BY ALLISON LEE
Nestled in the North York Moors National Park, Ryedale Folk Museum is Yorkshire’s leading open-air museum. Telling the story of the people of the North York Moors, more than 40,000 objects are beautifully displayed across 20 heritage buildings, some rescued from around the area. Buildings include a typical Iron Age Roundhouse, Medieval Crofter’s Cottage and an Elizabethan Manor House, as well as traditional workshops from a range of occupations.
Throughout the year, Ryedale Folk Museum hosts a variety of exhibitions, the latest of which, ‘Making a Meal of It’ is currently running until Sunday 30th November. This exhibition shares the story of food production proving it is one of resilience, a sprinkling ingenuity, and a lot of hard work.
Jennifer Smith, Museum Director, says, “We are very excited to share ‘Making a Meal of It’ this season. The exhibition really highlights the incredible resourcefulness of the people of the past. Food production was no easy task. From farmers and bakers to brewers and beekeepers, people relied on skill, knowledge, and hard graft to put food on the table.”
Throughout the exhibition, compelling local stories are set against a national and, at times, global context of historic and contemporary food production, with visitors invited on a tantalising journey into Yorkshire’s food heritage.
The importance of Ryedale as a centre of food production has long been recognised. “Local food not only nourished the farmers and labourers of Ryedale but also found its way to the manufacturing hubs of the West Riding and beyond,” says Jennifer. “Food produced in North Yorkshire travelled by cart, barge, and railway to feed people across the country and overseas.”
The exhibition delves into the stories of the people whose lives were dominated by food production in the past – those who toiled to produce, preserve, and prepare food across a range of historic periods. Jennifer explains: “‘Making a Meal of It’ brings these stories to life, revealing not just what people ate, but how much effort went into every loaf of bread, every slice of ham, or even into a spoonful of honey. These stories are really rooted in our collection, revealing how food was so precious to the people of the past. It feels like a bit of a cliché to say it, but nothing was wasted.
“In the exhibition, we’ve really tried to get to the heart of why that was,” continues Jennifer, “and what life was like as ordinary people were being buffeted by forces beyond their control as they sought to feed their families. Those forces often included policy making and politics – legislation, for example, to govern the cost of a loaf of bread – but even encompassed the whims of the weather.”
The exhibition also offers visitors the opportunity to reflect on how food production has evolved to meet the demands of an ever-growing global population. While modern technology and farming have taken huge steps to increase food output, new challenges have arisen.
“The exhibition delves into some of the challenges of sustainability,” says Jennifer, “and we are very much aware that mass production has had huge impacts. There are some interesting parallels and key differences between the past and present. We often take food for granted today, but as we put the exhibition together it was really striking to us how precious food was in the past, because its production was a matter of life and death.”
Entry to ‘Making a Meal of It’ is included with admission to the Museum. Ryedale Folk Museum is open Saturday to Thursday (closed on Fridays) until 30 November. The Ryedale Folk Museum website can be found here:
Allison Lee is a smallholder from North Yorkshire who has written for the Yorkshire Post and other publications. Her website can be accessed here.