For breakfast, the peasant family normally had porridge and bread. For dinner, they had bread with pork or herring, root vegetable casserole or pea soup. In the autumn, to celebrate the harvest or hay-making, there was lots of good food. Dish after dish was served. Expensive spices which had been bought in town were ground and added to the food. Perhaps there was even a jug of wine or some German beer. There was a great difference between the food on a work-day and the food on a feast day.
The peasant grew his own food. He grew root vegetables like turnips, swedes, parsnips, onions, leeks and carrots. Peas and beans were also grown. The most common cereal was barley and rye. On many farms one kept bees, to get sweet honey. The peasant sold a lot of his produce when he was in town. He sold what the town-dwellers did not have: butter, cheese, meat and honey. The peasant paid their tax with food as well, so there was rarely any butter, cheese or meat on the peasant’s table. If the farm lay near town, a member of the family could go there every week to sell produce from the farm.. Once or twice a year, there was a large fair in town. Then a lot of people came there to sell their things.
The peasants lived near the woods, where they could hunt wild animals and pick berries and nuts. They could fish in the lakes and in the sea. The right to hunt in the woods had been taken for granted by the peasants, but in the Middle Ages, the nobility took this right to hunt. The aristocracy hunted for their pleasure.
To make the food keep throughout the winter, it was salted or dried. The salt was bought from the German merchants in town. There was no big difference between the food in town and in the country-side. They may have used more foreign spices in town. On the other hand, the peasant never lacked food, as he grew it himself.
Read more about food under "Town Life. Workdays and Holidays"