1675 – “Our garden at New Castle provides the kitchen with turnips, skirrets, and coleworts. Mistress Anna tends it daily.” — Letter from Jan van Gezel to the Dutch West India Company, New Netherland Correspondence, Delaware Archives.
1702 – “Elizabeth Bosman has made a thriving physic garden by the creek. She supplies many neighbors with pennyroyal, balm, and horehound.” — Court Records of the Town of Lewes, Sussex County Historical Society.
1723 – “A Dutch widow near Appoquinimink grows quantities of sorrel, endive, and parsley, which she dries in her loft for winter use.” — Extract from travel journal of Rev. Thomas Lambert, Colonial Manuscript Collection, University of Delaware.
1745 – “In Wilmington I saw several gardens growing sallet herbs and onions. One woman offered me her recipe for pickled nasturtiums.” — Diary of Capt. Jonathan Warner, Warner Family Papers, Delaware Historical Society.
1762 – “At Christiana Bridge, old Mrs. Kemble cultivates a plot of physic herbs, including vervain, rue, and tansy. The townspeople speak of her skill.” — Local account, The Delaware Gazette, May 6, 1762.
1774 – “Miss Deborah Willis advertised parsley and cabbage seeds for sale along with elderflower water and candied angelica.” — The Delaware Journal, March 2, 1774.
