Ethiopian t'ej, flower and herbal meads, braggots, honey beers, country wines, and even Viking grog, opening the Mead Hall doors to further experimentation in fermentation and flavor. In addition, aspiring Vikings will explore: - The importance of local and unpasteurized honey for both flavor and health benefits; - Why modern homebrewing practices, materials, and chemicals work but aren't necessary; - How to grow and harvest herbs and collect wild botanicals for use in healing, nutritious, and magical meads, beers, and wines; - Hops' recent monopoly as a primary brewing ingredient and how to use botanicals other than hops for flavoring and preserving mead, ancient ales, and gruits; - The rituals, mysticism, and communion with nature that were integral components of ancient brewing and can be for modern homebrewers, as well; - Recommendations for starting a mead circle to share your wild meads with other brewers as part of the growing mead-movement subculture; and more Whether you've been intimidated by modern homebrewing's cost or seeming complexity in the past--and its focus on the use of unnatural chemicals--or are boldly looking to expand your current brewing and fermentation practices, Zimmerman's welcoming style and spirit will usher you into exciting new territory. Grounded in history and mythology, but--like Odin's ever-seeking eye--focusing continually on the future of self-sufficient food culture, Make Mead Like a Viking is a practical and entertaining guide for the ages.


Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink

Anglo-Saxon Food and Drink

Author: Ann Hagen

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 512

ISBN-13: 9781898281559

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Oxbow says: This synthesis of primary and secondary sources, both literary and archaeological, on the subject of Anglo-Saxon food and drink, brings together a vast amount of data and authoritative discussion on a broad range of subjects. Ann Hagen stears away from drawing heavily on recipes as a means of revealing the types of foods, food choices and preferences in this period, to focus on the growing and harvesting of domestic and wild foods, preserving, food preparation and eating. Cereals, vegetables, herbs, fruit and nuts, cattle, sheep, goats and pigs, poultry and eggs, wild animals and birds, honey, fish and molluscs, are just some of the food types discussed. Within each section Ann Hagen delves deeper to consider such subjects as the methods of harvesting and processing food, hunting and animal husbandry, attitudes towards particular types of food, accessibility to foods, diet, food shortages, diseases and what foods were considered everyday and which were reserved for special occasions. Food as payment for rents or services rendered, markets, measures, fasting and feasting, are also discussed in detail. Moving on to drink, Ann Hagen examines the types of drinks available, the context in which they were consumed - domestic, religious and in the alehouse - and the prevalence of drunkenness. In her conclusion, she draws together the evidence to reveal changes in food production and preferences from the early 5th to 11th century, drawing largely on sources from Anglo-Saxon England and the Celtic West of Britain. The role of women, the importance of bread, the social status of feasting, nutrition and changes in diet, and table manners, are just some of the many subjects covered. An excellent study and great value for money.


The Tree Dispensary

The Tree Dispensary

Author: Christina Stapley

Publisher: Aeon Books

Published: 2021-11-25

Total Pages: 510

ISBN-13: 1913504743

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An exploration of the history, folklore and medicinal uses of thirty exotic trees, beautifully illustrated with the author's own photographs. From Cacao to Eucalyptus, and Almond through to Frankincense, Christina Stapley takes us on a journey through North America, Oman, the Mediterranean, China and the Caribbean. The Tree Dispensary reflects a deep and thorough appreciation for trees - the author has studied them for many years as a herb historian and practising herbalist. Of the trees mentioned in the book, she has experience of growing around a third of them herself, including several from China, and has travelled around the world to study the rest. The book is categorised into geographical areas and looks at the trees which grow in each location. Each of the thirty chapters looks at a different and unique tree, along with its cultivation, cookery, foraging, history, botany, medicinal use and mythology. While she was travelling, Christina encountered connections between the trees and cultures in which they grew, and this provides a rich and moving historical thread throughout the book. The Tree Dispensary: Exotic Trees is the companion volume to Stapley's previous work which explored the history, herbalism and uses of native European trees.