Archive for April, 2009
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The Ville d'Isigny steams out of town
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
As the prevailing size of ships grew in the nineteenth century, so the port of Isigny become inaccessible to the long haul freight shipping of the day. The gap was plugged by the Ville d’Isigny, a small coastal steamer of 150-200 tonnes that entered the Vire estuary, before carefully threading its way up to the [...]
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How steam changed European agriculture
Saturday, April 18th, 2009
European agriculture was transformed in the last two decades of the 19th century, when cheap grain from the new world started to arrive from Canada, the US and Argentina. This sea change came about when north American railways finally reached the ports and started to deliver steam shiploads of prairy wheat to the docksides. Thanks [...]
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From field to cream to butter
Friday, April 17th, 2009
A number of sources record that two hundred years ago Normandy cattle stayed outside all the year round. They were visited and milked by milk maids two or three times a day, regardless of the weather. The milk came back in
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Butter before fridges (2)
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009
On the eve of the French Revolution, Isigny was shipping 3.9 million pounds of butter a year (1,740 long tons or 1,770 metric tonnes) of which just over 300 tonnes was going to the French colonies of the day,
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Butter before fridges (1)
Monday, April 13th, 2009
If butter was to travel any distance without refrigeration, then, like the Vikings before them, the dairy farmers of Normandy needed a reliable way of preserving their most valuable export.
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Revolutionary priorities for butter
Sunday, April 12th, 2009
The French Revolution meant that cross-Channel commerce to England was forbidden, including shipments of butter
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Haggling over butter prices
Saturday, April 11th, 2009
The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw a thriving trade in farm butter bound for Paris and further afield. Isigny’s central market was a focus for this trade, with markets
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Butter as booty
Friday, April 10th, 2009
In times of war, such as those in the 1670s, during Louis XIV’s reign, traders along the French coast often had to defend themselves against
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Towering demand for butter
Tuesday, April 7th, 2009
During the Middle Ages, butter found favour in rich households, to the point where the appetite for butter conflicted with the church’s rules on fasting and diet. In the fifteenth century, a few exceptional
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Butter inspires culinary Renaissance
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
The fifteenth century saw the beginnings of a culinary revolution in France, as sharp and acid sauces gave way to thicker, smoother sauces made with butter. The trend was recorded
