September’s End of Harvest

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“If you eat a goose on Michaelmas Day, you will not want for money all the year.” That is the old saying. I have cooked a goose but once in my life—the end result was tasty, but oh, my… the overflowing fat drippings in the pan, and the shrunken goose meant everyone at table only got a taste! (I think my goose was both too small to start and I ought to have looked it up that a goose shrinks 20 to 30% when being cooked…a Regency era cook would have known better.)

“I live almost wholly in the fields and see nobody but the harvest men,” wrote Constable to his fiancée in August 1815. That summer, working primarily outdoors, he painted The Wheat Field, a view across a valley in his native Suffolk. Plowmen cut down the golden wheat, reapers bundle the stalks, and gleaners collect leftover grains, while a boy and his dog guard lunch.
The Wheat Field, John Constable, painted 1816

Michaelmas—or St. Michael’s Day—falls on September 29, the end of the month and the very end of the harvest season. The goose served up was called a ‘green goose’ as it would feed on grass stubble and harvest gleanings. As a quarter day, in Regency England it was a day when rents were due and servants were paid.

This was a month when it was time to put up the goods of the field into long storage with pickling, salting, and laying down in root cellars or dry larders.

September also brings with it a season of fairs with the famed Bartholomew Fair near London and other harvest fairs that offered, “…raree-shows, traveling menageries, moveable theaters, conjurors, tumblers…” along with the fair food of gingerbread, pasteries, fried sausage.

John Loudon’s 1822 An Encylopaedia of Gardening lists the following for the month:

Harvests, Fallow fields, Return of Shellfish, Michaelmas Goose, pickling

Culinary Vegetables from the open Garden, or Garden Stores.

Cauliflowers, cabbages, brocolis. Peas, beans, and kidney-beans. Potatoes, turnips, carrots, parsnips, skirret, and all the roots. Spinach, beet-chard, orache, and sorrel. Onions, shallots, garlick, rocambole, and leeks. Artichokes, cardoons, rampions. Small salads, endive, lettuce, celery, tarragon. Parsley, horseradish, Indian cress, marygold, fennel, chervils, &c. Thyme, sage, mint, and all the class, dried or green. Gourds and pumkins; the aromatic seeds from the seed-room; and the herbs from the garden or herb-room. Love-apple, capsicum, egg-plant, samphire, red cabbage, kidney-bean, &c. pickling cucumbers. Sea-peas and various legumes of the vetch kind, dropwort, Solomon’s seal, saloop, and other roots; heath-tops and cow-parsnips. Mushrooms and champignons from their native habitats, or from the open garden. Dulse, and all the sorts of edible fuci, in perfection.

Hardy Fruits from the open Garden, Orchard, or Fruit-room. Apples, pears, quinces, medlars. Peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, cherries. Grapes, gooseberries, currants, strawberries, raspberries. Almonds, wallnuts, chestnuts, filberts. Wild services, cloudberries, bilberries, cranberries, brambles, hips, haws, &c.

Culinary Productions and Fruits from the forcing Department. Mushrooms. Pines, grapes, melons, cucumbers, figs. Pomegranates, Indian figs, torch-thistles, and strawberry pears. Akees, aligator, and anchovy pears, guavas, and granadillas, some mangos, Yams and Spanish potatoes.

Some of the less familiar produce names includes:

  • Rampion – also called ramp has turniplike roots and leaves, sometimes eaten in salads for their ‘biting’ flavor.
  • Dropwort – water dropwort is edible but has poisonous lookalikes, the edibile dropwort has a taste similar to parsley.
  • Solomon’s Seal – the young edible shoots are an excellent vegetable when boiled and eaten like Asparagus, but the berries are not advisable to eat.
  • Dulce – a reddish seaweed with a salty taste similar to bacon.
  • Wild services – also called ‘chequers’, a brownish berry used in jams, preserves and liqueurs.
  • Cloudberries – a berry said to taste a little like a raspberry with also a taste of a tart red current.
  • Bilberries – a sweet wild version of blueberries.
  • Haws – another name for a hawthorn berry, with a taste similar to an apple that is tart and slightly sweet.
  • Torch-thistle – can be eaten raw, boiled, or roasted, and said to have a nutty flavor (most prefer the stem rahter than the thistles).
  • Akees – a yellowish fruit native to West Africa, taken to Jamaica and then to England.
  • Anchovy pears – a fruit native to Jamaica with a taste similar to mango.

Aligator used here probably references the aligator apple since it is with other fruits—it is certainly not the reptile—while ‘love apples’ would be tomatoes.

September was also a good time for fish, which was both plentiful and cheap. In London, it was only 2s 6d for a mackerel at Billingsgate, even less at Charring Cross shops, and even less from street vendors (but they often had the day-old fish). A dozen herrings—they are small—could be bought for around 1s a dozen. Whitings cost about 2s for a dozen. Other fish, such as haddock, was priced according to size, so you’d pay by the pound. Herrings have always been smoked, pickled, or served as is, but ‘kippered’ herrings come about in the 1840s. In the Regency, when smoked, they were called ‘red herrings’ (and that is first used for a ‘false trail’ in 1807 by William Cobbett).

Oysters came back into season in September. They show up in recipes for stews, pies, sauces, and stuffing. They could be stored in their shells in barrels and shipped just about anywhere. A barrel of raw oysters in the market might cost anything from 2d to 4d.

William Kitchiner in his 1817 Apicius Redivivus Or, The Cook’s Oracle gives this recipe for Scalloped Oysters:

“Parboil twenty-four oysters in as much water as will just cover them, strain the liquor, and add to it about an ounce of fresh butter, a tablespoonful of flour, a teaspoonful of salt, and half a teaspoonful of ground black pepper, a roll of the rind of a lemon, and a little grated nutmeg. Beard and wash the oysters, and let them stew slowly for a few minutes in the above liquor, put them into scallop shells, with a little of the liquor in each, and cover them with some fine bread crumbs, put little bits of butter on the top, and bake and brown them in a Dutch oven.”

By ‘liquor’ he means ‘liquid’, and the ‘beard’ is the filament attaching the oyster to the shell which should be removed. It is nice to see teaspoon measurements showing up.

England has over 50 species of freshwater fish, along with migratory saltwater fish. In The Angler’s Guide, being a complete, practical treatise on the art of angling for sea, river and pond fish T.F. Salter lists fish best for angling as:

  • gudgeon
  • perch
  • barbel and chub roach
  • dace or dare
  • tench and carp
  • trout
  • bream
  • eel
  • fluke or flounder smelt
  • grayling
  • salmon
  • Jake or pike

Recipes exist for Mackerel with Fennel and Mint (which would help cut down the oil in the fish), or Soules with Spinach, Salt Cod in Cream Sauce, or Eel Soup. A New System of Domestic Cookery offers recipes for: Buttered Lobster, Curry of Prawns, Cod’s Head and Shoulders and Stuffed Pike. The stuffing for the pike sounds tasty and is:

“Of fat bacon, beef suet, and fresh butter, equal parts; some parsley, thyme, and savory; a little onion, and a few leaves of scented marjoram, shred finely; an anchovy or two; a little salt and nutmeg, and some pepper. If you have oysters, three or four may be used instead of anchovies. Mix all with crumbs of bread, and two yelks and whites of eggs, well beaten, and parsley shred fine.”

Jack, Perch and Trout shown on a shore.

Dog Days of August

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This is the time of year when London heat drove anyone who could leave out of London. Even players from the theaters might want to tour the provinces. The phrase “dog days” dates far back in time, for this is the time of year when Sirius, the ‘Dog Star’ rises with the sun. The Romans called it dies caniculares or ‘days of the dog star’, but the Greeks were already using that same idea, and it shows up in England at least by the 1500s (but probably earlier since the Romans were there).

A game keeper stands with his long gun cradled, a game bag slung over his shoulders, a bag for shot and gaiters and hat on with his dark brown clothes.
The Game Keeper (c. 1824–25) by William Henry Hunt

In England, summers can bring thunderstorms to break the heat, and late August is the traditional start of harvest time for grain (called ‘corn’ in England) crops. August also brings ‘The Glorious Twelfth’ or the start of shooting season.

The Sportsman’s Directory: or Park and Game-keeper’s Companion (1817) by John Mayer, game-keeper, details all a game-keeper might do, including: “…containing Breeding, Choice, and Training of Dogs; Coursing and Shooting; Management of a Deer Park and Fisheries; Preserving Game; Hunting the Hare, Fox, Stag, &c.; Breeding Pheasants, Partridges, Pigeons, Rabbits, &c. &c. &c.”

It offers, “A Description of All Kinds of Poaching; how to detect Poachers, and how to Destroy their Works,” and covers “forty-one valuable Recipes” (which are related to the care of dogs and guns) and an “Abstract of the New Game Act”. The summary of the Game Act 1817 in the book is a bit complicated, but boils down to punishment of seven years transportation if caught and convicted of someone entering, “…forest, chase, park, wood, plantation, close, or open or inclosed ground, with the intent to destroy, take, or kill game or rabbits…” (A ‘chase’ is common land used for hunting.) That person has to be found at night, defined as, “…between six in the evening and seven in the morning from 1st October to 1st February; between seven in the evening and five in the morning from 1st February to 1stof April; and between nine in the evening and four in the morning for the rest of the year…” These are the hours a game-keeper might be looking for poachers. The person skulking around can’t be carrying, “…any gun, cross-bow, fire arms, bludgeon, or any other offensive weapon….”

Summer was an excellent time to go fishing, with skates, haddock, soles (best in mid-Summer), plaice, thornback, sturgeon, turbot, whitings, and mullets available. Mackerel was available in July and August. For shellfish, one could have crayfish, crab, prawns, and shrimp. Prawns are different from shrimp, and some folks think they are sweeter and so prefer them.

John Loudon’s 1822 book An Encylopaedia of Gardening has the following tasks, fruits, and vegetables available in Regency England for August (the extra brewing noted would be ale as a perk for the workers bringing in the harvest):

Harvests, The Glorious Twelfth, Lambs to Market, Extra Brewing

Culinary Vegetables from the open Garden or Garden Stores.

Cabbages, cauliflowers, brocoli. Peas, beans, sugar-pea, kidney bean. Potatoes, turnips, carrots, radishes, Jerusalem artichoke, red-beet. Spinach, white beet-chard, orache, sorrel. Onions, bulb or small, shallots, garlic, and rocambole, from the garden. Artichoke, cardoon, rampion. Small salads; lettuce, endive, radishes, &c. Parsley, purslane, Indian cress, marigold, borage, fennel, &c. Thyme, sage, mint, balm, and all the others, green or dried. New seeds of carraway, anise, &c.; new hyssop, chamomile, and other herbs; gourds. Love apple, egg-plant, capsicum, Indian-cress, radish-tops, kidney-bean, and pickling cucumbers. Most of the pot-herbs and salads of June; the roots of arrow-head, silver-weed, ficaria, and earth-nut roots; heath-tops and cow-parsnip. Mushrooms and champignons from pastures, and the open garden; truffle. All the sorts of fuci in their greatest perfection for the table or pickling.

Hardy Fruits from the open Garden, Orchard, and Fruit-room.

Apples, pears, Peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, cherries. Gooseberries, currants, strawberries, raspberries. Nuts, if desired from the fruit-cellar; almonds, and some wallnuts and filberts from the trees towards the end of the month. Tree-currants, roan-berries.

Culinary Productions and Fruits from the forcing Department.

Mushrooms. Pines, grapes, peaches, figs, melons, cucumbers. Indian figs, strawberry pears. Aligator, granadillas, guavas,
pears. New yams, and Spanish potatoes.

Plants less familiar to modern grocery stores include:

  • Orache – sometimes called French spinach since it is similar.
  • Rocambole – another name for a shallot, which can still be found in many modern markets.
  • Cardoon – also called artichoke thistle has an artichoke-like flavor as well as medicinal properties (it has antibacterial properties).
  • Purslane – a succulent with a lemony flavor and can be eaten raw or used in soups and stews.
  • Love apples – a period name for tomatoes.
  • Capsicum – the name for flowering plants in the nightshade family producing bell peppers, sweet peppers, or chili peppers.
  • Indian cress – also called monk’s cress or nasturtiums, so edible flowers with a peppery taste.
  • Arrowhead roots – underground tubers (corms) of the arrowhead plant, also known as duck potato, are edible and taste similar to potatoes.
  • Silver Weed – a plant with a high tannin content that can be used as herbal tea to soothe stomach aches, ease diarrhea, and relieve muscle cramps.
  • Ficaria – the roots are used to make saloop, a creamy, hot beverage usually made from wild orchid roots ground up, but ficaria–also called fig buttercup–which had similar tubers in the roots could be used instead.
  • Heath Tops – the flowering part of wild plants on the heath used like hops as a ‘poor man’s beer or ale.
  • Cow parsnip – traditionally the root would be grated and put into poultices to apply as a pain reliever for aching joints, sore muscles, and swollen legs.
  • Roan Berries – also spelled rowenberries, a bright red or orange fruit of Rowan trees, and known for a bitter taste, but can be cooked for jam or served with venison.
  • Pines – another name for pineapples.
  • Alligator – most likely refers to avocados, which were often called alligator pears.
  • Granadillas – passion fruit.

Napoleon’s arrive aboard the ‘Bellerophon’, which sailed into Plymouth Sound on July 26, created quite the event. Contemporary accounts note he posed for those who came out to catch a glimpse of him. Napoleon is barely visible midship, dressed in a green coat with red collar and cuffs and gold epaulettes.

Napoleon surrendered to Captain Frederick Maitland of the 'Bellerophon', 74 guns, on 15th July 1815. They sailed into Plymouth Sound on Wednesday 26th July where a great many people rowed out to see Napoleon while he was detained on board. The scene in this painting is set at 6.30pm, when Napoleon usually appeared in the gangway to take the air. Contemporary accounts indicate that he obligingly posed for the boats of curious sightseers, including one naval officer who observed that the ex-emperor, dressed in a green coat with red collar and cuffs and gold epaulettes, looked at them with an opera glass for five minutes. Having stayed good-naturedly long enough to satisfy the curiosity of the ladies on this occasion, he sat down to a writing table and they saw no more of him.
Scene in Plymouth Sound in August 1815 Sub-Title: The ‘Bellerophon’ with Napoleon Aboard at Plymouth (26 July – 4 August 1815)

July in Regency England

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From July on into September, this was the time in Regency England to get out of London and to the countryside if at all possible. However, the countryside was not always cooler. The 1808 July heatwave started up around July 13, and Fanny Chapman recorded in her diary that it was “One of the hottest days I ever felt.” Then, on July 15, she wrote, “A very fine day but hotter, if possible, than yesterday.” Temperatures in London were recorded at 38 Celsius (or 100.4 in Fahrenheit). Paris was also experiencing the heatwave.

The heat caused deaths, honeycomb to melt in bee-hives, food to spoil enroute to market, and was worse north of Bristol, and broke with a thunderstorm that brought damaging hail to Somerset, Dorset, and Gloucestershire, where lighting also destroyed one of the pinnacles of the Gloucester Cathedral. The only good news was the hot, dry weather allowed grain crops to be brought in early (harvest was typically in August). The print at right dates to 1800-1820 and is by an unknown artist.

That was not the only bad news to come. As Eli F. Heckscher notes in ‘The Continental System: An Economic Interpretation‘, July and August of 1810 brought an economic depression. “The purely commercial difficulties, with bankruptcies occurring to an extraordinary extent among merchants, formed the beginning of this; but they abated in some degree later on in the summer of 1811 and still more from February 1812.… the crisis broke out not solely in England, but quite as much in France, and not solely in those countries, but also in Amsterdam, the Hanse Towns, Prussia, and Switzerland, and above all in New York, shows how complicated the whole connection was.”

John Loudon’s 1822 book An Encylopaedia of Gardening lists the following tasks and foods, with an abundance of veg and fruits (if these had not been flattened by hail) for July:

Canning, Preserving, Wean Lambs, Mowing Grass, Fattening Oxen, Turnips drilled

Culinary Productions from the open Garden or Garden Stores. Cabbages and cauliflowers in perfection. Peas, beans, sugar-pea, and kidney-beans. New potatoes, turnips, carrots, radishes. Spinach, orache, sorrel, and white beet. Onions bulbed and ciboules, for salading. Artichokes, alisanders, rampion. Small salads, lettuce, radishes. Parsley, purslane, Indian-cress, marygold, borage, fennel, &c. Thyme, sage, mint, balm; and all the others from the open garden, and also from the herb-room. Angelica-stalks, gourds; the aromatic seeds from the seed-room, and the herbs either from the herb-room, or open garden. Caper, Indian-cress, radish-pods, kidney beans, and pickling cucumbers. The pot-herbs and salads as in June, the seeds of some sorts of vetches, as legumes; the cow-parsnip for its different uses, and butterwort; the roots of ficaria. Morels from their native habitats; garden mushrooms from covered ridges. Dulse, tangle, &c. as in June.

Hardy Fruits from the open Garden, Orchard, or Fruit-Room. Juneating, margaret, and codlin apples; James and other pears from the trees. Some peaches, nectarines, and apricots; also cherries. Gooseberries, currants, strawberries, raspberries. Almonds, wallnuts, chestnuts, filberts, from the fruit-cellar. Bird cherries, tree-currants.

Culinary Productions and Fruits from the forcing Department. Mushrooms, pines, grapes, peaches, nectarines, figs, cherries, apples, melons, cucumbers, &c. Lemons.

Foods that may be unfamiliar in this modern era include:

  • Alisanders – also called black lovage, or horse parsley, with a taste similar to celery and parsley.Indian-cress – also called monk’s cress or nasturtiums, so edible flowers with a peppery taste.
  • Cow parsnip – traditionally the root would be grated and put into poultices to apply as a pain reliever for aching joints, sore muscles, and swollen legs.
  • Juneating – an early variety of apple.
  • Bird cherries – native to England, with a small, tart and bitter fruit, which can be cooked into a jams or steeped in alcohol for a fruit brandy.

The picture below is of Chawton Cottage where Jane Austen lived, and JaneAusten.house notes it “boasted lawns, flower beds, an orchard, a shrubbery walk and also a large vegetable patch which Jane’s mother tended.” It currently has a perennial bed, rose beds with 30 old varieties, shrubbery with wildflowers, a garden wall, and dye plants, along with seasonal bulbs and summer annuals to create a cutting garden to go with the kitchen garden.

Brick house with shrubs, lawn, and flowers

June and Summer Abundance

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Bill of Fare June

June was the time in Regency England when there would be fruits of all sorts ripening, vegetables aplenty, fish and meats of all types, and problems would only show up in the bad-weather years (such as in 1816).

The Bill of Fare at left from The London Art of Cookery by John Farley, who had been principal cook at The London Tavern (chef was not in common usage until the late 1820s in England) . This shows a sample layout of two courses for a meal in June. The dishes are meant to be all on the table with each course, and you might help someone sitting next to you to a dish. Some items are obvious, such as fish, and soup in the first course, along wit pigeon, duck, and even fricassee chicken and rabbit (that simply means a type of stew).

The soup might be a white soup–very popular at the time–a pease soup, or even an expensive turtle soup. Turtle became available in late May or early June, having been shipped live from the West Indies, and was considered a wonderful dish. Turtles weighed in at anywhere from 30 to 600 pounds, and the cooking of turtle was held to be a special skill. A turtle might cost as much as 5s per pound, making it an expensive dish, and that is in addition to someone who knows how to open and clean the turtle.

Many opted for a less expensive ‘Mock Turtle Soup’, which could be a complex recipe. One recipe calls for the meat from a scalded calf’s head, ham, onion, carrots, turnip, celery, cloves, pepper, sweet herbs, lemon, truffles, marjoram, savory, thyme, parsley, chopped mushrooms, Madeira, the yolks of two eggs, the juice of half a lemon and half an orange, and then you throw in some “broiled forcemeat balls”. Those are basically ground meat made into balls and broiled.

The second course offers less familiar dishes.

Larded turkey simply means wrapping the bird in fat. The omelet might be cut into squares, and macaroni was a very popular dish. Mushrooms and a cherry tart are still something that might show up on a dinner table today.

The ‘Transparent Pudding’ in the second course is basically an egg custard in a puff pastry, while ‘Moonshine’ is an ornamental jelly and the ‘Rocky Island’ was a dessert with a custard base and ornamental paste meant to look like rocks. ‘Stew’d Chardoon’ refers to an older name for the artichoke thistle, a celery-like edible plant (the stem is eaten).

John Loudon’s 1822 book An Encylopaedia of Gardening offers up these outdoor tasks for June, along with vegetables and fruits available for the month, with some still needing to be found in a forcing department or hot house in the northern parts of England (citrus was always in hot houses):

JUNE
Fishing, Feeding and Mowing, Hire Harvest Men, Sheep Shearing, Burn dry weeds

Culinary Vegetables from the open Garden, or Garden Stores. Cabbages and cauliflowers in perfection. Kidney beans, peas, and common beans. Old potatoes from watered pits; new potatoes, turnips, carrots and radishes. Spinach, orache, and sorrel, in perfection. Young onions and chives; rocambole and garlic from the root-room. Asparagus and sea-kale in perfection till the middle of the month. Small salads, lettuce, lamb-lettuce, radishes. Parsley, purslane, tarragon, horse-radish, fennel, dill, marygold, &c. Thyme, sage, mint, savory, basil, &c. from the garden, and the others from the herb-room. Rhubarb-stalks, angelica. Samphire, three sorts Charlick, chickweed, fat-hen, orache, and willow-herb, as pot-herbs; orpine, ladies’-smock, &c. as salads; sweet cicily, as a garnish; sea-bindweed, as a pickle, and butterwort as rennet; ficaria roots as saloop. Morels from their native habitats; and the garden mushroom from covered ridges. Dulse, tangle, and the other sorts of edible fuci. Apples, pears, from Gooseberries, Almonds, walnuts.

Hardy Fruits from the open Garden, Orchard, or Fruit-Room. the fruit-cellar. Some cherries towards the middle of the month. Currants, strawberries, and raspberries, towards the end of the month. Chestnuts, filberts from the fruit-cellar. Some snowberries and tree-currants.

Culinary Vegetables and Fruits from the forcing Department. Mushrooms. grapes, peaches, nectarines, figs, cherries, &c. melons, cucumbers. Shaddocks, oranges, lemons.

Adding to the list of less familiar plants that have been covered in past months are:

  • Sweet Cicily – a fern-like plant with leaves that have a sweet licorice-like flavor, sometimes used to sweeten dishes or can be made into tea.
  • Sea-bindweed – which grows near the seaside, with a pretty white flower and can be boiled or pickled and used in place of samphire, but which has to be used with caution since it has a purgative effect.
  • Butterwort – a vegetable substitute for rennet, which comes from the stomach lining of young ruminant mamals, used for curdling milk to make cheese.
  • Ficaria roots as saloop – saloop was typically a creamy, hot beverage made from wild orchid roots ground up, but ficaria–also called fig buttercup–which had similar tubers in the roots could be used instead.
  • Snowberries – these are noted to have a minty favor with a bitter aftertaste, and were sometimes used to reduce fevers or rashes, but are a purgative and so could be toxic in large quantities.

June also brings the celebration of Midsummer Eve (St. John’s Eve fell on June 23 and St. Peter’s Eve fell on June 28). Tradition was to light bonfires, feast and drink, and pretty much have a good old time. The celebration has ancient pagan roots, and celebrations often sat uneasily with the Church, even with the additions of saints to help sanctify the date. This probably also had to do with the fact that things often got out of hand.

Traditional bonfires are still lit on some hills Cornwall, such as Carn Brea and Castle an Dinas. Bonfires in Cornwall were also once common as part of Golowan, the Feast of St. John (Gol-Jowan). Midsummer festivals are also celebrated throughout Scotland, notably in the Borders (the hilly rural area between England and Scotland). The custom of dining with new neighbors was an ancient one that carried through to the Regency in villages with the idea of breaking bread being one way to cement friendships.

The print below is from George Walker’s The Costume of Yorkshire (1814), and in it he writes, “Every custom which tends to promote social intercourse and hospitality should be zealously encouraged. Of this class is the one here represented, which is still observed in some parts of Craven, and other districts of Yorkshire. New settlers in a town or village, on the Midsummer Eve immediately succeeding their arrival, set out a plentiful repast before their doors, of cold beef, bread, cheese, and ale. Those of their neighbors who feel inclined to cultivate their acquaintance sit down and partake of their hospitable fare, and thus eat and drink themselves into intimacy.”

A lady pours out ale as a boy stands nearby. Two men sit at a table and another man carves mat while standing.

Merry Month of May

May1

That phrase is probably much older than its use in a poem by Thomas Dekker in the Tudor era, but he writes:

“O the month of May, the merry month of May,
    So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green!
O, and then did I unto my true love say:
    ‘Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my summer’s queen!”

The origins of celebrating May 1 go far back in time, with the date being Beltane and the official start of summer in the Celtic and Gaelic worlds. In Regency England, May festivals might be held in rural areas, particularly with a fair (Mayfair after all gets its name from a May Fair, held up until 1764). May brings with it flowers, and usually better weather (except for 1816, the year without a summer, which had wind and rain for much of England).

Ladies in Georgian dress dance around a servant with basically a table setting on his head while a fiddler plays
Francis Hayman’s The Milkmaid’s Garland (Humours of May Day) – Created for a supper box at Vauxhall

Venison came into season in May (though September), along with veal and grass-lamb. Eggs become abundant–hens don’t like to lay when it is cold–and so became cheaper, and a wide variety of fish is available including: trout, eels, tench, carp, smelts, turbots, soles, prawns, crabs, crawfish, and lobsters. River salmon also came into season.

John Loudon’s 1822’s An Encylopaedia of Gardening notes of the farming tasks that May is the month for sowing and planting, dairy work, breeding your mares, and bringing in hops. Beer and ale were ever popular, and generally a perk for anyone woking in the fields. The Female Economist even notes of table beer (also called small beer), “If brewed in October, it will be fit to drink in April or May, and is excellent for summer beer.” For the expanding list of produce Loudon writes of:

Culinary Vegetables from the open Garden, or Garden Stores.

Early cabbages, cauliflowers, brocolis, and coleworts. Haricot-beans, and soup-peas from the seed-room, and sometimes, though rarely, young peas, towards the end of the month, from a warm border. Potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes from pits, or cold cellars; turnip, carrot, and red-beet from cellars or the open ground, if not destroyed by the frost; young radishes. Spinach, orache, wild spinach, sorrel, and herb-patience in perfection. Housed onions, and winter leeks; young onions, ciboules, and chives, garlick and shallot from cold rooms. Asparagus and sea-kale in perfection. Lettuce, endive, celery, succory, young radishes, and all the salads in perfection; winter-radish, lamb-lettuce. Parsley, purslane, horse-radish, tarragon, and all this class, either fresh or from the herb-room. Thyme, sage, mint, tansey, costmary, &c. from the open garden; the others from the herb-room. Rhubarb-stalks, blanched, or otherwise, from earthed-up or uncovered plants, angelica-stalks, anise, and other seeds, and the dried herbs, as before, from the herb-room. Samphire, and buds of marsh-marigold. Charlick, fat-hen, chickweed, sea-orach, sea belt, &c. as greens; ladies’-smock and orpine, as salads; speedwell and vernal grass, as tea-plants. Morels from their native habitats; garden-mushrooms from covered ridges in the open garden. Dulse, tangle, and the other sorts of fuci, in a fresh state, and floating fucus for pickling.

Hardy Fruits from the open Garden, Orchard, or Fruit-Room. Apples, pears, from the fruitcellar. Dried grapes from the fruit-room. Almonds, walnuts, chestnuts, filberts, from the fruitcellar.

Culinary Productions and Fruits from the Forcing Department.

Kidney beans, peas, beans. Potatoes, carrots, radishes. Sea-kale, asparagus. Small salads. Chervil, purslane, & c. Mushroom. A pine occasionally; grapes, peaches, melons, cucumbers, cherries, figs, apples, pears, gooseberries, and strawberries. Lemons, shaddocks, oranges, pomegranates. Yams.

A boy sits on the back of a tired white horse and leads another horse that has stopped and doesn't look willing to move. A tree is behind them and the sky looks as if it is nearing sunset
James Burnet 1813 Landscape, Boy with Farm Horses; National Trust, Petworth House

Foods that are unfamiliar to most of us in this modern era are:

  • Angelica or Angelica-stalks – a herb sometimes called wild celery.
  • Borecoles –  comes from the Dutch word boerenkool and is another type of kale (also sometimes spelled cale).
  • Burnet – a herb with a cucumber-like taste.
  • Charlick – also called field mustard or wild mustard.
  • Chickweed – the leaves are used in salad and said to have a taste like spinach.
  • Ciboules – another name for a green onion.
  • Coleworts – a cabbage, one of the mainstays of the medieval diet.
  • Costmary – a herb often made into a tea, said to be good for digestion.
  • Dried lee chees – an older spelling for lychee, and this fruit would definitely need to be in a glasshouse, and this frist appears in England in the late 1700s. 
  • Elecampane – also called elfdock, and from the sunflower family, it can be candied or made into syrups due to its flavor that is similar to ginger.
  • Fat Hen – also called lamb’s quarter or wild spinach.
  • Fuci – this is the plural for Fucus a type of seaweed, and includes dulse, eulse, tangle and sea belt.
  • Haricot-beans – what is called string beans in the US.
  • Herb-patience – also called patience dock, and a plant from the buckwheat family, and useful in soups.
  • Ladies’-smock – a wildflower that is edible with a mustard-like taste.
  • Lamb-lettuce – the leaves can be used in salads, and said to have a nutty flavor.
  • Long-yens – another spelling for Longan fruit, also called “dragon’s eye,” which is related to lychees, which first shows up in England in the late 1700s.
  • Loquats – this fruit does best in a walled garden.
  • Marsh-marigold – the leaves are edible if boiled and have a texture similar to spinach.
  • Orache – sometimes called French spinach since it is similar.
  • Orpine – a wildflower with edible leaves best harvested in spring when tender, and these can be sauted in butter and eaten or used in salads.
  • Pishaminnuts – another name for pine nuts.
  • Purslane – a succulent with a lemony flavor and can be eaten raw or used in soups and stews.
  • Rocambole – another name for a shallot, which can still be found in many modern markets.
  • Salsify – a root vegetable, also called the “oyster plant” since it is said to taste like oysters.
  • Sea-orach – a coastal shrub with leaves that can be used in salad or cooked, with a salty, slightly bitter taste.
  • Scorzonera – another root vegetable that tastes a bit like an artichoke.
  • Skirret – a root plant which means hardy for winter, is said to taste like carrot.
  • Soup-peas – these would be dried peas, so for making pease soup.
  • Speedwell – a perenial herb with spinach-like leaves and a taste similar to watercress.
  • Succory – an alternate spelling of chicory, and the leaves have a bitter, peppery flavor.
  • Sauce-alone – also called garlic-mustard or hedge garlic.
  • Tansey – a herb with a yellow flower used to flavor puddings and omletes, but could also be placed on window sills to repel flies with its camphor-like aroma.
  • Vernal grass – a grass with a sweet, vanilla-like flavor, which is best in spring.

April – Spring in Regency England

Apr10

April seems like the month when spring should be flowering, and gardens should be bursting with lovely early peas, but this was not always the case in Regency England. Heavy rains, thunderstorms, and even frosts could dampen the spirits of most, and wreck havoc with crops and gardens. Snow is even reported to have fallen on Easter Sunday in 1816–a very cold year. Easter was also meant to mark the beginning of the London Season. (The royal family were generally in residence in London, from October to December and from April to July, and that would influence upper class social events.)

Easter fell on April 14 in four different years in the Regency era, including 1805, 1811, and 1816. Other years with Easter in April inlclude:

1800: April 13
1801: April 5
1802: April 18
1803: April 10
1804: April 1
1805: April 14
1806: April 6
1808: April 17
1809: April 2
1810: April 22
1811: April 14
1813: April 18
1814: April 10
1816: April 14
1817: April 6
1819: April 11
1820: April 2

The Connoisseur, a Capriccio Painting with Connoisseurs Admiring Thomas Hope's Antique Sculpturers Signed and Dated Michael William Sharp 1811
In Regency England during the year 1811, Michael William Sharp, a prominent portrait painter and former student of the famous Royal Artist, Sir William Beechey painted a group portrait featuring Thomas Hope, his wife Louisa, John Kemble, and other notable members of the Drury Lane Theater Company shown together admiring two of Hope’s most famous antique sculptures. Painted in 1811, it was first exhibited at the Annual Exhibition of British Artists in the Gallery of the British Institution in Pall Mall, London in 1812.

Easter, of course, gives us Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, with Hot Cross Buns and perhaps lamb for a meal. However, The Epicure’s Almanack (1815) notes, “Pork in this month disappears from all polite tables, but roasting pigs are in request.” Gunter in his Confectioner’s Oracle also notes that April is, “Lamb, ham and green peas.”

Maundy Thursday was the Thursday before Easter, which has a movable feast date. The King was meant to distribute “alms” and Maundy Baskets to the poor—the Prince Regent had to take over these duties in his stead. “Maundy” comes from the Latin mandatum, or the Vulgate’s translation of Jesus’ words in the washing of the feet. Maundy Baskets might be given to the poor with mutton, beef, and bread. An 1803 record notes four pounds of beef and four three penny loaves in each basket.

Fish in season in Regency England includes: crawfish, trout, tench, chub, carp, mullets, skate, soles, turbot, salmon, prawns, lobsters, crabs, and smelts. John Farley (pictured at right) in The London Art of Cookery gives us this recipe for Salmon Pie.

“Having made a good crust, cleanse a piece of salmon well, season it with salt, mace, and nutmeg, lay a piece of butter at the bottom of the dish, and lay the salmon in. Melt butter according to the pie. Take a lobster, boil it, pick out all the flesh, chop it small, bruise the body, and mix it well with the butter, which must be very good. Pour it over the salmon, put on the lid, and bake it well.“

April is certainly the month to start getting gardens and pastures ready for production. John Loudon’s 1822 book An Encylopaedia of Gardening sets up these tasks for the month:

“Ploughing and Planting, Lay down grass, Mares foaling, Hedging, Clearing fields, Plantings, Seeding, Polling trees”

Polling is where the upper branches of a tree are pruned, creating firewood while still allowing the tree to live and grow. Loudon offers up this list of produce and fruit that would show up, mostly in London markets since spring comes late to the north of England.

Culinary Vegetables from the open Garden, or Garden Stores.

Brussels’ sprouts, borecoles, brocoli, coleworts. Haricot beans, and soup-peas from the seed-room. Potatoes, Jerusalem
artichoke, yellow turnip, carrot, red-beet, parsnip, skirret, scorzonera, and salsify. Spinach, orache, wild spinach, sorrel, fat-hen, herb-patience. Bulbed and young onions, ciboules, and Welch onions; garlick, shallots, rocambole, &c. from the stores. Sea-kale and asparagus at the end of the month; hop-tops, campion-tops, and thistle-tops throughout the month. Lettuce, endive, celery, American and winter-cress; burnet, water-cress, and other salads. Parsley, purslane, tarragon from the garden; horse-radish and dried herbs, from the herb-room. Thyme, sage, mint, rosemary, lavender, tansey, from the open garden.

The others of this class from the herb-room.

Rhubarb-stalks, from covered plants; angelica, elecampane, and thistle-stalks from the garden. The seeds and dried herbs of this class from the stores. Samphire and buds of marsh-marigold. Nettle, campion, thistle, bryony, burdock, ox-tongue, sauce-alone, and other tops; chickweed, wild-rocket, sea-belt, and other leaves. Mushrooms from covered ridges. Dulse, tangle, and other fuci, in a fresh state; sea-belt preserved; and floating fucus pickled.

Hardy Fruits from the open Garden, Orchard, or Fruit-Room, from the fruit-cellar.

Some dried grapes from the fruit-room, chestnuts, filberts, from the fruit-room or cellar. Apples, pears, Almonds, walnuts.

Culinary Productions and Fruits from the forcing Department.

Kidney beans, peas. Potatoes, carrots, radishes. Sea-cale, asparagus. Small salads, lettuce, onions. Parsley, purslane, mint, &c. Rhubarb. Mushrooms. A pine occasionally; grapes, cherries, peaches, cucumbers, melons, strawberries. Oranges, lemons, limes, pomegranates. Loquats, pishaminnuts, and dried lee chees, and long-yens. Yams and Spanish potatoes.

Unfamiliar names includes:

  • Borecoles –  comes from the Dutch word boerenkool and is another type of kale (also sometimes spelled cale).
  • Coleworts – a cabbage, one of the mainstays of the medieval diet.
  • Skirret – a root plant which means hardy for winter, is said to taste like carrot.
  • Scorzonera – another root vegetable that tastes a bit like an artichoke.
  • Salsify – a root vegetable, also called the “oyster plant” since it is said to taste like oysters.
  • Orache – sometimes called French spinach since it is similar.
  • Herb-patience – also called patience dock, and a plant from the buckwheat family, and useful in soups.
  • Ciboules – another name for a green onion.
  • Rocambole – another name for a shallot, which can still be found in many modern markets.
  • Burnet – a herb with a cucumber-like taste.
  • Purslane – a succulent with a lemony flavor and can be eaten raw or used in soups and stews.
  • Tansey – a herb with a yellow flower used to flavor puddings and omlettes, but could also be placed on window sills to repel flies with its camphor-like odor
  • Angelica – a herb sometimes called wild celery.
  • Elecampane – also called elfdock, and from the sunflower family, it can be candied or made into syrups due to its flavor that is similar to ginger.
  • Sauce-alone – also called garlic-mustard or hedge garlic.
  • Eulse – this refers to sea weed.
  • Fuci – this is the plural for Fucus a type of seaweed
  • Loquats – this fruit does best in a walled garden.
  • Pishaminnuts – another name for pine nuts.
  • Dried lee chees – an older spelling for lychee, and this fruit would definitely need to be in a glasshouse, and this frist appears in England in the late 1700s. 
  • Long-yens – another spelling for Longan fruit, also called “dragon’s eye,” which is related to lychees, which first shows up in England in the late 1700s.
Dark clouds
John Constable, Sky Study with a Shaft of Sunlight; 1822

March – Time for Spring Planting

Mar20

March has me planning a garden, buying seeds…and setting up water systems. It looks to be a hot summer, but I have shade ready to keep my plants from burning up. In many places, however, there’s still a worry of frosts–and in Regency England, it was still time to be thinking about the last of winter hanging on. We’ve had St. David’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day in March, but the movable feasts of Good Friday and Easter falls into April this year–more time yet to be thinking of coloring eggs and what sort of special fare to have (I lean into strawberries at this time of year and asparagus, with perhaps a bit of lamb).

Pastoral scene with a lake, swans and cows in the pasture
John Constable’s 1816 painting of Wivenhoe Park in Essex

John Loudon’s 1822 book An Encylopaedia of Gardening starts to expand his list of fare available from the garden and here’s what he lists as spring begins, with most herbs coming out early:

March – Extra Brewing, Fattening Beasts, Paring and Burning, Oats and Grass in with other crops, Dealing with Moles, Dairy work, Sheep to pasture.

Culinary Vegetables from the open Garden, or Garden Stores. Brussels’ sprouts, borecoles of sorts, especially the early greens, and Breda cale, brocolis. Haricot beans and soup peas, from the seed-room. Potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, turnip, carrot, red-beet, parsnip, skirret, scorzonera, and salsify. Spinach occasionally, if mild. Onions from the root-room; Welch onions, ciboules from the garden; garlick, shallot, and rocambole from the root-room. Sea-kale from covered beds. Lettuce, endive, celery, American and winter-cress; also water-cress, burnet and others. Parsley horse-radish, and dried fennel, dill, chervil, &c. Thyme, sage, rosemary from the open garden; and dried marjoram, basil, mint, savory, &c. from the herb-room. Rhubarb stalks from covered roots; anise, coriander, carraway, and other seeds, chamomile, blessed thistle, and other dried herbs. Samphire. Nettletops, dandelion-leaves, bladder campion-tops, watercresses, brook-lime, sauce-alone. Mushrooms from covered ridges. Common and red dulse, sea-belt, and pepper-dulse.

Hardy Fruits from the open Garden, Orchard, or Fruit-room. Apples, pears, quinces, medlars, services from the fruit-room. Some dried grapes. Almonds, walnuts, chestnuts, filberts from the fruit-room.

Culinary Productions and Fruits from the forcing Department. Kidney-beans. Potatoes, radishes. Sea-kale, asparagus. Small salads, onions. Parsley, mint, chervil, sweet marjoram. Rhubarb. Mushrooms. A pine occasionally; grapes, cucumbers, strawberries. Oranges, shaddocks, lemons, olives, preserved pomegranates. quats, pishamin-nuts, leeches, &c. yams, and Spanish potatoes.

Other than odd spellings (such as pishamin for persimmon, and quats for kumquats), here are a few other words that are uncommon these days:

borecoles –  comes from the Dutch word boerenkool and is another type of kale (also sometimes spelled cale).

ciboules – is another name for a green onion.

rocambole – this is a variety of garlic.

bladder campion-tops – this is a plant said to be best in spring when tender, and said to have a taste like a pea or asparagus.

brook lime – sometimes spelled as one word, this perennial herb has a peppery taste.

dulse – this refers to sea weed.

shaddocks – this is a fruit similar to grapefruit, and as a native to Southeast Asia would need to be grown inside a glasshouse.

Potatoes, of course, originate in South America, and so came to Spain first, and then spread across Europe and into Great Britain. In the early 1800s in England, the potato was still moving from being food fit for the poor into something that could be a staple across all classes.

Interestingly, what is thought of as a classic English dish–fish and chips–traces its roots to a Sephardic Jewish fried fish brought to England by Portuguese/Spanish immigrants, and then the fried potatoes come to England from Belgium. The first shop said to offer both fried fish and fried potatoes is credited to Joseph Malin, a Jewish immigrant in London who started serving up his fish and chips in the early 1860s.

A dog, a saddled horse held by a groom in a smock and several black-faced sheep http://www.artuk.org/artworks/a-white-horse-with-a-groom-and-sheep-in-a-barn-170168
Edmund Bristow’s A White Horse with a Groom, and Sheep in a Barn from the National Trust, Anglesey Abbey

February Foods in Regency England

Feb11

Shrove Tuesday is the last day before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, typically falling anywhere from February 3 to sometime in early March. Traditionally, Shrove Tuesday Pancakes were made up as a last indulgence with butter and eggs, or all the things that might have to be given up for the forty days of Lent. In 2026, this will fall on February 17.

George Cruickshank’s print in ‘The Comic Almanack for 1837: An Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest Containing All Things Fitting For Such Work’ done under the penname of Rigdum Funnidos shows a cook tossing such a pancake.

Three children cheer on a cook, dressed in apron over her dress and a cap, while the lady of the house watches, and the kitchen maid stirs the batter. The lady has her hair up in back with curls at the side and a dress taht shows her shoulders--very 1830s. The cook uses an open fire, and the dishes are lined up in cabinet against the far wall. The two girls are in dresses--the older girl looking like a small version of her mother with bloomers showing under her dress--and the boy looks to be in a sailor suit with trousers. The thin, large pancake is in the air as

English pancakes tend to be more like what Americans think of as crepes and were often served with dinner or tea with just a sprinkle of sugar instead of the US idea of a thick breakfast stack with maple syrup poured over top.

Susannah Carter gives the following recipe in The Frugal Housewife (1822) for pancakes:

“In a quart of milk, beat six or eight eggs, leaving half the whites out; mix it well till your batter is of a fine thickness. You must observe to mix your flour first with a little milk, then add the rest by degrees; put in two spoonfuls of beaten ginger, a glass of brandy, a little salt; stir all together, clean the stew pan well, put in a piece of butter as big as a walnut, then pour in a ladleful of batter, moving the pan round that the batter be all over the pan: shake the pan, and when you think that side is enough, toss it; if you cannot, turn it cleverly; and when both sides are done, lay it in a dish before the fire; and so do the rest. You must take care they are dry; before sent to table, strew a little sugar over them.”

There was no baking powder yet to make fluffy pancakes, and the recipe doesn’t call for any type of yeast. While pearlash was around for leavening (you soak wood ash in water, strain it, then boil it until it makes a moist white powder). This wasn’t much in use in England for it doesn’t show up in cookbooks. Barm, also called ale yeast, does show up occasionally in recipes, but commercial yeast was readily available and used not just in bread, such as in cakes and puddings like “Dutch Pudding or Souster.”

From the garden and farm, John Loudon’s 1822 book An Encylopaedia of Gardening offers up this advise, along with vegetables and fruits, with spellings and punctuation the same as from his book:

FEBRUARY Planning and Preparing, Foaling, Start of Early Lambing in fields, Planting trees and bare root plants such as roses, root crops in, Pare and burn grass lands, Spread manure.

Scotch or Strasburgh cabbage, savoys, borecoles, Brussels’ sprouts, and, if a mild winter, cabbage coleworts, brocolis. Haricots, beans, and soup-peas from the seed-room. Potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, turnip, carrot, parsnip, red-beet, skirret, scorzonera, and salsify. Spinach, if a mild winter. Onions, leeks, garlick, shallot, and rocambole. Sea-kale from covered beds. Lettuce, endive, celery. American and winter-cress. Parsley, if protected, horse-radish, and dried fennel, dill, chervil, &c. Thyme, sage, rosemary, and lavender, from the open garden; dried marjoram, basil, &c. from the herb-room. Rhubarb-stalks from covered roots, anise, coriander and carraway-seeds, from the seed-room; chamomile, &c. from the herb-room. Red cabbage, samphire. Nettle and thistle tops; towards the end, sorrel leaves, and if a mild winter, sauce-alone. Mushrooms from covered ridges. Sea-belt preserved, and occasionally badder-locks.

Hardy Fruits from the open Garden, Orchard, or Fruit-Room. Apples, pears, quinces, medlars, services from the fruit-room. Some plums from branches hung up in the fruit-room. Dried grapes and currants from branches hung up in the fruit-room. Almonds, walnuts, chestnuts, filberts from the fruit-room. Sloes from dried branches hung up in the fruit-room.

Culinary Productions and Fruits from the forcing Department. Kidney beans. Potatoes. Sea-kale, asparagus. Small salads. Parsley, mint, chervil. Rhubarb. Mushrooms. A pine occasionally; grapes, cucumbers, strawberries. Oranges, lemons, olives, pomegranates. Pishamin-nuts, lee chees. Yams, and Spanish potatoes.

  • Borecoles is a type of kale.
  • Haricots are green beans.
  • Jerusalem artichoke is a hardy, starchy root plant that has nothing to do with artichokes, but has more in common with potatoes and mashes up very well.
  • Skirret, also a root plant which means hardy for winter, is said to taste like carrot.
  • Scorzonera is another root vegetable that tastes a bit like an artichoke.
  • Salsify is also call oyster vegetable since it has a oyster-like taste.
  • Rocambole is another name for a shallot, which can still be found in many modern markets.
  • Samphire does still show up in English cooking, and grows in marshy areas. It is from the parsley family, looks like baby asparagus, and has a crisp, salty taste.
  • Sea-belt and bladder-locks are both types of seaweed.
  • Medlars is described as tasting like spiced applesauce.
  • Services are a type of strawberry.
  • Filberts are what is called a hazelnut in the US.
  • Chervril is a herb similar to parsley.
  • ‘Pine’ means a pineapple, which are touchy to grow in England (they do look a bit like a pinecone).
A lady and her daughter buy fruits or vegetables from a woman at a grocer in London
James Pollard The Green Grocer (c. 1819)

Lady Lost – IndieBRAG Gold Medal

Jan19

I’m delighted to announce that Lady Lost–the final book in the Regency Ladies in Distress series–was awarded the IndieBRAG Gold Medal.

Books are judged by readers and rated on the quality of the writing, characters, and even the covers. This is particularly rewarding since the story took forever (and a day) to actually get finished–some characters just are not very good at showing up on the page right away.

A historical scene depicting people dressed in early 19th-century clothing in a colonnade, with men in military uniforms and women in elegant dresses interacting and socializing.
Georg Emanuel Opiz, 1815

The other issue was research into Paris and France in 1815, with Napoleon returning from exile, the fun of using the Palais Royal in the story–seen in an 1815 painting at left with the courtesans of Paris and the troops that occupied the city after Waterloo.

François Pascal Simon Gérard

I also wanted to weave in a mystery having to do with the Regent Diamond, which was taken from Paris by Napoleon’s Empress, the Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria (she took it with her to Austria in 1814 and it had to be returned. It is shown at right mounted into the hilt of Napoleon’s coronation sword, and almost lost in the folds of sash and gold trim, and all the robes and glitter that Napoleon insisted on wearing (talk about a man who was insecure about his less than royal background),

I also wanted to use Joseph Fouché, the duc d’Otrante, who was Napoleon’s head of the Secret Police, and then fell out with the Emperor. Lots of great stories there, with spies and counterspies, and a Paris on edge as it waited for what would come next in March of 1815.

All this meant looking for details that would make the story come alive–and weave in the story of Jules, Lord Sandal who is on a errand to help ing Louis, who has fled Paris, and his involvement with the illusionist, Madame de Mystére, otherwise known as Simone Raucourt. A lord and a stage actress made for a great couple and plenty for them to talk about what with her still holding revolutionary ideals.

One of the biggest challenges was to map out Paris–Napoleon did a lot of building, but Baron Haussmann changed Paris even more in the mid 1800s.

Paris Map 1810
Turgot Map 1819

A Visit to Paris in 1814 by John Scott was of use, as was John Quincy Adam’s diary for his travels in 1815, including a stay in Paris. It was more than fun to research the elegant restaurants, such as’ the Café des Mille Colonnes, noted for its gilt columns, mirrors, and having the madam of the business sit on a chair that once housed the Viceroy of Italy, and was purchased for twelve thousand livres! Edward Planta’s 1816 A new picture of Paris; or, The stranger’s guide to the French metropolis while set a little after the date I wanted was helpful. But I was sad that I couldn’t find a place to include a scene with Monsier Leroy.

Louis Hippolyte Leroy founded the House of Leroy, and billed himself as “Fashion Merchant of her Majesty the Empress [Joséphine]”. His house named Maison Boutin, stood at rue de la Loi, which is now rue de Richelieu. He was ahead of his time in that he did not do the designs, but bought them from designers, and sold ensembles–meaning head to toe, hat to shoe, and everything else to go with a dress.

The cut scene is here:

Jules kept up a patter of nonsense. Something about how the rue de Richelieu was named for some cardinal of fame, and came to be called rue Royale, and then rue de la Loi before the Emperor restored its name. Simone did not want to think about such things. She had faint memories of the Terror from when she’d been a girl—mostly the fear in everyone’s eyes, the lack of an audience in any play, the need to always have a caution about what one said. She shivered. It seemed those times had never truly left Paris.

When the coach stopped, she tried to pull herself together. Jules had given her back her house key and she held it in one clenched fist, letting the metal bite through her thin glove leather. “Where?”

“Maison Boutin.” Jules said, handing her down from the carriage. “Monsieur Leroy dresses royalty, duchesses…and my mother.”

“And offers prices to go with?” Simone muttered. She glanced at the front door with footmen either side in pale blue livery, their black collars starting to gleam with damp. Jules hurried her past them, out of the wet. Inside, the luxury made her catch her breath and then wince at the contrast to her ruined rooms. More footmen carried silver trays with crystal goblets that gleamed in candlelight. Clients lounged on brocade sofas and chairs, and prints of exquisite garments hung on the walls. Women walked into the room dressed in the latest fashion, twirled to display the gowns to potential buyers, and retreated again. She had never seen the like.

A man in his early fifties, thick-set, with an air of importance came up to them and bowed. He dressed in the latest fashion of Cossack trousers and a tight-fitting coat in peacock blue that buttoned over his waistcoat, the ends of which peaked out giving glimpses of silver embroidery. He gave Simone an arrogant once up and down that left her face flaming hot, but Jules stepped forward. “You dressed my mother this past spring, and now my lady is in need of a new wardrobe.”

“Mother?” The older man stiffened. “I count amongst my clientele two empresses and all the crowned heads of Europe.”

“Yes, I daresay Vienna may know your name, but London is still to be impressed. That may yet happen. Lady Sandal has been known to set the rage.” He swept his hat off, dragged off his gloves and nodded at Simone. “She’ll need the usual fripperies to go with her gowns. You know the sort of thing. Corsets, hats, gloves, fans, bouquets, handkerchiefs, stockings, shoes, and…those unmentionables. The complete toilette. I’ve a line of credit with Rothschild, so cost is not to be considered, but I should like to see her in at least three day dresses, something for travel, a couple of evening gowns. Perhaps a court dress—not for here, you understand, but something to make a bow to the Prince Regent. He does like a pretty face in a pretty dress.”

The older man—it must be Leroy himself, Simone decided—began to smile. “Of course. A private room, perhaps.”

Simone found herself swept up stairs, installed on yet another brocade chair, gold damask curtains shading the room. Jules turned away to stare out the windows, and women in the same livery of light blue, the dresses made up with black collars, came in to measure and fuss with her.

Pink satin embroidered in steel, an apron gown, a redingote in Spanish Tobacco, a court dress of gold and silver over cream satin, a white robe of crepe trimmed with blonde lace, an evening gown of white taffeta edged in satin, a day dress of cotton percale with a dotted pattern, and another stripped periwinkle blue with camellia satin ribbons and white roses at the waist. Each came with shoes, gloves, bonnets, and shawls to complete the look—half-boots in periwinkle, with a bonnet also trimmed in white roses. A cashmere dress, trimmed at the hem with a lavish design, with a red velvet torque and red shawl, red boots and gloves. The colors swirled before her. She Sent a glance to Jules—she could not choose, could not even think. She sat with her hands clenched in her lap.

Paris General Plan 1814 to 1815
Paris General Plan 1814-1815

January Foods in 1822

Jan1
John Loudon portrait

In the Regency era, the best gardeners were though to come from Scotland, and John Claudius Loudon certainly helped cement that idea. His portrait at left shows him looking both prosperous and rather Scottish. He is noted as being the first to use the word ‘arboretum’ in his writings, he was a botanist, garden designer, and author, and his wife, Jane Webb, was also a horticulturalist, and author. It was a talented family. An Encylopaedia of Gardening by Loudon speaks to the wide variety of produce available in England in 1822, and also how nuts were linked to fruit. Some reference are very odd to the modern reader:

  • Rocket, of course, is called arugula in the US.
  • Savoys means a type of cabbage, known for crinkled leaves.
  • When he says ‘kidney beans for harricots’ he means that kidney beans replace the French beans (or what is called green beans in the US).
  • Fuci is the plural for Fucus a type of seaweed (obviously, you’d have to be near the sea to get this along with other coastal plants).
  • Borecoles is a type of kale.
  • Jerusalem artichoke is a hardy, starchy root plant that has nothing to do with artichokes, but has more in common with potatoes and mashes up very well.
  • Skirret, also a root plant which means hardy for winter, is said to taste like carrot.
  • Scorzonera is another root vegetable that tastes a bit like an artichoke.
  • Rocambole is another name for a shallot, which can still be found in many modern markets.
  • Elecampane or ‘elf wort’ is one of those medicinal herbs from ancient times, said to be good for ‘lung issues’.
  • Samphire does still show up in English cooking, and grows in marshy areas. It is from the parsley family, looks like baby asparagus, and has a crisp, salty taste.
  • Wild services refers to a small, edible, pear-like fruits from a tree native to England that is now rare.
  • Haws are the red berries from the Hawthorn tree.
  • ‘Pine’ means a pineapple, which are touchy to grow in England (they do look a bit like a pinecone).
  • Filberts is another name for hazelnuts, and nuts in shells used to be a common thing in many stores, but now everything seems to come in a can or a jar.
  • Cloud-berries (or cloudberries) are bright, amber-colored fruits similar to cranberries in that they are tart and need water to thrive. They were once common in England, but not so much anymore.

Loudon speaks of the open garden, a fruit-room, and the forcing-room. The latter would be some sort of hot house or glass-house that allowed for heating to extend the growing season. His spellings and variations on capitalization are also left in place here—standardization of such things is a more modern idea. He does mention some plants if not ruined by rain or frost, which would be common problems, and use of frames (anything placed over a plant to protect it from frost—this could be a large glass jar or burlap or a large metal bell).

Pickling and storing in such places as a herb room, or in barrels in a cold place would be common, as in a ‘fruit-cellar’ or any cold room. As already noted, food storage—potting, pickling, and otherwise preserving—was a vital necessity, along with making certain you got the bugs (called vermine by period sources) off anything grown outside.

Loudon includes general notes, too, for agricultural tasks set out for the year, but let’s just look at the first of the year. I do have to say I would adore a garden large enough to have a ‘forcing department’.

JANUARY

Dealing with rot (in animal hooves and plants), Weaning pigs, Fence work, Fattening Beasts (oil cake and corn), Liming, Improvements, Pruning.

Vegetables from the open Garden or Garden Stores. Strasburg cabbage, savoys, borecoles, Brussels’ sprouts. Kidney beans for haricots, and Prussian and other peas. Potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, turnip, carrot, parsnip, red beet, skirret, scorzonera, and salsify, from the seed-room. Spinach in mild seasons; also sorrel and white beet. Onions, leeks, garlick, shallot, and rocambole. Sea-kale from the covered beds. Lettuce, endive, celery, American and winter-cress. Parsley, if protected, horse-radish, and dried fennel, dill, chervil, &c. Thyme, sage, rosemary, lavender, from the open garden, and dried marjoram, savory, mint, basil, &c. from the herb-room. Rhubarb-stalks from covered roots; anise, coriander and carraway seeds, chamomile, elecampane, blessed thistle, &c. dried. Red cabbage and samphire. Wild rocket, wild spinach, sauce-alone, and sorrel, if a mild winter. Mushrooms from covered ridges. Sea-belt, or sweet fucus, dried.

Four clay pots on dirt near a garden wall
Rhubarb forcing pots From geograph.org.uk

Hardy Fruits from the Open Garden, Orchard, or Fruit-Room. Apples, pears, quinces, medlars, services from the fruit-room. Some plums and morello cherries, carefully preserved on the trees. Some thick-skinned gooseberries, currants, and grapes, preserved on the trees. Some dried fruits of the same sorts on branches hung up in the fruit-room. Almonds, walnuts, chestnuts, filberts from the fruit-room. Sloes from the bushes, wild services, hips, haws, and sometimes a few cloud-berries.

A well occupied library opens into a glasshouse with plants. One child looks at a large book held by an adult. A lady holds large harp. A young couple sit by a table while older folks read. In the glasshouse several couples and a lady with a child tour the plants.
Glasshouse design by Humphry Repton, 1816 from Fragments on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening

Culinary Vegetables and Fruits from the forcing Department. Kidney beans. Potatoes. Sea-kale. Small salads. Parsley, Fennel. Rhuharb. Mushrooms. Pines, winter melons, grapes, strawberries, cucumbers occasionally. Oranges, olives, and pomegranates. Malay apple, loquats, and lee-chees. Yams, and Spanish potatoes.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_and_Jane_Loudon_(4644568348).jpg
John and Jane Loudon blue plaque at 3 Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, London
London County Council
Here lived John and Jane Loudon
1783-1845 and 1807-1858
Their horticultural work gave new beauty to London squares