Its territory was covered with continuous forest cover, and villages were settled on forest plots, such as Vamosatia. However, the arable fields created by clearing could only support a certain number of people.
The conquering Hungarians still find here forests tangled with swamps, swamps and streams, living and dead. Then, as people settled, the forests thinned out, the rivers were regulated, and the Berigi-Tissahat environment was formed, dotted with woody pastures, extensive grassy wastelands, and wetland remnants. In its inhabited areas, it welcomes the rich heritage of the thousand-year-old Hungarian past, the priceless treasures of the ancient province of Béreg: churches of the Árpád era, bell towers, palaces, inherited historical memories and folk traditions based on them. Visitor.
The Pereg Province was one of the largest and most diverse regions of the Carpathian Basin. István Losonzi published his book in Bratislava in 1777 and wrote the “Little Triptych Mirror” for pupils of folk schools. On page 50 of his book, he wrote the following about the province of Péreg in an easy-to-learn poetic form: “The province of Péreg is over with its neighbor Ogotsa, / Yes, it pays homage to Monkatz with its castle / Here is a vari, Péregszasz, with the village of Helmitz / It keeps its poor house with its soot apples. “
By the first quarter of the twentieth century, all this had changed dramatically. A total of 22 counties, consisting of about 100 small and large settlements, belong to today’s Hungary. The mountainous region rich in mineral resources, as well as the avoided settlements, dictated the peace of Trianon. [1920] After Czechoslovakia, from 1938, Hungary again, and from 1947, the Soviet Union, and today’s Ukraine.
In terms of nutrition and livelihood, the fruit orchards that grew wild on the edges of forests, at the corners of rivers and streams, and which are still present in the food habits of the Berig region, played a major role. It was also important that the people of Birigi knew forest and field mushrooms well, which they also included in their diet.
The staple food of agriculturalists was bread made from grains. In the Middle Ages, white bread could only be placed on the landlord’s table, so the raw material for the bread was mostly rye and millet. For peasants, bread in the Middle Ages meant unleavened cake. Leavened bread became a staple food only in the 17th century. Buckwheat and millet, essential ingredients for traditional dishes in Beregi-Tiszahát, are now only available as organic products.
In the floodplains associated with the rivers, fruit cultivation flourished from the Middle Ages until the river regulations. Floodplain forests and the gardens created from them played a crucial role in fruit growing in the Carpathian Basin, as the moist soils of the floodplains, mobile groundwater and the forest microclimate provided favorable conditions for the trees. The water arrangements brought about fundamental changes, because communities along the river, which turned to more inland agriculture, paid less attention to gardens, which were often difficult to access, and the harvest often coincided with the more pressing summer agricultural work.
In the 18th century, landowners completely excluded their serfs from the use of forests, allowing them at most to collect some firewood and extract construction timber under permit, also in proportion to the serfs’ measured plots of land.
In addition to structural changes in agriculture, the demand for old varieties has also decreased significantly, while labor requirements for new fruits imported from abroad have increased due to introduced pests. Especially in the Upper Tisza region, there were extensive orchards located on the banks of the river, in the bends.
By the twentieth century, everything had changed. In his study of Famosatia in 1938, chant teacher Ferenc Szabó wrote about the fruits consumed in the village: “…our village is surrounded on all sides by manor lands, which prevented natural expansion. The individual plots are short and further narrowed by intermarriage in individual families and the welcoming multiplication Thus, the small plots of land are so occupied by the farm yard and loading dock, sometimes with so much space, that there is not very much space for a vegetable garden, and often no space for a fruit garden. And if there is room for the fruitful part, it is planted with plum trees, of which it is made Jam, and its fruit can only be fed to children for a short period. …
Most yards, instead of being shaded by pear, apple, or walnut trees, which produce noble fruits, are planted with strawberries, which produce mostly worthless fruits, or blackberries, whose fruits are injurious even to young poultry, and spread with the soul. From the wind, the bottom is the most pathogenic fly, and his farm will become…”
Until the beginning of the twentieth century, roads were lined with this tree everywhere, but it was cut off due to the widening of the road. Of the previous rows of mulberry trees, only single trees remain. From the eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, farms were established to raise silkworms. Its wood was of high value to the quintals and quintals, so it was of great economic importance. Today, even its remains have begun to disappear, as it is only grown in a few places, in parks or small gardens, as an ornamental tree.
János Józef Szabó
