Through the fields and through the vineyards

This book invites us to discover life in the countryside of the past, as well as the know-how that has been passed down through generations of farmers and winemakers. A world where everyone repeated the gestures they had been taught - where saints were invoked to obtain mercy from the seasons - where, if nature had not been too capricious, people ate whole wheat bread (made from mixed grains) and drank the wine from their vineyards. The calendar of field work seemed set forever: beans were sown on Saint Eutropius' Day to harvest "a full basket," and threshing grains with a flail occupied the long winter months. The forests then offered all kinds of resources that we have forgotten: besides wood and charcoal, people would gather vine props, fodder for animals, beech nuts used for oil, wild fruits, and countless herbs, not to mention the Christmas stump, the ancestor of our Yule log, which remained lit during the holidays. It was said that their ashes had multiple uses: they chased away slugs, kept foxes away from the henhouse, healed sick animals, protected against lightning... Marcel Lachiver, a grandson of farmers and former schoolteacher, is a university professor. He is the author of the Dictionary of Rural Life, the words of the past, and numerous history books including Wines, Vineyards and Winemakers.