Activity 4
Farming and the farming year
Everyone on the manor had work to do, especially the peasants whose varied tasks revolved around the seasons.
Place the following tasks into the seasons in which you think they would have been carried out. Tasks performed multiple times per year have already been placed for you. Information about the various tasks will then be revealed.
Tasks
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
Drag and drop the tasks into the correct columns
| SPRING | Work on a manor |
| Planting | Vegetables such as peas, beans and onions were planted in the peasants’ gardens. Apple and pear trees were planted in the orchard or in the peasants’ own gardens to provide fruit. Berry bushes were sometimes also planted to ensure a supply of berries. |
| Ploughing | The fields were ploughed in the early spring and also in the Autumn after the harvest had been gathered in. |
| Fertilizing | Horse, oxen and pig droppings were collected throughout the year so that there was enough to dig into the fields before the seeds were sown and vegetables planted. |
| Weeding | As soon as the new seedlings started to grow, weeding was a full-time job. Children, men and women all helped with the weeding. |
| Pruning | Young trees were pruned in April or May. |
| Scaring the birds | After seeds had been sown children would run into the fields, yelling, clapping to scare the birds away. |
| Collecting and gathering | Right throughout the year women and children collected eggs, berries, firewood. |
| SUMMER | |
| Shearing | The wool taken from sheep during shearing was used to make clothes. The first stage was to card the wool to remove any tangles. After that it had to be spun to make it into thread. |
| Harvesting | Everyone pitched in at harvest time. Hay was harvested in June; wheat in August, September often followed by a harvest festival if the lord was kind. |
| Sheaving | The women gathered and sheaved the wheat after it was harvested. |
| Collecting and gathering | Throughout the year women and children collected eggs, berries, firewood etc. |
| AUTUMN | |
| Winnowing | Women separated the grain from the chaff using a sieve. |
| Milling | A wind or water-powered mill turned grain into flour. Previously milling was done by hand which was long and laborious. |
| Butchering, salting and smoking meat | It was necessary to salt or smoke some of the meat that was butchered during November and December to make sure that it lasted through the winter. Salt was very expensive. |
| Collecting and gathering | Throughout the year women and children collected eggs, berries, firewood etc. |
| Ploughing | The fields were ploughed in the early spring and also in the Autumn after the harvest had been gathered in. |
| WINTER | |
| Repairing | Peasants used mud, sticks and straw to make and repair their houses. |
| Weaving | Twigs were woven together to make fences and house walls or baskets and thread was woven into material. Baskets were often woven out of willow. |
| Pruning | Well established trees were pruned in the wintertime when the tree is dormant (not growing). |
| Butchering, salting and smoking meat | It was necessary to salt or smoke some of the meat that was butchered during November and December to make sure that it lasted through the winter. Salt was very expensive. |
| Collecting and gathering | Throughout the year women and children collected eggs, berries, firewood. |
Your Task
Answer the questions below on screen or in this Word Doc version to save your answers.
Which seems to have been the busiest season on the medieval manor?
How dependent were the people upon the seasons and the weather for their survival?
Which task would you most like to do if you lived as a peasant on the manor?
The invention of the mill was a great advancement in medieval society. Why?
List both the advantages and disadvantages of the two power sources.