A Year on the Medieval Farm

What did medieval peasants do on a farm? Some documents from the period offer insights into the agricultural activities throughout the year. One of these works was the Liber ruralium commodorum, written by Pietro de’ Crescenzi around 1304-09. This treatise about agriculture offered advice on all kinds of things to be done on the medieval farm, ranging from beekeeping to winemaking, and includes a chapter detailing a monthly calendar of tasks.

This work became very popular in the later Middle Ages, with numerous manuscripts and print versions coming out. These illustrations, from a manuscript made around 1475, show the ‘Labours of the Months’ that medieval peasants did around the farm during a typical year.

Each spring would see the medieval farmers plant their fields and prepare their own gardens, as well as collect the wool from sheep. Generally the work was somewhat easier during these months, but would get busier in June when hay would need to be harvested, dried and stored. Afterwards, the harvesting of the field crops would see the medieval farm at its most active, with extra labour often being hired. Once the crop had been harvested and prepared, the farmers would return to the fields to plant new crops for the following year.

As the autumn moved into winter, work on the farm decreased but some of the outstanding chores could including repairing buildings, gathering firewood and bringing the animals in from the fields. During the winter months the farmer might also kill and eat some of his livestock for food, and also to preserve what hay had been stored.