Medieval Farming Technology By Brayden, Kate, Neveah and Aisha

Questions What is winnowing? What do the tools they have that we have now?

The daily routine of a farmer/peasant In the summer a farmer would wake up at 3 am and have breakfast normally they would eat pottage. Then a farmer would go and work in the field or land from dawn ‘til dusk. When they work in the fields the farmer would use different tools as listed in the next slide. They would plow the fields to turn over the soil.

Tools Harrow - the harrow was used for breaking up soil and covering seeds. The harrow had 4 and 6 wooden boards beams called bulls, witch were set iron or wooden teeth. The bulls were joined to gather by wooden cross beams. Flail - the flail was 2 of wood joined to gather, the handle was attached to a smaller piece called the striker. The flail was used to separate the grains from the harvested sheaves a winnowing baskets was then used to separate the corn kernels from the outer husks or chaff. Pitch fork - pitch forks were made of wood or iron with 3 prongs and were used to grab hay and move it around. Moldboard- a moldboard plough that produced a deep furrow and the earth after it had been cut by the coulter

Tools Pitch fork- the pitch fork or hay fork has 3 iron or wooden prongs on the end of it so in can pick up big clumps of hay. Rake – the rake is used to rake up leaves and hay then the pitch fork picks up the hay and moves it. Scythe- a long handled scythe enabled corn to be cut while the worker remained standing, held by two hands the crop was reaped by a slicing action, the scythe was mainly used to cut grass and barley. Shears- Shears are used to take off the wool from sheep, each adult sheep was sheared once a year. Sickle- the sickle was the main tool used by medieval farmers for cutting corn, the iron blade was angled backwards so it could make smooth cuts without strain on the wrist, the sickle was either saw toothed or smoothed edge.

months During the different months there is always something to do. In January they would prepare the ground and start to plant. In February they would start to plough and fertilizing. In March they would weed the crops and plough. In April they would do more weeding and scare the birds away so they don’t eat the corn. In May the farmers would do the same thing in April. In June they start to shear the sheep and harvest their crop. In July they would start ploughing and gathering. In August they would harvest and do winnowing. In September they would harvest before the snow and do winnowing. In October they would do weaving and milling. In November they would butcher, salt and smoke their animals. In December they would dig, weave and collecting.

Fields They mostly planted. Beans, Barley, wheat, peas and oats some farmers near the coast would be grape farmers to make wine. They would use a 3 field method for different seasons The spring crop often produce barley and beans. The winter crop isn’t cultivated until the fall but the winter crop isn’t used much. The fall crop normally produced wheat and rye.