Daily Life of a Peasant in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages - Lords and Ladies

Daily Life of a Peasant in the Middle Ages
The daily life of a peasant in the Middle ages was hard. Medieval Serfs had to labor on the lord's land for two or three days each week, and at specially busy seasons, such as ploughing and harvesting.

The daily life of a peasant in the Middle Ages can be described as follows:

The daily life of a peasant started at started in the summer as early as 3am

A peasant would start with breakfast, usually of pottage
Work in the fields or on the land started by dawn and the daily life of a peasant included the following common tasks
Reaping - To cut crops for harvest with a scythe, sickle, or reaper.
Sowing - the process of planting seeds
Ploughing - To break and turn over earth with a plough to form a furrow
Binding and Thatching
Haymaking - cutting grass and curing it for hay.
Threshing - To beat the stems and husks of plants to separate the grains or seeds from the straw.
Hedging - creating boundaries
Outside work finished at dusk, working hours were therefore longer during the summer months
Peasants made some of their own tools and utensils using wood, leather and the horns from cattle
Women generally ate when her husband and children had finished and had little leisure time

Life in the Middle Ages

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