Garden to Table - Home-Made Cherry Wine Recipes

 

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

This ad appeared in the Virginia Gazette in Williamsburg, September 26, 1755 

To be SOLD, by William Smith, at his Nursery, in Surry County, the following Fruit Trees, viz...

Black Heart Cherry [Prunus avium]
May Duke Cherry [P. avium x cerasus]
John Edmond’s Nonsuch Cherry
White Heart Cherry [P. avium]
Carnation Cherry [P. cerasus]
Kentish Cherry [P. cerasus]
Marrello, Cherry [English Morello, P. cerasus var. austera]
Double Blossom Cherry [Prunus cv.]...

The Subscriber lives very near to Col. Ruffin’s in Surry County; Letters directed to me, and forwarded to Col. Ruffin’s or to Mr. Robert Lyon’s in Williamsburg, will speedily come to my hands. Gentlemen who are pleased to favor me with their Orders may depend on having them punctually observed, by Their humble Servant, William Smith.

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

CHERRY WINE
Pull off the stalks of the cherries, and mash them without breaking the stones; then press them hard through a hair bag, and to every gallon of liquor, put two pounds of sugar. The vessel must be full, and let it work as long as it makes a noise in the vessel; then stop it up close for a month or more, and when it is fine, draw it into dry bottles, and put a lump of sugar into every bottle. If it makes them fly, open them all for a moment, and then stop them up again. It will be fit to drink in a quarter of a year.

CHERRY WINE, NO. 2
Fifteen pounds of cherries, two pounds of currants. Bruise them together. Mix with them two-thirds of the kernels, and put the whole of the cherries, currants, and kernels into a barrel, with one-quarter pound of sugar to every pint of juice. The barrel must be quite full. Cover the barrel with vine leaves, and sand above them, and let it stand until it has done working, which will be in about three weeks; then stop it with a bung, and in two months' time it may be bottled. Gather the cherries when quite ripe. Pull them from their stalks, and press them through a hair sieve. To every gallon of the liquor add two pounds of lump sugar finely beaten; stir all together, and put it into a vessel that will just hold it. When it has done fermenting, stop it very close for three months, and then bottle it off for use.

CHERRY BOUNCE
Four quarts of wild cherries stemmed and well washed, four quarts of water. (I put mine in a big yellow bowl, and cover with double cheese-cloth, and set behind the kitchen stove for two weeks.) Skim every few days. Then strain, add three-quarters pound sugar to each quart of liquid, and let ferment again. This takes about two weeks. When it stops working, add rum,—about two bottles full for this quantity. (It is good without any rum.)

CHERRY BOUNCE, NO. 2
One quart of rum to one quart of wild cherries, and three-quarters pound of sugar. Put into a jug, and at first give it a frequent shake. Let it stand for several months before you pour off and bottle. A little water put on to the cherries left in the jug will make a pleasant and less ardent drink.

CHERRY BOUNCE, NO. 3
One gallon of good whiskey, one and one-half pints of wild black cherries bruised so as to break the stones, two ounces of common almonds shelled, two ounces of white sugar, one-half teaspoonful cinnamon, one-quarter teaspoonful cloves, one-quarter teaspoonful nutmeg, all bruised. Let stand twelve to thirteen days, and draw off. This, with the addition of one-half gallon of brandy, makes very nice cherry bounce.

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.

Plant Lists - 1755 William Smith's Nursery, Surrey Co VA

18C Fruits from The Garden to The Table

Virginia Gazette Williamsburg, September 26, 1755 To be SOLD, by William Smith, at his Nursery, in Surry County, the following Fruit Trees, viz.
Southern Garden History Plant Lists

Hughs’s Crab [Malus pumila, ‘Hewes’ Crab or Hewes’ Virginia Crab]
Bray’s White Apple
Newton Pippin
Golden Pippin
French Pippin
Dutch Pippin
Clark’s Pearmain
Royal Pearmain
Baker’s Pearmain
Lone’s Pearmain
Father Abraham
Harrison’s Red
Ruffin’s large Cheese Apple
Baker’s Nonsuch
Ludwell’s Seedling
Golden Russet
Nonpareil
May Apple
Summer Codling
Winter Codling
Gillefe’s Cyder Apple
Green Gage Plumb [Prunus domestica ‘Green Gage’]
Bonum Magnum Plumb [Magnum Bonum]
Orleans Plumb
Imperial Plumb
Damascene Plumb [P. damascena]
May Pear [Pyrus communis ‘May’]
Holt’s Sugar Pear
Autumn Bergamot Pear
Summer Pear
Winter Bergamot
Orange Bergamot
Mount Sir John
Pound Pear
Burr de Roy [Beurre’ de Roi]
Black Heart Cherry [Prunus avium]
May Duke Cherry [P. avium x cerasus]
John Edmond’s Nonsuch Cherry
White Heart Cherry [P. avium]
Carnation Cherry [P. cerasus]
Kentish Cherry [P. cerasus]
Marrello, Cherry [English Morello, P. cerasus var. austera]
Double Blossom Cherry [Prunus cv.]
Double Blossom Peaches [Prunus persica rosea plena]
Filberts Red and White [Corylus avellana]

The Subscriber lives very near to Col. Ruffin’s in Surry County; Letters directed to me, and forwarded to Col. Ruffin’s or to Mr. Robert Lyon’s in Williamsburg, will speedily come to my hands. Gentlemen who are pleased to favor me with their Orders may depend on having them punctually observed, by Their humble Servant, William Smith

Plants in Early American Gardens - Blush Noisette Rose

'Blush Noisette' Rose (Rosa x noisettiana cv.)

This rose hybrid, introduced by the French breeder Louis Noisette in 1817, grew in the gardens of Empress Josephine and was painted by Pierre-Joseph Redouté. This rose was a superior selection of ‘Champneys Pink Cluster’, America’s first rose hybrid, which originated in Charleston, South Carolina c. 1802-1811. John Champneys, an early 19th-century rice grower, selected this fragrant, abundantly-flowering rose by crossing the ever-blooming ‘Old Blush’ China and the ‘Musk Rose’ (Rosa moschata plena). He then shared seedlings with his neighbor Philippe Noisette, a French immigrant, who sent them on to his brother Louis in Paris. This class of roses became known as the Noisettes, thanks to Louis’ success in introducing many new forms.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello 

Plant Lists - Tho Jefferson's (1743-1824) Roses

Thomas Jefferson by Tadeusz Andrzej Bonawentura Kosciuszko (1746 - 1817)

Thomas Jefferson’s Plant List From His Garden Book, 1767-1821 Dates refer to first mention of a plant in Jefferson’s documents, which include Thomas Jefferson’s Garden Book, edited by Edwin Betts, 1944, unpublished memoranda at the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Library of Congress and Princeton University Library. Quotation marks designate varieties undescribed in the literature and are generally Jefferson’s personal names.
List compiled by Peter Hatch.

ROSES

Rosa X alba "white Damask," "White Rose" 1791
Rosa centifolia 'Major' "Large Provence" 1791
Rosa centifolia var. muscosa 'Communis' "Moss Provence" 1791
Rosa cinnamomea Cinnamon Rose 1791
Rosa damascene 'Bifera' ("montly") Autumn Damask 1791
Rosa eglanteria Sweetbriar 1771
Rosa foetida 'Lutea' ("Yellow Rose") Austrian Yellow 1791
Rosa gallica 'Versicolor' "rosa mundi" 1791
Rosa laevigata Cherokee 1804
Rosa moschata Musk 1791
Rosa officinalis "Crimson dwarf rose" 1792
Rosa pendulina "Thornless rose" 1791
Rosa spinosissima ("Primrose") Scotch hedge Rose 1791
?Rosa sp. "black rose" 1808
?Rosa sp. "multiflora" 1819

Research & images & much more are directly available from the Monticello.org website. 

Plants in Early American Gardens - Princes of Nassau Rose

Princess of Nassau Rose (Rosa moschata x noisettiana hybrid)

This Musk-Noisette hybrid was bred in France before 1829 by Jean Laffay (1795-1878), recognized as the creator of the Hybrid Perpetual rose. During the height of his career Laffay raised hundreds of thousands of seedlings each year in an effort to obtain hardy, repeat-blooming roses. Also known as ‘Princesse de Nassau’ and ‘Autumnalis’, this early hybrid variety possesses the desirable qualities of its parents: clusters of sweetly fragrant flowers that bloom in flushes throughout the season.

For more information or availability Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello 

1764 Plants in 18C Colonial American Gardens - Virginian John Randolph (727-1784) - Fennel

A Treatise on Gardening Written by a native of this State (Virginia)
Author was John Randolph (1727-1784)
Written in Williamsburg, Virginia about 1765
Published by T. Nicolson, Richmond, Virginia. 1793
The only known copy of this booklet is found in the Special Collections of the Wyndham Robertson Library at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia.

Fennel

Fennel, Faeniculum. This may be propagated from seed or the plants, as Featherfew, and nothing more is necessary than to keep it from seedling, because it will overrun the garden; the roots being very strong, continue a long while in the ground.

A little more about fennel that was not in Randolph's short description.

Fennel...

Fennel was well known to the Ancients and was cultivated by the ancient Romans for its aromatic fruits and succulent, edible shoots. Pliny had much faith in its medicinal properties, according no less than 22 remedies to it, observing also that serpents eat it 'when they cast their old skins, and they sharpen their sight with the juice by rubbing against the plant.'

A very old English rhyming Herbal, preserved at Stockholm, gives the following description of the virtue of the plant:
'Whaune the heddere (adder) is hurt in eye
Ye red fenel is hys prey,
And yif he mowe it fynde
Wonderly he doth hys kynde.
He schall it chow wonderly,
And leyn it to hys eye kindlely,
Ye jows shall sang and hely ye eye
Yat beforn was sicke et feye.'
Many of the older herbalists uphold this theory of the peculiarly strengthening effect of this herb on the sight.
Longfellow alludes to this virtue in the plant:
'Above the lower plants it towers,
The Fennel with its yellow flowers;
And in an earlier age than ours
Was gifted with the wondrous powers
Lost vision to restore.'

In mediaeval times, Fennel was employed, together with St. John's Wort and other herbs, as a preventative of witchcraft and other evil influences, being hung over doors on Midsummer's Eve to warn off evil spirits. It was likewise eaten as a condiment to the salt fish so much consumed by our forefathers during Lent.

Though the Romans valued the young shoots as a vegetable, it is not certain whether it was cultivated in northern Europe at that time, but it is frequently mentioned in Anglo-Saxon cookery and medical recipes prior to the Norman Conquest.

Fennel shoots, Fennel water and Fennel seed are all mentioned in an ancient record of Spanish agriculture dating A.D. 961.

The diffusion of the plant in Central Europe was stimulated by Charlemagne, who enjoined its cultivation on the imperial farms.

It is mentioned in Gerard (1597), and Parkinson (Theatricum Botanicum, 1640) tells us that its culinary use was derived from Italy, for he says: 'The leaves, seede and rootes are both for meate and medicine; the Italians especially doe much delight in the use thereof, and therefore transplant and whiten it, to make it more tender to please the taste, which being sweete and somewhat hot helpeth to digest the crude qualitie of fish and other viscous meats. We use it to lay upon fish or to boyle it therewith and with divers other things, as also the seeds in bread and other things.'

William Coles, in Nature's Paradise (1650) affirms that 'both the seeds, leaves and root of ourGarden Fennel are much used in drinks and broths for those that are grown fat, to abate their unwieldiness and cause them to grow more gaunt and lank.'

The ancient Greek name of the herb, Marathron, from maraino, to grow thin, probably refers to this property. It was said to convey longevity, and to give strength and courage.

Milton, in Paradise Lost alludes to the aroma of the plant:
'A savoury odour blown,
Grateful to appetite, more pleased my sense
Than smell of sweetest Fennel.'

The odor of Fennel seed is fragrant, its taste, warm, sweet and agreeably aromatic. It yields its virtues to hot water, but more freely to alcohol. The essential oil may be separated by distillation with water.

It was formerly the practice to boil Fennel with all fish, and it was mainly cultivated in kitchen gardens for this purpose.

It is one of the plants which is said to be disliked by fleas, and powdered Fennel has the effect of driving away fleas from kennels and stables.

Culpepper says: 'One good old custom is not yet left off, viz., to boil fennel with fish, for it consumes the phlegmatic humour which fish most plentifully afford and annoy the body with, though few that use it know wherefore they do it. It benefits this way, because it is a herb of Mercury, and under Virgo, and therefore bears antipathy to Pisces. Fennel expels wind, provokes urine, and eases the pains of the stone, and helps to break it. The leaves or seed boiled in barley water and drunk, are good for nurses, to increase their milk and make it more wholesome for the child. The leaves, or rather the seeds, boiled in water, stayeth the hiccup and taketh away nausea or inclination to sickness. The seed and the roots much more help to open obstructions of the liver, spleen, and gall, and thereby relieve the painful and windy swellings of the spleen, and the yellow jaundice, as also the gout and cramp. The seed is of good use in medicines for shortness of breath and wheezing, by stoppings of the lungs. The roots are of most use in physic, drinks and broths, that are taken to cleanse the blood, to open obstructions of the liver, to provoke urine, and amend the ill colour of the face after sickness, and to cause a good habit through the body; both leaves, seeds, and roots thereof, are much used in drink, or broth, to make people more lean that are too fat. A decoction of the leaves and root is good for serpent bites, and to neutralize vegetable poison, as mushrooms, etc.'

In Italy and France, the tender leaves are often used for garnishes and to add flavour to salads, and are also added, finely chopped, to sauces served with puddings.

Roman bakers are said to put the herb under their loaves in the oven to make the bread taste agreeably.

John Evelyn, in his Acetaria (1680), held that the peeled stalks, soft and white, of the cultivated garden Fennel, when dressed like celery exercised a pleasant action conducive to sleep.

Formerly poor people used to eat Fennel to satisfy the cravings of hunger on fast days and make unsavoury food palatable; it was also used in large quantities in the households of the rich, as may be seen by the record in the accounts of Edward I.'s household, 8 1/2 lb. of Fennel were bought for one month's supply.

Plants in Early American Gardens - Wall Germander

Wall Germander (Teucrium chamaedrys)

Native to mountainous regions of central and southern Europe and southwest Asia, Wall Germander is typically grown in rock gardens, herb gardens, and knot gardens. In The English Flower Garden (1883), William Robinson noted its use as an edging plant. Also cultivated for a wide range of medicinal uses, Wall Germander reputedly cures gout, eases headaches and fevers, and is used as a tonic and stimulant. The oak-shaped leaves and low growth habit inspired this Teucrium’s Latin name: chamaedrys means “ground oak.” Drought and deer tolerant.

For more information & the possible availability for purchase

Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello