Foraging

Ramps - Allium tricoccum (three seeded garlic, or wild leeks) - are found in the spring and early summer in wooded areas along the Appalacian Mountains. Don't confuse with Lily of the Valley.

There are many small and large Ramp festivals and dinners. West Virginia hosts so many there is a website listing yearly events HERE

Flour / Grist Mills tapes, Oliver Evans vs the Ellicotts

Sharpening millstones (photo on left and in blog post). Wye Mills in Maryland is having three talks on mills and grains. Orrell’s Beaten Biscuits at Wye. Oliver Evans' patent fight with the Ellicotts. Many taped talks.

Loft over the hearth in 1846 Ireland

During the Irish Famine, or The Great Hunger of 1845-49, this image of a loft, oddly built over the hearth fire in a County Kerry tenent's cabin was in The Pictorial Times, London.
So what was on the loft?

Maple sugaring

Native Americans collecting sap, then boiling it in a 1724 image. Two talks are about Native American traditions in Vermont and Michigan.

Several taped maple syrup and harvesting talks, followed by this week's talks.

People's Collection of Wales & Welsh Cakes

The National Library of Wales's A People's Story of Wales is a wonderful collection of film clips, oral histories, books, photos, recipes and more.
Welsh Cakes on griddle over fire.

Valentine Sweets - Chocolate and Candies

Many taped talks on chocolate.

Cattle, Dairy, Cheese, and Butchers virtual talks

There was an interesting talk last fall on "Plymouth Women and the Birth of the American Dairy Business," taped, but there have been, and will be, other good talks. Image: Cattle Market before a large city, 1820

Bees and Insects - virtual and taped talks

Bee behavior, wax, honey, an entire day of bee talks and two talks on eating insects.
Image of bee tanging, link below.

African American foodways talks

As usual, here are the talks for Black History Month. More will be added here and on the main Calendar. Farmers & Great Migration. Hercules Posey. Black Women's contributions to America’s Kitchen, and Wiki edit-a-thon. 1890 image of White House cook Dolly Johnson, tape below.
A list of taped talks, then a list of this week's talks.

Banqueting sweets for a Prince of Wales c1610

A very interesting online recipe manuscript with a terrific 4 page list of "Severall sorts of sweet meates fitting for a bankquett" was described in a talk by Dr. Sara Pennell. The recipes include Marchpanes, Rock Candies, Comfeits, Dryed Suckette, Marmallets, Dryed pasts, Past de Jaun, Preserves, Jellies/ Gellyes, Waferes, Bakemeates, Conseits, Serrops...

Canned goods grown on the farm & Home Ec talks

Some puckish humor from Puck, 1906 - "What we get to eat in the country." Cans of chickens running around the barnyard, fishing for canned salmon, condensed milk in the dairy...

Oat cakes utensils - and Robert Burns

Poet Robert Burns called Scotland the "land o cakes" - oatcakes. So after the article on tools, I want to sneak in some upcoming Burns talks. One talk includes a tour and history of his birthplace, now a museum, and the annual Burns Dinner to celebrate his birth.

Art and food

Vermeer’s The Milkmaid c1660 (left) is his perfect painting in a talk next month. Bellini's Feast of the Gods, 1514 was one of the first to show Chinese porcelain, and another talk is also on Chinese porcelain. Over 2000 images of 16th century Mexico (including pouring chocolate) in The Florentine Codex are being digitized with text and made searchable.

Egg Nog - setting the story straight

George Washington personally wrote the following recipe??? "...fold slowly into mixture... Taste frequently." No. Another false claim is that a travellor, Weld, wrote in 1796 that egg nog was first served at breakfast in City Tavern, Phila. No, in Maryland. Thanks to the internet, WAY too many bloggers and book authors are blindly passing these modern tales on.

Pa. German Christmas and New Years traditions

This Tuesday, Landis Valley Museum staff will do a talk on the Pa. German customs for Christmas and New Years. Below is an 1853 account of Krishkinkle, stockings with sugar plums, and for those who are bad... a visit from Belsnickel. Also baking cookies for Christmas at Landis.

Have a Merry Christmas.

Alexis Soyer - more than just a celebrity chef

What a Renaissance Man Chef! -- humanitarian (Irish Famine and later he literally shortened his life by going to Crimea to help organize feeding the UK troops during the Crimean War), designer of cooking apparatus (camp stove for army, Reform Club kitchen, soup kitchen), cookbook author, promoter, writer... oh yes, and a chef. And, as seen in the image, a tad flamboyant.

From bones to diet to migration via Isotopes

Isotopic analysis on bones (humans and animals) can determine what they ate and where they were raised. So even when buried elsewhere, such as Jamestown, their earlier home and foods can be determined. Amazing.
A couple talks explain the proceedure and its importance to learning about the food and migration of our ancestors.

Christmas talks 2021 and taped talks

Christmas – dinner by Annie Gray(De3) food & drink(1) feast in art(22) at sea(7) London railways(16) among enslaved(15) family recipes(2) Roman origins(2) Pagan festivals(20) Medieval(7,10) Georgian/ Regency(19,22) Victorian(8,15) WWII (16) Mid 1900s(6) Britain (8,9,10,17) Wales(9,16) Canada(5,12) US(9,11,15,16,20) New Eng(9,14) Germany(12,14,17) Italy(12,15,18) France(18) Mexico(8)

Yorkshire oat cakes 1814 & backstone / bakestone

Oat cake, Haver-cake, or Clap-bread were made very thin in Yorkshire. Costing one penny, the size of the ladle would change depending on the cost of the oats. Ladeled over dried meal on a board, put on bakestone, then on cloth, then hung on a creel.

Passing on your family recipes

It's Family Stories Month, so talks on kitchen tales (show and tell), share family traditions and recipes, Holiday Foods and Your Family History, Christmas festivities and family traditions, and talks on doing your family history. Its never too late to start collecting recipes and stories from relatives and writing them down.