A Good Harvest or Starvation

Posted by Rachel Bellerby May 12, 2008

Nowadays, we’re used to having access to a variety of foods all year round. Most people in the western world have access to fresh and frozen food from around the world that our medieval ancestors could only dream of. Starvation and malnutrition were real possibilities for many ordinary people in medieval society.

A bad harvest didn’t just mean the crops had failed, it meant facing months of existing on whatever food could be foraged from the fields and forests. It was difficult to preserve food in an age before refrigeration and so stock-piling food in case of bad times was almost impossible. And whatever the economic situation, a family still had to pay its rents and tithes or face eviction.

Medieval people were very much ruled by the weather and the changing seasons and temperatures. The long summer days must have seemed such a blessing, after months of evenings lit only by candles or rushlights. The joy of a good harvest would have been intense; not only was there plenty for everyone to eat for the coming year, there was also the chance of extra money from selling on surplus goods at market or to a travelling merchant. Medieval records show that a good harvest, where yields were up at least 15% to a normal year, came only once every two decades. A person would be lucky to see a record-breaking harvest three times in their life.