During the Gallic period, the basic elements of the diet came from livestock, crops and, to a lesser extent, wild fruits. Cereals occupied an essential place in agriculture. They included various types of wheat (einkorn, emmer, spelt, common wheat), some of which are no longer grown in our regions; and also barley, millet and increasingly, oats. The other species grown were mainly legumes, such as bitter vetch, lentils, peas and broad beans, or plants rich in oil, such as camelina, poppies and flax, also used for textiles.
With the exception of spelt, the cereals the Gauls grew were unsuitable for breadmaking.
Common wheat, used for making leavened bread, began to spread across the Champagne-Ardenne region in the Middle Ages. It is rarely mentioned before then. The Gauls mainly ate their cereals in the form of flatbreads, porridge, soup or groats.
The grain was ground using hand grinders made of stone or crushed in mortars. Porridge made from millet and other cereals was prepared in pottery containers placed on the hearth. Flatbreads were cooked on the sides or bases of small earthenware ovens.
