The dairy lasts till St Andrew

30 November · England

No longer kept

The housewife’s dairy season ran from the beginning of April until St Andrew’s Day. Tusser left it to the husband to provide a good milch cow and pasture, and to the wife to manage the rest. He went on to warn against the careless housewife who let others make her cheese.

From April beginning, till Andrew be past, / so long with good huswife, hir dairie doth last.

From Tusser's Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, p. 106. Read the original

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Folklore from the old calendars

Squirrel hunting on St Andrew’s Day No longer kept KentOn St Andrew's Day the labourers of Eastling and the neighbouring Kent parishes gathered with guns, poles and clubs and spent most of the day roaming the woods with loud shouting.
St Andrew’s Day Still kept ScotlandSt Andrew has been the patron saint of Scotland from time out of mind, after the legend that St Rule brought his relics to the coast of Fife, where the city of St Andrews grew up.
Sheep’s heads for St Andrew No longer kept LondonSinged sheep's heads, an old homely dish of Scotland, were carried in the procession of the Scots in London on St Andrew's Day.
Dogs barking on St Andrew’s night Lore and belief WalesWelsh girls who wanted to know where their future husbands would come from listened on St Andrew's night for the direction in which the dogs barked.

The dairy lasts till St Andrew

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