3.
Field crops of old times
In
this part of the garden, you find a choice of cereals
and other crops from the past.
Many of
them are now forgotten.
Some old types of wheat: emmer and spelt. Rye and barley
used to be general, but are now rarely seen in this
country. Little known food plants such
as buckwheat, millet and
lentil are growing here. Fodder plants such as field
carrots and oats grow here as well as rapeseed
and ‘gold
of pleasure’ (Camelina sativa) that were used
to make oil for cooking and lighting.
You see some spicy and stimulating crops like mustard,
hop, tobacco and chicory. Tinctorial plants such as
woad, dyers-weed and madder were grown here until synthetic
dyes became cheaper. For the production of textiles
the
almost
forgotten ‘weaver’s teasel’, hemp
and flax were grown.
Poppy-seed
is still used to make tasteful poppy-seed bread.
The sap of this plant was used as a sleeping
potion for children. A close relative of this
plant is used for the production of opium and
other hard drugs.
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