There is great value in studying “lost arts” for reasons other than purely historical ones. Our society is so very dependent upon modern technology for its existence that most of our children would feel lost in a non-technological society. Teaching them that they are indeed capable of surviving and even of living comfortable and productive lives without being dependent upon modern technology is a valuable endeavor. The knowledge of and hands-on experience with the “lost arts” can provide a very basic confidence in one’s own abilities. There are many activities that can be chosen for the classroom and others that require another setting.
Some of these skills are medieval, some Colonial and some Pioneer. Many span all three eras, as well as other eras. Many medieval skills can be recreated from our knowledge of American Colonial skills, as the colonists reverted to basic medieval skills. One thing that it is important to remember is that no one particular method of doing something is the only way. People have always improvised as necessary. There are usually a number of ways to to any one thing. Some, of course, work better than others; some are easier than others; some have yet to be devised. Milk can be coagulated with a number of substances. They each produce a different kind of cheese, but still cheese. Fabric can be produced from many different kinds of fiber. Some fibers produce soft and warm lofty fabric, some course, tough fabric. Anything with fur or hair can be spun. Many plants have fibrous stems and leaves. These can also be spun, once again, some fine and some course. Light comes from burning all sorts of things. Candles can be made from tallow, beeswax and bayberries. The use of rushes soaked in tallow and set on fire for light was common in medieval times.
“In modern times when everything a person needs may be bought in a store, there are very few hand-made things left. So we are robbed of that rare and wonderful satisfaction that comes with personal accomplishment. In Noah’s time, nearly every single thing a person touched was the result of his own efforts. The cloth of his clothing, the meal on the table, the chair he sat in, and the floor he walked upon, all were made by the user. This is why those people had an extraordinary awareness of life. They knew wood intimately; they knew the ingredients of food and medicines and inks and paints because they grew it and ground it and mixed it themselves. It was this awareness of everything about them that made the early American people so full of inner satisfaction, so grateful for life and all that went with it. Nowadays modern conveniences allow us to be forgetful, and we easily become less aware of the wonders
of life.”
Diary of an Early American Boy by Eric Sloane p40.
Preservation
Many common substances were and still are used for preserving food. We think immediately of freezing. Before modern freezers, food was frozen, although this method was not very reliable due to fluctuations in temperature. Sugar preserves fruit as in jam and jelly. Vinegar is used for vegetables as in pickles. Smoking is used for meat and cheese. Cheddared cheese is smoked. Salt is used in pickles, butter, fish and meat. Drying for almost any food- fruit, vegetable, fish or meat. Separation or coagulation is used to preserve milk by making cheese, yogurt and butter.
CHEESE
Cheese is preserved milk. During the summer months cows produce a great deal of milk, usually more than can be used. During the winter, when the milk production is low, the cheese which was made during the summer is eaten. Coagulation is produced by rennet or acetic acid. Rennet contains an enzyme which causes coagulation for both hard and soft cheeses. This enzyme is contained in the stomach of a suckling mammal. The stomach of a suckling calf was often salted and hung to dry. When it was needed for cheesemaking a small piece was cut off and thrown in with the warming milk. It was not a very exact science. Other soft cheeses are made using vinegar or lemon juice- acid also causes coagulation. Lemon and vinegar produce the same effect, while providing different flavours. Lady’s Bedstraw, of the Galium family, was often used as a vegetable coagulant, when a suckling calf's stomach was not available. As well as functioning as a coagulant, it dyes orange. Some cheese is artificially dyed orange, even today, because people got used to having their cheese orange.
You can make a cheese press easily by punching holes in a Crisco can, from the inside, and making a wooden follower the same size as the can opening. Cheesecloth can be purchased in most fabric stores. You do not want cheesecloth from the grocery store-it is for cleaning and does not have a fine enough weave. If you must use it, use three layers.
It is the whey that goes bad so you will want to wash away as much whey as possible with both methods. This is most important with the rennet method, as this cheese is often aged. The lemon/vinegar cheese is to be eaten right away. The salt functions as a preservative as well as enhancing taste.
BUTTER
Butter can be made as easily as by shaking a container of heavy cream. Again, the butter fat separates from the whey, this time by agitation. You can also use a churn with a dasher or a glass jar churn with paddles. After the butter has formed wash it well and salt it. Whey left in the butter will make it go bad quickly. The SALT helps to preserve it.
This can be made while you wait for bread to bake. Irish Soda Bread is especially good for a project around the time of St. Patrick’s Day.
Irish Soda Bread
from Traditional Irish Recipes by John Murphy
1 pound plain flour Bake in a Hot oven-400o for 1 hour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 pint buttermilk
Mix the dry ingredients, making sure there are no lumps in the soda. Add buttermilk and mix with a wooden spoon. Knead lightly on a floured board. Place on a baking sheet, marking the top with a cross. Bake at the top of the oven for 1 hour-until the bottom is hollow sounding when rapped with a knuckle.
(This may require a little more flour depending upon the humidity)
SALT is also used as a preservative with other foods. Meat and fish are often salted to make them last longer. Sometimes they are also smoked in conjunction with salting. Ham is a prime example. Ham is pickled in a brine before it is SMOKED. Some meats and fish are salted, then DRIED. Vegetables and fruits were also dried to be eaten that way or to be rehydrated later.
Vegetables are also pickled in order to preserve them. We usually think of cucumbers being pickled, but most any vegetable can be preserved this way. This is done with vinegar, salt, sugar and spices as preservatives.
PRESERVES or JAMS or JELLIES
all use SUGAR as a preservative
all use SUGAR as a preservative
Pectin, for gelling, is found naturally in many fruits, especially apples and quinces. You can combine fruits with pectin with those without pectin for some very interesting flavours.
QUINCE JELLY
The whole fruit or just the skins may be used. Cut into small pieces, remove seeds Cook in enough water to cover-until tender. Strain through jelly bag or cheese cloth. Measure juice and boil for 20 minutes. Add sugar in equal amounts to juice.
Quinces and apples have so much pectin in them that you do not have to boil the mixture down to the point where it passes the jelly test. Many fruits must be boiled and tested. This information will be in some of the books on my list-especially Carla Emery’s Old Fashioned Recipe Book.
THE PRODUCTION OF FABRIC
During all eras previous to the industrial revolution, cloth and its production was a much more important part of daily life than it is today. What had become big business in Medieval England once again became a cottage necessity in American colonial times and again in the movement westward. All stages in the production of fabric were undertaken in the home. The medieval or colonial or pioneer family knew intimately all stages in the production of the fabric that they used. The sheep were raised at home; the flax was grown in the adjacent field. The sheep were shorn by the farmer, and/or his wife. The fleece was skirted, washed, sorted, picked, combed or carded, spun, dyed, and woven all by the women in the home. The flax was pulled, rippled, retted, broken, scutched, hetcheled, spun, dyed, and woven, all in the home. These fibers were used in the home for all their needs, from clothing and household linens to fishnets and sails. Flax and milkweed fluff were spun and braided to be used as wicking. Tow, the leavings from the preparation of flax for spinning, was spun into rope. "Tow-head" and "flaxen-haired" are references to very blond hair- the color of tow and flax.
England was the largest producer of wool during the Middle Ages. Quantities of raw wool, exported to the continent, often returned as finely woven goods. Large flocks were owned by monasteries in England, in the Cotswolds and East Anglia. Richard the Lion Hearted was captured while on a crusade and was ransomed with the payment of wool. During the late Middle Ages, the wool trade was so important that the size of the wool sack was determined by Parliament. Even today in England the Chancellor of the Exchecquer sits on a woolsack, a practice which began during the reign of Elizabeth I. The English wore wool from hat to shoes.
Wool production reached its peak in the late Middle Ages, when it was second only to agriculture in economic importance. Vast fortunes were founded on wool. Many churches were built with wool money and the late medieval merchants’ houses are evidence of how lucrative the wool business could be. It went from a cottage necessity to big business during this time. We can look to early American skills as a clue, as first the Colonists and then those in the movement westward resorted to many medieval techniques in many areas.
Spinning and weaving were part of the female domain. Irish law stated that, in the case of divorce, the woman got all spinning and weaving equipment. Also in Ireland a woman was not considered ready for marriage until she had completed the production of all the household and personal fabric that she would need to start her household. In the towns some of the weaving was done in workshops. The yarn was spun at home and and then taken to a weaver. There were also itinerant weavers who would visit rural areas and weave what the ladies of the house had spun. They would live with the family until all of the weaving had been finished. The term "spinster," meaning an unmarried woman, originally meant just what it says-one who spins.
In Medieval Europe there were three important types of materials:
Wool from sheep was grown universally but the best wool came from England and Spain.
Linen is universal, the best coming from Northern Europe.
Silk came from the East. Silk worms eat only mulberry leaves and build their cocoons only in Mulberry trees, which grow in the east. Silk worm farming was attempted in Colonial America with little success.
Cotton was grown in the Near East and was introduced into Spain and Italy by the Moslems. There was no demand for this fiber in the North as it was not a very warm fiber.
In the early American Colonial period, the colonists did not have the time to make the fabric for their clothing, and did not need to. They had what they brought with them, and the fabric could easily be imported into the settlements. It was later when they spread
Cloth is made from various different fibers; animal, vegetable and man made. Almost any animal fiber can be spun; some spin better than others. Many varieties of sheep produce wool that is spun into yarn. Its courseness and its strength varies with the breed, with the particular animal and, indeed, with the same animal from year to year. Wool comes from sheep, which was one of the first wild animals to be domesticated. Many varieties of sheep produce wool that is spun into yarn; some do not produce spinnable wool. Its courseness and its strength varies with the breed, with the particular animal, and, indeed, with the same animal from year to year. Some sheep, such as the Merino, from Spain, produce very fine soft wool that was long used in the production of undergarments. Merino wool was considered to be so valuable that the removal of a merino sheep was punishable by death. Very course wool, produced by breeds such as the Lincoln and Scottish Blackface, is used for outer wear and rugs.
Wool is warm even when wet, water repellant and moth repellant when it retains its oils, takes hard wear, naturally elastic, absorbs dyes readily. Every part of the sheep was used. The skin was made into parchment. The fur was made into coats. The horns became many different things: pivots for hinges, knife handles, ink horns, powder horns, musical blow horns; they were scraped thin and used for lantHORNS, window panes, containers; and they were carved for other uses. The bone was also put to some of these uses. Lanolin, which is the oil in the wool was, and still is, used for a skin softener.
If it has hair, it can be spun. Angora rabbits produce angora wool. Angora goats produce mohair and cashmere goats produce cashmere. Camels produce camel down. Yaks produce a very course spinnable hair. Dog and cat hair can be spun. The silk worm spins a cocoon of silk in mulberry trees. The soft under down of the llama and the alpaca is
separated from the guard hairs, like camel down, and is spun into a lofty yarn. Alpaca is said to be the warmest fiber.
There are also many vegetable fibers. Among them are flax (which is made into linen), ramie, nettles,and jute and hemp, which are made into rope. Cotton has been spun for at least 7,000 years. Many other leaf and stem fibers are also spinnable.
Manmade products include acrylic fibers made from petroleum.
Processing of a fleece from the sheep to garment
Shearing does not hurt; it is like a hair cut. The sheep will shed its wool in the springtime, anyway; shearing it first makes it usable to man and makes the sheep more comfortable. The fleece comes off the sheep in one piece.
After the fleece is shorn from the sheep, the wool is skirted. The dirty, short and course wool around the outside edges of the fleece are discarded or are washed and used for stuffing. The wool can be washed at this stage or after it has been spun. The same is true of dyeing. The fibers are now combed or carded. If the fibers are very long, as some breeds tends to produce, they are combed. Carding is done with carders made of staples fixed in a wooden handle or made of thistles set into a wooden frame.
Spinning is twisting the fibers for strength. This can be shown by allowing one carder to fall from the carded wool while carding; and then by twisting the carded wool between the two carders, and then noting that the twisted wool does not pull apart as the untwisted wool does.
Spinning can be best demonstrated using a drop spindle. The drop spindle has been used for at least 10,000 years, and still is used in many non-technological societies to produce all of their thread and yarn. The Great Wheel , which came to the west from India, is basically a drop spindle attached to a power source. Every time that the large wheel is turned by hand the spindle revolves many times. The operation is often interrupted for the uptake of the spun yarn. 
The next evolutionary step for spinning was the introduction of the treadle or flyer wheel which was invented by Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519), but was not put into use until 1530, when Johann Jurgens introduced it to Germany. This wheel is foot powered and allows for the uptake of the spun yarn during the spinning process. Until the turn of the 19th century it was reserved for spinning flax and sometimes worsted wool from a distaff. The skein that is produced is put on a swift in order to make it into a ball for knitting or in order to put it onto a cone for weaving. The yarn can then be knitted or woven. Small looms for weaving are easily made with cardboard; or, for a more permanent loom, make a small wooden frame with notches for the warp.
Dyeing can be done before or after spinning, but must be done after washing as the lanolin in the unwashed wool will prevent the dye from taking. If the wool is dyed before spinning, different colours can be blended. If the spun wool is dyed, one even colour will be produced. Dyeing can be done with plants, insects and chemicals. Pre-Industrial Revolution rural homesteaders used whatever was easily available to color their clothes. Many dyes require chemical mordants in order to set . There are some common plants which produce dye with no chemical mordants:
onion skins, walnut hulls, madder root and tea. Many other plants will dye fast if a metal pot is used. Aluminum, copper and iron pots will produce different colours with the same dye plant. Copper piping can be boiled with the wool instead of using an unlined copper pot, which would be quite hard to find. Powdered metals can be used as mordants, but some are too toxic for use around children.
Some plant dyes are common to all countries:woad-blue; saffron/weld-yellow; madder-red. Also, parsley dyes green; the bark of red oak and hickory dye brown and yellow; elderberry dyes blue; hop stalks dye brown; pokeberries and alum dye crimson; golden rod with indigo and alum dye green; cochineal and dogwood dye red; the juice of the purple iris dyes a light violet.
Madder was a major dye in Colonial times. It has been used since ancient times, and there is evidence of its use in the mummie wrappings of Ancient Egypt. It produces colors which range from pinks through orange to brown. The most famous color it can produce is called turkey red, named for the country, not the bird. It is the red of the “Red Coats” and of Betsy Ross’s flag. It was never grown as a commercial crop in the New World. In order to dye fabric “Turkey Red” it had to be soaked in rancid fat, sheep dung, sumac, ox blood, and potash and treated with a special preparation of madder.(Early American Life, October 1990)
Bright yellow coreopsis flowers produce a strong yellow. If you put the yellow wool in a dilute ammonia bath right from the coreopsis dyebath, the wool will turn bright orange. Try vinegar, also. The acidity or alkalinity of an afterbath will change some colours.
Pokeberries are not colorfast, but could be redyed every autumn. Red sumac berries dye tan. Most berries are not color fast. Weld dyes a very colorfast yellow. As you think of working with wool and dyes remember that there are many different natural colors of wool. These can be used creatively without resorting to the use of dyes.
SURVEY BOOKS:
Bank, Mirra.
Anonymous Was a Woman
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1979.
Anonymous Was a Woman
New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1979.
Cooper, Patricia and Buferd, Norma Bradley.
The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art, An Oral History.
Garden City, New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1978.
The Quilters: Women and Domestic Art, An Oral History.
Garden City, New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1978.
De Pauw, Linda Grant.
Founding Mothers: Women of America in the Revolutionary Era.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1975.
Founding Mothers: Women of America in the Revolutionary Era.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1975.
Earle, Alice Morse.
Home Life in Colonial Days.(Written in the year 1898).
Stockbridge, Mass.: The Berkshire Traveller Press, 1974.
Home Life in Colonial Days.(Written in the year 1898).
Stockbridge, Mass.: The Berkshire Traveller Press, 1974.
The Early Settler Life Series
New York:Crabtree Publishing Company, c1983
New York:Crabtree Publishing Company, c1983
Emery, Carla.
Carla Emery’s Old Fashioned Recipe Book
New York: Bantam Books, 1977.
Carla Emery’s Old Fashioned Recipe Book
New York: Bantam Books, 1977.
Hartley, Dorothy
Lost Country Life
New York: Pantheon Books,1979
Lost Country Life
New York: Pantheon Books,1979
Hechtlinger, Adelaide.
The Seasonal Hearth: The Woman at Home in Early America.
Woodstock, N.Y.: The Overlook Press, 1986.
The Seasonal Hearth: The Woman at Home in Early America.
Woodstock, N.Y.: The Overlook Press, 1986.
Mack, Norman, ed.
Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills.
Pleasantville, N.Y.: The Reader’s Digest Ass’n., Inc., 1981.
Back to Basics: How to Learn and Enjoy Traditional American Skills.
Pleasantville, N.Y.: The Reader’s Digest Ass’n., Inc., 1981.
Seymour, John.
Forgotten Household Crafts
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.
Forgotten Household Crafts
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.
Seymour, John
The Forgotten Crafts, A Practical Guide to Traditional Skills.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986.
The Forgotten Crafts, A Practical Guide to Traditional Skills.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1986.
Sheppard, Donna C., Ed.
The Apprentice: History, Crafts, and People at Colonial Williamsburg.
Williamsburg, Virginia, Department of Publications, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1984.
The Apprentice: History, Crafts, and People at Colonial Williamsburg.
Williamsburg, Virginia, Department of Publications, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1984.
Stewart, Elinore Pruitt
Letters of a Woman Homesteader
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982
Letters of a Woman Homesteader
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1982
Yankee Books, ed.
The Forgotten Arts:1-5.
Dublin, N.H.:Yankee Publishing Inc.
The Forgotten Arts:1-5.
Dublin, N.H.:Yankee Publishing Inc.
COOKBOOKS
and Books about Kitchen Equipment
and Books about Kitchen Equipment
Belluscio, Lynne J.
Selected Recipes from The Genesee Farmer:1831-1856.
Leroy, New York, Lynne Belluscio, Box 11, copyright:1891.
Selected Recipes from The Genesee Farmer:1831-1856.
Leroy, New York, Lynne Belluscio, Box 11, copyright:1891.
Brown, Alice Cooke.
Early American Herb Recipes.
Japan:Charles E. Tuttle Co.,Inc.,1966.
Early American Herb Recipes.
Japan:Charles E. Tuttle Co.,Inc.,1966.
Carlo, Joyce W.
Trammels, Trenchers & Tartlets: A Definitive Tour of the ColonialKitchen.
Old Saybrook, Connecticut: Peregrine Press, Publishers, 1982.
Trammels, Trenchers & Tartlets: A Definitive Tour of the ColonialKitchen.
Old Saybrook, Connecticut: Peregrine Press, Publishers, 1982.
Erath, Sally Larkin, ed.
The Plimoth Colony Cook Book.
Plymouth, Mass: Plymouth Antiquarian Society,1981.
The Plimoth Colony Cook Book.
Plymouth, Mass: Plymouth Antiquarian Society,1981.
Feild, Rachael.
Irons in the Fire: A History of Cooking Equipment.
Crowood House, Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire: The Crowood Press, 1984.
Irons in the Fire: A History of Cooking Equipment.
Crowood House, Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire: The Crowood Press, 1984.
Hallatt, Mary Catherine and Lipa, Lynn M.
The King’s Bread: Eighteenth Century Cooking at Niagara.
Youngstown, N.Y.: Old Fort Niagara Association, Inc., 1986.
The King’s Bread: Eighteenth Century Cooking at Niagara.
Youngstown, N.Y.: Old Fort Niagara Association, Inc., 1986.
Hess, Karen, Transcriber.
Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery.
New York:Columbia University Press, 1981.
Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery.
New York:Columbia University Press, 1981.
Hopping, Jane Watson.
The Pioneer Lady’s Country Kitchen.
New York: Villard Books, 1988.
The Pioneer Lady’s Country Kitchen.
New York: Villard Books, 1988.
Leighton, Ann.
Early American Gardens “For Meate or Medicine.”
Amherst, Mass.: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1986.
Early American Gardens “For Meate or Medicine.”
Amherst, Mass.: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1986.
Miller-Cory House Museum and the New Jersey Historical Society
Pleasures of Colonial Cooking.
Orange, New Jersey: Harvard Printing Company. c 1982 by The New Jersey Historical Society
Pleasures of Colonial Cooking.
Orange, New Jersey: Harvard Printing Company. c 1982 by The New Jersey Historical Society
Silitch, Clarissa M., ed.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac Colonial Cookbook.
Dublin, N.H.: Yankee, Inc., 1976.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac Colonial Cookbook.
Dublin, N.H.: Yankee, Inc., 1976.
Simmons, Amelia.
American Cookery 1796.
Boston, Mass.: Rowan Tree Press, 1982.
American Cookery 1796.
Boston, Mass.: Rowan Tree Press, 1982.
SOAP
Mohr, Merilyn.
The Art of Soapmaking:Harrowsmith Contemporary Primer.
Camden East , Ontario:Camden House Publishing Ltd.,1979.
The Art of Soapmaking:Harrowsmith Contemporary Primer.
Camden East , Ontario:Camden House Publishing Ltd.,1979.
Bramson, Ann.
Soap:Making It, Enjoying It.
New York:Workman Publishing Company,1975.
Soap:Making It, Enjoying It.
New York:Workman Publishing Company,1975.
TEXTILES and related subjects:
Bronson, J.and R.
Early American Weaving and Dyeing.
New York: Dover Publications,Inc., 1977.
Channing, Marion L.
The Magic of Spinning.
Marion, Mass.:Channing Books,1978.
The Magic of Spinning.
Marion, Mass.:Channing Books,1978.
Channing, Marion L.
The Textile Tools of Colonial Homes.
Marion, Mass.:Channing Books, 1982.
The Textile Tools of Colonial Homes.
Marion, Mass.:Channing Books, 1982.
Hobson, Phyllis.
Tan Your Hide!
Charlotte, Vermont:Garden Way Publishing, 1977.
Tan Your Hide!
Charlotte, Vermont:Garden Way Publishing, 1977.
Hochberg, Bette.
Handspindles.
Santa Cruz, CA.: Bette Hochberg, 1980.
Handspindles.
Santa Cruz, CA.: Bette Hochberg, 1980.
Hochberg, Bette.
Spin Span Spun.
Santa Cruz, CA.: Bette Hochberg, 1982.
Spin Span Spun.
Santa Cruz, CA.: Bette Hochberg, 1982.
Lasky, Kathryn.
The Weaver’s Gift.
New York:Frederick Warne,1980.
The Weaver’s Gift.
New York:Frederick Warne,1980.
Pennington, D. and Taylor, M.
A Pictorial Guide to American Spinning Wheels
Sabbathday Lake, Maine:The Shaker Press,1975.
A Pictorial Guide to American Spinning Wheels
Sabbathday Lake, Maine:The Shaker Press,1975.
Stickler, Carol.
American Woven Coverlets.
Loveland, Colorado: Interweave Press,1987.
American Woven Coverlets.
Loveland, Colorado: Interweave Press,1987.
Whiting, Gertrude.
Old-Time Tools&Toys of Needlework.
New York:Dover Publications,Inc.,1971.
Old-Time Tools&Toys of Needlework.
New York:Dover Publications,Inc.,1971.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Record.
Dye Plants and Dyeing/Plants and Gardens, Vol.20,No.3.
Brooklyn, N.Y.:Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Inc.,1984.
Dye Plants and Dyeing/Plants and Gardens, Vol.20,No.3.
Brooklyn, N.Y.:Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Inc.,1984.
No comments:
Post a Comment