Titel: Farming Practices
Skrivet av: Ingela Martenius skrivet 2010-02-26, 06:21
About what we used to eat - and thus, what we used to cultivate.
Staple food Until the beginning of the 19th century bread and turnips were the most common staple foods. Then we started cultivating the potato in earnest, and it became extremely important. Side-dishes of vegetables were also rare. Carrots, onions, turnips and different kinds of cabbages were used as well as dried yellow peas but these were seen more as staple food than as the complement we think vegetables are today.
Grain - bread, porridge, gruel, dumplings Our oldest grains are wheat and barley; we have cultivated them here in Sweden for some 6000 years, although wheat was not cultivated in any great quantities until the turn of the last century (1900). Barley was - and still is - the most common crop in Sweden. Rye arrived here about 2000 years ago, but became popular only in the 16th century. Oats was not a common crop until some 300 years ago but was from the turn of the century 1800 also important as a cash crop - it was exported to England in large quantities, to feed the increasing number of horses needed for transportation in the industrial revolution. In addition to these grains we also used to grow buckwheat.
Bread differed quite a lot in Sweden for two reasons. The first was that different kinds of grain were cultivated in different parts of the country. In southern and central Sweden rye was the grain of choice. In northern Sweden barley was for centuries the most common crop, since the Swedish farmers did not believe that rye could be grown so far north (the Finnish farmers did not agree - they grew it and used it to bake bread). On the west coast oats were popular. Barley and oats do not contain any gluten, a protein that makes the bread rise, and so a lightly coloured, thin and crisp bread was made. Rye on the other hand will rise and in the south they made loaves that were soft when freshly baked but eventually became harder and harder. The other deciding factor was what kind of mill was used for grinding the grain. In northern and central Sweden watermills were used and they were dependent on the spring and autumn floods. Southern Sweden and the two Baltic islands of Öland and Gotland had windmills. Where watermills were used they would thus grind the grain and bake bread only twice a year, while the farmers with access to windmills could enjoy fresh bread every two to four weeks. When you bake only twice a year you must make sure that the bread will stay edible until the next time - and so knäckebröd (crisp bread) was invented.
Besides bread and - starting in the early 19th century - potatoes, the most common dishes were grey or yellow peas, porridge and gruel. Porridge and gruel could be made from all kinds of grain, but rye, barley and (from the 18th century) oats were commonly used. Porridge was served with a little butter or molasses and milk (mostly sour).
Dumplings (palt), made from potatoes and/or rye or barley flour, were also quite common. If possible, small pieces of pork or other leftovers were made into a filling, together with finely chopped onion. The dumplings could also be plain and served with fresh cheese and/or lard or even butter. Bread and dumplings were mostly made with water, but blood could also be used. Sausages were made from blood as well - black pudding (blodpudding).
Milk Sweden has always been a dairy country, but milk was rarely consumed fresh by the farmers. Instead it was preserved, very often fermented. Then, as now, the most common way was to make filmjölk. Another way to preserve milk is to make butter and cheese. This was most common in the north. But cheese and butter were not primarily for the farmers and their families; it was made for selling or paying taxes and tithes.
Fish Salted herring (salt sill) was probably the most common dish in the old days, always served with potatoes and bread. In really hard times the potatoes could be served with only the brine the herring had been preserved in. Most people had herring at least once a day.
Fresh fish was a popular alternative and made a welcome change in an otherwise monotonous diet. The Baltic herring (strömming) could be served fresh; another common and popular fish was salmon which was not regarded as the delicacy it is today . However, fishing in the lakes was a privilege that belonged to those who owned the surrounding land; other people had to have to landowner's permission. On the west coast - by the sea - the fishing was free.
Meat Meat was mostly preserved; the most popular curing methods were salting, drying and smoking. The most common meat was pork. Salted bacon (fläsk), a very popular dish, was mostly served fried in slices.
Game was also very popular, but only landowners were allowed to hunt the big game, like deer and elk (AE moose). Everybody was however allowed to hunt for hares and birds etc.
Meat from horses was never used, it was considered impure. This was a cultural taboo though not a religious one, like pork is forbidden to Jews and Muslims.
Meat was rare on the table. As long as Sweden was a Catholic country (abt 1100-1527/1593) meat was allowed only twice a week, normally Sundays and Thursdays. At this time we did not yet have the potato, and it was instead common practice to boil the meat (i.e. the pork) together with dried and soaked yellow peas, making a soup. This was usually served on Thursdays. So today we still eat Thursday peas - every canteen in the country serves it!
Seasoning The most common seasoning was salt and pepper; both were imported and therefore expensive. Onions (lök), dill (dill), parsley (persilja) and horseradish (pepparrot) were also popular, and since they are all indigenous to Scandinavia they were locally grown. Most other spices had to be imported and were very expensive
Beverages The most common beverage was water, often mixed with whey. Beer was thought of as a male drink, and mostly used on special occasions, although it was considered to be of such importance that hops (for making beer) had to be grown on every farm. Svagdricka - small beer - was (is, it is still brewed for Christmas) a very low alcohol beer and quite common, particularly in the south. Fresh milk was reserved for children and invalids, only soured milk or buttermilk were used for drinking. Brännvin, aquavit, i.e. liquor, was very common. It was not as strong, nor as pure as it is today but it was consumed in liberal quantities. Aquavit was from the late 18th century mostly made from potatoes.
From notes by Ulla Centergran, PhD (ethnology), edited by me.