Poor Feast Playlist kzfaq.info/sun/PL4e4wpjna1vzn_D5t7tBC4QPiU9LC2lXe

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

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!)

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

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

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.

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!

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

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.

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!

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

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.

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

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.😅

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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).

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.

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.

I grew up with Dad working his job manufacturing wood products like turned spindles for stair ways , beds , ECT. He was also starting a business drilling water wells. Mom had a large garden and Dad hunted wild game , squirrel, rabbit, partridge, grouse, and deer. We also raised a few chickens , rabbits and geese. This is incredible! Brings back memories and reminds me of some of the lessons I learned as a child, I'm only 57. Not really that long ago.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Please keep this series going it's so entertaining

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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🧑‍🌾🍏🍎

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.

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.

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.

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,

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 😂

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.

Townsends and Max Miller are absolute treasures on this platform.

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!

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

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

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

We've lost our traditional skills. Thank you for bringing those skills to KZfaq. Who knows some day we might need the skills.

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

This channel soothes my soul.

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.

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.

Watching this while eatting McDonald’s

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.

Thanks for the clip. Makes me appreciate every meal and modern convenience even more.

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!

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!

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

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.

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

A great and insightful video as always Jon.

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

I could watch your videos all day

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!

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.

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 KZfaqr. We really don't see enough history about the commoner majority. Thank you so much, Jon!

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

Your content is so wholesome, thank you my man.

Your videos always raise my spirit. Thank you

This channel gets better every year. Congratulations man!

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

Another fantastic video

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!!

Thank you sir, those videos are amazing please keep making them ❤

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.

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.

Great video Jon! That looked outstanding!!

What a great video. Thank you for this!

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

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

I love your show. Best Patreon money ever spent. 👍

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

Fantastic video as always!

Love your videos. Keep up the good work my friend ❤

Another great video! Thanks!

I am not much into cooking videos but, I have to say this one is very good and very well presented.Thank You for all You do...

Thank you for sharing this. 😊

Very enjoyable way to peek into our history, Thanks!

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

I love this channel! You do a great job!

Absolutely love your videos.

Although I enjoy all of your videos, this one is absolutely amazing! Thank you!

Thank you for your your wholesome and informative content. I think that feast looks very delicious.

Excellent video. Very insightful.

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.

Great episode ❤

The passion and delivery you give is always exceptional. Thank you guys for all you do.

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

Such a wonderful channel!

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.

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.