Garden Design - The Traditional White Picket Fence

In front of our house, we asked the contractor to build an old fashioned, simple, white picket fence to separate the little garden area from all the woods around us. The contractor was skeptical, "But they are so much work to maintain." That is true, but they make such a perfect, orderly, geometric backdrop for the wild, uncontrollable gifts of Nature. These photos of picket fence gardens fueled our aspirations.

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Garden Design - Arbors with & without Accompanying Fences

Arbor refers to an open structure formed from leafy trees, shrubs, or vines planted closely together for self-support or supported on a frame offering shade, privacy, and protection for a gathering of people or shading a garden bench for only a few people.

Larger arbors for community gatherings in 18th-century colonial America usually were constructed from the cut & bound limbs and leaves of local plants. In the British American colonies, an arbor was often referred to as a bower or shady retreat.

The term arbor was used early in England, often applied to a shaded alley or walkway. In England, Chaucer referred to arbors (herbers) around 1385.

John Parkinson mentioned arbors in his 1629 Paradisi in Sole Paradisus, "Arbours also being both gracefull and necessary, may be appointed in such convenient places, as the corners, or elsewhere, as may be most fit, to serve both as shadow and rest after walking."

In 1712, Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville (1680–1765), French courtier, natural historian, artist, & garden theorist, wrote in his Theory and Practice of Gardening that arbors were of 2 sorts, natural and artificial. Natural was fashioned from branches of trees, while artificial arbors were composed completely of lattice-work.

And Philip Miller suggested that the arbor might be out of fashion in his 1755 Dictionary, "These were formerly in great esteem with us than at present...covered seats or alcoves are everywhere at this time preferred to them."

Despite the fact that Miller saw arbors in decline among the people in the know, references to arbors appear early in the British American colonies & continue to appear throughout the 18th-century. In 1680, visitor Jasper Danckaerts reported, "We had nowhere seen so many vines together as we saw here, which had been planted for the purpose of shading the walks on the river side, in between the trees."

Peter Kalm noted in his Travels in North America in 1749, that the colonials planted wild vines in "gardens near arbours, and summer-houses...over which the vines climb with their tendrils, and cover them entirely with their foliage, so as to shelter them from the heat & the sun."

In 1754, when Dr. Alexander Garden described botanist John Bartram's garden in Philadelphia, he wrote, "He disdains to have a garden less than Pennsylvania, & every den is an Arbour, Every run of water, a Canal, & every small level Spot a Parterre."

Even the small town garden of Annapolis, Maryland, craftsman William Faris contained an arbor in 1793, when he wrote in his diary that he had "planted flowering beans...round the Arber."

Often arbors were larger, more open sheltered spaces meant to hold many people for gatherings. In 1743, in Chesterfield County, Virginia, a church meeting was held "at Clays arber." Several public celebrations were held in arbors built specifically for the special occasion.

An issue of the August, 1746, Virginia Gazette in Williamsburg reported that "The Gentlemen of Hanover County... expressing their Joy and Loyalty, on Occasion of the Defeat of the Rebels in Scotland...a great Number of Gentlemen and Ladies, inhabitants of that and the adjacent Counties, met at the House of Mr. Waters; where a handsome Dinner was provided; a long Arbour was set up, in which 50 Gentlemen and Ladies din'd."

The South-Carolina Gazette in July of 1755, described a meeting with the Cherokees in Charleston, "On Wednesday July 2d, Cannacaughte the Chief, and the other Indians , arrived from their Camp, which lay at three Miles Distance, and were received by the Governor as usual; and His Excellency and Cannacaughte being seated under an Arbour, all the Head-men and Head warriors were placed on Benches fronting them, the other Warriors and Indians sitting all around on the Ground under the Trees."

And during the Revolution in 1781, Robert Honyman reported that "There was not one Tent in the British army, all of them lying under temporary sheds or arbours, made with boughs of Trees, fence rails &c., even officers of the highest rank."

A public celebration honoring an ally during the revolutionary war was reported in the Pennsylvania Gazette in the summer of 1782. "On the 25th of June last, the birth of the Dauphin of France was celebrated by the people of Talbot county, in the State of Maryland, in pursuance of the recommendation of the Governor and Council of that State, a convenient arbour was erected on the banks of Wye river, at Mr. Baker Old Field Landing, where an elegant entertainment was provided sufficient for 200 people, at which a large number of respectable ladies and gentlemen dined."

In 1797, Frances Baylor Hill of "Hillsborough" in Virginia, reported that she "went to Dunkirk to the Barbacue...The Ladies all went to the arbour and had din'd."

1796 Charles Fraser (1782-1860) Arbor for Gatherings. Carolina Art Association. Charleston, South Carolina.

Arbors were also a favorite in the commercial public pleasure gardens in the new republic. They offered both shelter and privacy as patrons discussed business, politics, or just opted for romance.

In 1787, Rev. Manasseh Cutler described the popular Gray's Garden near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, "At every end, side, and corner, there were summer-houses, arbors covered with vines or flowers or shady bowers encircled with trees and flowering shrubs, each of which was formed in a different taste."Henry Wansey also noted the arbors in Gray's Gardens in 1794, "The ground has every advantage of hill and dale, for being laid out in great variety; and it is neatly decorated with alcoves, arbours, shady walks, etc."

Often the shade and privacy offered by an arbor was used to promote the sale or rental of property. In Charleston, South Carolina in February, 1734, a property for sale advertisement in a newspaper touted it to be, "on an island which commands an entire prospect of the Harbor...A delightful Wilderness with shady Walks and Arbours, cool in the hottest seasons."

In 1767, the Pennsylvania Gazette advertised, "To be LETT, On the Five Mile Round, about two miles south of Philadelphia, on a pleasant spot of ground. A TWO story brick house of 45 by 31 feet, four rooms on each floor, three good rooms in the garret... a garden and orchard of choice fruit trees; the ground is divided by fences in a regular uniform manner; two summer houses of each side the entrance of an avenue, at the end of which is an arbour."

An arbor was a selling point for a house in 1789, which the owners were attempting to sell in New York City, "That elegant Dwelling House, called White-conduit house, two stories and half high, having seven fire places...together with an agreeable pleasure garden, with beautiful arbours, and a stable and coach house."

Eliza Southgate, in 1802, described the gardens the Hasket Derby house in Salem, Massachusettes, "at the upper end of the garden there was a beautiful arbour formed of a mound of turf and 'twas surrounded by a thick row of poplar trees which branched out quite to the bottom and so close together that you could not see through."

Thomas Jefferson, who was always redesigning his homes & gardens, wrote of new garden plans for Monticello in 1804, "Through the whole line (of temples) from 1 to 4 have the walk covered by an arbor, to wit, locust forks set in the group crossed by poles at top & lathes on these. Grape vines principally to cover the top. The sides quite open."

These arbors are similar to that described by Juliana Margaret Conner in Salem, North Carolina in 1827, which had been planted in the 1780s, "into the garden...we saw...a curiosity...extremely beautiful. It was a large summer house formed of eight cedar trees planted in a circle, the tops whilst young were chained together in the center forming a cone. The immense branches were all cut, so that there was not a leaf, the outside is beautifully trimmed perfectly even and very thick within, were seats placed around and doors or openings were cut, through the branches, it had been planted 40 years."

The image of the open-air arbor was even used in a piece of advice reported in the Williamsburg newspaper from a gentleman to his son. The Virginia Gazette printed in January of 1752, the instructions of Lord Treasurer Burleigh to his son Robert. "Let thy Kindred and Allies be welcome at thy House and Table. Grace them with thy Countenance, and further them in all honest Actions; for by this Means thou shalt so double the Band of Nature as thou shalt find them so many Advocates to plead an Apology for thee behind thy Back: But shake of those Glow-worms, Parasites and Sycophants, who will feed and sawn upon thee in the Summer of Prosperity, but in an adverse Storm, they will shelter thee no more than an Arbour in Winter." 

Seeds & Plants - From the Fields - Flax to Homespun - Revolutionary Resistance through Homespun

Spinning Bees, local gatherings to spin yarn, became political meetings as colonial anger about "taxation without representation" grew. The amount of thread & yarn spun at spinning bees was often published in the local papers, as towns & church congregations established homespun production rivalries. Wearing homespun became a political statement. At the 1st commencement of Rhode Island College (later Brown University) in the 1760s, the president proudly wore homespun clothing while conducting the ceremony. At Harvard, the faculty & students regularly wore homespun clothing.

Made in America: Revolutionary Resistance through Homespun & the Rise of American Textile Manufacturing

By Neal T. Hurst, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Associate Curator for Costume & Textiles, March 17, 2020

As tensions rose between the American Colonies & Great Britain in the late 1760s, some Virginians displayed their defiance to the Crown in their choice of garments fashioned from locally made fabrics. Homespun — or locally produced textiles — announced the political leanings of the wearer. These homespun textiles also became a necessity once trade with England ended in 1774 & Virginia & other Colonies were faced with meeting the textile demand through local production.

As early as the 17th century, Colonists began to process & weave their own fabrics, & “homespun” came to define any textiles produced domestically in a nonindustrial setting. Raw materials such as linen, cotton, wool, hemp & even silk were transformed into fabrics in North America for local consumption. Most of these homespun textiles would be used as household linens, bed curtains &, on occasion, even for clothing.

Textiles made up the single largest import from England during the 17th & 18th centuries. In theory, the American Colonies produced raw materials & exported them to England. In return, they received finished goods. A series of Navigation Acts — English laws dictating that the Colonies could receive European goods only from England — helped to codify this system.

From the fine & fancy to the plain & everyday, the English goods were better quality & could be purchased at competitive or cheaper prices. Most Colonists bought imported English textiles & used them not only within their homes but also for their clothing.

In the spring of 1769, political debates over taxation raged throughout Virginia. The recently repealed Stamp Act, which had imposed a tax on every piece of paper the Colonists used, remained fresh in many minds. The newly passed Townshend Acts placed a set of taxes on imported glass, lead, paints, paper & tea. In May of that year, Virginia’s House of Burgesses passed a resolution that directly challenged Parliament’s right to tax Virginians. In retaliation, Norborne Berkeley, Baron de Botetourt, who had been appointed Virginia’s royal governor only a few months before, formally dissolved the governing body.

A day later, the burgesses met at the Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg & formed the Virginia Association, which called on Virginians to “promote & encourage industry & frugality, & discourage all manner of luxury & extravagance.” Starting Sept. 1, 1769, those who signed the agreement would no longer import listed goods from England, including many textiles such as linens, wools, cottons & silks above a certain price. It even suggested that sheep should not be slaughtered & instead should be kept for their wool. As other Colonies adopted associations, they shared Virginia’s logic that nonimportation & increasing domestic production would put pressure on the English economy & that British merchants & producers would beg Parliament to repeal all of the taxes on the American Colonies.

Men & women throughout Virginia worked steadily to increase domestic production & took pride in wearing homespun. Martha Jacquelin in York County, Virginia, wrote to her London agent in August 1769, “You’ll see by my invoice that I am an Associator … But believe me, our poor country never stood in more need of an Effort to save her from ruin than now, not more from taxes & want of Trayd (sic) than from our own extravagances … I expect to be dressed in Virginia cloth very soon.” Virginia cloth, another term for domestically made textiles, became a fashionable way to show frugality & prove that Virginians did not need to rely upon English imported fabrics.

In December 1769, the House of Burgesses decided to host Lord Botetourt at a ball in the Capitol, only six months after he dismissed the governing body. The day after the event, The Virginia Gazette reported that the “same patriotic spirit which gave rise to the associations of the Gentlemen … was most agreeably manifested in the dress of the ladies.” More than 100 women appeared at the Capitol wearing homespun gowns. The quality of the fabric & where they acquired the quantity needed for the gowns remains unknown. The Gazette wished “that all assemblies of American Ladies would exhibit a like example of public virtue & private economy, so amiably united.”

In the remaining years leading up to the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, more associations were signed or strengthened to keep economic pressure on the English. The Eastern Seaboard continued to produce textiles at a rapid rate. The Derby Mercury in Ireland, which was a center of the linen trade, reported in 1770 that the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, maintained no less than 50 looms & 7,000 spinning wheels, producing more than 30,000 yards of linens & woolens a year.

Homespun fabric even became a political statement for Americans visiting England. Edmund Jenings, a Virginia-born lawyer who lived in London, wrote a letter to Richard Henry Lee informing him of his new clothing. He wrote, “Your brother has given me cloth made in your family I wear it on all occasions to show the politicians of this country that the sheep of America have not hair on their backs. — They can hardly believe their eyes.”

On Dec. 1, 1774, the final nonimportation agreement took effect when signed by the first Continental Congress. The Colonies would not import any goods, including textiles, from Great Britain. Virginians along with the other 12 American Colonies would need to produce all the textiles for their households & apparel, a nearly impossible task.

The outbreak of war in April 1775 would create an even larger problem: clothing & equipping an infant army & navy.

The military needed enormous amounts of textiles for clothing, tents, knapsacks, haversacks & blankets. Initially, tens of thousands of yards of fabric arrived in storehouses across the Colonies, including both pieces bought before the nonimportation agreements & homespun woven in homes, farms & plantations. These materials were quickly depleted, & more were immediately needed. With no imports coming from Great Britain & domestic production not meeting the demand, the American army faced major supply shortages.

The Continental Congress sought help to get materials, especially textiles, for its newly established military force. Emissaries traveled to Spain & Holland & gained some initial support. Dressed in a very plain manner with a pine marten fur cap, Benjamin Franklin visited the court of France. The French Court admired Franklin & his unique American dress, which they may have believed was homespun. Franklin secured the Treaty of Alliance between the newly formed United States of America & the French that allowed much needed supplies to flow into the United States.

With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 & the end of the American Revolution, American merchants quickly resumed trading with England. Once again it was cheaper to import high-quality textiles than to establish the industry in the new republic. Still, Americans continued to produce homespun fabrics to supplement the imported textiles they purchased from England. The textile industry began to slowly establish itself, especially in the New England states.

When George Washington was unanimously elected president, he began to carefully craft what he would wear at his inauguration. After seeing an advertisement in a New York newspaper for American-made broadcloths (a heavily fulled or napped wool), he contacted his friend, Gen. Henry Knox. On Jan. 29, 1789, Washington wrote, “I have ventured to trouble you with the Commission of purchasing enough [broadcloth] to make me a suit of Cloaths. As to the colour, I shall leave it altogether to your taste; only observing, that, if the dye should not appear to be well fixed, & clear, or if the cloth should not really be very fine, then (in my Judgment) some colour mixed in grain might be preferable to an indifferent [stained] dye. I shall have occasion to trouble you for nothing but the cloth & twist to make the button holes.”

On April 30, 1789, Washington became the first president of the United States. He wore a brown broadcloth three-piece suit made from fabric woven at the Hartford Woolen Manufactory, a newly established business in Connecticut. In October of that same year, Washington visited the factory & wrote in his diary, “I viewed the Woolen Manufactury at this place which seems to be going on with Spirit. There (sic) Broadcloths are not of the first quality, as yet, but they are good; as are their Coatings, Cassimers, Serges & everlastings. Of the first that is broad-cloth I ordered a suit to be sent to me at New York & of the latter a whole piece to make breeches for my servants.”

By choosing an American-produced broadcloth for his first inaugural suit, Washington supported the economic growth & industrial establishment within the newly established United States. In the 19th century, an American textile industry would blossom.

See Colonial Williamsburg here.  Neal Hurst is the Foundation’s associate curator for costume and textiles. He also spent 7 years in the Historic Area earning his journeyman status as a tailor.

Geo Washington (1732-1799) - Managing his Field Crops before the Revolution

George Washington as Farmer by Junius Brutus Stearns. 1851

George Washington: Farmer (1915) by Paul Leland Haworth (1876-1936) 

Agricultural Operations & Experiments before the Revolution

In the beginning, there was scant help for Washington as a farmer...The Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture was not founded until 1785. In his later years our Farmer could & did write to such foreign specialists as Arthur Young & Sir John Sinclair, but they were Englishmen unfamiliar with American soils & climate & could rarely give a weighty answer propounded to them by an American...

...Thus in the fall of 1764 we find him sowing "a few Oats to see if they would stand the winter." Any country boy of to-day could tell him that ordinary oats sown under such conditions in the latitude of Mount Vernon would winter kill too badly to be of much use, but Washington could not know it till he had tried.

He began...his experiment in March, 1760, with lucerne. Lucerne is alfalfa. It will probably be news to most readers that alfalfa--the wonderful forage crop of the West, the producer of more gold than all the mines of the Klondike--was in use so long ago, for the impression is pretty general that it is comparatively new; the fact is that it is older than the Christian era & that the name alfalfa comes from the Arabic & means "the best crop." Evidently our Farmer had been reading on the subject, for in his diary he quotes what "Tull speaking of lucerne, says." He tried out the plant on this & several other occasions & had a considerable field of it in 1798.

In this same year, 1760, we find him sowing clover, rye, grass, hope, trefoil, timothy, spelt, which was a species of wheat, & various other grasses & vegetables, most of them to all intents & purposes unknown to the Virginia agriculture of that day.

He also recorded an interesting experiment with fertilizer. April 14, 1760, he writes in his diary:
"Mixed my composts in a box with the apartments in the following manner, viz. No. 1 is three pecks of earth brought from below the hill out of the 46 acre field without any mixture. In No. 2 is two pecks of sand earth & one of marle taken out of the said field, which marle seemed a little inclined to sand. 3 has 2 pecks of sd. earth & 1 of river sand.
"4 has a peck of Horse Dung
"5 has mud taken out of the creek
"6 has cow dung
"7 has marle from the Gulleys on the hillside, wch. seem'd to be purer than the other
"8 sheep dung
"9 Black mould from the Gulleys on the hill side, wch. seem'd to be purer than the other
"10 Clay got just below the garden

"All mixed with the same quantity & sort of earth in the most effective manner by reducing the whole to a tolerable degree of fineness & rubbing them well together on a cloth. In each of these divisions were planted three grains of wheat, 3 of oats, & as many of barley, all of equal distances in Rows & of equal depth done by a machine made for the purpose. The wheat rows are next the numbered side, the oats in the middle, & the barley on the side next the upper part of the Garden. Two or three hours after sowing in this manner, & about an hour before sunset I watered them all equally alike with water that had been standing in a tub abt two hours exposed to the sun."  Three weeks later he inspected the boxes & concluded that Nos. 8 & 9 gave the best results.

The plows of the period were cumbersome & did their work poorly. Consequently in March, 1760, Washington "Fitted a two Eyed Plow instead of a Duck Bill Plow", & tried it out, using his carriage horses in the work. But this new model proved upon the whole a failure & a little later he "Spent the greater part of the day in making a new plow of my own Invention." Next day he set the new plow to work "and found She answerd very well."  A little later he "got a new harrow made of smaller & closer teethings for harrowing in grain--the other being more proper for preparing the ground for sowing."

Much of his attention in the next few years was devoted to wheat growing, for, as already related, he soon decided gradually to discontinue tobacco & it was imperative for him to discover some [pg other money crop to take its place. We find him steeping his seed wheat in brine & alum to prevent smut & he also tried other experiments to protect his grain from the Hessian fly & rust. Noticing how the freezing & thawing of the ground in spring often injured the wheat by lifting it out of the ground, he adopted the practice of running a heavy roller over the wheat in order to get the roots back into the ground & he was confident that when the operation was performed at the proper time, that is when the ground was soft & the roots were still alive, it was productive of good results.

In June, 1763, he "dug up abt. a load of Marle to spread over Wheat Land for experiment." In 1768 he came to the conclusion that most farmers began to cut their wheat too late, for of course cradling was a slow process--scarcely four acres per day per cradler--and if the acreage was large several days must elapse before the last of the grain could be cut, with the result that some of it became so ripe that many of the kernels were shattered out & lost before the straw could be got to the threshing floor. By careful experiments he determined that the grain would not lose perceptibly in size & weight if the wheat were cut comparatively green. In wheat-growing communities the discussion as to this question still rages--extremists on one side will not cut their wheat till it is dead ripe, while those on the other begin to harvest it when it is almost sea-green.

In 1763 Washington entered into an agreement with John Carlyle & Robert Adams of Alexandria to sell to them all the wheat he would have to dispose of in the next seven years. The price was to be three shillings & nine pence per bushel, that is, about ninety-one cents. This would not be far from the average price of wheat to-day, but, on the one side, we should bear in mind that ninety-one cents then had much greater purchasing power than now, so that the price was really much greater, and, on the other, that the cost of raising wheat was larger then, owing to lack of self-binders, threshing machines & other labor-saving devices.

The wheat thus sold by Washington was to be delivered at the wharf at Alexandria or beside a boat or flat on Four Mile Run Creek. The delivery for 1764 was 257-1/2 bushels; for 1765, 1,112-3/4 bushels; for 1766, 2,331-1/2 bushels; for 1767--a bad year--1,293-1/2 bushels; for 1768, 4,994-1/2 bushels [pg 097] of wheat & 4,304-1/2 bushels of corn; for 1769, 6,241-1/2 bushels of wheat.

Thereafter he ground a good part of his wheat & sold the flour. He owned three mills, one in western Pennsylvania, already referred to, a second on Four Mile Run near Alexandria, & a third on the Mount Vernon estate. This last mill had been in operation since his father's day. It was situated near the mouth of the stream known as Dogue Run, which was not very well suited for the purpose as it ran from the extreme of low water in summer to violent floods in winter & spring. Thus his miller, William A. Poole, in a letter that wins the sweepstakes in phonetic spelling, complains in 1757 that he has been able to grind but little because "She fails by want of Water." At other times the Master sallies out in the rain with rescue crews to save the mill from floods & more than once the "tumbling dam" goes by the board in spite of all efforts. The lack of water was partly remedied in 1771 by turning the water of Piney Branch into the Run, & about the same time a new & better mill was erected, while in 1797 further improvements were made. During the whole period flatboats & small schooners could come to the wharf to take away the flour. Corn & other grains were ground, as well as wheat, & the mill had considerable neighborhood custom, the toll exacted being one-eighth. Only a few stones sticking in a bank now remain of the mill.

Washington divided his flour into superfine, fine, middlings & ship stuff. It was put into barrels manufactured by the plantation coopers & much of it ultimately found its way to the West India market. A tradition--much quoted--has it that barrels marked "George Washington, Mount Vernon," were accepted in the islands without any inspection, but Mr. J.M. Toner, one of the closest students of Washington's career, contended that this was a mistake & pointed to the fact that the Virginia law provided for the inspection of all flour before it was exported & the placing of a brand on each barrel...

That his flour was so good was in large measure due to the excellent quality of the wheat from which it was made. By careful attention to his seed & to cultivation he succeeded in raising grain that often weighed upward of sixty pounds to the bushel. After the Revolution he wrote: "No wheat that has ever yet fallen under my observation exceeds the wheat which some years ago I cultivated extensively."

His idea of good cultivation in these years was to let his fields lie fallow at certain intervals, though he also made use of manure, marl, etc., & in 1772 tried the experiment of sowing two bushels of salt per acre upon fallow ground, dividing the plot up into strips eight feet in width & sowing the alternate strips in order that he might be able to determine results.

He imported from England an improved Rotheran or patent plow, and, having noticed in an agricultural work mention of a machine capable of pulling up two or three hundred stumps per day, he expressed a desire for one, saying: "If the accounts are not greatly exaggerated, such powerful assistance must be of vast utility in many parts of this wooden country, where it is impossible for our force (and laborers are not to be hired here), between the finishing of one crop & preparations for another, to clear ground fast enough to afford the proper changes, either in the planting or farming business."

Garden to Table - Home-Made Dandelion Wine

John Greenwood (American artist, 1727-1792) Sea Captains Carousing, 1758.  Detail

Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines Cordials & Liqueurs 1909 by Helen S. Wright

DANDELION WINE
Four quarts of dandelions. Cover with four quarts of boiling water; let stand three days. Add peel of three oranges and one lemon. Boil fifteen minutes; drain and add juice of oranges and lemon to four pounds of sugar and one cup of yeast. Keep in warm room and strain again; let stand for three weeks. It is then ready to bottle and serve.

Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines is a cookbook for those who want to make their own wines & liqueurs from available ingredients, including fruits, flowers, vegetables, & shrubs from local gardens, farms, & orchards. It includes ingredients & instructions for making & fermenting spirits, from wine & ale to sherry, brandy, cordials, & even beer. 

Colonial Era Cookbooks

1615, New Booke of Cookerie, John Murrell (London) 

1798, American Cookery, Amelia Simmons (Hartford, CT)

1803, Frugal Housewife, Susannah Carter (New York, NY)

1807, A New System of Domestic Cookery, Maria Eliza Rundell (Boston, MA)

1808, New England Cookery, Lucy Emerson (Montpelier, VT)

Helpful Secondary Sources

America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking/Keith Stavely and Kathleen Fitzgerald Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

Colonial Kitchens, Their Furnishings, and Their Gardens/Frances Phipps Hawthorn; 1972

Early American Beverages/John Hull Brown   Rutland, Vt., C. E. Tuttle Co 1996 

Early American Herb Recipes/Alice Cooke Brown  ABC-CLIO  Westport, United States

Food in Colonial and Federal America/Sandra L. Oliver

Home Life in Colonial Days/Alice Morse Earle (Chapter VII: Meat and Drink) New York : Macmillan Co., ©1926.

A Revolution in Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America/James E. McWilliams New York : Columbia University Press, 2005.

Garden Design - 18C Greenhouse from England to Early America

1786 Unknown artist. John Coakley Lettsom (1733–1810), with His Family, in the Garden of Grove Hill, Camberwell.

The painting is notable for its close-up images of a garden bench, greenhouse, urn, espaliered wall, & flower pots.

18C Garden Design - A Virginia Garden Portrait & Cultural Landscape

1748-50 George Booth (1753-1777) as a Young Man by William Dering (active 1735-1751) owned by Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

This portrait depicts a rather pretentious young man with a bow & arrow standing in a highly stylized landscape with a small but clever dog at his feet. George Booth (1753-1777) stands in a formal pose, with his proper right hand on his hip and with his proper left foot turned at a right angle to his supporting foot, his head slightly turned to the viewer’s left but his eyes turned toward the viewer.  He wears a dark brown great coat & knee breeches, a bright red waistcoat adorned with heavy gold brocade trim, and a white shirt & neckcloth. His immaculately powdered hair is curled back away from his lovely face. His black shoes display metal buckles & unusually stylish red heels.

His small but fierce dog glares at the viewer while holding in its mouth a bird shot through with an arrow demonstrating the exceptional hunting prowess of his owner. The young man stands slightly in front of & in-between two female busts on plinths, with a distant view of a formal garden in the near background and, in the distant background, a vast walled estate.

The young man's self-assured pose, the nearly bawdy sculptures flanking him, & the formal garden in the distance reveal his real or desired genteel status, while the hunting dog & bow are symbols of his manly game-park & social dominance. The two female, bust-length sculptures on plinths are unique in American colonial portraiture. Young George seems puffed up with manly pride, as he poses between these busts with his bow and arrow. The buildings in the background are unidentified & were probably an artistic invention meant to reflect the sitter’s real or hoped-for standing among Virginia’s elite plantation society.

George Booth (1753-1777) was son of Mordecai Booth(1675-1775) and Joyce Armistead Booth (1705-1770) of Bellville plantation in Gloucester County.  The Booth family may have been acquainted with the artist Dering, when he lived for a brief period in Gloucester. George married Mary Mason Wythe (1751-1814) and they had children: George Wythe Booth (1772-1808) & Elizabeth Booth (Roy) (b 1773).  After George's death, Mary Mason Wythe Booth (1751-1814) married Philip Tabb in 1788, in Gloucester, Virginia.  

Mary Mason Wythe was the daughter of Nathaniel Wythe & Elizabeth Todd Booth.  Upon the death of her first husband George Booth, land was transferred to their daughter Elizabeth upon which her husband, James Henry Roy would build "Green Plains" on North River.

After her husband's death, George's wife Mary Mason Wythe Booth married her first cousin Phillip Tabb (1750-1822) in 1788. Their home was the center of the county's hospitality. While Philip Tabb followed the hounds, bet on horses, and played cards, his wife became more devout.  She became a Methodist and built the Old Mt. Zion Methodist Church. Bishop Asbury of the M.E. Church in his tour through Gloucester in 1786, said that "she and Joseph Bellamy were the most godly people in Gloucester." 

Garden to Table - Colonial American Alcohol Trivia

Colonial American Alcohol Trivia

The Puritans loaded more beer than water onto the Mayflower before they cast off for the New World. 

There wasn’t any cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, or pumpkin pie to eat at the first Thanksgiving. However, there was beer, brandy, gin, & wine to drink. 

A brewery was one of Harvard College’s first construction projects. That was to ensure a steady supply of beer for the student dining hall. 

The early colonialists made alcoholic beverages from what was available. That included carrots, tomatoes, onions, beets, celery, squash, corn silk, dandelions, & goldenrod. 

The distillation of rum became early Colonial New England’s largest & most prosperous industry. 

A traveler through the Delaware Valley in 1753 compiled a list of the drinks he encountered. All but three of the 48 contained alcohol. 

The Reverend Elijah Craig, a Baptist minister, made the first Kentucky whiskey in 1789. 

The distillation of whiskey led to the first test of federal power. It was the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794. 

The laws of most American colonies required towns to license suitable persons to sell wine & spirits. 

Colonial taverns were often required to be located near the church or meetinghouse. 

George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, & Thomas Jefferson all enjoyed brewing or distilling their own alcohol beverages.

The Colonial Army supplied its troops with a daily ration of four ounces of either rum or whiskey.

Religious services, court sessions, & voting venues were often in the major tavern of Colonial American towns. 

Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence in a tavern in Philadelphia. 

The first signer of the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock, was an alcohol dealer. 

Before he took his famous ride, Paul Revere apparently had two drinks of rum. 

The patriot Patrick Henry (“Give me liberty or give me death”) was a bar tender. 

President Martin Van Buren was born in his father’s tavern. 

Alewives in Colonial America brewed a special high proof “groaning ale” for pregnant women to drink during labor. 

American Alcohol Trivia Resources:

Burns, E. The Spirit of America: The Social History of Alcohol. Philadelphia: Temple U Press, 2004.

Furnas, J. The Life & Times of the Late Demon Rum. Putnam’s Sons, 1965.

Grimes, W. Straight Up or On the Rocks: A Cultural History of American Drink. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1993

Lender, M. & Martin, J. Drinking in America. NY: Free Press, 1982.

Meacham, S. Every Home a Distillery. Alcohol, Gender, & Technology in the Colonial Chesapeake. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U Press, 2013.

Garden to Table - Apples to Cider to Wine

Vinetum Britannicum, or, A treatise of cider and other wines extracted from fruits growing in this kingdom : with the method of propagating all sorts of vinous fruit-trees : and a description of the new-invented ingenio or mill for the more expeditious making of cider: : and also the right way of making metheglin and birch-wine : to which is added A discourse teaching the best way of improving bees. John Worlidge  London : Printed for Thomas Dring, 1691

Most of the 17C & 18C emigrants to America drank hard cider. simply because water was thought not to be a trusted source of daily fluids, so beer, ale, fruit brandy, & cider were more sanitary substitutes. Apples were one of the earliest known crops in the English-speaking New World; ships' manifests show young saplings being carefully planted in barrels & many hopeful farmers bringing bags of seed with them. Within 35 years of the settlement of Jamestown in 1607, the land was turned to grow lucrative tobacco plus edible cash crops like rice, maize, & apples, since they also would have some commercial value in the markets of growing like London.

The earliest written mention of a cider press seems to have been on the Mayflower in 1620. Halfway through the journey, the ship was caught in a storm & one of its beams cracked badly enough to warrant the consideration of turning back to England. "The great iron screw" was taken from a  cider press, helping brace the damaged beam to keep the ship from breaking up & make it to the New World.  Nine days after the Puritans landed William Blackstone is recorded planting the 1st apple trees in the New England colonies. John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1632, recorded his tenants paying their rent on Governor's Island in 2 bushels of apples a year. In 1634, Lord Baltimore instructed settlers of the new colony of Maryland to carry across the sea "kernalls of peares & apples, especially of Pipins, Pearemains, & Deesons for maykinge thereafter of Cider & Perry."

Vinetum Britannicum, or, A treatise of cider and other wines extracted from fruits growing in this kingdom : with the method of propagating all sorts of vinous fruit-trees : and a description of the new-invented ingenio or mill for the more expeditious making of cider: : and also the right way of making metheglin and birch-wine : to which is added A discourse teaching the best way of improving bees. John Worlidge London : Printed for Thomas Dring, 1691

Old-Time Recipes for Home Made Wines Cordials & Liqueurs (1919) by Helen S. Wright

General Rules for Making Cider

Always choose perfectly ripe & sound fruit. Pick the apples by hand. (An active boy with the bag slung over his shoulder will soon clear a tree. Apples that have lain any time on the soil contract an earthy taste, which will always be found in the cider.)

After sweating, & before being ground, wipe them dry, & if any are found bruised or rotten, put them in a heap by themselves, for an inferior cider to make vinegar.

Always use hair cloths, instead of straw, to place between the layers of pomace. The straw when heated, gives a disagreeable taste to the cider.

As the cider runs from the press, let it pass through a hair sieve into a large open vessel that will hold as much juice as can be expressed in one day. In a day, or sometimes less, the pomace will rise to the top, & in a short time grow very thick. When little white bubbles break through it, draw off the liquor by a spigot, placed about three inches from the bottom, so that the lees may be left quietly behind.

The cider must be drawn off into very clean, sweet casks & closely watched. The moment the white bubbles before mentioned are perceived rising at the bung-hole, rack it again. When the fermentation is completely at an end, fill up the cask with cider, in all respects like that already contained in it, & bung it up tight, previous to which a tumbler of sweet oil may be poured into the bung-hole.

After being made & barrelled it should be allowed to ferment until it acquires the desired flavor, for perfectly sweet cider is not desirable. In the meantime clean barrels for its reception should be prepared thus: Some clean strips of rag are dipped into melted sulphur, lighted & hung in the bung-hole, & the bung laid loosely on the end of the rag. This is to allow the sulphur vapor to well fill the barrel. Tie up a half-pint of mustard-seed in a coarse muslin rag & put it into the barrel, then put your cider in. Now add the isinglass, which “fines” the cider but does not help to keep it sweet. This is the old-fashioned way, & will keep cider in the same condition as it went into the barrel, if kept in a cool place, for a year. The sulphur vapor checks the fermentation, & the sulphur in the mustard-seed keeps it checked. We hear that professional cider dealers are now using the bisulphite of lime instead of the mustard-seed & the sulphur vapor. This bisulphite of lime is the same as the “preserving powder.” It is only another form of using the sulphur, but it is more convenient & perhaps more effectual. Another method is to add sugar, one & a half pounds sugar to a gallon of the cider, & let it ferment. This makes a fermented, clear, good cider, but sweet. It lasts sweet about six months, if kept in a cool situation.

Preparatory to bottling cider it should be examined, to see whether it be clear & sparkling. If not, it should be clarified in a similar way to beer, & left for a fortnight. The night before it is intended to put it Into bottles, the bung should be taken out of the cask, & left so until the next day, when it may be bottled, but not corked down until the day after, as, if this be done at once, many of the bottles will burst by keeping. The best corks & champagne bottles should be used, & it is usual to wire & cover the corks with tinfoil, after the manner of champagne. A few bottles may be kept in a warm place to ripen, or a small piece of lump sugar may be put into each bottle before corking, if the cider be wanted for immediate use, or for consumption during the cooler portion of the year, but for warm weather & for long keeping this is inadmissible. The bottled stock should be stored in a cool cellar, when the quality will be greatly improved by age.

TO CAN CIDER
Cider, if taken when first made, brought to the boiling heat, & canned, precisely as fruit is canned, will keep from year to year without any change of taste. Canned up this way in the fall, it may be kept a half-dozen years or longer, as good as when first made. It is better that the cider be settled & poured off from the dregs, & when brought to boiling heat the scum that gathers on the surface taken off; but the only precaution necessary to preservation of the cider is the sealing of it air tight when boiling hot. The juice of other fruit can, no doubt, be preserved in the same way. To all tastes not already corrupted by strong drinks, these un-fermented juices are very delicious. The juice of the grape is better than wine a century old, & more healthy...

BOILING CIDER
To prepare cider for boiling, the first process is to filter it immediately on coming from the press. This is easiest done by placing some sticks crosswise in the bottom of a barrel,—a flour barrel with a single head is the best,—wherein an inch hole has been bored, & covering these sticks with say four inches of clean rye or wheat straw, & then filling the barrel to within a foot of the top with clean sand or coal dust,—sand is the best. Pour the cider as it comes from the press into the top of this barrel, drawing it off as soon as it comes out at the bottom into air-tight casks, & let it stand in the cellar until March. Then draw it out with as little exposure to the air as possible, put it into bottles that can be tightly & securely corked, & in two months it will be fit for use.

TO CLEAR CIDER
To clear & improve cider generally take two quarts of ground horseradish & one pound of thick gray filtering paper to the barrel, & either shake or stir until the paper has separated into small shreds, & let it stand for twenty-four hours, when the cider may be drawn off by means of a siphon or a stop cock. Instead of paper, a preparation of wool may be taken, which is to be had in the market, & which is preferable to paper, as it has simply to be washed with water, when it may be used again.

CIDER, TO PRESERVE & KEEP SWEET
1. To one barrel of cider, put in one pound of mustard-seed, two pounds of raisins, one-quarter pound of the sticks (bark) of cinnamon. 2. When the cider in the barrel is in a lively fermentation, add as much white sugar as will be equal to one-quarter or three-quarters of a pound to each gallon of cider (according as the apples are sweet or sour); let the fermentation proceed until the liquid has the taste to suit, then add one-quarter of an ounce of sulphite (not sulphate) of lime to each gallon of cider, shake well, & let it stand three days, & bottle for use. The sulphite should first be dissolved in a quart or so of cider before introducing it into the barrel of cider. 3. When fermentation commences in one barrel, draw off the liquor into another one, straining through a flannel cloth. Put into the cider three-quarters of an ounce of the oil of sassafras, & the same of the oil of winter green, well shaken up in a pint of alcohol. But one difficulty is said to pertain to this preparation of cider. It is so palatable that people won't keep it long.

CIDER CHAMPAGNE
Five gallons good cider, one quart spirit, one & one-quarter pounds honey or sugar. Mix, & let them rest for a fortnight, then fine with one gill of skimmed milk. This, put up in champagne bottles, silvered, & labelled, has often been sold for champagne. It opens very sparkling.

CHERRY CIDER
Seven gallons of apple cider, two quarts of dried black cherries, one pint of dried blueberries, one-half pint of elderberries, eighteen pounds of brown sugar.

DEVONSHIRE CIDER
The apples, after being plucked, are left in heaps in the orchard for some time, to complete their ripening, & render them more saccharine. They are then crushed between grooved cylinders, surmounted by a hopper, or in a circular trough, by two vertical edge-wheels of wood moved by a horse; after passing through which, they are received into large tubs or crocks, & are then called pomace. They are afterwards laid on the vat in alternate layers of the pomace & clean straw, called reeds. They are then pressed, a little water being occasionally added. The juice passes through a hair sieve, or similar strainer, & is received in a large vessel, whence it is run into casks or open vats, where everything held in mechanical suspension is deposited. The fermentation is often slow of being developed; though the juice be set in November or December, the working sometimes hardly commences till March. Till this time the cider is sweet; it now becomes pungent & vinous, & is ready to be racked for use. If the fermentation continue, it is usual to rack it again into a clean cask that has been well sulphured out, & to leave behind the head & sediment; or two or three cans of cider are put into a clean cask, & a match of brimstone burned in it. It is then agitated, by which the fermentation of that quantity is completely stopped. The cask is then nearly filled, the fermentation of the whole is checked, the process of racking is repeated until it becomes so, & is continued from time to time till the cider is in a quiet state & fit for drinking.

FRENCH CIDER
After the fruit is mashed in a mill, between iron cylinders, it is allowed to remain in a large tun or tub for fourteen or fifteen hours, before pressing. The juice is placed in casks, which are kept quite full, & so placed under gawntrees, or stillions, that small tubs may be put under them, to receive the matter that works over. At the end of three or four days for sweet cider, & nine or ten days for strong cider, it is racked into sulphured casks, & then stored in a cool place.

WESTERN CIDER
To one pound of sugar, add one-half ounce of tartaric acid, two tablespoonfuls of good yeast. Dissolve the sugar in one quart of warm water; put all in a gallon jug, shake it well, fill the jug with pure cold water, let it stand uncorked twelve hours, & it is fit for use.

CIDER WITHOUT APPLES
To each gallon of cold water, put one pound common sugar, one-half ounce tartaric acid, one tablespoonful of yeast. Shake well, make in the evening, & it will be fit for use next day. Make in a keg a few gallons at a time, leaving a few quarts to make into next time, not using yeast again until keg needs rinsing. If it gets a little sour, make a little more into it, or put as much water with it as there is cider, & put it with the vinegar. If it is desired to bottle this cider by manufacturers of small drinks, you will proceed as follows: five gallons hot water, thirty pounds brown sugar, three-quarters pound tartaric acid, twenty-five gallons cold water, three pints of hops or brewers' yeast worked into paste with three-quarters pound flour, & one pint water will be required in making this paste. Put all together in a barrel, which it will fill, & let it work twenty-four hours, the yeast running out at a bung all the time, by putting in a little occasionally to keep it full. Then bottle, putting in two or three broken raisins to each bottle, & it will nearly equal champagne.

CIDER WINE
Let the new cider from sour apples (ripe, sound fruit preferred) ferment from one to three weeks, as the weather is warm or cool. When it has attained to a lively fermentation, add to each gallon, according to its acidity, from one-half pound to two pounds of white crushed sugar, & let the whole ferment until it possesses precisely the taste which it is desired should be permanent. In this condition pour out one quart of the cider, & add for each gallon of cider one-quarter ounce of sulphite of lime, not sulphate. Stir the powder & cider until intimately mixed, & return the emulsion to the fermenting liquid. Agitate briskly & thoroughly for a few moments, & then let the cider settle. Fermentation will cease at once. When, after a few days, the cider has become clear, draw off carefully, to avoid the sediment, & bottle. If loosely corked, which is better, it will become a sparkling cider wine, & may be kept indefinitely long.

AMERICAN CHAMPAGNE (With Cider)
Seven quarts good cider (crab-apple cider is the best), one pint best fourth-proof brandy, one quart genuine champagne wine, one quart milk, one-half ounce of bitartrate of potassa. Mix & let stand a short time; bottle while fermenting. An excellent imitation.

CHAMPAGNE CIDER
Champagne cider is made as follows: To five gallons of good cider put three pints of strained honey, or one & one-eighth pounds of good white sugar. Stir well & set it aside for a week. Clarify the cider with one-half gill of skimmed milk, or one teaspoonful of dissolved isinglass, & add one & one-half pints of pure spirits. After two or three days bottle the clear cider, & it will become sparkling. In order to produce a slow fermentation, the casks containing the fermenting liquor must be bunged up tight. It is a great object to retain much of the carbonic gas in the cider, so as to develop itself after being bottled.

CHAMPAGNE CIDER, NO. 2
One hogshead good pale vinous cider, three gallons proof spirit (pale), fourteen pounds honey or sugar. Mix, & let them remain together in a temperate situation for one month; then add one quart orange-flower water, & fine it down with one-half gallon skimmed milk. This will be very pale; & a similar article, when bottled in champagne bottles, silvered & labelled, has been often sold to the ignorant for champagne. It opens very brisk, if managed properly.

BURGUNDY CHAMPAGNE (With Cider)
Fourteen pounds loaf sugar, twelve pounds brown sugar (pale), ten gallons warm water, one ounce white tartar. Mix, & at a proper temperature add one pint yeast. Afterwards, add one gallon sweet cider, two or three bitter almonds (bruised), one quart pale spirit, one-eighth ounce orris powder.

CHAMPAGNE CIDER
Champagne cider is made as follows: To five gallons of good cider put three pints of strained honey, or one & one-eighth pounds of good white sugar. Stir well & set it aside for a week. Clarify the cider with one-half gill of skimmed milk, or one teaspoonful of dissolved isinglass, & add one & one-half pints of pure spirits. After two or three days bottle the clear cider, & it will become sparkling. In order to produce a slow fermentation, the casks containing the fermenting liquor must be bunged up tight. It is a great object to retain much of the carbonic gas in the cider, so as to develop itself after being bottled.

CHAMPAGNE CIDER, NO. 2
One hogshead good pale vinous cider, three gallons proof spirit (pale), fourteen pounds honey or sugar. Mix, & let them remain together in a temperate situation for one month; then add one quart orange-flower water, & fine it down with one-half gallon skimmed milk. This will be very pale; & a similar article, when bottled in champagne bottles, silvered & labelled, has been often sold to the ignorant for champagne. It opens very brisk, if managed properly.

LEMON WINE (With Cider)
Four pounds sugar, one pound raisins (bruised), two gallons water. Boil, then add one gallon cider. Ferment, & add one quart of spirits, three-quarters ounce white tartar, a few drops essence of lemon. Observe to shake the essence, with a little of the spirit, until it becomes milky, before adding it to the wine.

MADEIRA WINE (With Cider)
To five gallons prepared cider, add one-half pound loaf sugar. Let it stand ten days, draw it off carefully, fine it down, & again rack it into another cask.

ELDER-FLOWER WINE (With Cider)
Take the flowers of elder, & be careful that you don't let any stalks in; to every quart of flowers put one gallon of water, & three pounds of loaf sugar. Boil the water & sugar a quarter of an hour, then pour it on the flowers & let it work three days; then strain the wine through a hair sieve, & put it into a cask. To every ten gallons of wine add one ounce of isinglass dissolved in cider, & six whole eggs. Close it up & let it stand six months, & then bottle it.

LEMON WINE, NO. 2 (With Cider)
Four pounds sugar, one pound raisins (bruised), two gallons water. Boil, then add one gallon cider. Ferment, & add one quart of spirits, three-quarters ounce white tartar, a few drops essence of lemon. Observe to shake the essence, with a little of the spirit, until it becomes milky, before adding it to the wine.

MADEIRA WINE (With Cider)
To five gallons prepared cider, add one-half pound loaf sugar. Let it stand ten days, draw it off carefully, fine it down, & again rack it into another cask.

PORT WINE (With Cider)
To ten gallons prepared cider, add one & one-half gallons good port wine, two & one-half quarts wild grapes (clusters), two ounces bruised rhatany root, three-quarters ounce tincture of kino, three-quarters pound loaf sugar, one-half gallon spirits. Let this stand ten days; color if too light, with tincture of rhatany, then rack it off & fine it. This should be repeated until the color is perfect & the liquid clear.

PORT WINE British Style (With Cider)
1. Two gallons damson juice, two gallons cider, three-quarters ounce sloe juice, one pound sugar, one pound honey. Ferment, then add one quart spirit, one gallon red cape, a little over one ounce of red tartar (dissolved), the same of powder of catechu, one-tenth ounce bruised ginger, one-tenth ounce cassia, a few cloves. Mix well with two tablespoonfuls of brandy coloring.
2. Two pounds bullace, ten pounds damsons, one & one-half gallons water. Boil the water, skim it, & pour it boiling hot on the fruit; let it stand four or six days at least. During that time bruise the fruit or squeeze it with your hands. Then draw or pour it off into a cask, & to every gallon of liquor, put two pounds & a half of fine sugar, or rather more; put some yeast on a slice of bread (warm) to work it. When done working, put a little brandy into the cask & fill it up. Bung it up close & let it stand six or twelve months; then bottle it off. This wine is nearer in flavor to port than any other. If made with cold water, it will be equally as good, but of a different color.
3. Five gallons cider, one gallon elder juice, one gallon port wine, one & one-quarter pint brandy, one & one-fifth ounces red tartar, one-fifth ounce catechu, one gill finings, one ounce logwood. Mix well & bung close.

RAISIN WINE (With Cider)
There are various modes of preparing this wine...For raisin wine without sugar, put to every gallon of soft water eight pounds of fresh Smyrna or Malaga raisins; let them steep one month, stirring every day. Then drain the liquor & put it into the cask, filling it up as it works over; this it will do for two months. When the hissing has in a great measure subsided, add brandy & honey, & paper.. This wine should remain three years untouched; it may then be drank from the cask, or bottled...Raisin wine is sometimes made in large quantities, by merely putting the raisins in the cask, & filling it up with water, the proportion as above; carefully pick out all stalks. In six months rack the wine into fresh casks, & put to each the proportion of brandy & honey. In cider countries & plentiful apple years, a most excellent raisin wine is made by employing cider instead of water, & steeping in it the raisins.

SHERRY WINE (With Cider)
To five gallons prepared cider add one quart spirits, three-quarters of a pound of raisins, three quarts good sherry, & a few drops oil bitter almonds (dissolved in alcohol). Let it stand ten days, & draw it off carefully. Fine it down, & again rack it into another cask.

SHERRY WINE - London Style (With Cider)
Twelve pounds chopped raisins, three gallons soft water, one pound sugar, one-half ounce white tartar, two quarts cider. Let them stand together in a close vessel one month; stir frequently. Then add one quart of spirits, one-quarter pound wild cherries bruised. Let them stand one month longer & fine with isinglass.

STRAWBERRY WINE, NO. 1 (With Cider)
Twelve gallons bruised strawberries, ten gallons cider, seven gallons water, twenty-five pounds sugar. Ferment, then add one-half ounce bruised orris root, one-half ounce bruised bitter almonds, one-half ounce bruised cloves, six ounces red tartar.

WHORTLEBERRY OR BILBERRY WINE (With Cider)
Take one & one-half gallons of cold soft water, one & one-half gallons cider, two gallons berries. Ferment. Mix five pounds sugar, four-fifths ounce tartar in fine power; add four-fifths ounce ginger in powder, one-half handful lavender & rosemary leaves, one & two-thirds pints British spirits.

Garden to Table - What Did the Patriots Eat & Drink as They Planned a Revolution?

What Did the Founding Fathers Eat & Drink as They Started a Revolution?

By Amanda Cargill Smithsonianmag.com, July 3, 2018

...Walter Staib, executive chef at Philadelphia's City Tavern & host of PBS' “A Taste of History,” contends that among those who signed the Declaration in 1776 were America's earliest foodies. “While [farm-to-table & foodie movements] are trendy today,” he says, “the founders were doing it out of necessity.”

He points out that colonial America lacked the transportation infrastructure to deliver foods from faraway lands: “If it was around, you ate it.” What was around were legumes, produce & anything that could be foraged or hunted. In the mid-Atlantic, seafood was especially popular, reflecting the abundance of the Delaware River, which was then, says Staib, “pristine & teeming with fish.” Today, following two centuries of pollution that decreased water quality & diminished fish populations, it is in the early stages of a rebound.

George Washington was exceedingly fond of dining on seafood. For nearly 40 years, the three fisheries he operated along the ten-mile Potomac shoreline that bordered Mount Vernon processed more than a million fish annually. Among the items on the plantation’s menu were crabmeat casseroles, oyster gumbos & salmon mousse.

Thomas Jefferson admired French fare above all, & he is credited, according to Staib, with popularizing frites, ice cream & champagne. He is also often credited—although incorrectly—with the introduction of macaroni & cheese to the American palate. It was, in fact, his enslaved chef James Hemings who, via Jefferson’s kitchen, brought the creamy southern staple to Monticello. Trained at the elite Château de Chantilly while accompanying Jefferson on a trip to France, Hemings would later become one of only two laborers enslaved by Jefferson to negotiate his freedom.

As for dessert, none of the Founding Fathers was without a sweet tooth. John Adams' wife, Abigail, regularly baked Apple Pan Dowdy, a pie-meets-cobbler hybrid that was popular in New England in the early 1800s; James Madison loved ice cream & was spoiled by his wife Dolley's creative cakes, for which she gained such renown that, to this day, supermarkets across America carry a brand of prepared pastries bearing her—albeit incorrectly spelled—name; & John Jay, in a letter sent to his father in 1790, reported that he carried chocolate with him on long journeys, likely “shaving or grating it into pots of milk,” says Kevin Paschall, chocolate maker at Philadelphia's historic Shane Confectionery, & consuming it as a drink.

The Founders, like most colonists, were fans of adult beverages. Colonial Americans drank roughly three times as much as modern Americans, primarily in the form of beer, cider, & whiskey. In Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History, author Steven Grasse connects this seemingly outsized consumption to the Revolutionary spirit of the time when he writes, “In the drink, a dream; & in the dream, a spark.” Reverend Michael Alan, who illustrated & helped research the book says simply: “From morning until night, people in the 18th century drank.”

Benjamin Franklin was especially unabashed about his love of “the cups.” Though Grasse writes that he was careful to advise temperance, he regularly enjoyed wine & what some might argue were early iterations of craft cocktails. His favorite, according to Alan, was milk punch, a three-ingredient brandy-based sip whose two non-alcoholic components–milk & lemon juice–washed & refined its third. Another Franklin foodie badge is his “Drinkers' Dictionary,” a compendium of Colonial slang describing the state of drunkenness. Initially printed in 1737 in the Pennsylvania Gazette, its publication made Franklin one of America's first food & drink writers.

Washington was known for racking up sizable tabs after buying drinks for friends. Recounting one particularly generous–and raucous–night wherein Washington ordered 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of Claret, & 7 full bowls of punch, Alan says “He knew how to throw down.”

Despite this, it was Jefferson, notes Grasse, who was the true oenophile of the bunch. As a young man, he drank Portuguese Madeira by the truckload, & in his post-Presidential years, he repeatedly tried & failed to cultivate grapes for winemaking at his vineyard in Monticello.

While tales of alcoholic escapades could understandably lead one to believe that the Founders were a group of party animals–save the relatively sober Alexander Hamilton, referred to by John Adams as an “insolent coxcomb” who, on the rare occasion that he drank something other than coffee, became “silly & vaporing”–it's important to note the reasons why alcohol consumption was so high.

First & foremost, drinking alcohol was a means of survival. Potable water was scarce in colonial times, writes Grasse, so almost all of what was available carried harmful diseases. Among these were smallpox, lockjaw, & the delightfully named black vomit. For colonists, drinking water meant risking one's life, & no one who could afford otherwise dared do it. Alan confirms that even children drank beer–a hard cider & molasses combination aptly named “ciderkin.” Put simply, consuming alcohol was, in the absence of clean drinking water, a means of staying hydrated.

The taverns where alcohol was consumed also played a vital role in colonial life. “Systems like the post office, libraries, even courthouses, were just being put into place,” explains Alan. “Taverns offered all of these services plus a good beer buzz.”

For political figures like the Founding Fathers, taverns were also where one went to get the inside scoop on political adversaries & posit agendas for which one hoped to gain favor. “Ben Franklin,” reports Staib, “used taverns as a tool of diplomacy.” For him, “eating, drinking, & gossiping” were negotiation tactics. It was in taverns that the Founding Fathers, “emboldened by liquid courage,” to quote Staib, & likely, after tying a few on, unfettered by the rarefied rules of governance to which all of history had subscribed, honed the concepts contained in the Declaration of Independence & the Constitution.

Of the link between food, drinks, & Revolutionary history, Alan offers this pun-intended nod: “A lot of crazy ideas can come out of a “spirited” evening of conversation.”

See Smithsonian Magazine here.

Garden to Table - Alcohol in Colonial America

 Alcohol in Colonial America

Alcohol in Colonial America began with the arrival of Europeans.  Except for several nations in the Southwest, Native Americans did not have alcohol beverages. The Apache & Zuni drank alcoholic beverages which they produced for secular consumption. The Pima & Papago produced alcohol for religious ceremonial consumption. Papago consumption was heavy. However, they limited it to a single peaceable annual ceremony. And the other tribes’ drinking was also infrequent & didn’t cause problems. 

The Puritans loaded more beer than water onboard the Mayflower before casting off for the New World.   This reflected their traditional drinking beliefs, attitudes, & behaviors. They considered alcohol to be a natural & normal part of life. They believed that God created alcohol & that it was inherently good. Indeed, Jesus both made & drank wine & approved drinking in moderate. 

Their experience was that it was safer to drink alcohol than the typically polluted water. Alcohol was also an effective analgesic. It provided the energy necessary for hard work. Alcohol served as  a social lubricant, provided entertainment, facilitated relaxation & contributed to the enjoyment of food. It also provided pharmacological pleasure. In sum, alcohol in colonial America generally enhanced the quality of life.

Beer

For hundreds of years their English ancestors had enjoyed beer & ale. People of both sexes & all ages typically drank beer with their meals.

Importing a continuing supply of beer was expensive. So the early settlers brewed their own. However, it was difficult to make the beer to which they were accustomed. That was because wild yeasts caused problems in fermentation. For this reason it resulted in a bitter, unappetizing brew.  

But these early adventurers did not give up. Wild hops grew in New England. They ordered hop seeds from England in order to cultivate an adequate supply for traditional beer. In the meantime, the colonists improvised a beer made from red & black spruce twigs boiled in water. They also made a beer from ginger. A ditty from the 1630s reflects their determination & ingenuity.

If barley be wanting to make into malt,

We must be content & think it no fault.

For we can make liquor to sweeten our lips,

Of pumpkins, & parsnips, & walnut-tree chips. 

Slowly, the colonists mastered the intricacies of brewing in the New World. Then beer became widely available. And many farmers made their own with the help of a malster. The malster malted their barley, or more often, corn. 

The colonists considered beer to be very important. For example, a brewery was one of Harvard College’s first construction projects. It was to provide a steady supply of beer for the students.  And Connecticut required each town to ensure that a place was available for the purchase of beer. 

Home brewers made the weakest & most commonly available beer by soaking grain in water. But this “small beer” spoiled quickly because of its low alcohol content. Therefore, people consumed it quickly. The homemaker brewed beer once or twice a week. “Ships beers” were stronger & also readily available. But the strongest beer, brewed with malt & extra sugar, was expensive & uncommon. 

Wine

The colonists also learned to make a wide variety of wine from fruits. These included strawberries, cranberries, blackberries, elderberries, gooseberries, & currants. They also made wines from numerous vegetables. These included carrots, tomatoes, onions, beets, celery, squash, corn silk, dandelions, & goldenrod. They also made wine from such products as flowers, herbs, & even oak leaves.  Early on, French vine-growers came to the New World to teach settlers how to cultivate grapes. 

Hard Cider

Cider had been popular in England but apples were not native to New England. Farmers promptly planted the first orchard using English seeds. Over time apples became abundant in the colonies.

People typically fermented apple juice in barrels over the winter.  Colonists sometimes added honey or cane sugar. This  increased the alcohol content & also creating natural carbonation. “Apple champagne” was a special treat. “Cider was served to every member of the family at breakfast, dinner, & supper. Cider was consumed in the fields between meals, & was a regular staple at all the communal social functions.” 

Distilled Spirits

...Rum was not commonly available until after 1650. Then, it increasingly came from the Caribbean. However, the cost of rum dropped after the colonists began importing molasses & cane sugar directly & distilled their own. By 1657, a rum distillery was operating in Boston. It was highly successful. Within a generation the production of rum became colonial New England’s largest & most prosperous industry.  Clearly, distilled spirits were a very important part of alcohol in Colonial America.

In the profitable Triangle Trade, traders took rum to England for manufactured products.  Then in West Africa they traded those products for slaves. In the West Indies they traded slaves for more molasses.  The triangle continued when New England distillers made the molasses into more rum.

This three point trading arrangement was an important part of colonial commercial life & prosperity.  Almost every important town from Massachusetts to the Carolinas had a rum distillery. They met the local demand, which had increased dramatically. 

Alcohol in Colonial America

Baron, S., & Young, J. Brewed in America: a History of Beer & Ale in the US.  Boston: Little, Brown, 1962.

Becker, D., & Siekonic, D. A Guide to Winemaking in Early America. Center Valley, PA: Privateer, 2011.

Burns, E. The Spirits of America. A Social History of Alcohol. Philadelphia. Temple U Press, 2004.

Lender, M., & Martin, J. Drinking in America. A History. London: Macmillan, 1982.

McCusker, J. Rum & the American Revolution. NY: Garland, 1989.

Meacham, S. Every Home a Distillery. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U Press, 2009.

Salinger, S. Taverns & Drinking in Early America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U Press, 2002.

Schmid, S., & Schmid-Haberkamp, B. (Eds.) Drink in the Eighteenth & Nineteenth Centuries. Brookfield, VT: Pickering & Chatto, 2014. 

Smith, G. Beer in America. The Early years, 1587-1840. Boulder, CO: Siris, 1998.