Emilie Högquist

Getting around

Bringing private carriages for comfort

To avoid being shaken painfully in simple farmers' carts, travelers were advised to bring their own carriages, as spring-equipped vehicles were rarely available for hire. Carriage rates were set at 1 skilling banco per mile for a cart and 2 skilling banco for a carriage.

At the table

Stretching flour with fillers during food shortages

When grain supplies ran low in spring, peasants stretched their flour by adding ingredients like chaff, bark, nettles, or even straw.

What people wore

Walking barefoot to save shoes

Leather shoes were in short supply, leading many people to walk barefoot from the time the snow melted until late autumn to save their footwear, sometimes carrying their shoes to church and putting them on only upon arrival.

Music

The dominance of the polska dance

By the mid-19th century, the polska had evolved as the primary dance and tune style for the fiddle in Sweden's provinces.

Daily life

Diet and coffee restrictions

Coffee was a rare luxury that children and servants often did not taste; one boy was even paid two riksdaler banko annually by his father to abstain from it and sugar. Meals were commonly prepared and eaten by the hearth using simple tools, often consisting of potatoes, herring, and bread.