Page 144 - Mocarelli, Luca, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2020. Maize to the People! Cultivation, Consumption and Trade in the North-Eastern Mediterranean (Sixteenth-Nineteenth Century). Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 144
maize to the people!
form of polenta. The existing reports show that in the decades leading up
to the turn of the nineteenth century, the maize harvest in Istria sufficed
for four months. After that, peasants had to purchase additional maize. In
the remaining part of the Slovenian territory, the crop allegedly sufficed for
the annual needs of the population (Hrobat Virgolet 2018, 87). In Carinthia,
maize mush was very popular, while Styria stood out in terms of mixing
maize flour with other types of cereal flours. In the central part, cereal
mushes still prevailed. Generally, the everyday diet of the rural population
consisted mostly of mushes and potatoes. Maize dishes only supplemented
or diversified everyday nutrition (Makarovič 1991, 156).
The quiet advance of maize
The statistical information about the percentage of maize confirms the nu-
tritional patterns in the field of cultivation as well. These data reveal the
long-term establishment of maize and its relation to other crops, which dif-
fered considerably from province to province. We can certainly claim that
in the first half of the nineteenth century, the established relations between
maize and other field crops persisted for a long time, until as late as World
War I, as indicated in the following charts.
Graph 1. Field crops and arable land in Slovenia in 1875 (in %)
Source: Gospodarska 1970, 265.
142
form of polenta. The existing reports show that in the decades leading up
to the turn of the nineteenth century, the maize harvest in Istria sufficed
for four months. After that, peasants had to purchase additional maize. In
the remaining part of the Slovenian territory, the crop allegedly sufficed for
the annual needs of the population (Hrobat Virgolet 2018, 87). In Carinthia,
maize mush was very popular, while Styria stood out in terms of mixing
maize flour with other types of cereal flours. In the central part, cereal
mushes still prevailed. Generally, the everyday diet of the rural population
consisted mostly of mushes and potatoes. Maize dishes only supplemented
or diversified everyday nutrition (Makarovič 1991, 156).
The quiet advance of maize
The statistical information about the percentage of maize confirms the nu-
tritional patterns in the field of cultivation as well. These data reveal the
long-term establishment of maize and its relation to other crops, which dif-
fered considerably from province to province. We can certainly claim that
in the first half of the nineteenth century, the established relations between
maize and other field crops persisted for a long time, until as late as World
War I, as indicated in the following charts.
Graph 1. Field crops and arable land in Slovenia in 1875 (in %)
Source: Gospodarska 1970, 265.
142
