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Explorers brought new foods to England. The first turkey was brought over in 1525 and Walter Raleigh introduced potatoes in 1586. Tomatoes and peppers were also new. Church rules said that no meat was to be eaten on Friday, Saturday or in Lent. Fish had to be eaten on a Friday. Vegetables were considered to be the food of the poor, which they were. In the morning, poor people might have had bread and cheese and onions. They only had one cooked meal a day. This was often pottage which was a sort of soup. They mixed grain with water and added vegetables and (if they could afford it) strips of meat. Everyone would eat lots of bread but the rich made bread from fine white flour while the poor used barley or rye. In those days the seasons dictated what foods people ate, especially fruit, usually pears, apples and plums and vegetables, cabbage and onions. Chickens only laid when days got longer unlike now when we use artificial light. The rich also liked sugary foods. Sugar canes were grown in the Americas, then cut and squashed. The juice was boiled and crystallised and made into cones to be sent to England. Marzipan desserts were very popular. Poor people still used honey to sweeten things. Fruit was preserved in syrup for winter use. The first orange arrived in about 1540. Before that there was no word for that colour. At this time chocolate was only a hot drink. The main drink was ale for the poor or wine or sherry for the rich. People ate with knives, spoons and fingers; no forks.
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