The Poor Farmer's Feast

[@townsends]

Poor Feast Playlist kzbin.info/aero/PL4e4wpjna1vzn_D5t7tBC4QPiU9LC2lXe

[@farmageddon]

As a poor farmer, I approve of this video and this feast!

[@griddycheese]

RAHHHGGG MONOGAK GRAAAAHHK

[@iuchoi]

Is your name really Farmer?

[@marem3038]

@@iuchoi They have surnames according to professions, like smiths, baker, carpenter ,etc.

[@AtomikFajita]

A poor farmer has a device to leave a comment? He's not poor 😂

[@misterhat5823]

@@AtomikFajita Could have used a computer at the library...

[@lspthrattan]

As a farmer's daughter, I can tell you that this sort of menu is eternal! It's exactly how a family farm would have been (should be?) run, I believe. Don't forget the herbs that the farmer's wife would almost always have growing by her kitchen door, and in the borders of the big garden, perhaps grown from little packets of seed brought from her home far away. I love that ceramic tabletop butter churn, I've never seen one like that before! Thanks for another great look at our ancestors' way of life. (That plate looks delicious, btw!)

[@seronymus]

Not to mention wild onion/wild garlic, dandelion, white clover and similar herbs as a nigh-universal gift from God we see as weeds today ;)

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

I really like this bucolic imagery.

[@Sakitsunebi]

My wife grew up on a farm (I married the farmers daughter). We still farm and much of our meals still are like this. I'm not complaining though, its really good.

[@kaycey7361]

I once stayed for the night at farmers House. Good food but the rule was no touching his hot daughter

[@massimoricciardi6202]

@@kaycey7361 We have many ways to make a person disappear if that ever happens in my family lol.

[@hollybishop484]

I live in a small town and we are SURROUNDED by farms. During certain times of year you can smell onions when you drive out of town and I love it!

[@grannyfisher3863]

@Apsoy Pike Depends on the farmer. The two men we have bought hay from are both very conscientious about the health and well-being of their animals.

[@LuzMaria95]

that’s such a blessing. ☺️

[@googiegress]

The area I grew up in had some agriculture still but mostly all the rich river valleys had really started developing in the 20s and were mostly paved over for parking lots and roads in the 50s and 60s. I remember in about 2015 my girlfriend and I were riding motorcycles through at night on the way home, and because I was riding slowly I had my helmet's faceplate up. They were watering in the cool night and as the road passed into an area with fields I was suddenly hit by a strong smell of cilantro. Just a really nice experience. Can confirm that you know you're in a cow-town when you smell the cow poop. Even in places that are small, cute, and keep things clean. You can't avoid it. Everybody poops!

[@Nannaof10]

That ceramic is just one of their covered jars used as a churn. 😊

[@lynnodonnell4764]

I would love to smell onions !!!

[@ravenpineshomestead]

My grandmother grew up on a peanut farm, their house was a cabin with tree bark for siding and a dirt floor. 8 mouths to feed, I imagine they ate anything and everything they could get ahold of and this just makes me think of what a good meal would have looked like for her

[@margarettickle9659]

I bet they ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches everyday for lunch.

[@Kirks_hammer]

​@@margarettickle9659 hey it's still tasty too you know?

[@MexxProtect]

My mother lived like that in the 1950s/1960s in Poland

[@ciphercode2298]

My grandfather was born in 1870 and my dad was born in 1923. They farmed in southern West Virginia plowing 13 acres with a mile. They raised goats,cows,pigs,chickens,and ducks. Grandpa blacksmithed and did woodwork on the side. My dad said their days started at 4am and lasted until after dark. They did their homework and read the bible by oil lamp,as well as turning the animals out to feed and water in the mornin

[@Disaster724]

Sup swva neighbor!

[@ciphercode2298]

@@Disaster724 howdy,from bluewell,wv

[@DrCoomer_1]

Simpler times brother

[@lavarockgaming12]

@@DrCoomer_1Bruh those were harder times

[@bigblockchevy200]

​@flipo123r9 Id rather live a life like that than the one most of us do today

[@sheilam4964]

As so many have already commented a meal like this was still a feast for a farmer in the 1900s, especially after the two World Wars and the Depression.

[@The_Gallowglass]

seems like a pretty normal meal even today, for anyone

[@V11323]

@@The_Gallowglassit’s better than my usual dinners😂

[@SNESdrunk]

Best channel to throw onto your TV and just binge for 4 hours. Why yes, I'd love to learn how to make fricasse the same way people did in the 1700s

[@santaclausarny]

wow, am i glad to see this comment! funny how SNESdrunk is actually my go to channel for binge watching

[@cassieoz1702]

First start with a full-grown, tough, all purpose chicken (past laying age) or a young rooster. They're NOTHING like the tasteless, pappy, pre-adolescent supermarket chickens and require long cooking😊

[@terryt.1643]

Many of those in my parents’ generation went through the Great Depression, they went through WWII and needed a Victory garden to stretch things. My parents taught me to garden and I have a small garden in my backyard so I can relate. I enjoyed this video very much. Thanks!

[@Zubstep1315]

We’ve lost that kind of knowledge over generations

[@thegrim418]

@@Zubstep1315 One good thing about the internet is despite the fact it's turned us into a generation of mindless scrolling zombies there still exists knowledge on it. You can still find channels like this portraying old knowledge, you can find books full of this knowledge and have it shipped to your door, and you can find first hand accounts of life in harder times preserved and archived for the world to read. Even those of us born in the cities can discover our roots and put old, practical knowledge to use.

[@johnanon6938]

I live in a small city and keep a tiny garden in my backyard planted with heritage varieties of veggies. It helps that I rebuilt a nearly scrapped 1960s rototiller to do the heavy work compared to the new throwaway rototillers that are so light they struggled to work clay soil. But in summer and fall those fresh veggies are well worth the efforts. 👍

[@terryt.1643]

@@johnanon6938 I have a small yard and can’t do much heavy work anymore, but I grow fruit and veggies in pots and raised beds and have enough of a harvest to share and preserve! I prefer heritage varieties, too. I plant seeds and share seedlings and encourage others to start a garden. It is such an important skill.

[@fugu4163]

If you got a little bit of land or a perhaps only a container of dirt on your balcony it is so easy to grow your own veggies and herbs. Unfortunately most people today shouldnt make it if the grocery store or the supermarkets was closed down.

[@robzinawarriorprincess1318]

I love your stories about your childhood. My grandparents on both sides were excellent gardeners, but when I was a kid in the 80s, younger people weren't really picking up those skills. I've heard it said that when an old man dies, a library burns to the ground. All 4 of my grandparents have passed away now. Here's to the mysteries of coconut cakes and zinnias as tall as a fence.

[@margarettickle9659]

😅You Tube will teach you those thing s if you search.

[@65stang98]

im learning as much as i can about gardening and canning from my appalachian grandparents. I grew my first garden this year at 25. Have about 20 tomato plants, 20 peppers, few cucumbers, squash, and carrots. Next year it will be much bigger and much more variety. Learning a lot from an old farmer too i work for taking care of his horses, mending fences, learning everything about the farm. I love it. Dont see why more people wouldnt be on board with this kind of lifestyle.

[@nicthemickatx]

You don't "pick up" those skills and there was a marked lack of teaching those types of skills to 80s kids, I was one too. I always loved to read so I always taught myself those things or learned from great grandparents/ grandparents. I continue to learn new skills regularly but as always its self taught.

[@Lawn_Clippings29]

​@@margarettickle9659 It ain't the same. I'm fully KZbin learnt in gardening but I'd be great to have someone I knew help teach.

[@meganlalli5450]

Looks great! And yes, easy for us modern day folk to glamourise a bucolic setting if we haven't worked on a farm. I did for a season and quickly discovered, I might keep a garden, but that does NOT make me a farmer. I'm grateful for those who are called and persevere to do so. Edited to add: it was a small farm ~35 acres, so much of the work was done by hand.

[@mrjones2721]

It’s way too easy to idealize farming when you don’t have to do it. I hate modern megafarms, but the alternative is to have millions of people return to a profession that can be dangerously marginal.

[@BlightfulProductions]

@@mrjones2721 I'd hate to say it and make a quagmire of different factors but even a "megafarm" will use tons of cheap manual labor in the modern day, and likely it will continue to use labor. Machines do some of the more impossible tasks like effectively watering and reseeding, no doubt about it, but now that these machines are becoming more expensive to repair- if not impossible depending on the brand, because of lobbyists and rights to repair. it's likely that not much has really changed except for the tools.

[@mrjones2721]

@@BlightfulProductions But fewer than a traditional farm would use for the same acreage, doing lighter work (at least for easily harvestable crops like grains). I would also guess that the economics of megafarms means the workers and owners are shielded from failure in a way that a family farm is not. Megafarms don’t mean that nobody has to do hard, poorly paid agricultural labor, but they cut down on the numbers.

[@alalalala57]

​@@mrjones2721Most in megafarms are paid less with no job security, many are also immigrants (potentially illegal immigrants exploited for their labor). Corporations and inhumane cost-cutting goes hand in hand.

[@confuseddog6746]

That actually looks pretty good! After all his hard work, the poor farmer does enjoy a feast worthy for him.

[@mojo_joju]

Mr Townsend is a rare, classic type of gentleman whose sadly dying out in the modern world. Seeing such old-school traditional charm is quite refreshing

[@vroomkaboom108]

*_BE THE DISTINGUISHED GENT YOU'D LIKE TO MEET_*

[@Aethelhadas]

@@vroomkaboom108 TRUE SIRE

[@ChsM-jk4oy]

He defo making an impact stuff I've learnt on here il pass on to my kids and grandkids

[@sailorknightwing]

That genuinely looks delicious. My grandfather was a coal miner by day but ran his own farm in the evening and after retirement, just like your dad and many others. My dad grew up helping with that farm and when he got an office job he put up a large garden in his backyard to work in the evenings. He's planting a much smaller garden now in his retirement and though my yard is too small for a garden I have raised planters on my porch where I grow tomatoes and peppers. It's not enough to sustain our family but produce allowed to ripen on the vine in the sun tastes so much better than produce that was picked prematurely to survive shipping to your location. Though I'm forever grateful for the food chain that can get all kinds of produce to my location all year round.

[@emariaenterprises]

Zinnia's were probably growing where the old out houses stood or over the septic tank.

[@emariaenterprises]

Consider which plants thrive in a grey water ststem as well.

[@stgermain1074]

My neighbor and I got hay delivered a couple days ago. The hay farmer is also our mailman. He works constantly delivering mail - can't get a day off even when he's sick because they're short-handed. And at nights and on the weekends he produces hay. This year has been very dry, and he's had 1/2 the yield he'd normally have. My neighbor is a cop. He works 3 jobs, and when he gets home, he's tending to the cattle he raises and sells to market.

[@animula6908]

God bless them for keeping the tradition alive in spite of a society trying to eradicate it.

[@amadeusamwater]

I grew up in farm country. Many of my classmates were from farms. We had cornfields for neighbors on two sides, used to watch people riding horses down the gravel road in front of our house. We got our milk from a farm up the road, came in big gallon jars. We put it in the fridge to let the cream rise to the top. Eggs were pretty fresh, too, sometimes we got them still warm.

[@dwaynewladyka577]

I'm originally from a very large farm in Alberta. My parents were on a farm in the Great Depression. My grandparents had farms, and raising a family at that time was very trying, but they endured. These days, many people take farmers for granted. Without farmers, we don't eat. A single weather event can destroy crops. Thanks for sharing this. The dish looks great. Cheers!

[@margaretbarclay-laughton2086]

My husbands family came from a small scottish island once a year on the day of the sailing regatta on the neighbouring larger island the boat would leave the main island of our archepeligo at 6am folks from the main island would take the chance for it was a long sail day meaning the boat would drop folk of at the small island then stay at the larger island till the regatta was over load everyone on board and head to the small island to collect us and head back. This was a big day and just like your farmers feast the food was based around a hen, probably one past lay or a young male who would not make a good cockrell. It was boiled whole in a big pot with vegetables from the yard then it would be taken out and browned in the coal oven. If you were lucky there would be some barley to bulk up the soup. The hen would be allowed to cool and served with boiled potatoes carrots and peas from the garden and skirlie made withonion and pinhead oatmeal cooked in the fat skimmed from the top of the soup. Since it was a special day there would be some cream( usually kept for butter and cheese making) would be poured over some tinned fruit. This was still how it was done when i moved as a young bride from the city in the1980s.

[@andresullivan2933]

I like how you make history come alive it’s not just a recipe but a whole lesson and view into somebody’s life 200 years ago

[@MrJurgenman]

I noticed a similar trend amoung fishmen in the Philippines. They would catch hundreds of pounds of exotic, delicious fish, but all of that went to the market and they subsided on rice with canned sardines.

[@wooloo8392]

Please keep this series going it's so entertaining

[@chrisdonovan8795]

I've been a hobbyist gardener for twenty years. There's a lot to know. For the last five years I've been foraging in my own yard and have been amazed at how people throw away free food from their yard. I started designating areas for certain weeds like lambsquarter, nettles, and Wolf plantain, to grow freely. They take little care, come back every year and are typically very nutritious. I wonder why pioneers chose to ignore crops that are so easy to grow here. I suppose storage is the main reason.

[@schwuzi]

This video really resonates with me Jon. I live on our small family farm with around 20 pieces of cattle. We got some dairy cows and plant potatoes and various crops every year. We always eat the stuff that's not the best quality ourselves. It's still homegrown and way better than anything from the supermarket. You also appreciate the food more if you've been working the fields for months yourself with old equipment that constantly breaks. Fixing our old little machines is half the fun of farming. We've got tractors from the 50s that were used every single year since then to plant our potatoes or split firewood. Thse machines just last forever. I'm so greatful to have grown up like this. I really like this meme of the farmer that goes "It's not much, but it's honest work". That describes these small farming operations like ours perfectly. The work simply never ends and you can do something different each and every day. The skillset one HAS TO develop is just so diverse. Otherwise you won't make it for long.

[@JamieSweetTooth]

Just wanted to let you guys know that i always find your content immensely enjoyable and informative, thanks for all these years of entertainment.

[@margaretalbrecht4650]

I always go back to the writing of Laura Ingalls Wilder. She showed both the poor farmer's life and table (her childhood) and a rich farmer's life and table (her husband's childhood).

[@plumeria66]

I grew up reading her books! They made me feel so cozy.

[@aresaurelian]

I wonder if butter was discovered carrying cream in a vessel on a long bumpy journey. Suspecting it went bad, the expression of the first man eating it would have been priceless.😅

[@Ladco77]

I really enjoy this style of video where you're telling us a story about the history while showing what the food might have been like. I do enjoy the regular cooking shows for learning the recipes, but these videos are great to just sit back and enjoy.

[@illus1ve]

Here's something you might not know. The chicken frikassé is in Denmark combined with the carrots and peas and white aspargus. It was later - around late 1800s - served in a small cup of puff pastry in an attempt to fancy up this humble farmers feast. They are still very much enjoyed today, under the name "tarteletter" (tartlets). Eat them with a helping of pepper and parsley - and preferably eat as many as you can bolster.

[@zhiracs]

In America, we call that "chicken pot pie". Typically it's made by repurposing leftover chicken soup; consequently the classic recipe includes chopped celery. It always felt like an artifact of Americana to me, so it's enlightening to hear that the same concept has roots in other parts of the world as well.

[@RolloTonéBrownTown]

As a youtube commenter and professional cook I appreciate you showcasing the sadly overlooked (at least up in the north part of the world) culinary idea that is fricasse. Really terrific to see this

[@mrjones2721]

A friend grew up on a small farm in Maine. Both her parents had outside jobs that provided the majority of the family’s income. When her father left and it was just her and her mother, they were on food stamps, and were grateful that food stamps don’t take farm produce into account because that’s the only way they got enough to eat. While her family’s farm wasn’t designed to be the family’s sole support, it’s important to remember how hard farm work is, and how marginal a living it can provide. As bad as megafarms are, there’s a reason people moved away from farming over the last century, and a reason it’s hard to recruit American-born agricultural workers now.

[@rogerthornton4068]

Sorry the father left. Sad.

[@suewalton5322]

A lot of people left farming because of inheritance taxes.

[@lonewolftech]

Big government is why most people Al don’t farm today…. They don’t want you to… being self sufficient isn’t beneficial for their pocket books.

[@mrjones2721]

@@lonewolftech Small-scale farming hasn’t been a good living for centuries. It’s always been hard, precarious work, and as soon as the Industrial Revolution started, the countryside became poor in comparison to the cities. (It was worse in England, where farmland was limited compared to the US.) People have been leaving farming for specialized occupations for centuries, because no one likes living so close to the edge that one sick cow or one bad spate of weather can destroy your livelihood. In any case, self-sufficiency is a fantasy. No one farm can grow every crop a family needs to live. Even if you grow enough calories, you’re still going to have to buy oil, tea, coffee, white sugar, flour (unless you grow wheat and grind it yourself), clothes, medicine, furniture, glass, hardware, tools, vehicles and parts, gas, paper, plastic, tarps, rope, light bulbs, electronics, water or supplies to get water from a well, septic services, electricity or a generator or solar panels, all the wire to hook everything up, internet service, books and other media…

[@Darqshadow]

​@mrjones2721 there's plenty of people on KZbin who have become self sufficient and also trade/sell excess foodstuffs or worked goods for the things you mentioned. Where there's a will, there's a way.

[@TracieSmithpomeranian]

My late father grew up with the type of farm you described. A friend of my parents had farms. A couple did it full time. Yes, I grew up with raw milk as a child. No. Never had a food allergy. I use to go out and visit their grandchildren on the farm. I loved it! It was peaceful. Except for the wolfspiders. I could live without them.

[@Jared-91]

I have many friends who are farmers or do custum farming for other farmers. Also my grandfather was born and raised on a farm in Alabama. They grew peanuts and cotton. He left the farming life to join the Army.

[@defaultytuser]

I grew up in a farm in South America and this video resonated so much with me, it captures the essence of many farmers still today, even the little joys like breaking the day to have this exact meal...I somehow ended shedding a tear because it reminded me of my mom and pop and those days gone by. Thank you Jon, every video you make is something special!

[@Dmitrisnikioff]

Tbh, to me, a feast would be some time he'd have unexpected abundance, like here in Iceland when whales would beach and they'd suddenly have a huge amount of meat and lard they'd have to get as fast as possible. (The Icelandic word for a whale beaching, "hvalreki", can also mean "jackpot".) It would be interesting to learn what they did with abundance, when it came up.

[@catladydimitrescu]

This channel soothes my soul.

[@srinfinity5587]

You’re one of these KZbin channels that I just love to sit down after training, heat up some dinner and learn about history with you! Thank you sir

[@davidkozak5113]

sounds like I was raised like you, my father was a machinist, we had a small farm in the 70's and 80"s. I was the main farm hand, as I look back on it, I loved every minute of it, 15 head of cattle, a few pigs and chickens, raised all our own grains, best times in my life, now I'm 62 and would love to do what you do,

[@winnerscreed6767]

Great job Townsends! Coming from a farming background I can say this video is very accurate. I always enjoy how you and this channel go the extra mile to make sure the content is not only entraining but factual also. Now I want chicken innards to eat. The parts you usual can not get with the bird anymore.

[@jjpetunia3981]

I love how you give us a feel for the people and what they dealt with and the food they grew and ate. It builds appreciation for my ancestors and what I have now.

[@jessicacanfield5058]

One thing I want to say is I love your videos. The farmer , he did work like a dog, BUT so did his wife and children. While the farmer was out plowing, or hoping, which in a lot of families the whole family did, tending to the live stock. His wife was tending to her garden and depending on how big their family was hood be very large. She was also tending to the smaller animals lime chickens. Also doing the wash, darning socks, making quilts or blankets for the winter, and in a lot of families helping her husband. I just wanted to point that out. However in the 17 century maybe that wasn't so but I do know in the 19th century it was.

[@johndayan7126]

I grew up on an Indiana farm also, south of Fort Wayne, where people had factory jobs and farmed on the side. I bailed hay 6 days a week from sunrise to sunset all summer, and herded cattle. What we didn't know, at the time, is that those were the good ole days, now gone. I love your channel and programs, looking forward to each new episode. Thank you and best wishes.

[@grannyfisher3863]

Thanks for giving me some great ideas for dinner today! On our small homestead, we have chickens, for free-range eggs, goats for fresh milk and cheese, and a small garden for fresh vegetables. I wouldn't want to live any other way!

[@olympusmons9025]

Love these videos,keep up the good work!Makes learning history entertaining

[@dcb_75]

Love the channel, came across it a while ago and really enjoy the videos, especially ones like this. I agree with you, I am turning 48 this year and grew up in the farm and what is called farming today is very difficult than what I grew up doing. My grandmother passed away a few years ago at 101, this is the same kind of feast I remember her making - good, solid food to fill the belly.

[@Unit38]

I have little direct connections with farming. I grew up in the 60's, my Father was also a Toolmaker then. Other than the occasional planting of some tomato plants, that is all the gardening we accomplished. Having said that, I find I have increasingly enjoyed your videos over the years as you documented life from a bygone era. Well done.

[@adreabrooks11]

I'm by no means a farmer, but I keep a few raised beds of produce for my own household. This year, beetles ate every bit of leaf from my potatoes. Not a single tuber came out of the ground. As I dug up bushels of empty earth, I kept thinking to myself: "I'm glad I live in this age, and can get more from the store!" Those who lived in that day and age deserved medals, just for getting through it all.

[@nrrork]

My uncle did that for years, too: He worked in his brother's sawmill as his day job, but grew corn and raised pigs on the side. Which was fun to visit every summer when I was a kid. We lived in the country, too, but it was on a much smaller plot along a main road, and more in the woods. But playing with my cousins on the farm was lots of fun. Of course, we had a lot of fun playing in the woods when they came to _my_ house, too. One thing I love about west Michigan is you don't have to go far from civilization to get away from it. I live in a town of about 100,000, there's woods two blocks away on either side of me. Go another mile and I'm out of town in and in the country altogether. Go farther out, you're still never more than a 5-10 minute drive away from a gas station, grocery store, place to eat, place to have a beer. Wesco gas stations out here are like the 21st century version of trading posts or country general stores. There's one out near my mom's place that sells tamales and they're excellent. I always ask her to bring me some when she comes over. We have a lot of migrant workers in the area, so the Mexican food you can get around here is top notch. My mom used to teach night school to a lot of them as her summer job, and the food she'd sometimes bring home. Especially the tortillas, over 30 years later, still never had better ones.

[@hermanself7436]

I am very happy to have joined y'all's channel have been watching it for years a very big THANK YOU ALL from North West Florida

[@Thanatos--]

Having a not so great day, but I'm grateful to have this video to take me out of things for a minute or eight, as well as a little big picture perspective. Don't stop no matter what the form of new content is or has to be. Townsends has always been a good place to chill out no matter the name of the channel or even how much I enjoy the specific topic/video. It's a good spot, and they are pretty hard to find.

[@debbralehrman5957]

Thanks Jon👍🏼

[@GrumpleSenior]

Said it before but this is quite possibly the most wholesome, gentle and feel good channel on the internet.

[@ZimVader-0017]

In my country in the 1700s, farmers had to grow the stuff the government wanted, like tobacco and sugar cane, for example. In the downtime, to enrich the soil again, they would plant different legumes. Easy to grow and gives back nutrients to the soil. Arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) is a staple in our culture because of this. It's really funny seeing other latinamericans eat the pigeon peas. It's normally used as bovine feed over there, I've been told 😂

[@jazziered142]

No human should be eating those anyway!!! 🤮

[@brad6054]

I could watch your videos all day

[@tangydiesel1886]

Watching this while working on the combine. That meal looks very familiar. Thank you for doing what you do.

[@opybrook7766]

Long before I had a churn, my children and I would shake and roll a quart canning jar of cream back and forth to one another as we sat in a circle on the floor 😄. We had lots of fun together. Precious memories. That was 37+ years ago. Brook🧑‍🌾🍏🍎

[@tommyjoestallings855]

I'm going through a breakup 💔 and your videos are the only thing making me keep it together and have some hope, thank you. ❤, binge watching has been literally the only thing keeping me sain .

[@soulknife20]

I grew up on a farm. It was an actual business. Everyone I grew up with were farmers. I learned a lot watching my dad and grandpa

[@jasonmonckton590]

I have watched your videos for years now, and while everything you make looks great, that bread would be incredible. Thank you for sharing with us all once again!

[@kendrickwood7174]

It looks like your drinking cider. An extremely important drink for colonial farmers. I think I remember you doing a video on it. At one point it was basically required to grow cider apple trees to claim land for your homestead which to the success and legend of John (Chapman) Appleseed. He would be a cool figure to do a video on!

[@Darqshadow]

From a historical perspective coming from the medieval and classical period: chicken was seen as obulent because the eggs were the main source of food. You wouldnt kill an egg layer unless it stopped laying. So here, using chicken for a feast, is a very good way of showing a now common food as being a center piece of a more extravagant meal

[@林T-k5m]

My great grandfather was a farmer , like all his neighbors . he had a small mushroom gardenon the side , at one time he opened a popsicle and icecream shop . But he always farmed ( mainly rice and some veggies with a few livestock ) according to my grandma . And because of that my grandma still hobby farms . We’re from Taiwan , grandma was from a small town called Sanxing known for green onions so I ate a lot of green onions growing up . And now because of the influence of my grandma I also hobby garden , some herbs , green onions etc It’s interesting to see the American equivalent of the farmers meal 🥘 .

[@toffeelatte6042]

Townsends and Max Miller are absolute treasures on this platform.

[@DaRazorback]

A great and insightful video as always Jon.

[@kristopherpeters6703]

Your videos exploring working class American History have been the best so far. Thank you for taking the time to make these.

[@PenniestoDollars]

We grew up just eating fresh tomatoes and sweet corn from the garden in the summer's for lunch from the garden. Raised on a small farm of 160 acres farmed by family for now 4 generations.

[@derrallinder4338]

My dad was a machinist and came home and farmed after work. We kept an one acre kitchen garden and farmed about 30 acres which we rotated crops from year to year.

[@annettefournier9655]

One acre as a kitchen garden? That's huge! Bet there was a lot of canning going on mid to late summer? Canning without air conditioning made for sweltering weeks from my kitchen just from a backyard garden.

[@derrallinder4338]

@@annettefournier9655 yep, those were the good old days. We canned our vegetables and butchered, salted and smacked three to four pigs a year. I tried to teach my kids those skills.

[@dwaynewladyka577]

​@@derrallinder4338 I'm originally from a very large farm in Alberta, Canada. 780 acres. We had a large garden. The vegetables that were grown were so good. That made me love gardening. We also had ditch strawberries, Saskatoon berries, and other wild berries that were very good. My dad and his brothers were good at foraging for wild mushrooms. Very tasty. Also, there was a hazelnut bush. I enjoyed eating the hazelnuts. It's awesome to have these memories. Cheers!

[@dwaynewladyka577]

​@@annettefournier9655 My grandmothers made great homemade pickles, and sauerkraut. My dad also made great homemade sauerkraut. I love that kind of food. Cheers!

[@SarahGreen523]

The bread you made is very similar to a steamed bread called Boston Brown Bread. I was actually a little surprised you didn't set the loaf into a bowl of water. The consistency looked similar too, though the color wasn't as dark. Regarding the chicken, I always thought that a fricassee was a fried meal and not a cream sauce; good to know that.

[@seankane8628]

I'd add marjoram, savory,thyme,and sage. Basic pot herbs

[@jjudy5869]

The recipe for the bread is very similar to Anadama Bread recipe I have. The only thing missing was some molasses.

[@Dexterity_Jones]

Another fantastic video

[@dummeponk]

Makes you humble when you realize that this was the life for pretty much all of our ancestors just a few generations ago

[@damianlopez7630]

Thank You For Sharing. 🙏

[@awos127]

I absolutely love those videos just the vibe alone is just chill and calm

[@ericblair6984]

I love these videos and John's channel. I would like to see a video on how people cleaned up after cooking all of these meals. If you had a good working well it might not be much different then today, but I'm not sure many people were so fortunate back then. Cleaning pots and pans must have been a nightmare.

[@Lilas.Duveteux]

Also, another reason why they had different crops is that different crops prefer different weather conditions. For example, Western France closest to the Atlantic coast ate mostly oat and barley, as food staples, and seldom ate wheat. The worst winters were not necessarely the cold ones (many seeds can survive extremely cold temperatures), but ones that were both cold and didn't have enough snow to protect the seeds.

[@guycalgary7800]

Sunday dinner here on the family farm when i was growing up was always roast beef , peas & corn , mashed potatoes, gravy , bread or buns. And something for dessert , my fav was rhubarb crisp.

[@spencerpetunia8268]

I really must say, even though I already loved your work before this series, that this series in particular has really been fantastic and elevated your entire game as a KZbinr. We really don't see enough history about the commoner majority. Thank you so much, Jon!

[@steveniemyer9288]

My family owned a dairy farm back from the 20’s through the end of the 50’s. They sold milk and cream to the Carnation Company. However, they raised all their own food; tomatoes, corn, beans. Meat when they had it, was primarily chicken, pork and wild game/fish. They used the money from the milk/cream they sold to buy flour and other items they could not raise/grow themselves. They were far from rich in terms of money. There meals consisted mostly of beans and potatoes. My great grandfather would often joke and say “We had beans and potatoes for dinner, but for supper we are going to have potatoes and beans” As my great grandparents children left the farm, my Great grandfather became a home builder in his 50’s but still kept the farm. it is still in the family to this day, but it has not been a working farm for decades.

[@Sagiri-Ryusui]

In Iwate Japan my family still do the traditional tools as rice farmers and only plant and harvest for our own needs. Likewise with raising chickens, pigs and cows never for sale and only for daily needs, never lacking when it comes to food.

[@kcraig51]

I love these videos because it slows me down long enough to realize just how easy life is........now.

[@fondoftheduh]

My grandma told me stories about it because I was a curious kid about the olden days when she was a kid. One story she told me was about how to make hominy from feed corn when feed corn as all you have. About seeing a snapping turtle and grabbing it and the seven kinds of meat from it. About how you can feed a family from just a little corn meal. From bread to corn meal mush. About root cellar foods. Squashes potatoes onion many more but never enough to avoid knowing about corn meal. About a little pack of powder you mix with crisco and call it butter. With the ingredients you used she would have made chicken ala king, peas and carrots in it with the chicken and gravy. Over bread, biscuits and potato.

[@eastcoastartist]

Back then, they ate a lot more suet, eggs, milk, butter, and herbs than we do today.

[@JzuzGarcia]

I appreciate this person a lot. He is teaching me so much.

[@miketacos9034]

Man, I know this channel is about the 18th century, but I’d love to hear more of Jon’s stories about all the changes to agriculture that happened over his lifetime. I thought factory farms were already everywhere in the 80s!

[@tmrobotix]

Your content is so wholesome, thank you my man.

[@CptDuck]

Back in the day in my place, we make the corn into rice meal mixed with grated coconut and little bit of salt.. its not sticky and cheaper than the actual rice..

[@ByronHyatt]

I wanted to see you eat those peas with the two prong fork you had lol great video keep them coming

[@msoda8516]

My pop pop grew up in the south on a farm he moved to nj as an adult for a better life but he missed farming so he rented a piece of land where he grew a giant vegetable and fruit garden and raised chickens. He would go after work and on the weekends when my dad was growing up. When I was a child he was retired and spent all his time there my happiest memories are him taking me there as a child. I know have a large garden in my backyard and am teaching my kids the joy of growing food

[@SheyD78]

A good meal after a hen stopped laying perhaps. Regarding making butter, I've seen it done once just by mixing cream with clean fingers until it comes together as butter. Took about 5 minutes. Don't know how long (or short) it takes shaking it in a jar, but it's something that was amazing to me.

[@vomeronasal]

Farmer here! Good job, my brother. I farm 10 hectares in Southwestern Virginia, not much different than it was done for the past 300 years. Except I grow a lot more hemp than was common...

[@RoKenX2]

random urge to say props to the person behind the music in your videos really a relaxing tune to get one into the mindset

[@thesaurus9226]

Reminds me of my mom and I making our own butter in a jam jar when I was little. We shook that thing for hours! Man was it delicious though.

[@davem1564]

Enjoyed this video very much. Thank you for clear and precise explanation of how the people survived back then. Thank you for sharing

[@glitchy_weasel]

How wholesome! Seems like life was both simpler but also much more arduous in centuries past - love these videos, it's like looking at the past for a moment.

[@maksimfedoryak]

Obviously life was much harder, but less complex in comparison with modern days, when life is hard and complex simultaneously

[@zrayburton]

This is primarily what I am doing for good prep this week. Loved this!

[@helenel4126]

You should have added that the chicken that the farmer's wife would have used for the "feast" would have been an old hen who no longer was a good layer, or a rooster past his prime. In either instance, these would have been tough old birds. Slow cooking in a milky broth would have tenderized the meat. Frankly, sixty years ago, when I was a kid, my mom would buy the old hens or roosters at the grocery store and make a fricasee like this, and for this reason. A further benefit obtained by using an elderly fowl rather than a spring chicken - they have much more flavor!

[@dilloncox1238]

Watched a lot of your videos. I love the rich history you incorporate into them. I also love your recipes. It would be an honor to cook and share an older day meal with you. The story sharing , being the added bonus. How I love to learn. Thank uou!!

[@1984Phalanx]

I've always felt I would love farming. I do so much gardening each year.

[@jrsimeon02]

"raises this level of bread up" - lol, nice pun!

[@matthewelliott8415]

Love this show..takes you to a place in history ...As long as you can expand the American angles on it to encompass the world at the time . These types of shows aren't just agricultural educational it also teaches us humility and understanding that in many ways the first world countries live off the back of the poor. They farm for peanuts and feed us.

[@dpeter6396]

John, you have honored the very folks who built this country. And the very folks this country has screwed over since the '50s. The small farmer has been destroyed by ConAgra and the like for the almighty dollar. I 'do' the 18th century for the very reasons above. Thank you for helping preserve the great things about this country, and many other countries around the world. Blessings.

[@SK-lt1so]

I remember reading Frederick Law Olmstead's account of traveling thru the Antebellum South. Every country farm he stopped at, he was offered the same meal-corn meal in bacon fat.