Food of the Eastern Slavs in ancient Rus'. Living food of ancient Rus'

The ancient Slavs, like many peoples of that time, believed that many diseases arise from improper consumption of food. Therefore, their diet consisted of proper dishes containing carefully selected products. The diet consisted of both meat and mostly plant foods. After all, in those days, forests and fields were rich in herbs, berries, and plants. Note that not only berries, for example, but also leaves were used as food (tasty and no less healthy decoctions were brewed from them). The housewives prepared dishes that many today's nutritionists would envy - their food gave strength and energy and supplied the body of their household with the most useful substances. What did the ancient Slavs eat? Excavations on the territory of ancient cities helped answer this question. The food of the ancient Slavs consisted of cereals: millet, wheat, rye, barley, buckwheat and oats. From meat, the Slavs were not only farmers, but also good hunters and cattle breeders. The grains were ground into flour or simply consumed soaked or roasted. Housewives also cooked porridge with vegetable oil. Unleavened flatbread was baked from flour, and a little later, kvass bread appeared in the food of the Slavs. Women baked the first bread products (loaves and rolls) for weddings or other important events. A little later, pies with a wide variety of fillings appeared. They also cooked porridge with vegetable oil. In the summer they cooked tyurya - the ancestor of modern potatoes. And we still know about meat dishes or dishes prepared with meat. Stews, hare kidneys... fish baked over an open fire... in general, you will lick your fingers. What did the ancient Slavs eat? Legumes were sources of protein in the food of the ancient Slavs. Vegetables such as onions, garlic, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, and poppy seeds were also eaten. Turnips, cabbage, and pumpkin were especially loved. We feasted on melons. Fruit trees were also grown: apple, cherry and plum. The agriculture of our ancestors was slash-and-burn, since they lived in the middle of a dense forest. The Slavs cut down the part of the forest that was most suitable for growing crops. Trees and remaining stumps were burned. The ash obtained in this way was an excellent fertilizer. After a few years, the field was depleted, and farmers burned the forest again. In addition to agriculture, the ancient Slavs also mastered fishing. River and lake fish were dried in the sun, so they were stored longer. Despite the fact that our ancestors ate plant foods, they also engaged in cattle breeding. The Slavs believed that animals were intended for humans and fed him. Housewives made cottage cheese, sour cream, cheese, and butter from milk. The ancient Slavs also knew how to process wool. Animals were also used to transport human belongings. A special type of trade was beekeeping (“bort” - a hollow tree in which bees live, a “forest hive”), with the help of which honey and wax were obtained. But despite the fact that, first of all, the Slavs were farmers, cattle breeding also found its niche in the life of the ancient Slavs and firmly occupied it among agriculture, hunting and fishing. The ancient Slavic peoples kept domestic animals in large numbers. It was mostly cattle, of course. Although depending on the habitat, the types of livestock among the Slavic tribes varied. The following types of livestock were bred by the ancient Slavs: pigs, sheep, cows, horses. The latter were often found in herds in some regions of Russia. The central part of Russia was especially distinguished by the number of horses. Horses were used not only and not just as field labor, but also for transportation. In addition, horses, as part of the Slavic troops, formed cavalry. As for cattle (bulls and cows), they were also the draft force in field work, although in addition to this, cows provided milk. But pigs and sheep were especially common in the territory between the Vistula and Desna. There were a lot of oak forests and, accordingly, acorns. Therefore, it was easier to prepare feed for pigs than anywhere else. Special pens and barns were set up for livestock, in which they also spent the winter. And in the pastures, the shepherds watched over the cattle until they had enough to eat. God Veles also protected the Slavic herds, as the Slavs themselves believed. Cheese making and dairy farming, although not much mentioned in the chronicles, took place due to the fact that cows and goats provided milk. And cheese as a main product was attested already in the 10th century. In addition to animals, the ancient Slavs kept birds - these were chickens, ducks, geese, and also pigeons. The eggs laid by chickens were used to bake pies and bread, and poultry meat was one of the main foods of the Slavic peoples. If you look at domestic animals such as dogs or cats, their domestication occurred a very long time ago, so guarding the yard with dogs was very common. The cats walked on their own, wandering around the courtyards and warming themselves on the stove or near the chimney on the roof. The most popular drink of the ancient Slavs was fermented honey diluted with water. There is also evidence that in ancient times our ancestors made beer. The drink was brewed from both barley and oats. Changes in the diet of the Slavs occurred due to their movement to new, mountainous regions (Sudetes, Tatras, Carpathians and Balkans). This happened due to the fact that with a nomadic lifestyle it is difficult to obtain nutritious plant food.

The culinary traditions of the Russian people go back to ancient times. Even in pre-Christian Rus', when Maslenitsa was celebrated and bloodless sacrifices were made to the gods, such once ritual dishes as porridge, pancakes, spring larks and others were known. The Slavs were engaged in arable farming, growing rye, barley, wheat, oats, and millet. In the 10th century, according to travelers, the Slavs “sowed millet most of all.” During the harvest, they take millet grains in a ladle, raise them to the sky and say: “Lord, you who have given us food until now, give it to us now in abundance.”

A little later, the ritual porridge appears - kutia. It was prepared from grains with the addition of honey. The Slavs cooked ordinary porridge from flour, for which they ground grains, in water or milk. Bread was baked from flour - first unleavened flatbread, and then rolls and pies cooked with honey.
In Rus' they also cultivated garden crops. The most popular were cabbage, cucumbers, turnips, rutabaga and radish.

Ancient chronicles, telling about the fate of the state, wars and disasters, nevertheless sometimes mentioned facts, one way or another, related to food and nutrition.

Year 907 - in the chronicle, among the monthly taxes, wine, bread, meat, fish and vegetables are named (in those days fruits were also called vegetables).

Year 969 - Prince Svyatoslav says that the city of Pereyaslavl is conveniently located - “various vegetables” from Greece and honey from Russia converge there. Already at that time, the table of Russian princes and rich people was decorated with salted lemons, raisins, walnuts and other gifts from eastern countries, and honey was not only an everyday food product, but also an item of foreign trade.

Year 971 - during the famine, prices were so high that a horse's head cost half a hryvnia. It is interesting that the chronicler is not talking about beef or pork, but about horse meat. Although this happens during the forced wintering of Prince Svyatoslav’s troops on the way from Greece, the fact is still noteworthy. This means that there was no ban on eating horse meat in Rus', but it was probably consumed in exceptional cases. This is also evidenced by the relatively small proportion of horse bones in kitchen waste that archaeologists find.

Typically, to characterize what we would now call a “price index,” the cost of everyday products is indicated. Thus, another chronicler reports that in the lean year of 1215 in Novgorod “there was a cartload of turnips for two hryvnias.”

Year 996 - a feast is described at which there was a lot of meat from livestock and animals, and bread, meat, fish, vegetables, honey and kvass were carried around the city and distributed to the people. The squad grumbled that they had to eat with wooden spoons, and Prince Vladimir ordered to give them silver ones.

Year 997 - the prince ordered to collect a handful of oats, or wheat, or bran and ordered the wives to make “tsezh” and cook jelly.

So, bit by bit, we can collect in our chronicles a lot of interesting information about nutrition in the 10th-11th centuries. Describing the simplicity of the morals of Prince Svyatoslav (964), the chronicler says that the prince did not take carts with him on campaigns and did not cook meat, but thinly sliced ​​horse meat, beef or animals, ate them and baked them on coals.

Grilling over coals is the oldest method of heat treatment, characteristic of all peoples, and the Russians did not borrow it from the peoples of the Caucasus and the East, but have been used since ancient times. In historical literary monuments of the 15th-16th centuries, chickens, geese, and hares are often mentioned “spinned,” that is, on a spit. But still, the usual, most common way of preparing meat dishes was boiling and frying in large pieces in Russian ovens.

For a long time, cooking was a purely family affair. As a rule, they were led by the oldest woman in the family. Professional chefs first appeared at the princely courts, and then in monastery refectories.

Cooking in Rus' became a special specialty only in the 11th century, although mention of professional cooks is found in chronicles already in the 10th century.

The Laurentian Chronicle (1074) says that in the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery there was a whole kitchen with a large staff of monastic cooks. Prince Gleb had an “elder cook” named Torchin, the first Russian cook known to us.

The monastic cooks were very skilled. Prince Izyaslav, who visited the borders of the Russian land and saw a lot, especially loved the “meals” of the Pechersk monks. Even a description of the work of cooks of that era has been preserved:

“And he clothed himself in sackcloth, and a retinue of sackcloth, and began to create ugliness, and began to help the cooks, cooking for the brothers... And after matins he went to the cookhouse, and prepared fire, water, wood, and came to take the rest of the cooks from.”

During the times of Kievan Rus, cooks were in the service of princely courts and rich houses. Some of them even had several cooks. This is evidenced by the description of one of the houses of a rich man of the 12th century, which mentions many “sokachiy”, that is, cooks, “working and doing in the dark.”

Russian chefs sacredly preserved the traditions of folk cuisine, which served as the basis of their professional skills, as evidenced by the most ancient written monuments - “Domostroy” (XVI century), “Painting for the Royal Dishes” (1611-1613), table books of Patriarch Philaret and boyar Boris Ivanovich Morozov, monastic consumable books, etc. They often mention folk dishes - cabbage soup, fish soup, porridge, pies, pancakes, kulebyaki, pies, jelly, kvass, honey and others.

The nature of the preparation of Russian cuisine is largely determined by the peculiarities of the Russian oven, which, as a hearth, has faithfully served both ordinary city people, noble boyars, and townsman peasants for centuries. It is impossible to imagine Ancient Rus' both without log huts and without the famous Russian stove.

The Russian stove with its mouth was always turned towards the door, so that the smoke could exit the hut through the open doors into the vestibule in the shortest way. The stoves in the chicken huts were large; several dishes could be cooked in them at the same time. Despite the fact that the food sometimes smelled slightly of smoke, the Russian oven also had advantages: dishes cooked in it had a unique taste.

The peculiarities of the Russian oven determine such features of our cuisine as cooking dishes in pots and cast iron, frying fish and poultry in large pieces, an abundance of stewed and baked dishes, a wide range of baked goods - pies, krupeniki, pies, kulebyak, etc.

Since the 16th century, we can talk about the differences between monastic, rural and royal cuisine. In the monastery, vegetables, herbs, herbs and fruits played the main role. They formed the basis of the monks' diet, especially during fasting. Rural cuisine was less rich and varied, but also exquisite in its own way: at least 15 dishes were supposed to be served at a festive dinner. Lunch in general is the main meal in Rus'. In the old days, in more or less wealthy houses, on a long table made of strong oak planks, covered with an embroidered tablecloth, four dishes were served in turn: a cold appetizer, soup, a second course - usually meat in non-Lenten times - and pies or pies, which were eaten “for dessert.” ".
The snacks were very different, but the main ones were all kinds of salads - a mixture of finely chopped vegetables, usually boiled, to which you could add anything you wanted - from an apple to cold veal. From them came, in particular, the vinaigrette known to every Russian household. By the end of the 17th century, jelly (from the word “icy”, that is, cold) became popular: firstly, jelly must be cold, otherwise it will spread over the plate; secondly, it was usually eaten in winter, from Christmas to Epiphany, that is, in the coldest time of the year). At the same time, fish soup from various fish, corned beef and sausage appeared. Rassolnik amazed foreigners with its refined taste. Cabbage soup - remember the proverb: “Shchi and porridge are our food” - so, cabbage soup was served with mushrooms, fish, and pies.

The most popular drinks were berry and fruit juices with fruit drinks, as well as tinctures. Medovukha - a drink based on bee honey - was stronger, and then vodka appeared. But since ancient times, bread kvass has remained the main Russian drink. They made it with everything - from raisins to mint!

But at the feasts of the boyars, a huge number of dishes began to appear, reaching up to fifty. At the royal table, 150-200 were served. Lunches lasted 6-8 hours in a row and included almost a dozen breaks, each of which in turn consisted of two dozen dishes of the same name: a dozen varieties of fried game, salted fish, a dozen varieties of pancakes and pies.

Dishes were prepared from a whole animal or plant; all kinds of chopping, grinding and crushing of food were used only in fillings for pies. And even then very moderately. Fish for pies, for example, was not crushed, but layered.

At feasts, it was customary to drink honey before the feast, as an appetite stimulant, and after it, at the conclusion of the feast. The food was washed down with kvass and beer. This happened until the 15th century. In the 15th century, “bread wine”, i.e. vodka, appeared in Russia.

In the 17th century, the order of serving dishes began to change (this applies to a rich festive table). Now it consisted of 6-8 breaks and only one dish was served during each break:
- hot dishes (cabbage soup, soup, fish soup);
- cold (okroshka, botvinya, jelly, jellied fish, corned beef);
- roast (meat, poultry);
- vegetable (boiled or fried hot fish);
- unsweetened pies, kulebyaka;
- porridge (sometimes it was served with cabbage soup);
- cake (sweet pies, pies);
- snacks.

As for drinks, for example, the register of those released from Sytny Dvor to receive Polish ambassadors read: “The table in the outfit (from Sytny Dvor) was drinking about Vel. Sovereign: 1st supply: romanei, bastra, renskago, for purchase; 2nd feed: malmazei, mushkatelya, alkan, po kupku zh; 3rd serving: cypress, French wine, church wine, by purchase; red honey: 1 serving: cherry, raspberry, currant, ladleful; 2nd supply: 2 ladles of raspberry honey, 2 ladles of boyar honey; 3rd serving: 2 ladles of juniper honey, 2 ladles of wild cherry honey; white honey: 1 serving: 2 ladlefuls of molasses honey with cloves, a ladleful of ladle honey; 2nd feed: 2 ladles of honey with a musket, a ladle of honey ladle; 3rd serving: 2 ladles of honey with cardamom, 2 ladles of honey ladle. In total about the Great Sovereign: romanea, bastra, renskago, malmazei, muskately, alkana, cinnareia, French wine, church wine, 6 mugs each, and 6 glasses of vodka; red honeys: cherry, raspberry, currant, stone, bird cherry, juniper, scalded, by the ladle; white honey: ladle with nails, with musket, with cardamom, 8 mugs each, 9 mugs of sugar. About the boyars, and about the outskirts, and about the Duma people, and about ambassadors, and about the royal nobles: 2 mugs of aniseed vodka from Romanea, cinnamon, and 8 mugs of boyar vodka, 5 buckets of Romanea, 5 buckets of bastra, 2 buckets of Rensky, 5 buckets of alkane, 4 buckets of Fryazhsky wine, 3 buckets of church wine, 8 buckets of cherry wine, 4 buckets of raspberry honey...” And this is not the end of the register.

However, despite the difference in the number of dishes between the rich and the poor, the nature of the food retained national characteristics. The division occurred later, from the time of Peter the Great.

The formation of Russian cuisine was also influenced by cultural exchange with neighboring peoples. Immediately after the baptism of Slavic writing came to Rus' from Bulgaria, books began to be translated and copied, and not only liturgical ones. At this time, the Russian reader little by little gets acquainted with literary works, historical chronicles, natural scientific works, collections of sayings. In a very short historical period - during the time of Vladimir and especially his son Yaroslav - Rus' joined the culture of Bulgaria and Byzantium, Russian people actively assimilate the heritage of ancient Greece, Rome and the Ancient East. Along with the development of spiritual and cultural life, the introduction of church canons in Rus' significantly changed the nature of nutrition. Spices and seasonings came into use: black and allspice, cloves and ginger, overseas fruits - lemons, new vegetables - zucchini, sweet peppers, etc., new cereals - “Saracenic millet” (rice) and buckwheat.

Russian “cooks” borrowed many secrets from the Tsargrad masters who came to Muscovy - “skillful men, highly experienced not only in painting icons, but also in kitchen art.” Getting to know Greek-Byzantine cuisine turned out to be very useful for our cuisine.

The influence on Russian cuisine and our eastern neighbors - India was no less strong. China, Persia. The first Russian people who visited these countries brought back many new impressions from there. The Russians learned a lot from the famous book by Afanasy Nikitin “Walking across Three Seas” (1466-1472), which contains a description of products unknown in Rus' - dates, ginger, coconut, pepper, cinnamon. And the book by Vasily Gagara (written in 1634-1637) broadened the horizons of our compatriots. They learned about the products that were consumed by residents of the Caucasus and the Middle East. Here are his observations about how sugar production was carried out in the East: “Yes, in the same Egypt, reeds were born, and sugar is made from it. And they dig reeds near the sea... and when the reeds ripen, eat them as you would eat honey from a honeycomb.”

But our ancestors mastered not only practical cooking techniques. They also thought about the essence of the phenomena occurring. A long time ago they mastered the secrets of preparing yeast dough, which is mentioned in the chronicles: the monks of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra knew how to prepare custard bread that did not go stale for a long time.

Already in the XI-XII centuries. The Russians knew many rather complex techniques for preparing kvass, honey, and hops. They can be found in famous ancient Russian herbal books, as well as in various “lives”. Thus, kvass was widely known - rye, honey, apple, yashny, etc. Our ancestors were well versed not only in the intricacies of preparing various types of kvass, but also in the mechanism of action of sourdough and yeast, as evidenced by numerous instructions of the ancients:

“Pound and grind the wheat, and sow the flour, and knead the dough and leaven.” Or: “And they should ferment their kvass with sour grounds, not with yeast.” “Kvass separates copulation and pasting of dough and makes bread liquid and loaf.”

And other literary sources confirm the knowledge of Russian people in the field of food. Thus, the “Book of the verb cool vertograd” (XVII century) contains numerous discussions about the differences, for example, between cow’s milk and goat’s milk, hare’s meat and bear’s meat, etc. It is curious that even then the Russian people had an idea about the antiseptic properties of protein : “Egg whites are put into medicine... for sores and all sorts of subcutaneous wounds. It also helps with egg whites, soak them in hot water” (section “about chicken eggs”).

For a general idea of ​​nutrition in ancient times in Rus', here are several culinary recipes for popular dishes of that time.

Stuffed turnips. The turnips are washed, boiled in water until soft, cooled, the skin is scraped off, and the core is cut out. The removed pulp is finely chopped, minced meat is added and the turnip is filled with this filling. Sprinkle with grated cheese on top, pour over butter and bake.

Oatmeal jelly. Pour warm water over the cereal and leave it in a warm place for a day. Then strain and squeeze. Add salt and sugar to the resulting liquid and boil, stirring continuously, until thickened. Add milk to the hot jelly, stir, pour into greased plates, and refrigerate. When the jelly has hardened, cut it into portions and serve with cold boiled milk or yogurt.

"Peas in a block." The peas are completely boiled and pounded, the resulting puree is seasoned with salt and shaped (you can use molds, cups, etc., greased with oil). The formed pea puree is placed on a plate and poured with sunflower oil and fried onions, sprinkled with herbs.

Peasant bread soup. Fry small dry crusts of white bread in fat with finely chopped parsley and finely chopped onion, then add water, salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Stirring continuously, pour the mashed eggs into the soup in a thin stream. This soup, which tastes like meat, should be served immediately.

Sbiten-zhzhenka. To make the burnt sugar, heat the sugar in a spoon over low heat until a dark brown syrup forms. Dissolve honey in 4 glasses of water and boil for 20-25 minutes, then add spices and boil for another 5 minutes. Strain the resulting mixture through cheesecloth and add burnt liquid for color. Serve hot.

"Monastery Chicken" Chop the head of cabbage not very finely, put it in a clay pot, pour in eggs beaten with milk, add salt, cover with a frying pan and put in the oven. Cabbage is considered ready when it turns beige in color.

Plant food

Although there can thus be no talk of any vegetarianism among the pagan Slavs, their main food was cereals, legumes and vegetables. We will consider in more detail what the Slavs grew further in Chapter VIII. Here I want to limit myself to just listing the vegetarian dishes known to the Slavs at the end of the pagan period.

Cereals from which they were grown lively, or rye (rye) (Secale), wheat (Triticum), barley (j??ьmy) (Hordeum), oats (oats) (Avena) and most of all millet (millet)(Panicum miliaceum, P. italicum), the Slavs consumed them as food either in the form of soaked and roasted grains ( cereal, sweet, prazhmo), or in ground form, in the form of flour ( brashno), from which porridge is cooked in water or milk, or, finally, in the form of bread, which is baked on a hearth, hot stones or in an oven. As some Russian teachings of the first period of Christianity indicate, a wide variety of products were baked from flour, bearing various names, but the main, most common, apparently, were rolls And pies, prepared with honey from good flour, as well as simple unleavened (unleavened) or sour bread. A honey roll the size of a human being was offered to the idol of the god Svyatovit in Arkon; about the rolls that were baked in the monastery of St. George in Prague, mentioned by Kozma of Prague under 1055; in the Old Russian “Life of St. Feodosia" also speaks of rolls smeared with honey and sprinkled with poppy seeds. These obviously include ancient wedding Korowai, which we have already mentioned above.

Initially, bread was most likely made in the form of unleavened (unleavened) flat cakes, which were baked in the ashes of a hearth or on hot stones. Although this is not directly attested by sources, based on the general level of Slavic culture, there is no doubt that the Slavs knew bread and baked it from time immemorial. And if at the same time the term that denoted bread at the beginning of our era, namely the common Slavic bread, was not actually Slavic, but of Germanic origin - from laib, Gothic hlaifs, then this is rather new evidence of close ties with the Germans, from which, however, one cannot conclude that the Slavs did not know bread before communicating with the Germans, in particular with the Goths, in the 3rd and 4th centuries. I believe that here we are again faced with the fact that the Slavs adopted from the Germans a new name for an object that was already familiar to them before. Such borrowing could most likely have taken place for the reason that they saw in German bread something different from their bread, either in shape or in the method of production; perhaps it was rye bread, fermented and, moreover, well baked in the oven. Thus, this is, in all likelihood, only a replacement for some more ancient local name, similar to what we see in the borrowing of Germanic words Bowl(misa), dish(hut, hut), daska, arrow, vegetable, for which the Slavs undoubtedly had their own more ancient names.

As for kvass, it was known to the Slavs already at the end of the pagan period. There is a message dating back to the end of the 10th century that in Belgorod women cooked “jelly” from oats and wheat; in the 11th century it was reported that bread mixed with kvass was baked in Kyiv, and in the 12th century rye kvass was also mentioned there. Bread was most often baked from rye or barley, and in difficult times from bran, chaff and quinoa (Atriplex). In Rus', only girls and women kneaded and baked bread.

Along with the consumption of the mentioned cereals, the ancient Slavs, according to surviving news, also prepared various stews ( ear- made from meat, dill- from vegetables, both attested in Rus' in the 11th century). Used from legumes peas (damn), lentils (l??ta, chočovica, sočovica, sochivo) and beans ( bob), from vegetables - onion And garlic (onion, garlic, garlic), carrots, radishes, cucumbers, poppy seeds. With the exception of garlic, all the latter names are borrowed from German and Greek. This indicates that, in all likelihood, along with the term, vegetables themselves were brought to the Slavs from other countries. But all these borrowings took place before the 10th century, since the names of these vegetables are common Slavic and were partially attested already in the 10th–11th centuries. Other Slavic names for vegetables are also ancient: Melon (Cucumis), Pumpkin (Lagenaria), Turnip And cabbage (Brassica)) And brshch (Heracleum sphondylium), from which a soup was prepared, later known as Russian borscht.

For a long time, the Slavs ate only uncultivated fruits (species Pirus, Prunus And Trapa), since they began to grow different varieties of trees only under Roman and Germanic influence. The collective name for cultivated fruits passed from the Germans to the Slavs - vegetable[from Old Church Slavonic ovotje(ovotje)]. However, some types of fruits have ancient local Indo-European names: apple (Pirus), plum (Prunus), pear (Pirus communis), as well as cherries And cherry (cherry, cherry - Prunus avium, Pr. cerasus), walnut (Juglans) And peach), were probably transported from Asia long ago by the Iranians, Greeks and Romans. As Ibn Yaqub testifies, in the 10th century the Slavs already had many fruit trees, and Ebbon mentions a sacred walnut tree at the pagan sanctuary in Shchetin.

Whether the Slavs, like the Germans, also ate fried acorns is not precisely attested, but it is very likely. V.V. Khvoiko found them at the Pasteur settlement near Chigirin in the Kiev region.

Cooking for a simple peasant, of course, was not difficult. However, the boyars and princes, following the example of the western and southern courts, undoubtedly got themselves cooks who prepared their food more skillfully and prepared a large number of dishes. But seasonings that give food a more pleasant taste have been known to the common people since ancient times. It was first of all salt, which then served as a subject of lively trade in the Slavic lands (see about it in Chapter IX). Then oil, churned from milk, as well as vegetable oil from poppy and flaxseeds. At the same time, the Slavs learned about olive oil, vinegar and various spices later, during the 1st millennium AD. e., mainly due to trade with Italy and Byzantium. If the Byzantine military leader Priscus, along with various gifts, sent spices (black pepper, Indian leaves, cinnamon and other spices) to the Transdanubian Avars, then we can most likely assume that the Slavic princes also received the same spices. When eating, they used spoons and knives, which is proven by a number of finds in Slavic graves. Spoon finds ( liar) are rare in graves, since they were most often made of clay or wood, but there are many finds of various forms of knives. It is quite common to find knives in the shape of our modern pocket knives. Some finds in Slavic graves, as well as a message in the Kyiv Chronicle under the year 996, indicate that in the 10th century metal spoons were also used at the princely court. Prince Vladimir’s squad was dissatisfied with the wooden spoons, and then the prince ordered silver spoons to be forged, saying: “I won’t find a squad with silver and gold, but with a squad I will get silver and gold.” They usually ate sitting on the ground around large bowls or sitting around low tables, which they still eat on in the Balkans, for example in Macedonia. At festive feasts, especially princely ones (the famous feast from piti), cooking and table setting were, of course, different, richer, and at such feasts they sat at tables on benches or armchairs. Among the Pomeranians, in each house a table was prepared for guests, covered with a white tablecloth. Together with the prince, his squad sat at the table, and the Russian prince, according to Ibn Fadlan, had forty girls - mistresses. It is also interesting to report that later, when some of the princes converted to Christianity, at a feast given by such a prince, the boyars and princes who remained pagans did not have the right to sit with him at the same table and had to sit on the ground in front of the doors, as the ancient chronicler says , "according to pagan custom."

Ancient news speaks in comparatively more detail about what the Slavs drank than about what they ate. All news agrees that the main drink of the Slavs was honey boiled in water and fermented - in Slavic honey, later also called honey. Already in 448, the Slavs living in Hungary, when the embassy of Theodosius II with the rhetorician Priscus passed through their villages, treated the imperial ambassadors with honey (?????). That honey is the main drink of the Slavs was later confirmed by Masudi, Ibn Ruste, the Persian geographer and Gardizi, who also reported that each Slavic owner had 100 wooden vessels of this drink in his stock. From ancient Russian news we know that they drank honey at funeral feasts, that it was a sacrificial drink of pagan demons, and Prince Vladimir not only had barrels of honey in the princely cellars in Belgorod and Kiev, but even happily escaped the trap set for him by the Pechenegs (996 ), to commemorate this event, brewed 300 pots of honey to treat the guests he invited. About the Western Slavs in the biography of Bishop Otto, Gerbord reports: “vinum autem pes habent, sed melleis poculis et cerevisia curatissime confecta vina superant falernica.”

As in neighboring Lithuania and Germany, so among the Slavs, the appearance of a honey drink in the presence of a large number of forests full of bees and bees was quite natural. Honey and wax have long been one of the main exports from the Carpathian lands, and therefore it is not surprising that we find honey among the products with which the conquered Slavs had to pay tribute to their German rulers. This is confirmed by documents from the 10th century. The honey was boiled in water and then fermented for about 14 days. This drink, however, did not last long, and it had to be drunk soon after its preparation.

Along with honey, beer, a drink made from barley or oats, has also been mentioned since the 10th century.

So, for example, beer is mentioned in the above-mentioned charter of Otto from 949 among the items included in the tribute collected from the Slavs (tres medones, duasque cerevisias), and in the modern Slavic legend about St. Vaclav, when Boleslav offers his brother “beer”. Perhaps the name refers to this drink ol, tin, which was either adopted from the German language, or was an ancient Indo-European name. But the name is undoubtedly Slavic kvass, attested in Rus' already in the time of Vladimir. It is made in Russia from various flours or baked bread and malt. The use of hops in brewing beer is attested among the Slavs, first among the Czechs, and from the 11th century in Rus'. Old Slavic word hop considered to be borrowed from the Finns or Turkic-Tatars. In contrast, the term sweet(malt) is ancient Slavic. Preparation kumiss from mare's milk and its use as a drink among the Slavs is not attested; only Ibn Rust mentions him when he writes about the rulers of one Slavic tribe in Rus'. Wine was most likely brought to the Slavs from Italy, across the Danube, through the Germans, since the common Slavic term wine- of Latin origin, and the wine trade has been mentioned in Germany since the 1st century. BC BC The Slavs became acquainted with wine and probably drank it already in the first half of the first millennium AD. e., however, the production of wine in the western and eastern Slavic lands is attested only in the 11th and 12th centuries, when Vineal and Vinitores were first mentioned in Czech (from 1057) and Polish (from the 12th century) charters. Only to the south of the Danube, which is quite natural, we know of vineyards among the Slavs that were cultivated even before the 9th century.

The Slavs, like other peoples around them - the Scythians, Celts, Prussians and Germans - drank a lot, especially at festive feasts, the ancient Slavic name for which feast comes from the word piti. Particularly large feasts were the funeral ones, the so-called funeral feasts (see the next chapter about them), at which the Slavs drank to excess. Ibn Fadlan already mentions that the Russians drink day and night, and sometimes even die with a cup in their hands, and Prince Vladimir confirms the same in the following words: “Russians have joy in drinking, we cannot exist without it.”

We know little about how the Slavs drank and about the nature of Slavic feasts, less than the traditions have preserved for us about German feasts. It is only known that when the Slavs drank wine, they sang, trying to outdo each other - “who will throw the best feast”, and that cups or horns (tury, bull) passed from hand to hand until the guests were able drink. Among the Polabian Slavs, guests shouted something and uttered some spells addressed to both the good and evil gods. A number of similar references to “filling the demonic cup” during pagan festivals are also found in Russian church teachings, and if, according to the ancient legend of the 10th century, St. Wenceslas raised a cup in honor of St. Michael, then this is nothing more than an echo of ancient toasts in honor of pagan demons, whose place has now been taken by the archangel. The same thing is represented by the singing of troparions in ancient Rus', as well as the emptying of the chalice after each hymn.

Participation in drinking parties was the right of not only men, but also women, and the fact that women also knew how to drink is evidenced by the news of one Slavic princess in northern Hungary, who rode like a warrior and drank to excess. It is not surprising that the voices of the first Christian priests rose against Slavic drunkenness. Prince Vladimir Monomakh warns against excessive drunkenness, and the blessed Fedosy of Pechersk exclaims in his Instruction to the people: “Woe to those who remain drunken!”

The lands in which the Slavs lived in the 10th century abundantly provided them with the food necessary for existence and preservation of health. They did not feel lacking even in exquisite dishes.
For the meat table, the Slavs found in vast forests a huge variety of animals, primarily from the deer family. In addition, the economy of the Slavs in the 10th century had already developed so much that they could raise herds of small and large livestock, mainly sheep and pigs. All this gave them more than enough meat food, although they killed cattle from their own herds only in exceptional cases.
J. Peisker, who tried to prove, based on the message of Pseudo-Caesar dating back to the 6th century, that the Slavs until the 10th century were vegetarians who did not have livestock, ended up on a completely wrong path. Firstly, the message of Pseudo-Caesar of Nazianza is completely unreliable in nature, and besides, Peisker translated it incorrectly. Secondly, the presence of livestock among the Slavs and the hunting of forest and steppe animals, as well as the consumption of animal meat by the Slavs, is confirmed by a large amount of data. There are also several direct reports that the Slavs ate meat in the 10th century, probably not only the boyars or princes, but also the common people. It is also necessary to recognize that the Slavs knew and ate milk (milk), sweet and sour, curdled, the so-called tvarog and cheese (cheese), which, regardless of their origin, is evidenced by the ancient and common Slavic nature of these words, as well as several direct, dating back to the X-XII centuries, news about the western, northern and eastern Slavic lands. From them we judge that the Slavs paid tribute to the German Empire with cheese, and that in Russia, where cheese was a common food, it was sacrificed to idols in compliance with the appropriate rituals and eaten along with milk at home festivities. Thus, Přemysl, according to ancient tradition, also ate bread and cheese when Libuši's ambassadors called him to the Czech throne. In addition, based on the same sources, it can be seen that the tithe in many cases was also paid in a certain number of piglets, chickens, roosters and geese, which again indicates that the Slavs raised and ate domestic animals. True, Ibrahim ibn Yaqub says that the Slavs in the West avoided eating chickens, fearing diseases that could happen because of them, but at the same time he points out that they ate beef, geese and black grouse, and Russian church teachings, in turn, They mention the consumption of eggs, traces of which are sometimes found in graves.
All of the above is proven by a variety of evidence dating back to the 10th and 11th centuries, which I cannot cite here; So, if the Slavs already ate meat at the beginning of the new era, then there is no doubt that it was not Christianity that brought its use with it, since meat served the Slavs as food even before they accepted the new faith. The evidence provided by archeology is also very numerous, since in the graves of the 10th-12th centuries we quite often find the remains of funeral feasts held at the grave - the bones of various domestic and wild animals, mainly the bones of sheep, pigs and, in smaller quantities, the bones of cattle , chickens and roosters.
Everything that is said here about the consumption of animal and bird meat equally applies to the consumption of fish, which abounded in the Slavic countries. Mentions of the consumption of fish and caviar in Russia since the 11th century are quite numerous.
Although there can thus be no talk of any vegetarianism among the pagan Slavs, their main food was cereals, legumes and vegetables.
Cereals, from which rye (rye) (Secale), wheat (Triticum), barley (jecьmy) (Hordeum), oats (oats) (Avena) and most of all millet (Panicum tiliaseit, P) were grown . italicum), the Slavs consumed it as food either in the form of soaked and roasted grains (cereals, sweets, prazhmo), or in ground form, in the form of flour (brashno), from which porridge is cooked in water or milk, or, finally, in the form of bread that was baked on a hearth, hot stones or in an oven. As some Russian teachings of the first period of Christianity indicate, a wide variety of products were baked from flour, bearing various names, but the main, most common, apparently, were rolls and pies prepared with honey from good flour, as well as simple unleavened (unleavened) or sour bread. A honey roll the size of a human being was offered to the idol of the god Svyatovit in Arkon; about the rolls that were baked in the monastery of St. George in Prague, mentioned by Kozma of Prague under 1055; the Old Russian "Life of St. Theodosius" also speaks of kalachi smeared with honey and sprinkled with poppy seeds. These obviously include the ancient wedding korowai, which we have already mentioned above.
Initially, bread was most likely made in the form of unleavened (unleavened) flat cakes, which were baked in the ashes of a hearth or on hot stones. Although this is not directly attested by sources, based on the general level of Slavic culture, there is no doubt that the Slavs knew bread and baked it from time immemorial. And if at the same time the term that denoted bread at the beginning of our era, namely the common Slavic bread, was not of Slavic proper, but of Germanic origin - from Iaib, Gothic hlaifs, then this is rather new evidence of close ties with the Germans, from which, however, it cannot be concluded to conclude that the Slavs, before communicating with the Germans, in particular with the Goths, did not know bread in the 3rd and 4th centuries. I believe that here we are again faced with the fact that the Slavs adopted from the Germans a new name for an object that was already familiar to them before. Such borrowing could most likely have taken place for the reason that they saw in German bread something different from their bread, either in shape or in the method of production; perhaps it was rye bread, fermented and, moreover, well baked in the oven. Thus, this, in all likelihood, is just a replacement for some more ancient local name, similar to what we see in the borrowing of the German words bowl (misa), dish, khizh (hut, hut), dask, arrow, vegetable, for which the Slavs undoubtedly had their own more ancient names.
As for kvass, it was known to the Slavs already at the end of the pagan period. There is a message dating back to the end of the 10th century that in Belgorod women cooked “jelly” from oats and wheat; in the 11th century it was reported that bread mixed with kvass was baked in Kyiv, and in the 12th century rye kvass was also mentioned there. Bread was most often baked from rye or barley, and in difficult times from bran, chaff and quinoa (Atriplex). In Rus', only girls and women kneaded and baked bread.
Along with the use of the mentioned cereals, the ancient Slavs, according to surviving news, also prepared various stews (ukha - made from meat, dill - from vegetables, both attested in Rus' in the 11th century]. Peas (grakh), lentils (lesta, chochovica, sochovica, sochivo) and beans (bob), from vegetables - onions and garlic (luk, garlic, garlic), carrots, radishes, cucumbers, poppy seeds. With the exception of garlic, all the latter names are borrowed from German and Greek. This indicates to the fact that, in all likelihood, along with the term, vegetables themselves were brought to the Slavs from other countries.But all these borrowings took place before the 10th century, since the names of these vegetables are common Slavic and were partially attested already in the 10th-11th centuries Other Slavic names for vegetables are also ancient: melon (Cucumis), pumpkin (Lagenaria), turnip and cabbage (Brassika) and brshch (Heracleum sphondylium), from which a soup was prepared, later known as Russian borscht.

For a long time, the Slavs ate only uncultivated fruits (species of Pirus, Prunus and Trapa), since they began to grow various varieties of trees only under Roman and Germanic influence. The collective name for cultivated fruits was passed from the Germans to the Slavs - vegetable [from the Old Slavic ovotje (ovotje)]. At the same time, some types of fruits have ancient local Indo-European names: ablko (Pirus), plum (Prunus), pear (Pirus communis), as well as cherries and cherries (cherry - Prunus avium, Pr. cerasus), nut (Juglans ) and peach (persk) were probably transported from Asia long ago by the Iranians, Greeks and Romans. As Ibn Yaqub testifies, in the 10th century the Slavs already had many fruit trees, and Ebbon mentions a sacred walnut tree at the pagan sanctuary in Shchetin.
Whether the Slavs, like the Germans, also ate fried acorns is not precisely attested, but it is very likely. V.V. Khvoiko found them at the Pasteur settlement near Chigirin in the Kiev region.
Cooking for a simple peasant, of course, was not difficult. However, the boyars and princes, following the example of the western and southern courts, undoubtedly got themselves cooks who prepared their food more skillfully and prepared a large number of dishes. But seasonings that give food a more pleasant taste have been known to the common people since ancient times. It was, first of all, salt, which then served as a subject of lively trade in the Slavic lands. Then butter, churned from milk, as well as vegetable oil from poppy seeds and flaxseeds. At the same time, the Slavs learned about olive oil, vinegar and various spices later, during the 1st millennium AD, mainly thanks to trade with Italy and Byzantium. If the Byzantine military leader Priscus, along with various gifts, sent spices (black pepper, Indian leaves, cinnamon and other spices) to the Transdanubian Avars, then we can most likely assume that the Slavic princes also received the same spices. When eating, they used spoons and knives, which is proven by a number of finds in Slavic graves. Findings of spoons (lizhitsa) in graves are rare, since they were most often made of clay or wood, but there are many finds of various forms of knives. It is quite common to find knives in the shape of our modern pocket knives. Some finds in Slavic graves, as well as a message in the Kyiv Chronicle under the year 996, indicate that in the 10th century metal spoons were also used at the princely court. Prince Vladimir's squad was dissatisfied with the wooden spoons, and then the prince ordered silver spoons to be forged, saying: " I won’t find a squad with silver and gold, but with a squad I will get silver and gold"They usually ate sitting on the ground around large bowls or sitting around low tables, which they still eat on in the Balkans, for example in Macedonia. At festive feasts, especially princely ones (the famous feast from piti), the preparation of dishes and table setting were, of course, others, richer, and sat at such feasts at tables on benches or armchairs. Among the Pomeranians, in each house a table was prepared for guests, covered with a white tablecloth. Together with the prince, his squad also sat at the table, and at the Russian prince, according to Ibn Fadlan, and forty girls - mistresses. It is also interesting to report that later, when some of the princes converted to Christianity, at a feast given by such a prince, the boyars and princes who remained pagans did not have the right to sit with him at the same table and had to sit on the ground in front of the doors, as the ancient chronicler says, “according to pagan custom.”
Ancient news speaks in comparatively more detail about what the Slavs drank than about what they ate. All news agrees that the main drink of the Slavs was honey boiled in water and fermented - honey in Slavic, later also called medovina. Already in 448, the Slavs living in Hungary, when the embassy of Theodosius II with the rhetorician Priscus passed through their villages, treated the imperial ambassadors with honey. That honey is the main drink among the Slavs was later confirmed by Masudi, Ibn Ruste, the Persian geographer and Gardizi, who also reported that each Slavic owner had 100 wooden vessels of this drink in his stock. From ancient Russian news we know that they drank honey at funeral feasts, that it was a sacrificial drink of pagan demons, and Prince Vladimir not only had barrels of honey in the princely cellars in Belgorod and Kiev, but even happily escaped the trap set for him by the Pechenegs (996 ), to commemorate this event, brewed 300 pots of honey to treat the guests he invited.
About the Western Slavs in the biography of Bishop Otto, Gerbord reports: " vinum autem pes habent, sed melleis poculis et cerevisia curatissime confecta vina superant falernica".
As in neighboring Lithuania and Germany, so among the Slavs, the appearance of a honey drink in the presence of a large number of forests full of bees and bees was quite natural. Honey and wax have long been one of the main exports from the Carpathian lands, and therefore it is not surprising that we find honey among the products with which the conquered Slavs had to pay tribute to their German rulers. This is confirmed by documents from the 10th century. The honey was boiled in water and then fermented for about 14 days. This drink, however, did not last long, and it had to be drunk soon after its preparation.
Along with honey, beer, a drink made from barley or oats, has also been mentioned since the 10th century.
So, for example, beer is mentioned in the above-mentioned charter of Otto from 949 among the items included in the tribute collected from the Slavs (tres medones, duasque cerevisias), and in the modern Slavic legend about St. Vaclav, when Boleslav offers his brother "beer". Perhaps this drink refers to the name ol, tin, which was either adopted from the German language or was an ancient Indo-European name. But the name kvass is undoubtedly Slavic, attested in Rus' already in the time of Vladimir. It is made in Russia from various flours or baked bread and malt. The use of hops in brewing beer is attested among the Slavs, first among the Czechs, and from the 11th century in Rus'. The ancient Slavic word hop is considered borrowed from the Finns or Turkic-Tatars. In contrast, the term sweet (malt) is ancient Slavic. The preparation of kumiss from mare's milk and its use as a drink among the Slavs is not attested; only Ibn Ruste mentions it when he writes about the rulers of one Slavic tribe in Rus'. Wine was most likely brought to the Slavs from Italy, across the Danube, through the Germans, since the common Slavic term wine is of Latin origin, and the wine trade has been mentioned in Germany since the 1st century. BC. The Slavs became acquainted with wine and probably drank it already in the first half of the 1st millennium AD, but the production of wine in the western and eastern Slavic lands is attested only in the 11th and 12th centuries, when in the Czech (from 1057) and Polish (from XII century) letters are mentioned for the first time by Vineal and Vinitores. Only to the south of the Danube, which is quite natural, we know of vineyards among the Slavs that were cultivated even before the 9th century.
The Slavs, like other peoples around them - the Scythians, Celts, Prussians and Germans - drank a lot, especially at festive feasts, the ancient Slavic name of which pir comes from the word drink. Particularly large feasts were funeral feasts, the so-called funeral feasts, at which the Slavs drank to excess. Ibn Fadlan already mentions that the Russians drink day and night, and sometimes even die with a cup in their hands, and Prince Vladimir confirms the same in the following words: " Rus' has joy to drink, we cannot live without it".

We know little about how the Slavs drank and about the nature of Slavic feasts, less than the traditions have preserved for us about German feasts. It is only known that when the Slavs drank wine, they sang, trying to outdo each other - “who will throw the best feast,” and that cups or horns (turya, bull) passed from hand to hand until the guests were able drink. Among the Polabian Slavs, guests shouted something and uttered some spells addressed to both the good and evil gods. A number of similar references to “filling the demonic cup” during pagan festivals are also found in Russian church teachings, and if, according to the ancient legend of the 10th century, St. Wenceslas raised a cup in honor of St. Michael, then this is nothing more than an echo of ancient toasts in honor of pagan demons, whose place has now been taken by the archangel. The same thing is represented by the singing of troparions in ancient Rus', as well as the emptying of the chalice after each hymn.
Participation in drinking parties was the right of not only men, but also women, and the fact that women also knew how to drink is evidenced by the news of one Slavic princess in northern Hungary, who rode like a warrior and drank to excess. It is not surprising that the voices of the first Christian priests rose against Slavic drunkenness. Prince Vladimir Monomakh warns against excessive drunkenness, and the blessed Fedosy of Pechersk exclaims in his Instruction to the people: “ Woe to those who are drunk!"

See Dlugosz, who at the beginning of his chronicle listed the wealth of the Polish lands.

Pseudocaes., Dialogue. 110 (Migne, Patr Gr. XXXVIII, 986). See "Ziv. st. Slov", I, 165.

See "Ziv. st. Slov", I, 166.

Ibid., 169.

J. Peisker's point of view, of course, is completely different. In his opinion, the Slavs did not raise livestock for their needs and only saw it among their German and Turkic-Tatar masters; of course, they also saw dairy farming based on livestock breeding. In his opinion, the Old Slavic milk (from melko) was adopted from the Germanic melca, and the word tvarog was borrowed again from some Turkic-Tatar language (cf. Dzhagatai turak, Turkic torak). However, such an interpretation is incorrect both in essence and from a linguistic point of view. Essentially, it is incorrect because in both cases, on the basis of borrowings from a foreign language (even if these words were actually borrowed), one cannot draw the conclusion to which Peisker came; from a linguistic point of view, it is erroneous because the fact of borrowing both words is seriously refuted by some researchers (Yagic, Janko, Bernecker, and partly Brückner). Mleko is, in all likelihood, an ancient Indo-European word that the Slavs preserved from the ancient era of Indo-European unity, and the word tvarog is interpreted by Yanko as actually Slavic, formed from the word create, that is, to crush curdled milk. The same interpretation was presented even before him by G. Gay.

It rather forbade them to use one hundred. See Ebbo, I. 12; Thietmar, IX (VIII), 2; Letter from Pope Zechariah, Mon. Germ. Epist., III, 370. Both churches also prohibited the consumption of blood.

"Ziv. st. Slov". I, 175.

See the evidence given in "Ziv. st. Slov", I, 178-181. Ibn Ruste writes in the 10th century. about the Slavs the following: “They sow millet most of all. During the harvest, they take millet grains in a ladle, raise them to the sky and say: “Lord, you who have until now supplied us with food, supply us with it now in abundance” ( A.Ya. Garkavi, op. cit., 265). The fact that millet was sown most of all is evidenced by a number of pieces of information. Millet, along with rye, wheat, barley and oats, is also attested by archaeological finds.

Porridge is an ancient common Slavic word. In the 11th century Ritual porridge appears in Rus', borrowed along with its name from the Greek ritual (kolivo, kutia). See "Ziv. st. Slov", I, 182. Both were used mainly at festivities in honor of the dead.

See Mansikka, Religion der Ostslaven, I. 184.

Saxo Gram. (ed. Holder), 566; Kosmas, II. 14; "The Life of St. Theodosius" (ed. Philaret), 134.

Laurentian Chronicle, 125 (PVL, I. 87). "The Life of St. Theodosius" (ed. Philaret), 150; Questions from Kirik, Savva and Ilya with answers from Niphon, Bishop of Novgorod and other hierarchical persons (1130-1156) Russian Historical Library, VI. 32. For other data, see "Ziv. st. Slov", I, 185

"Ziv. st. Slov", I, 187-189, 382. In the "Commandments of the Holy Father" the following are listed as the usual food of Russian monks of the 11th century: milk, cheese, eggs, fish, sochivo, peas with olive and poppy seed oil and meat for lunch or dinner (E.E. Golubinsky, History of the Russian Church, I, II ed., 531, 532, 546). Sochivo in ancient Rus' was also the collective name for all legumes. Polish hermits ate vegetables and only occasionally bread. They did not eat fish or meat at all, and legumes or millet only on holidays (Kosmas, II. 26 under 1004).

Among the Slavs, the first mention of eating sprouts as a healing food that raises the tone of the body, invigorates, increases endurance and resistance to adverse factors, and prevents premature aging, we find already in the Russian folk herbal book of the 17th century “Cool Wind City”.

Porridges, jelly were made from sprouted wheat grains, and they were added to fish soup. The legendary Hunza tribe, record holders for longevity (average age 120 years), along with their favorite food - apricots - uses wheat sprouts and other grains in their diet in the winter-spring season. Long-term and regular consumption of wheat sprouts regulates metabolism and has a general strengthening effect.

WHEAT SPROUTS:

Have a beneficial effect and gently coordinate the functioning of the body at any age; regulate and restore the correct functioning of the vital functions of the body; balance metabolism; increase immunity;
. stabilize and rejuvenate all systems of the body: nervous, endocrine, circulatory, lymphatic, digestive, respiratory, excretory, thermoregulatory, energy, musculoskeletal, reproductive, etc.;
. resolve various neoplasms: malignant and benign tumors, polyps, cysts, wen, fibroids, fibromas;
. gently, without wasting the body’s reserve forces, they cleanse the body of dead cells, toxins and waste products of cells, invading pathogenic pests, and even from field negative or non-organic formations; enrich the blood with oxygen, oxidizing various breakdown products, increase the body’s endurance to cold and oxygen deficiency (for example, when living in high mountains or during mountaineering); extinguish inflammatory processes;
. develop complete immunity to colds and various infections; normalize intestinal microflora; neutralize technogenic and biogenic pollutants: chemical poisons, radionuclides, heavy metal ions, iron oxides, enteroviruses - causative agents of polio, meningitis, hepatitis A, myocarditis, intestinal infections and other pathologies - that enter the body with air and food, water or arise in the body under the influence of adverse chemical and radiation factors; . remove cell waste products from the body - poisons, excess cholesterol, inorganic, medicinal and other harmful substances; prevents fragility of nail plates, hair loss, restores their natural color and thickness; with prolonged use, new hair grows in areas of baldness; restore visual acuity;
. restore the sense of smell and taste;
. strengthen teeth and bones, and with long-term regular use, restore tooth enamel and bone tissue;
. reduce swelling and heal wounds;
. restore muscle flexibility, tissue elasticity, improve coordination of movements, joint mobility, speed of reactions;
. with long-term use, if sprouts make up up to 80-90% of the diet, reproductive function is restored in women of menopausal and post-menopausal age; treat obesity and obesity;
. promote active longevity. The grain cell is not completely absorbed by the body, but under the influence of acids and alkalis it swells, absorbing all acidic and alkaline excesses, poisons and other substances unnecessary to the body. Wheat sprouts very quickly create a feeling of fullness, so they are highly recommended as a dietary food for obese people, while carbohydrate and fat metabolism is normalized. Sprouts strengthen the entire cardiovascular system, since the composition of the blood is normalized and it is quickly cleansed. Since all fluids in the body are interconnected, the lymph and extracellular fluid that washes the brain and spinal cord are cleansed. When using a long-term mono-diet of sprouts, unusual abilities develop. Within 12 days you will notice positive changes in your well-being:
. performance will increase;
. physical and mental fatigue will disappear;
. thoughts will become clearer and more orderly;
. goodwill, peace and tranquility will arise;
. black thoughts will disappear - jealousy, pride, arrogance, vanity, dependence on someone;
. you will be freed from the oppressive fear for the health and future of your loved ones;
. you will gain a sense of security, restore harmony with the world around you, free yourself from selfishness,
. you will experience the joy of altruism, love for humanity and yourself;
. you will have an irresistible desire for self-improvement and creativity. Living food will help you develop supersensitive abilities - telepathy, clairvoyance, the ability to heal with your gaze and laying on of hands, the realization (materialization) of mental images, levitation and teleportation, cognition and familiarization with the Cosmic Consciousness. Sprouts are an indispensable food for very busy business people who do not have time to take care of themselves, but feel a great need for a simple, effective means of maintaining high performance for a long time. A grain-based diet combined with simply prepared vegetables and fruits will give the best results: it will develop intuition, replenish energy and strength. Enzymatic substances of sprouts increase the ability to concentrate, improve memory, make thinking clear and flexible, provide good health and an optimistic positive attitude to fight difficulties, increasing adaptation to stressful situations, mobilize internal resources, stimulate physical creativity and sexual activity, which sometimes fade away in everyday worries. They will improve your mood, relieve stress, and maintain self-confidence, which is so necessary when running a serious business. To maintain and restore strength, it is useful to eat porridge made from sprouts, steamed and mixed with fruits or berries and baked in the oven.