For centuries, farm laborers have generally taken their midday meal in the fields rather than travel back home just to eat. So it stands to reason these folk learned quickly to tote a stable meal that neither required cooking, nor degraded on a hot day. An offhand comment by John G. Lockhart in the biography of his father-in-law mentioned this simple “lunch of a ploughman,” (Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, 1837) without specifying its contents.
Travelers also met with simple meals as bread and cheese were the only foods available in many rural pubs as late as the early 20th century, therefore according to author, Martin Armstrong, these offerings, “compared to nothing…are beyond compare.” (1932) There is no reason to question the feeling of satisfaction gained by consuming together the beautiful hand-crafted items of bread, cheese and beer.
Like many food stuffs and supplies, cheese was rationed during World War II. While the rationing of cheese in the United States only lasted 2-1/2 years, England’s use of “government cheddar” continued from 1941 until 1954—a whopping 12+ years. The banning of cheese production not connected with the government program decimated the country’s number of independent cheese makers and reduced the flavors of cheese to basically one. After the ration, cheese was either viewed as a luxury item or as a boring one-note song. Something needed to be done to restore the majesty of cheese to the free market.
The “Cheese Bureau” was formed in 1955 under the direction of the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson with members consisting of dairy associations in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Ontario, Australia and New Zealand. The [English] Cheese and Milk Marketing Board took most of the heat as purveyors of propaganda during the “Ploughman’s Lunch” campaign. The lunch was described as bread, cheese, and beer with the addition of a pickle. The nostalgically-named meal suggestion was placed in the minds of housewives, beer drinkers and pub owners all around to stimulate the sales and production of cheese. The Cheese Bureau operated internationally as a marketing cooperative until 1971.
From there, the “back to nature” movement in the 70s embraced the Ploughman’s Lunch as its own, accepting the historic narrative appeal and homemade ingredients. Through the years, chefs around the world have continued to tweak the classic combination adding to the embellishments somewhat in this order: butter, pickled onions, lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, cold sausages, chutney, Scotch eggs, pork pie, fresh veggies and fruit.
Our version at Country Moon Winery, shown above, features crusty bread, wedges of hard cheese, beef summer sausage, spicy peach chutney, fresh butter and sweet pickles…on a curly cabbage leaf. Our Prairie Butterfly wine pairs nicely with the range of savory and spice in this snack plate.