Flavors

In Rio Douro, the 1758 account distinguishes the crops grown near the rivers from those grown in the hills. It associates the former with milhão, wine, chestnuts and acorns, and the latter with rye. The landscape also helps us understand the pantry.

In describing the riverbanks, the parish priest mentions fields with oaks and vines and, where there were no fields, heather scrub. The same document portrays cold, windy mountains with snow in winter. These are historical descriptions that help connect crops and terrain; they are not a current agricultural or climate survey.

In 1758, the vicar of Vila Nune named wine as the most abundant product, but said almost all residents bought bread. There was enough olive oil for the population and little surplus of chestnuts. The table therefore depended on purchases as well as harvests.

In the same account, the priest described land in a small valley and on descending hillsides. An abundance of one product did not mean people grew everything they ate. The document allows that comparison, but does not say where bread was bought or how much it cost.

The parish priest’s 1758 account lists milho-alvo, milhão and rye, saying they were produced in similar proportions. It also mentions some wine and few chestnuts. This is the agricultural picture he left in writing, not a description of present-day harvests.

And where was the grain processed? In the same account, António Alves Teixeira describes mills on the parish’s two watercourses and farmers taking grain there. The document links the list of crops to milling, although it gives no recipes or breakdown of how each grain was used for food or other purposes. The date, 22 May 1758, marks the moment of the account: the proportions given are the vicar’s assessment, not a weighing of a harvest.

In 1758, the parish priest of São Nicolau distinguishes rye, milho-alvo and milhão among the crops. He adds wine, olive oil, chestnuts and other fruits, describing production intended to support the farmers. When discussing fields in the hills, he particularly highlights rye. The variety of words invites us to read past agriculture without reducing all grains to a single crop.

The account places fields in lower areas between the hills separating settlements. Water was part of this arrangement: it mentions mills, weirs and channels serving fields and estates. Farming was not just a matter of choosing a seed; it also depended on terrain and access to water.

For draught animals, farmers used the hills during part of the year because the fields lacked grazing, bringing them in at night. Read together, these passages show fields, hills, animals and water as parts of the same rural life. They are the priest’s observations from 1758, not production quantities or present-day farming rules.