School: Coole (roll number 3936)
- Location:
- Coole, Co. Westmeath
- Teacher: T. Mac Cormaic
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0719, Page 442
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- XML “Essay on Food in Olden Times”
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- Long ago the people used to have only three meals in the day. The breakfast at eight o'clock, dinner at twelve or one o'clock and tea at six o'clock.
They used to do two hours work before their breakfast. In the Summer they would have porridge for their breakfast. It would be made of oatmeal or what they called 'Beargrain'. At their dinner they would have potatoes and oftentimes one slice of bacon. At their supper they would have oatmeal or 'Bearporridge'. They would eat it with buttermilk or scownes'. It was made by mixing oatenmeal and mealseeds together. It was then wet and mixed well with boiling water. It was left untill it became sour and it was then strained and used instead of buttermilk. In some houses where there were no tables they used a potato basket. The basket was put ontop of a pot in the centre of the floor. The pan was left in the centre of the basket and everybody sat around it. Some times they would have bread made of Oatenmeal, 'Barley' or 'Beargrain'.
Sometimes they would have a(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Peggy Meehan
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Clonava, Co. Westmeath
- Informant
- Kate Keena
- Gender
- Female
- Age
- 64
- Address
- Clonava, Co. Westmeath
