It was whilst I was researching and writing my Domesday Book (2021) that I became increasingly aware of the significance of the monasteries in the creation of manufactured products and the documentation of their associated manufacturing processes. The monasteries were the centres of excellence in making written records with their organisation of labour, specific work being allocated to specific individuals, allowing some monks to be totally dedicated to the writing process all day and every day. So the creation of both ingredient (or part) lists and step by step guides to the manufacturing process allowed for the efficient and consistent production of a variety of products. The other thing that always becomes obvious when you visit a monastery setting is the importance of the gardens and particularly that of the herb garden. A lot of effort went into the design and layout of the herb garden which indicates the importance of it to the monks. Just to set the scene this blog has a focus upon food and drink ignoring the many other types of manufacturing going on within a monastery.
So if we just focus upon food and drink products :-
Jams and
Marmalades
Cheeses
Liqueurs,
Grappa and Digestifs
Natural
Remedies
Products
from the Hive
Red and
White Wines
Sweets
and Candies
Teas
and Brews
Trappist
Beer and Abbey Beer
So
having had my interest stirred in respect of the importance of the monasteries
in terms of food and drink production it’s a small step to take to appreciate
that these are being produced in a medieval way using medieval ingredients not
a modern industrial way. The processes of manufacture would have evolved from
Roman Times with the documentation of these processes in monastery setting
through the Anglo Saxon period but the real push in terms of making use of the
power of creating documents was in the Norman period which was around the time
of the Domesday Book. (1086).
So with
the need for us in 2023 to seriously consider all the dangers we are exposing
ourselves to in respect of industrialised food manufacture it does not take
much imagination to appreciate we have all the medieval recipes from these
monasteries available now. We could quite easily return to 12th Century
eating habits. Importantly the “branding” already exists in the names of the
monasteries. So in terms of a “Digital Disrupter” it would be opening up
another marketplace based upon Monastery Foods making full use of the internet
for their marketing and distribution. Well what a surprise , it only takes a
Google search to appreciate that in Italy this market is already growing for
Italian Monasteries. Where is the movement to do a similar job with English
monasteries? Adopting the Duchy of Cornwall approach to owning, possibly
licensing these days, products that align with their principles and geography.
The
truth is I have no time to invest in this set of ideas. The purpose of this
blog is purely to get it documented and communicated to see who might be
interested in it as a potential Digital Disrupter. So below I share some of the
results of my investigations so far to give anyone a start should they consider
this as a project. Jeremy Clarkson could be an ideal sponsor very much in the
public domain in respect of food and drink so a link to him might be worthwhile
step forward. It sort of fits with his Farm Shop movement since within that
setting you could build upon the fresh local produce small batch production
theme with a “back in medieval time” set of eating products based upon
Monastery Branding. Ideally getting the big industrial food manufactures to
consider adopting medieval production technique divisions might be away of
recovering the current food nightmare we have created with all its poor health
generating issues. Essentially a step back in time in terms of ingredients and
manufacturing processes whilst having the benefits of modern preservative,
storage, distribution and technology capabilities.
So let
us look at how a modern manufacturing approach has been applied by French Monks
to the manufacture of their green herbal liqueur – Chartreuse where demand for
use in cocktails is outstripping their ability to supply.
Then
the mystery of how French imported wine which is processed at Buckfast
Abbey,Devon, United Kingdom is turned into a unique very sweet tasting tonic
wine. Whilst the black gold called Buckfast (Buckie) is a beer produced in
Auchinleck, Ayrshire, Scotland.
Buckfast
Abbey not really offering Digital Sales of Food and Drink
Prinknash
Abbey not really offering Digital Sales of Food and Drink.
This is
an example of a classic Italian site selling Monastery Food and Drink
An
interesting American and Canadian approach to marketing and selling products
across many monasteries. The United Kingdom needs a similar approach.
http://www.monasterygreetings.com
Footnote
Whilst
writing this blog (310323) I have just read in the Times Newspaper the obituary
of C Anne Wilson (1927 – 2023) famous for her book on Marmalade. She was a food
historian who researched in detail the British culinary culture since the Stone
Age. You can read her Times Obituary using the link below. Her work coincides with
many of the ideas regards to stopping the move towards industrial food
production and returning to the older ways of producing food and drink. Less
chemical concoctions to aid manufacturing and longer shelf lives and more the
use of naturally sourced ingredients. Her work is ideal for looking back on how
things were manufactured.
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