School: Gráinseach Ailt an Chaistín (St. Johnston)

Location:
Saint Johnstown, Co. Donegal
Teacher:
Seán Ó Seanacháin
Browse
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1106, Page 43

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 1106, Page 43

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: Gráinseach Ailt an Chaistín (St. Johnston)
  2. XML Page 43
  3. XML “Old Arts and Crafts”

Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.

On this page

  1. (continued from previous page)
    side of Bllybofey, almost twenty five miles distant before ever they stopped for any refreshments. There they used to eat one of the pieces of oatcake and drink a glass of goat's milk which they obtained for one penny each. They then proceeded on their journey to the fair of Ballyshannon; did their business and proceeded homewards again.
    The bark of oak trees was extensively used in some of the tanning processes. This bark was then sold to the people to make firewood.
    The oven of the bakery was heated by burning a large fire of turf inside it for several hours. The oven was built of stones and mortar. When it became hot enough the fire was raked out and the dough put in.
    Neither yeast nor baking soda was used in the baking of the bread. Potatoes were boiled until they boiled into jelly in the water. This jelly was strained and left over until it became sour.
    This sour substance was used to wet the flour to make the dough. The sour potatoe substance or "barm" as it was called made the bread "rise" the same as yeast or baking soda does now.
    Laundry starch used to be all made at home from the grated potatoes.
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. activities
      1. economic activities
        1. trades and crafts (~4,680)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Daphne Bell
    Gender
    Female
    Address
    Saint Johnstown, Co. Donegal
    Informant
    Mr George Fleming
    Gender
    Male
    Age
    58
    Address
    Saint Johnstown, Co. Donegal