A Taste of History: A Fall Flavors Weekend
A beautiful late September morning dawns... |
I’ve lamented for nearly a decade
about the loss of the annual Fall Harvest Days festival that historic Greenfield
Village used to have. This
was where one could find a number of different fall activities occurring
throughout the Village including corn shucking, threshing, the process of
winnowing, food pickling, and numerous other seasonal historical ‘chores’ of
the past. They would also have live music, hayrides, and cider & doughnuts.
It was a real old-time shindig, and a wonderful opportunity to teach young and
old - in a fun way - about harvest time in 19th century America.
Unfortunately, for some reason the last one they held was in 2005. Oh, they have had fall activities here and there but nothing like the celebration-type excitement that made the Fall Harvest Days festival so wonderful and fun.
An old-time string band entertains at the Fall Harvest Days Festival in the late 1990's |
Unfortunately, for some reason the last one they held was in 2005. Oh, they have had fall activities here and there but nothing like the celebration-type excitement that made the Fall Harvest Days festival so wonderful and fun.
I complained about this loss.
Believe me. I complained.
I am going to guess that others have
complained as well…and I think the powers that be may have listened, because in
2010 the Village brought back their fall harvest.
W-e-l-l…kinda sorta.
What they did was come up with a
sort of replacement: the Fall
Flavors Weekend. Fall Flavors is just as you probably imagine it to be: a festival of food. But this was food
that was eaten most often during harvest time 100+ years ago.
Historic food.
We went that first year and I have
to admit that I felt a tinge of excitement. Just a tinge. Was this going to be the
Fall Harvest Festival under a new name?
For the most part, visitors toured
the Village homes and saw lots of cooking, from the colonial period through the
early part of the 20th century. And the recipes were those taken
from the cookbooks of whichever year was being represented in the home.
Not quite the way it was presented a few years earlier, but heading in that direction.
So I mentioned casually to numerous
people who worked at the Village that maybe this was a new beginning of the
comeback of the Harvest Festival. But I wasn’t going to hold my breath.
They seemed to have high hopes as
well.
I returned to Fall Flavors in 2011
and then again in 2012, and each year new additional activities were brought
out that supplemented the cooking theme. Their direction was heading more and
more into the commemoration of the Fall Harvest Festival as it once was
celebrated, both in the literal past and in Greenfield Village’s past.
Well, this year of 2013 was the best
Fall Flavors Weekend yet. In fact, aside from not having a string band playing
old time music, someone showing the process of winnowing, and cider &
doughnuts, the Autumn Harvest Festival, for all intents and purposes, is back: corn husking & shucking,
threshing of grain, hand-press cider making, traditional cooking of harvest
foods, food preservation, an heirloom apple orchard tour & tasting, a
farmer’s market, and, with God’s blessing, fall leaves showing their beautiful
colors.
Now, since harvest time centers on
reaping, let’s talk about food - - - in a historical sense.
Food is one of those items rarely thought
of as historical. But GMO awareness (Genetically Modified Organisms) and the quickly
spreading truth about the Monsanto Corporation’s very questionable
biotechnological practices have made many people weary of all of the chemicals
laced in their foods. An example of what I am speaking of here can be found on
the label of something as simple as a bottle of syrup; you may recall that a few years ago I wrote this little diatribe
about that wonderful substance I pour onto my pancakes on Sunday morning:
“I
have in front of me a bottle of Log Cabin Original Syrup. These are the
ingredients as listed on the bottle:
corn syrup, liquid sugar (natural sugar, water), salt, natural and artificial
flavors (lactic acid), cellulose gum, preservatives (sorbic acid, sodium
benzoate), sodium hexametaphosphate, caramel color, phosphoric acid.
Now
here is what's in the bottle of Spring Tree Maple Syrup that is also in
front of me:
100%
pure maple syrup.
What
would you rather put into your body?
Methinks
that the Log Cabin syrup is somehow not quite as original as they say...”
It’s
not just Log Cabin syrup, by the way, but nearly any item one purchases from
the local grocery store tends to be laced with multiple chemicals that we can’t
even pronounce, much less want to consume.
Is
it any wonder that organic kitchen gardens are quickly becoming the norm in so
many neighborhood yards? And farmers markets, once found only out in the
country, are sprouting up throughout the major cities and suburbs.
Best
of all, many who are growing their own vegetables are also using the non-GMO
heirloom seeds to do so!
While
at the Fall Flavor Weekend event at Greenfield Village, we took a guided tour
of the organically grown heirloom apple trees in the Firestone Farm orchard.
This
orchard is filled with a number of 19th-century and earlier
varieties of apple trees, and we were able to see a wide selection of red,
green, brown, yellow, and speckled apples growing upon them. Names like Rambo
(around 1640), Baldwin (1740), Maiden's Blush (early 1800's), Belmont (late 18th
century – one of
Johnny Appleseed’s favorites!), Roxbury Russet (from before 1649 -
possibly
America’s oldest apple), and Hubbardston Nonesuch (early 1800’s) can be
found
there. They all have different characteristics, flavors, and ultimately
were
used in different ways, either for sale, or for the family’s own use.
With such a large amount of apples, there was a need for storage, and
those not
carefully packed away in sawdust were made into apple butter, apple
sauce,
pies, dowdies, dumplings, fritters, and cider.
It was a very well-informed tour by very knowledgeable tour guides. |
A bit of an anecdote here: while on the tour, the presenter mentioned that no chemical pesticides are ever used on these heirloom trees. One of the folks on the tour asked what was it they used, then, to keep the bugs off the precious apples. The presenter told the man that they used nothing and have had very little bug problem in all of the years they’ve been planted here. The man found it hard to believe that they grew fruits and vegetables without chemical sprays to keep the bugs off. I personally find it interesting that modern people can't imagine a time when things were grown without the use of bug-killing chemical sprays.
Another
humorous story occurred when another visitor asked if the apples
we were taste-testing were 'antique apples.' Of course she meant to say
“heirloom apples” but the word would not come to her. My daughter caught it
immediately and chuckled.
We mentioned the Roxbury Russet as being excellent cider apples. The pictures below show the process of the farm hands making cider from the heirloom apples in their orchard. We watched them use their period hand-press to make the sweet drink. It was a slow process even with two people - one to cut up the apples and the other to press the juices out.
The cider-making hand press in action |
It is a slow process to make cider. According to a Firestone Farm presenter, it takes one bushel of apples to make three gallons of cider. |
"Is it cider yet?" |
Now, what's this farm girl doing?
Making apple butter from heirloom apples. I heard it tastes amazing. |
It’s kind of strange, don’t you think, to think of apples as being historical. I mean, they’re just apples, right?
Well this is the intended point that the Fall Flavors event is attempting to teach: historical food and period cooking.
Over the years I have collected numerous period cookbooks: The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy from 1747 (London), The First American Cookbook from 1797, Early American Cookery from 1841, and The Buckeye Cookbook from 1877, as well as a couple of food history books such as Food in Colonial & Federal America and Victoria’s Home Companion. Now, I’m not a cook, though my wife is an amazing one, and I had hopes she would attempt a few of the recipes (or ‘receipts,’ as they were known then).
But
upon opening the books up, it’s easy to see that they were written for the people of
‘their’ time.
A
little closer to "our time" - 1877 - The Buckeye Cookbook shows that
we are still very separated by time. Here is a snippet directing the
cook on how to prepare a
chicken:
Nearly 300 years old! No, this isn't my copy. I found this photo on a site called Gherkins and Tomatoes. (I hope the author doesn't mind me posting her photo - I cannot seem to get a hold of her.) |
“Do
not feed poultry the day before killing; cut off the head, hang up by the legs,
as the meat will be more white and wholesome if bled freely and quickly. In
winter, kill them three days to a week before cooking. Scald well
by dipping in and out of a pail or tub of boiling water, being careful not to
scald so much as to set the feathers and make them more difficult to pluck;
place the fowl on a board with the neck towards you, pull the feathers away
from you, which will be in the direction they naturally lie (if pulled in a
contrary direction the skin is likely to be torn), be careful to remove all of
the pin-feathers with a knife or a pair of tweezers; singe, but not smoke over
blazing paper, place on a meat-board, and with a sharp knife cut off the legs a
little below the knee to prevent the muscles from shrinking away from the
joint, and remove the oil-bag above the tail. Take out the crop, either
by making a slit at the back of the neck or in front (the last is better),
taking care that everything pertaining to the crop or windpipe is removed, cut
the neck-bone off close to the body, leaving the skin a good length if to be
stuffed; cut a slit three inches long from the tail upwards, being careful to
cut only through the skin, put in a finger at the breast and detach all the
intestines, taking care not to burst the gall-bag (situated near the upper part
of the breast-bone, and attached to the liver; if broken, no washing can remove
the bitter taint left on every spot it touches). Put in the hand at the
incision near the tail, and draw out carefully all intestines; trim off the fat
from the breast and at the lower incision; split the gizzard and take out the
inside and inner lining (throw liver, heart, and gizzard into water, wash well,
and lay aside to be cooked and used for the gravy). Wash the fowl
thoroughly in several waters (some wipe carefully without washing), hang up to
drain, and it is ready to be stuffed, skewered, and placed to roast.”
THIS
I find extremely fascinating, don’t you? This tells me more about our ancestors
than virtually any modern history book.
One
of the more interesting aspects in reading these cookbooks is seeing the
variety of treats from ‘back then’ that are still familiar and popular with us
today: doughnuts, pumpkin pie,
waffles, cookies, chowder, and, of course, cranberries – all from the colonial
period, by the way.
Now, let's look at a bit of the history of a home-cooked meal - - - -
The 1750 saltbox home of Samuel & Anna Daggett |
It doesn't take a genius to realize that the most important room in any home is not the bathroom (indoor bathrooms are a fairly recent commodity), nor is it the bedroom. And it's certainly not the family room.
It's the kitchen. From days of old through our modern times, the kitchen is the one room where all the action takes place. It's where everyone seems to gather. It also has the best smells!
A common feature of a colonial kitchen was the massive fireplace in which the ingredients were turned into a veritable feast by the skilled cook. Swinging iron arms protruding from the surrounding stone or brick held massive pots, enabling the cook the luxury of moving the pots closer to or further from the fire, and Dutch ovens, setting on the hearth with coals underneath and on the lid, evenly baked cakes, pies, and other delights.
The next few photos will show a typical colonial farm house that, in the mid-1700's was built and owned by Samuel & Anna Daggett and their three children:
Here we see a Dutch oven in use (that's the black pot with the pie inside). Notice the coals on top of the lid as well as below the pot. It's done that way in order to bake the pie more evenly. |
And the lucky presenters get to eat the wonderful hearth-cooked meal. |
This next home, built around the same time as the Daggett Home, will take us from colonial farm to colonial city and.is known as the Giddings House, after it's original builder, John Giddings, a prosperous merchant and shipbuilder who lived there with his wife, Mehetable, and their five children.
The Giddings House: built around the same time as Daggett but, since the owner was a ship merchant, it was more upscale. |
The kitchen is larger in Giddings and had the room for additional furniture to aid the cook. |
Here is a better look at the Giddings kitchen. That's the fireplace on the right. |
Moving ahead into the future, we see that the average American kitchen had changed little by the early 19th century, though by mid-19th century the kitchen had advanced drastically. The biggest development was the cast iron cook stove replacing the fireplace and the traditional cooking tools used; Dutch ovens and ‘spiders’ with three legs for use over coals in the hearth were replaced with flat bottom skillets and pans that instead sat upon the surface of the stove.
(Look at the colonial cooking photos above and see if you can find the 'spider'.)
Now let us look at some pictures of 19th century cooking from the Firestone Farm kitchen. :
The Firestone women have plenty of room to work in the large and functional kitchen. |
What a difference this cast iron stove made over cooking on the hearth. |
And what a meal these Firestone ladies make! |
The men of Firestone are never at a want for food, that's for certain. |
Historical presenters cook period food in a traditional manner in the homes at Greenfield Village. But, unfortunately, visitors are not allowed to taste any of what is cooked. Wouldn’t it be great to actually be able to taste this period food?
Well, we, the visitors, actually can!
The Eagle Tavern:
Built in 1832, the Eagle Tavern now serves as a stage stop from 1850, with hosts, servers, and food to match. |
Roasted Herb Chicken with Rice
Savory Noodles with Summer Squash
and Herbs
Venison Croquette
Pan-Fried Trout with Lemon Butter
and
Ham-Steak with Walnut Catsup
And
for side orders:
Dressed Tomatoes and Greens
Salmagundi
Potato and Sausage Pie
and
Fried Eggplant with Stewed
Tomatoes
And
for dessert:
Strawberry Shortcake
Blueberry Fool
and
Peach Crisp
During
this autumn time of year, their menu includes such delectable delights as:
Whitefish Served on a Cast Iron
Skillet
Venison, Turnip, and Carrot Pie,
Fricasseed Chicken with Biscuits
Smoked Trout with Pickled
Vegetables
Smoked Pork with Sauerkraut
and
Savory Noodles with Buttermilk
Spinach and Herbs
And
for sides one can order:
Bubble & Squeak
Salmagundi
Onion Pie
and
Smoked Trout with Pickled
Vegetables
And
how about dessert?
Pumpkin with Whipped Cream
Cider Bread Pudding with Nutmeg
Custard Sauce
Apple and Cranberry Pandowdy
As you can plainly see, this is not your typical, normal everyday 21st century restaurant fare.
(For knowledge sake, here is the Tavern's night time Christmas feast: apple sauce, cranberry relish, butternut squash soup, pork & apple pie, ,
roasted chicken with cherry sauce, roasted rib of beef with brown
sauce, brussels sprouts, buttered carrots, herb roasted red potatoes,
and a French charlotte with vanilla sauce for dessert. Oh, and hot cider
to drink.
All very traditional and accurate for a mid-19th century Christmas meal.)
As you will see by the following photographs, the Eagle Tavern is as authentic looking as a mid-19th century tavern could be. It's a literal step into the past:
But there’s a reason for such a menu and the atmosphere: it's about historical accuracy.
It’s in this way that the ability to give the patron of the Eagle Tavern more of a sensory perception of the past by way of taste rather than only sight and sound (and many times smell) can be had and explored. And, best of all, the food is produced locally, just as it would have been in the 19th century. This includes the meat from the livestock, vegetables, and even the drinks; most are from within 150 miles of the museum (and are mostly from Michigan, though occasionally do extend into northern Ohio).
All very traditional and accurate for a mid-19th century Christmas meal.)
As you will see by the following photographs, the Eagle Tavern is as authentic looking as a mid-19th century tavern could be. It's a literal step into the past:
Daytime or during one of their rare evening suppers, the Eagle Tavern is always lit by real - not electric - candles, as well as the fireplace. |
Every-so-often a group of us will visit the Tavern while wearing our 1860's clothing. This adds greatly to our period dining experience. |
But there’s a reason for such a menu and the atmosphere: it's about historical accuracy.
It’s in this way that the ability to give the patron of the Eagle Tavern more of a sensory perception of the past by way of taste rather than only sight and sound (and many times smell) can be had and explored. And, best of all, the food is produced locally, just as it would have been in the 19th century. This includes the meat from the livestock, vegetables, and even the drinks; most are from within 150 miles of the museum (and are mostly from Michigan, though occasionally do extend into northern Ohio).
It
wasn’t until recently that I fully realized to what extent this venue goes in
its historical food preparation.
By
the way, their drinks – hard and soft – are also historically accurate.
From a posting in the Dining in Detroit blog:
Our server (not sure what the waitresses were called at that time) gets the drinks from the barkeep. |
From a posting in the Dining in Detroit blog:
"We're historically accurate with everything else here;
why not drinks?" Director of Food
Services and Catering Jesse Eisenhuth points out. In that spirit, they
carry a selection of "Spirituous Liquors" in the Eagle Tavern and bar
from Michigan's New Holland Distillery, which
include whiskey, gin, two kinds of rum, and a "Michigan grain spirit"
(called such because "vodka" would have been unknown at this time,
except maybe as moonshine). New Holland's spirits were also chosen because the
labels have a look more suited to the 1850 era (versus something like the
cheeky 1920s-era pin-up girl on the Valentine Vodka label, superior though the product may be). Beers (called
"malt beverages" on the menu) are custom-made from Detroit's Motor City Brewing Works with labels exclusive to the Henry Ford, and are bottled in
such a way as to appear more era-appropriate (though bottled beer would not
have existed back then). "With everything we do we consider 'how can we
position this properly to have it here?' We're not going to the extreme of
carrying Bud Light. We're still keeping our look and feeling [with these
beers]."
The cocktails are another example of this practice. Classic
cocktails are prepared in classic ways, like the Mint Julep which is really a
simple preparation of simple syrup, muddled mint and bourbon or brandy.
"It's also part of the educational process, which is part of our identity
here," Eisenhuth explains. "We can make the drink however someone
wants it - with more syrup or with rum instead - but how we make them here is
historically accurate." The drink recipes have been changed to be more
local and era-appropriate; for the Mint Julep, the Greenfield Village Herb
Associates grow their own mint that is used in the drink. They make their own
simple syrup (as they would have done in 1850), as well as their own aromatic
bitters using a recipe from the Jerry
Thomas Bartenders Guide published in 1862. "The drinks wouldn't
have been fancy back then," Eisenhuth notes. "They would have only
had two or three ingredients just to mask the flavor of the alcohol."
(Hence the use of bitters, which do that job rather well. And let that serve as
a warning to you.)
If you still question their commitment to the authenticity here, then know this: currently they are planting Orange Pippin trees, which is a specific kind of apple, in the Village so that in time they can make the historic bitters recipe really as it was made.
One more time: they're growing apple trees in order to make more historically accurate bitters. Lots of bars are making their own bitters nowadays, but how many can claim that?
If you still question their commitment to the authenticity here, then know this: currently they are planting Orange Pippin trees, which is a specific kind of apple, in the Village so that in time they can make the historic bitters recipe really as it was made.
One more time: they're growing apple trees in order to make more historically accurate bitters. Lots of bars are making their own bitters nowadays, but how many can claim that?
All in the name of authenticity.
One of the most interesting features inside the Henry Ford Museum (a separate indoor facility that houses, in a traditional museum atmosphere, many more objects not found in the adjacent Greenfield Village) is the kitchen display in the home arts area. There are four kitchens which show, over the course of 200 years, from the colonial era through the mid-20th century, the changes in what many consider to be the most important room in a house.
This
is a wonderful set up. If I had one minor complaint it would be that
they should have a placard next to each kitchen explaining the
progression and new innovations from the previous one.
I find it fascinating to see how this most beloved room in the home has changes considerably over the course of 160 years.
One of the most interesting features inside the Henry Ford Museum (a separate indoor facility that houses, in a traditional museum atmosphere, many more objects not found in the adjacent Greenfield Village) is the kitchen display in the home arts area. There are four kitchens which show, over the course of 200 years, from the colonial era through the mid-20th century, the changes in what many consider to be the most important room in a house.
A kitchen around 1770 |
A kitchen from around 1840 |
A kitchen from around 1890 |
A kitchen from the 1930's |
I find it fascinating to see how this most beloved room in the home has changes considerably over the course of 160 years.
Let's remember the most important part of food preparation: reaping what you sow. I'd like to write something I'm sure many of you may have read, especially as children, but can be taken out of the book and placed before your eyes as something very real.
Let's see if you can guess what book it's from:
At
noon the threshers came in to the table loaded with food. But there was none too
much, for threshers work hard and get very hungry.
By the middle of the afternoon the machines had finished all the threshing, and the men who owned them drove them away into the Big Woods, taking with them the sacks of wheat that were their pay. They were going to the next place where neighbors had stacked their wheat and wanted the machines to thresh it.
By the middle of the afternoon the machines had finished all the threshing, and the men who owned them drove them away into the Big Woods, taking with them the sacks of wheat that were their pay. They were going to the next place where neighbors had stacked their wheat and wanted the machines to thresh it.
Pa was very tired that night, but he was happy. He said to Ma:
“It would have taken Henry and Peterson and Pa and me a couple of weeks apiece to thresh as much grain with flails as that machine threshed today. We wouldn’t have got as much wheat, either, and it wouldn’t have been as clean.
“That
machine’s a great invention!” he said. “Other folks can stick to old fashioned
ways if they want to, but I’m all for progress. It’s a great age we’re living
in. As long as I raise wheat, I’m going to have a machine come and thresh it,
if there’s one anywhere in the neighborhood.”
(From
the book Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder)
I suppose in the great scheme of things the autumn harvest and the food it produces is a minor footnote to most historians. But I see it differently: if we’re to fully understand the whys and wherefores of the lives of our ancestors, then why shouldn’t we at least make the attempt to grasp the entire spectrum and include what they ate and drank in the experience?
And it's these thoughts that make me wonder - maybe the Fall Flavors Weekend was meant to be, for that’s how I discovered food history. And believe me when I say that Greenfield Village takes their food history seriously.
Coupled with the harvest activities during the Fall Flavors Weekend, I don’t know if there is another place that gives such an authentic and historically accurate dining and harvest experience like you can get at Greenfield Village. I mean, seriously (and especially for local folks), if the closest you come to experiencing the beauty and bounty of the season is a quick trip to an apple orchard, then take whatever opportunity you can and head over to Greenfield Village for an amazing historical sensory travel into the past.
I am not saying this as an advertisement for the Village, for I do not work there. I say it as a historian and lover of social history.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
If you would like to know more about the history of the Eagle Tavern, please click HERE
If you would like to know more about eating historically at a reenactment, please click HERE
For a historical posting on the Fall Harvest, click HERE
If you would like my 2012 perspective on the Fall Food Flavors Weekend, click HERE
To purchase the historical cookbooks, click the title desired:
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy from 1747
The First American Cookbook from 1796
Early American Cookery from 1841
The Buckeye Cookbook from 1877
Food in Colonial & Federal America
Victoria’s Home Companion
If you would like to know more about eating historically at a reenactment, please click HERE
For a historical posting on the Fall Harvest, click HERE
If you would like my 2012 perspective on the Fall Food Flavors Weekend, click HERE
To purchase the historical cookbooks, click the title desired:
The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy from 1747
The First American Cookbook from 1796
Early American Cookery from 1841
The Buckeye Cookbook from 1877
Food in Colonial & Federal America
Victoria’s Home Companion
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