I thought I'd write a little insight into what it's like to be a Tudor at Kentwell - to spend those long lazy summer days on the manor as a 16th century common woman.
Waking early, having slept in my shift (they are sooo comfortable!), I'd dress quickly and grab a bite to eat before heading to my station for the day to begin the first tasks.
As a sotler, this means lighting the fire and then gleaning the vegetables from the kitchen. If we are lucky, they may provide us with a cockerel, or some pigeons, and there would be much celebrating! My favourite job was to go and collect the herbs from the garden. I'd grab a simple willow basket and amble over to the herb garden, accompanied by all the beautiful sounds and smells of summer. My eyes would occasionally scour the paths for tudor pennies dropped by visiting moderners that I could spend on a slice of heavenly sticky oats.
The morning would then be spent chopping loads of vegetables and making the pottage for lunch. If we were fortunate to have the ingredients and the time, we would make some cheesy biscuits, or apple fritters, to be fried in the skillet as an accompaniment. Sometimes we also made a fruit pottage for dessert - apples and berries would simmer for hours, and they tasted incredible. The others always seemed to know when it was ready, as they would begin appearing, wooden bowl in hand and bellies rumbling. The food was served with big chunky slices of warm wholemeal bread, fresh from the bakehouse - excellent for soaking up the pottage juice!
Afternoons were generally less enjoyable - lots and lots of scrubbing the huge cast iron pots!
As an archer, my days were more lazy. The visiting childer are always keen to see us, so we spent a lot of time telling them about life as an archer, explaining about the different arrows, and letting one or two lucky ones have a go under our instruction. When we have no visitors, which is not often, we practice our own shooting, and generally lark about drinking lots of ale!
Stay tuned for part 2...
The morning would then be spent chopping loads of vegetables and making the pottage for lunch. If we were fortunate to have the ingredients and the time, we would make some cheesy biscuits, or apple fritters, to be fried in the skillet as an accompaniment. Sometimes we also made a fruit pottage for dessert - apples and berries would simmer for hours, and they tasted incredible. The others always seemed to know when it was ready, as they would begin appearing, wooden bowl in hand and bellies rumbling. The food was served with big chunky slices of warm wholemeal bread, fresh from the bakehouse - excellent for soaking up the pottage juice!Afternoons were generally less enjoyable - lots and lots of scrubbing the huge cast iron pots!
As an archer, my days were more lazy. The visiting childer are always keen to see us, so we spent a lot of time telling them about life as an archer, explaining about the different arrows, and letting one or two lucky ones have a go under our instruction. When we have no visitors, which is not often, we practice our own shooting, and generally lark about drinking lots of ale!
Stay tuned for part 2...
No comments:
Post a Comment