12 — [Not in 1577.]
¶ The Fermers Dailie Diet
Chap. 12
1
A plot set downe, for fermers quiet,
as time requires, to frame his diet:
With sometime fish, and sometime fast,
that houshold store may longer last.E58
Lent.
2
Let Lent well kept offend not thee,
for March and Aprill breeders bee:
Spend herring first, saue saltfish last,
for saltfish is good, when Lent is past.
Easter.
3
When Easter comes, who knowes not than,
that Veale and Bakon is the man:E59
And Martilmas beefe1E60 doth beare good tack,
when countrie folke doe dainties lack.
Midsommer.
Mihelmas.
4
When Mackrell ceaseth from the seas,
John Baptist brings grassebeefe and pease.
Fresh herring plentie, Mihell brings,
with fatted Crones,2 and such old things.E61
Hallomas.
Christmas.
5
All Saints doe laie for porke and souse,
for sprats and spurlings for their house.E62
At Christmas play and make good cheere,
for Christmas comes but once a yeere.
A caueat.
Fasting.
6
Though some then doe, as doe they would,
let thriftie doe, as doe they should.
For causes good, so many waies,
keepe EmbringsE63 wel, and fasting daies:
Fish daies.
A thing needful.
7
What lawe commands, we ought to obay,
for Friday, Saturne, and Wednesday.E64
The land doth will, the sea doth wish,
spare sometime flesh, and feede of fish.
The last remedie.
Where fish is scant, and fruit of trees,
Supplie that want with butter and cheese.
T. Tusser.
Notes
1 “Dry’d in the Chimney as Bacon, and is so called because it was usual to kill the Beef for this Provision about the Feast of St. Martin, Nov. 11th.”—T.R.(= Tusser Redivivus, here and elsewhere)
2 “A Crone is a Ewe, whose teeth are so worne down that she can no longer keep her sheep-walk.”—T.R. ⁂