Climate 200 years ago: Pineapples, peaches and grapes on the Goncharovs estate

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

No matter how hard the falsifiers of history try to hide from us the climate change towards a colder snap in the second half of the 19th century, all their efforts are similar to patching up Trishka's caftan: they pushed their elbows on the sleeve, cut the hem and extended the sleeves, but the caftan itself became scanty, shorter than a camisole. The article talks about growing a variety of thermophilic fruits in a greenhouse in mass quantities to provide good food for Russian landowners all year round, even in fierce winter, but they do not tell what energy the greenhouses were heated with, assuming that the climate in those years was the same, like now. There were pineapples, grapes, peaches, and lemons - but they were not grown in a greenhouse. The climate in the territory of modern Russia was much warmer, all these fruits grew in open ground, under the warm sun. Therefore, numerous varieties of grapes were grown and a wide variety of wines were made from them, there was no need to import them from different countries of the world.

How the Goncharov family grew pineapples on their estate

Poet Alexander Pushkin left memories of the gastronomy of his father-in-law Goncharov's estate.

The landlord's diet included tropical and thermophilic fruits - pineapples, lemons, grapes, peaches, etc. Moreover, they were all grown in the Goncharovs' greenhouses. Other than that, their table was not overly exquisite, with the exception of French wines - they had a whole cellar.

The poet came to the estate of Natalia Goncharova's parents, the Linen Factory (located on the territory of the modern Kaluga region) in 1830 and 1834. After these trips, there were records of Pushkin's diet, by which one can judge the economic activities of the landowners (not only the Goncharovs, but others as well). This is described in the article “What did A. S. Pushkin in the estate of the Goncharov family ", in the magazine" Rodina ", No. 8, 2016.

It is mentioned that Pushkin ate peaches and pineapples on the estate. Where are they from on the Kaluga land?

Pineapples and peaches were not uncommon on the tables of noblemen of that era. Martha Wilmot, an Irish traveler and memoirist, recalled: "Dinners serving all kinds of delicacies, the fruits of the joint labor of nature and man: fresh grapes, pineapples, asparagus, peaches, plums." And the described lunch took place in winter, in Moscow, in a 26-degree frost. Her sister, Catherine Wilmot, explained: “Greenhouses are essential here. There are a great many of them in Moscow, and they reach very large sizes: I had to walk between rows of pineapple trees - in each row there were a hundred palms in tubs."

The Linen Factory also had a greenhouse, where pineapples, apricots, grapes, lemons and peaches were grown, served on the table and sent to make jam. The scale at which exotic fruits were grown on the estate is impressive. For example, in May-June 1839 alone, 65 pineapples ripened in the greenhouse. During the same two months, 243 peaches and about five hundred plums were removed from the trees in the Goncharovs' greenhouse, which were subject to careful accounting and were recorded in the economic books one by one.

S. Geichenko, a writer and Pushkin scholar, keeper of the Pushkin reserve "Mikhailovskoye", in his book "Near the Lukomorye" quoted the words of Pushkin's close friend P. Vyazemsky about him: comprehended the secrets of the art of cooking; but on other things he was a terrible glutton. I remember how he ate twenty peaches bought in Torzhok in almost one breath on the way. " And in May 1830, and in August 1834, the poet in the Linen Factory also expected his favorite fruits, and in fair quantities.

Also on the estate there was a large production of jam - the main delicacy of those years.

Sugar was valued among the landowners in the early 19th century. especially. It was rare and expensive. Sugar made up a very noticeable item of economic expenses. On average, the Goncharovs spent more than 600 rubles per year on the purchase of sugar, while the cost of the rest of the food purchased on the market did not exceed 1,000 rubles per year.

During the year, the Goncharov estate produced an average of 8 poods of jam (about 130 kg). In the 1830s, at least twelve varieties were served on the Goncharovs' table: strawberry, white raspberry and red raspberry, cherry, red, black and white currant, pear, plum, gooseberry, peach, apricot and pineapple.

The estate produced up to 80% of all food consumed by the masters. For the rest we went to the market in Kaluga. Expensive fish were purchased: pike perch, beluga, navaga, sardines, sturgeon, black and pressed caviar and a lot of salted fish and corned beef for the "yard people". Purchased Swiss cheese, tea, coffee, butter, almonds, spices.

Fish was generally a staple protein product. It was found a lot and was specially grown in the reservoirs of the Polotnyany plant - pike, crucian carp, chub, burbot, perch, bream, ide. They made soup from it, fried it, baked it.

Here is a typical Goncharovs' menu for the whole day.

February 18. Hot fish soup, pies, cold vinaigrette, sturgeon with sauce, hot bream, dessert - sweet pie.

February 19. Hot cabbage soup, pies, cold beluga, botvinya, sauce, cutlets, fried bream, for sweets - levashniki (small pies with berries, fried in oil).

February 20th. Lean: cabbage soup, pies, cold beluga, saute sauce, lean pancakes, milk porridge. Modest: Cossack soup, cold sturgeon with sauce, pasta, for sweets - almond cake.

The Goncharov family's daily menu was relatively modest. But the wine cellar could boast of an abundance of the finest wines from all over the world. Champagne red and white, Burgundy red and white, Madeira, medoc, sauternes, château lafite, port, Rhine and Hungarian, chabri and cognac, rum and graves - more than twenty names in total. And that's not counting homemade liqueurs and liqueurs.

What was served to the table in May 1830, when the poet came to the family of his bride? Usually, from 30 to 50 bottles of wine were served to the table for family and guests a month. But if you carefully calculate how much wine was taken from the warehouse in May 1830, it turns out that 86 bottles were served at the table during that month. And the greatest amount of wine was served Bordeaux. This fact may indicate that in May 1830 at the Linen Factory there was a celebration timed to coincide with Pushkin's visit, and besides, on his birthday.

A strong economy provided the family with everything necessary, and if it were not for the reckless actions of Natalya Nikolaevna's grandfather, the economy would bring a decent income and serve as a reliable haven. “My God,” Pushkin wrote to his wife in June 1834, “if the factories were mine, they wouldn't have lured me to Petersburg even with a Moscow roll. I would live as a master. Wow, if only I could get away to clean air. It was the calm, homely world of the Russian landowner, the world to which Pushkin aspired all his mature years, but was never able to achieve it.