“Plants That Changed History”
September 2002 Meeting Report
Guest Speaker - David Charles
The September meeting of the Keyworth & District Local History Society was a “Members” evening and the speaker for the night was our illustrious Chairman David Charles. The talk was on the same theme as one on which he presented to the Society in March 2001, (though with some alterations and additions).
We were told, according to our Chairman, that it is food that has driven civilization. Indeed, food has shaped our lives and that of society in general for all of recorded history. The cataclysmic step that was taken when man turned from being a hunter-gatherer to that of farmer cannot be over-emphasised. Prior to the advent of farming, so we were informed, the whole tribe or community was concerned with the acquisition of food in order to survive. This was a full time occupation for the whole community. The strong and fit hunted game, whilst the weaker members of the tribe gathered fruit and vegetables. The hardships and privations occasioned by a nomadic life left little time for other activities. In consequence civilization advanced but slowly.
The epoch making step came when man realised that by remaining in one area and cultivating the ground and domesticating cattle his lot, though still hard, could be made far more predictable and less labour intensive. Not all of the community needed to work all the time in order that they were fed, clothed and housed. This watershed occurred somewhere around 12,000 to 15,000 years ago. With the arrival of “leisure” time civilizations began to advance at a far quicker pace. Agriculture itself became far more important and innovations experimentation became the order of the day. Crop yields increased and surpluses began to occur. This encouraged trade between tribes, (or wars), and commerce was born. Food could be exchanged for other goods or it could be bought and sold making the necessity for money. With this new importance being placed on agriculture some of the greatest minds of the day applied themselves to the problems that were constantly being thrown up.
Archimedes secured his place in history with his invention of the screw bearing his name that enabled fields to be irrigated. No less a person than Pythagoras, (of trigonometrically fame), applied his colossal intellect to the subject and wrote the equivalent of Mrs Beeton’s cookbook for the ancient Greeks. He implored his eager followers to follow certain practices in order that the quality of their lives would be forever enhanced. Some of his gems were written down and survive to this day, though for some reason they are no longer en vogue. Apparently he wrote a code of conduct, which encompassed eleven essential commandments. Amongst these pearls of wisdom “Never Sit On a Quart Pot”, and “Never Break Your Bread” are especially memorable.
Other luminaries of the day applied their brains to the pithy subject. One, Hessiad, (a Greek poet by profession), implored his followers who were considering marriage to “Choose a woman with the ability to follow a plough”. Apparently, expert opinion of the day had calculated the optimum age for a ploughman was 40 years of age. Younger than that and carnal thoughts were a constant distraction to their labours. Older than that and the carnal thoughts had receded as, unfortunately, had their strength also.
The next great revolution to occur came with the Saxons and the advent of the “Three Field System”. The whole village grew their crops communally in these fields. At the same time there was a considerable increase in livestock production. Geese began to be an essential part of the economy. With this came the arrival of massive fairs where the geese could be bought and sold. Our very own Goose Fair traces it’s lineage back to such an event. Here is a classic example of the correlation between food and the way that the world has been shaped by it. Without food the waltzer, dodgems and helter-skelter could never have come about, (a sobering thought).
The pace of change continued to increase, the next giant leap forward came with enclosure. Our own village, Keyworth, joined the march forward in 1798. With this advance came new innovations in crops. Two in particular were to have results which, in their day, were earth shattering. Clover and the humble turnip were to transform farming and the shape of the countryside. Our own locality had been predominantly arable but clover and the turnip changed all that. The East Midlands turned to dairy produce. The direct result of this was the birth of the King of Cheeses at Stilton. The Agrarian Revolution fuelled the Industrial Revolution of the 18th Century, without which there would have been insufficient food to feed the burgeoning populations in the cities.
The type of cereal crops that were grown changed too. Counties slowly changed from barley to wheat. This had far reaching effects on the health of the population. Gilbert White of Selbourne, in Hampshire, was able to remark in the early 19th Century how the inhabitants of the North were far more susceptible to “Itch” and other cutaneous illnesses because their ‘juices’ (i.e. blood), had not been sweetened, (by wheat). Indeed, wheat became so vital to local economies and communities that its production and price was protected. The French took particular note of this and, in the fullness of time applied the same principles to the Common Agricultural Policy, (C.A.P.). The connection is obvious, with enclosure the Common Market could never have come into being.
Locally. The East Midlands can lay claim to four landmark foods. These are; Melton Mowbray pork pies; Stilton Cheeses; Brambley Apples; and H.P. sauce. A fifth could arguably be included and that is mushy peas with mint sauce, (an epicurean delight that first saw the light of day at Nottingham’s famous Goose Fair at the turn of the 19th Century.
All in all, if you’ll pardon the pun, David Charles gave us all considerable food for thought. Few if any, of the assembled audience had ever stopped to consider that MacDonald’s and Coca Cola owe their very being to that Middle Eastern hunter who, one day long ago and far away, after a particularly fruitless day’s hunting for his dinner, (and having been injured for his troubles) decided to hang up his bow and arrow for good and having invented the plough, take to farming instead. Many thanks to David for making the scales fall from our eyes and enlightening us with his insight and perception as to how the world today owes everything to a grain of corn.