Harvesting and Gathering

The Thomas Garden 2015

'Tis the season to harvest and gather and store away for the long winter months. While some of us still practice these traditions today, they were absolutely essential to our colonial ancestors. Without proper preparation, a disastrous winter may befall the family.

Maybe things were treated just as we treat them today. Potatoes, onions, carrots, rutabagas, and turnips were dug and stored. Root cellars were common, but without one, these crops could still be stored under the floorboards of a cabin or even in baskets along the wall away from the heat source.

Fruits could be sugared and cooked into preserves to be stored in crocks or jars. The tops of the crocks were sealed with wax or lard to prevent spoilage.

Certain vegetables could be salted and kept for most of the winter, like cabbages (sauerkraut), cucumbers (pickles), and green beans. These were combined with a salty brine and kept submerged in the brine in large crocks. Meats could also be brined for storage, salt pork being the most common, but also corned (pickled) beef or venison.

Drying fruits and vegetables was a common method for preservation. It required no crocks, brine, or sugar. One way was to string the fruits and vegetables on a thin twine with a sharp needle attached. Long strings of these foods could be hung in the attic or from the rafters and plucked off as needed. Depending on heat and humidity, they may take a month to fully dry out. Another method was to lay them out between two layers of cloth stretched in the full sun. The top cloth kept insects from getting in.

Naturally dried foods like beans and peas were gathered and kept in baskets or bags. Today we harvest our peas while they are tender and green, but in colonial times, they were allowed to dry in the shell. These would be shelled when they were needed and the husks fed to the livestock.

Herbs were generally harvested at their peak of freshness and tied into bundles then hung upside-down to dry. Herbs were used to flavor food, but many also served for medicinal purposes.

Next time you're tempted to complain about the price of food in the supermarket check-out line, take a minute and appreciate what your ancestors had to go through to collect that much food for their families.

~ Pegg Thomas

Colonial Style Corn Fritters

I love combining my writing research with my love of cooking and good food. My characters need to eat and I want them to enjoy foods that would have been common in their time period. My current WIP (work in progress) is set at the beginning of the 19th century. My characters would have had to grow, gather, or hunt most of what they consumed.

This past week I pulled out a favorite cookbook, History from the Hearth, and made a batch of corn fritters. Yummy? You bet! Our ancestors knew their way around food. And thankfully, some of them recorded their recipes and handed them down through the generations.

Colonial Style Corn Fritters

2 cups cooked corn
2 eggs - separated
1/4 cup cream
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teas salt
1/2 teas pepper
lard for frying

Beat the eggs whites in a small bowl until stiff. In a larger bowl, slightly beat the egg yolks, then stir in the cream, flour, salt, and pepper. Fold in the egg whites. Add the corn last. Heat lard (or oil if you prefer) in a large frying pan. Drop batter by the spoonful into hot fat and fry until golden brown, then flip and cook the other side. Serve hot. 

This recipe is so simple, with ingredients any Colonial good wife would have had on hand. It could have been made over a kitchen hearth or campfire. Full of both protein and carbohydrates, these hearty fritters would have given them the energy to do all the work they needed to accomplish to survive. 

Tweet this: 

Corn fritter #recipe from Colonial American. #Writing research that's tasty too! 

The best part of enjoying a historical recipe like this, is to eat it while enjoying a great Christian historical book. Maybe one day - God willing - it will be mine!

~ Pegg Thomas

A Harvest of Corn

Autumn is my favorite time of year in New England, with its cooler weather, the changing of the leaves and harvest time bringing fresh pumpkins, squash and sweet ears of corn to the local roadside farm stands.

The Indians called it maize and introduced the grain to the first American settlers who were amazed to see them munch on a whole roasted or boiled ear.  The curious Pilgrims sampled this novel delicacy and learned its secrets from their Indian neighbors.  They adopted it as their own and renamed it “corn,” the generic English word for grain.  They learned to make corn meal, corn breads and cakes, corn chowder and puddings of every variety—from hasty pudding to corn custard.  Soon corn became a staple of the Colonial diet and was grown on every early American farm.

At harvest time, the fresh corn stalks brought an opportunity for neighbors to come together for a husking frolic.  The task of husking and shelling, which would prove tedious for a single family to accomplish on their own, was turned into a festive gathering for men, women and children.  Food, drink and dancing often followed and it was a great opportunity for young people of courting age to meet a potential love interest.

Among the many delectable dishes that settlers learned to make with corn, corn custard was considered a Colonial mainstay.  It was known to be a favorite dish of Revolutionary War General Daniel Morgan, and it remains a favorite around holiday time in New England homes today.  Here’s an easy receipt that serves 6.

2 cups corn kernels, fresh or canned (and drained)

1/4 cup flour

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

3 eggs, beaten well

2 cups milk

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350º.  Mix the corn and dry ingredients.  Add eggs, milk and butter.  Bake in a buttered casserole dish set in a pan of hot water for 50-60 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

What is your favorite corn dish or way to enjoy corn?

Lisa Norato
www.lisanorato.com
Lisa Norato, Author/Facebook
 

Native Fruits for Colonial Tastes

By Debra E. Marvin, horticulturalist and just a bit fruity herself.

I saw an article proclaiming  the United States only has 3 native fruits: blueberries, cranberries and Concord grapes. Wrong! First there’s that whole fruit vs vegetable discussion (tomatoes and peppers are fruits, by the way) and there are plenty of other fruits. Okay. Maybe not commercial successes... but it's a decent list.

While we do have wild grape (buckshot sized and super tart), the Concord Grape is a hybridized plant.

Colonials had to learn what new world fruits and nuts were safe to eat, and when. Here’s a list of native plants, shrubs and trees that bear edible fruit. But don’t run out to the store expecting to find anything but cranberries and blueberries. That much was right!

CRANBERRY – related to the blueberry and very similar in growth but they love wet feet. This is a well-known northeast native, famous for its preference for bogs (they love soil acidity) and for showing up on that Thanksgiving table.

 

Cranberry shrub --just before flooding for harvest

HUCKLEBERRY – also called  Bilberry and sometimes ‘red blueberry’. Tarter than blueberries and have a noticeably different taste, and larger seeds. A favorite childhood memory for me is having Huckleberry Pie at my grandma's house in Pennsylvania. This plant seems to thrive in wooded, mountainous areas.

Immature PawPaw fruit

PAWPAW – the largest edible fruit native to the Colonies. It may have been named for its similarity to the tropical Papaya because it does not resemble any other fruit we know. Another name is Kentucky Banana! This is a large shrub that flowers in spring. Those flowers tend to smell yeasty at one point, rotten at another, or so I'm told. Fruit grows through the season until it is a large 2-6” yellow oblong. The flesh looks like a mango with big black seeds but is soft enough to eat like custard and tastes like banana, or melon depending on whom you ask.  This is the fruit world’s answer to the Aardvark.

SERVICEBERRY – few trees are as special and underused as the Amelanchier or “Serviceberry” (or Sarvisberry, Shadbush, Shadblow, Shadwood, Junebery, Saskatoon or SugarPlum) There are ~20 species of shrub to tree forms and all are a favorite of birds. Fresh fruits have a blueberry/almond flavor but are usually tart. The Native American food PEMMICAN sometimes had serviceberry fruits added with the meat and fat before dried into a meat ‘leather’. A great fruit for pies and jam and the tree has year round appeal. I happen to have serviceberry jam in my pantry right now.

WILD STRAWBERRY – these tiny fruits were native to Europe as well. They have a stronger taste than the hybridized strawberry and are special treats to eat, but require a huge number for any other use, due to their size and small populations.

A colony of Mayapple. A favorite sight in... May

MAY APPLE – or Mayapple.  Native to woodland borders in Eastern North America.  A curious umbrella shaped spring plant related to the Mandrake, and yes, poisonous as well, except for the edible fruit. They are not so tasty that you’d ever eat enough to get sick on, but the leaves and roots are dangerous. Like other spring understory plants, the Mayapple dies back by midsummer, but in this case, the fruit keeps growing on a small vine. Mayapples grow in small clonal colonies and provided fruit for colonial preserves.

Failing MayApple plant in summer, the fruit will continue to ripen

AMERICAN PLUM – aka Wild Plum. A true member of the plum and cherry family, Prunus americana is a wide-spread native with pretty white blossoms in spring. A shrubby plant, it spreads by suckers and colonists would have to compete with birds when the fruit ripened. Their sweet/sour taste can be enjoyed fresh, preserved or made into wine.

THIMBLEBERRY – a cousin of the raspberry, found along the edge of woodlands. It’s a dense shrub but has no prickly stems like raspberry. They are much more common in the western Great Lakes area than the Eastern seaboard. (Carrie, have you eaten these?) Thimbleberries are a soft fruit and don’t hold up or ship well, but great for pies and jam. Very seedy and sometimes not very sweet. Jams are often ½ sugar, ½ fruit.

BEACH PLUM – or ‘Seaside Plum’ Prunus maritimus (I heart scientific names!) A shrubby plant, 3-7’ tall that loves sandy soil. The blue fall fruit, smaller than imported plums, is now being grown commercially for jam. 

Beach Plum!

WILD BLACK CHERRY – a big tree with tiny white blossoms in spring. This is a bitter fruit for most of our palates. The pits and leaves can be poisonous (cyanide) and must be removed from pastures, but the fruit was used for pies and jams and the wood is still sought after for furniture. Birds can make a mess with their purple stained droppings!

BLACK RASPBERRY -- not just from Oregon! They are also native to the east coast and are enjoyed fresh during their 2-3 week harvest period as well as. . . you guessed it. . .  perfect for pies and jams. I have a shrub next to my kitchen which provides 1/3 of the fun for Triple Berry Cobbler on Fourth of July.

BLUEBERRY – a cousin to the cranberry and, in the wild, very non-committal about their harvest time-- May through August depending on weather and altitude, and they prefer slopes and mountain sides, where they thrive on acidic soil.  The ‘lowbush’ variety has a snazzy red leaf in fall. Blueberries are white inside while Bilberries are purple inside –just in case you are out wandering and need to know.  Blueberries are difficult to grow without nets as birds seem to know exactly what day they are ripe (that’s my experience, anyway).

That's my list of native "Colonial" fruits. How many of these have you tried?