Seeds and roots of wild plants as an extension of flour

Though people in Iron-Age Finland were tall, which means that they ate well, long and cold winters and uncertainty of the coming years forced them to pick everything edible from the nature. Iron-age Finland was very sparsly populated, unlike the rest of Scandinavia and England. If you could not find enough food and land to feed your family, you just moved a bit further inland.

Famine years were plenty in our history. There were also years with very meagre harvests. Famine could come the following year, you never knew, so people felt better if they had grain also for the next year. It makes sense that people collected seeds and other food staff from the nature to make sure they had enough food for the next winter. Wild seeds also gave variety to the taste of grain.

Ann Hagen investigated the famine years in England. At that time people and cattle died of hunger. For example in the 10th century years 900, 954 (beginning of a 4-year famine), 962, 969, 975, 976, 986, 988 and 989 were years of famine. (Processing & Consumption, p.152) Looks like famine was a common visitor on those days. Leechdoms mentions ten references to barley meal, one to fine barley meal, six to wheat, one to fine wheat meal, one to fine wheat flour, three to rye, one to oat meal, one to bean meal, acorn flour/powder, sieved hazel and alder flour. (Hagen, p. 14-15) The use of wild seeds - prehistory in Sweden

Isse Israelsson has written about prehistoric and Viking-Age archeological finds of pots full of wild seeds. This shows that wild plants were used and collected actively for food. Maybe people also raised plants which we don’t know are edible at all, just ’wild’ and ’ beautiful’. It is easy at least make more room to the plants you want to favor, if you are not eager to sew them into the corn fields you have made with a lot of work.

Israelsson has forgotten to use Latin names of the plants, which may cause confusion and uncertainty when translated. That is why I added Swedish names on the following list. In Jylland the archeologists found seeds of Fat Hen (svinmålla) close to pot pieces. In Denmark Smartweed seeds (pilört) and seeds of linen and dådra were found. Pots have been found with both wild seeds and grain mixed in, for ex. Bindweed (åkerfinda). Also Dock (syra) mixed with flour and ground Water Arum root (miss ne).

Water Arum root mixed with flour leavens the bread itself (Aaltonen, p. 17). Also root of Common Horsetail (åkerfräker) has been ground and added to bread flour. (Israelsson, p. 26-31).

English seed finds

A corpse of a man who died near the year 0 was found in England. He was well preserved and his last meals could be analyzed with the latest technique. From his stomach were found a variety of wild seeds, spelt wheat, emmer wheat and barley. The Archeologists could assist that the grain was eaten in a form of a bread. Wild seeds were from his latest meals. They were from the plants: Dock, (possible Rumex conglomeratus), Pale Persicaria (Polygonum lapathifolium), Fat Hen (Chenopodium album), Meldes (Atriplex sp) and Cow Parsley- family (Umbelliferae). Also there were a couple of leaves of Scots Heather (Calluna vulgaris), but they are assumed to be stayed in the bottom of the bread and came from the baking on fire. (Lindow man, p. 108)

Wild seeds in Finland

From a late Iron-Age living place in Paimio 448 seeds were found, mostly grain. One third were grain, most rye and barley, very little wheat and oat. According to Seppä-Heikka this kind of mix of barley and rye is typical for that time. From a ditch connected with a building from the time of the Finnish crusades (12th-13th. centuries) carbonized seeds of grass- and grain plants were found : Peas, Sedge, Vicia hirsuta, Stellaria graminea and Wild Basil. Close by a lot of seeds by various plants were found, which were used for human nutrition. (Seppä-Heikka).

People of the North and their wild flour

Toivo Rautavaara has written several books about the use of the wild plants in nutrition. The one in my bibliography is based on North, mainly Finnish, folk tradition. Knowledge passing from father to son cannot be reliable further than into the last half of the 19th century, but the use of wild plants is a lot older. I have chosen only those plants into the following list, which according to Hämet-Ahti grew in the Finnish continent about 1000 years ago. In Scandinavia people have used the following plants in both bread and porridge:

Allseed, seeds (Polygonum aviculare)

Alpine Bistort, roots and seeds (Polygonum viviparum)

Arrowhead, roots (Sagittaria sagittifolia)

Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus)

Bog bean, roots (Menyanthes trifoliata)

Broad-leaf Sorrel, seeds (Rumex acetosa)

Butomus umbellatus, roots

Caraway, seeds and roots as a spice (Carum carvi)

Cattail, roots and flower stamen (Typha latifolia)

Common Cattail, roots and flower stamen (T. angustifolia)

Clover, flowers (Trifolium)

Common Horsetail, Shave grass, roots (Equisetum arvense)

Common Polypody, roots (Polypodium vulgare)

Common Reed, Carrizo, roots (Phragmites communis)

Couch Grass, Twitch, roots (Agropyron, Elyttrigia repens)

Cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea)

Cramp, Guelder rose, berries (Viburnum opulus)

Drop wort, corms (Filipendula hexapetala)

Fat Hen and Orach, seeds (Chenopodium album, Atriplex)

Fiddlehead Fern, roots (Pteridium aquilinum)

Fireweed, Rosebay, roots (Chamaenerium angustifolium)

Goat’s Beard, roots (Tragopogon pratensis)

Great Bulrush, Tule, roots (Scirpus lacuster)

Hawthorn, berries (Crataegus) Grows only in Aland and in the mainland cost

Iceland moss (Cetraria islandica)

Manna Grass, seeds (Glyceria fluitans)

Marsh Woundwort, corms (Stachys palustris)

Nympha, Pond Lily, roots (Nymphaea alba)

Scots Heather, flowers (Calluna vulgaris)

Silverweed, roots (Potentilla anserina)

Water Arum, roots (Calla palustris)

Wild Parsley, Cow-weed, roots (Anthriscus silvestris)

White Dead Nettle, dried leaves and young plants (Lamium album)

Yellow Water-Lily, roots (Nuphar lutea)