Scarcity

In most self-sufficient farms, the scarcity was the biggest concern. In spring it often turned out that, for example, the potatoes in the mound were either frozen or rotten. On the other hand, rodents-mice, voles and rats could find food supplies. At that time, the grain for bread and groats was usually running out. Therefore, in the old days, food was held in high esteem. Nothing could be wasted. This was precisely due to frequent periods of hunger. In the pre-harvest season, people even ate weeds - couch grass, loboda. It was from lebioda, nettles and sorrel that soup was cooked in the pre-harvest. Women made salads from the dandelion leaves, they usually mixed them with cottage cheese or eggs. From the earliest fruits, such as cherries, berries or rhubarb, fruit soups, the so-called „pamuły”. They used mint, lovage, young onion, wild-growing chives on copper and wild garlic. Turnip was also eaten then - it was an important element of food in the pre-harvest season because often, from Christmas, poorer farms did not eat potatoes anymore. Turnips were usually dried in attics and eaten, for example, in a post-cooked meal with millet. Silage and dried fruit also played an important role in this period. Everyone was waiting for new potatoes or new cabbage.

SOURCE:

Ruszel K., Leksykon kultury ludowej w Rzeszowskiem, Rzeszów 2004

Editors: Smyk K., Pudłocki T., Wodzińska I., Puszcza Sandomierska od kuchni. Między tradycja a współczesnością, Kolbuszowa 2017