School: Na Tearmoinn (B.) (roll number 8931)

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1. Food in Olden Times

   “The people long ago used have only have three meals a day.”

   

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   The people long ago used have only have three meals a day. They were the breakfast, dinner and tea. The time they used eat them were eight o'clok, one and five. Most of the people long ago worked before their breakfast. Each meal consisted of potatoes, salt and skim milk, and if a man was mowing he might have a piece of yellow bread with it.
   Skim milk and potatoes were used at each meal. Some people used no table, but put the potatoes into a Skew in the middle of the floor, but the people who used the table usually pulled it out on the floor. The hanging of the table against the wall was not known in this part of the country.
   Yellow bread was the bread they used long ago. It was made of yellow meal mixed with boiled water and baked in a griddle. Meat was eaten very seldom. The kind they ate was usually salt meat. Fish was eaten sometimes too. The fish they used was generally salt herrings. Sometimes they had cabbage and turnips. They ate yellow meal bread and sour milk which is hardly used at all now. The people long ago never ate late at night. The people long ago used to have currant cake at Christmas and pancakes Shrove Tuesday and St. Brigid's Day. It was only on those occasions they had them. The people mowing hay with a scythe or doing very laborious work used get a piece of yellow meal bread with the potatoes and milk.
   On St. Brigid's Day they used make crosses of straw

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. products
      1. food products (~3,601)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Tony Barrett

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Dooncaha, Co. Kerry

   Informant

   Jim Hanlon

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   60

   Address

   Dooncaha, Co. Kerry