Oh!! What sweet conversation and friendship surrounded the table in my little dining room. Three of my fellow students joined me for a potlcuk with a colonial foods theme. With pumpkin soup, pepper pot stew, baked beans, apple pudding, rosemary potato pancakes, and traditional Lebanese fallafel, we shared a long lunch together. The central conversation revolved around the eye witness Word War II accounts of the two men and a final mini lesson by me on the history of food in early colonial days.
One of the gentleman needed to leave after lunch, but I spoke with the other two about a little history of colonial cuisine. A few of the notes follow here:
How the colonists chose to use their land impacted what they ate and why.
New England
· fed itself with a mixed economy
· fet itself without the help of slaves
· not very wealthy but not dependent on other countries or regions on single staple crop
· most traditionally English cuisine because of a love for Englad and such an abundant cuisine
West Indies
· much land given to raise only sugar during the time European café
culture was developing
· huge profits and lots of slaves in disease plagued islands that owners could
afford to leave to managers
· food shaped by slave lifestyle and small plots of land to grow food
– an African flower and cuisine of survival
Middle Colonies
· like new England but much time given to wheat export
· mixed labr of servant, family, and slave
· livestock for home and trade
· dairy industry thrived as well as distilleries
· some had farms that were large and mixed – no need for dependence
· other farms were mostly wheat – need for trading throughout America
· cuisine of moderation
Southern Colonies
· much like West Indies
· upper South grew tobacco
· lower South grew rice
· efforts to preserve African traditions influenced white and black;
Native Americans, poor white servants, and black slaves associated
· cuisine of adaptation/preservation
[McWilliams, James E. A Revolution in Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America. Columbia University Press: New York. 2005.]
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