Early American Food
This
traditional American holiday is centered on a myth of the Puritan settlers in
New England. It is a celebration of the
harvest, of survival in a new world, and of friendship between the settlers and
the First People. Thanksgiving became an
American tradition only during the American Civil War (c 1863) and a Federal
holiday as America began to emerge from the Great Depression and on the eve of
our entry into World War II (1941).
The
traditional foods of this celebration are indeed largely from the
Americas: Turkey, sweet potatoes,
pumpkin and cranberries. But there is
much more to the story.
The early
settlers were certainly not castaways although they did face extreme
conditions, a new climate, and had much to learn in order to survive. The Pilgrims came on a small ship but they
did bring tools for farming and building, seeds, animals, cookware and such. Unfortunately they arrived at the onset of
winter in a northern clime and that first winter was so harsh that half of
their party perished. Eventually, unlike
a number of previous settlements in North America, they did survive, and the
harvest the following year was abundant.
From the fields, both English and Indian, came corn, beans, pumpkins,
squash, peas, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, onions, sweet potatoes, radishes,
cabbages, beets, turnips, bread from European grain; and from forest, sea and
stream came wild turkeys, ducks and geese, fish, lobster, clams, oysters, deer
and wild berries, cranberries, walnuts, chestnuts, acorns.
Europeans
settled along a wide climate range from New England to the Carolinas. For their part, they introduced cows, sheep,
goats, pigs, horses, rabbits, and chickens.
Europe also supplied walnuts, almonds, apples, apricots, peaches, pears,
oranges, lemons, olives, black pepper, tea and coffee, sorghum, sugar cane,
bananas, wheat, barley, rice, rye, millet, oats, beets, asparagus, cabbage,
cantaloupe, cucumber, carrot, eggplant, garlic, lettuce, okra, onions, peas,
turnips, watermelons, and cotton. Found
in the Americas were beans, bell peppers, blueberries, chili, cocoa,
huckleberries, maize, peanuts, pecans, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, sunflower,
sweet potatoes, tobacco, and tomatoes.
One
of my favorite planting methods inherited from the First People is the “Three
Sisters” where three vegetables (corn, beans and squash) are planted in a
single hill. The corn serves as a
climbing pole for the beans, and the squash provides cover to block weeds and
grass and the prickly vines deter animal pest.
The beans provide nitrogen for the corn.
On this one small mound, these three plants produce all the amino acids
of a complete protein — tasty and highly nutritious. The picture to the right is from the garden
at the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts; one of the early Pilgrim
settlements. Ralph Waldo Emerson lived
in that house when he first moved to Concord and there he wrote his first book,
Nature.
A
mixture of European and American foods were readily adapted to colonial agriculture. Crops depended upon climate and soil, and
growing seasons and soils varied greatly from New England to the Carolinas and
from the coast to the mountains inland beyond the fall line. Those pioneering farmers readily
adapted. Our early economy was founded
on grown exports. Several crops were
cultivated primarily for export, such as tobacco and cotton. Lumber from the endless forests was harvested
for shipbuilding and the European market.
Molasses (sweet sorghum) and corn were converted into rum and whiskey,
respectively, for both trade and local consumption. Fish were abundant along the coast and many
thousands of tons were salted and shipped to Europe. We have much to be grateful for from our
fruitful land and from the agricultural heritage of two great cultures.
The American Food System Today
Over
the centuries, agriculture has flourished in America. Our land has provided a rich bounty of foods
and a livelihood for generations of families.
Industrialization has had a major impact on our food system. Climate change is having an even more
profound impact both here and around the world.
We are in urgent need to closely examine and correct flaws in the food
system. That starts at home, both in
terms of the local community and local foods and, yes, in our own back yards
and community gardens.
