1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) Indian Woman and Young Girl Here John White portrays a dried gourd being used as a water container.
Artist John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) visited the Atlantic coast & briefly stayed at Roanoke Island in 1585. According to a note attached to the engraving of one of John White's drawing, “WHEN they have escaped any great danger by sea or lande, or be returned from the warr in token of Joye they mayk a great fyer abowt which the men, and woemen sitt together, holdinge a certaine fruite in their hands like unto a rownde pompion or a gourde, which after they have taken out the fruits, and the seedes, then fill with small stons or certayne bigg kernells to make the more noise, and fasten that uppon a sticke, and singinge after their manner, they make merri” from The True Pictures and Fashions of the People in that Parte of America Now Called Virginia, Discowred by Englismen Sent Thither in the Years of Our Lorde 1585.
1585 John White (English artist, c 1540-1593) A Fire Ceremony
Thursday, July 18, 2019
Plants in Early American Gardens - Borage
Borage (Borago officinalis)
A fast-growing, self-seeding, European annual herb with a long history of medicinal and culinary uses, Borage was observed growing in American gardens as early as 1709 by John Lawson in A New Voyage to Carolina. The clear-blue, star-shaped flowers have a light cucumber flavor and make a beautiful addition to salads. The cucumber-flavored leaves and stems can be consumed raw, steamed, or sautéed, in moderation.
A fast-growing, self-seeding, European annual herb with a long history of medicinal and culinary uses, Borage was observed growing in American gardens as early as 1709 by John Lawson in A New Voyage to Carolina. The clear-blue, star-shaped flowers have a light cucumber flavor and make a beautiful addition to salads. The cucumber-flavored leaves and stems can be consumed raw, steamed, or sautéed, in moderation.
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Garden Entry from Diary of Annapolis Craftsman William Faris 1724-1804
To see notes on this entry and nearly everything you ever wanted to know about William Faris and Annapolis, Maryland, in the late 18th-century,
See The Diary of William Faris: The Daily Life of an Annapolis Silversmith. edited by Mark Letzer and Jean B. Russo. Published by the Maryland Historical Society in 2003.
March 17, 1792
fine day. dugg up one half the Lott
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Monday, July 15, 2019
1764 Plants in 18C Colonial American Gardens - Virginian John Randolph (727-1784) - Celery
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.
Celery
Celery, Apium, quod apos eo gaudeant, or from Apex, because the ancients made crowns of it, is one of the species of Parsley. At first I was surprised to find this, but upon examining the two plants, there is, in many particulars, a characteristic likeness.
Celery is the Apium dulce, the seed of which should be sown in a successive manner to have it fine for any time; for after it is blanched it will not remain good longer than three weeks, or a month. but will rot or grow pithy. Let the first sowing then be in March, the second about a fortnight after, i. e. the last of March, the third in the beginning of April, and the fourth about the beginning of May.
In about three weeks or a month, the seed will come up, and if your plants grow stout, as probably they will in good land, you must transplant them into beds, and in June those of the first sowing will be fit to be put out for blanching, and the rest should also be put out as they appear strong enough to sustain a removal.
When they are transplanted for fruit, dig a trench by a line about ten inches wide and eight or nine deep, loosening the earth at the bottom, and levelling it; and the earth taken out of the trenches should be laid on the sides, for the convenience of earthing. These trenches should be about three feet asunder, and the plants should stand six inches distant from one another, in a straight row, cutting off the tops of the plants, when planted out. As the plants grow up, they should be carefully earthed up in a dry season, else they will rot, not above the crown or heart of the plant, and in a light rich soil, they will grow to twenty inches in height, but in poor land they will not exceed, ten.
Your first plantation should be in a moist soil, but not the latter, because the additional wet of the winter will rot your plants. The sun is a great enemy to Celery, when it is very hot, wherefore F would recommend the covering of your plants with brash, at all seasons of their growth, whilst the weather is hot, from nine in the morning until six o'clock in the evening. When you desire to raise seed, draw one or more of your flourishing plants, and plant it out in the spring,, let it be supported against the winds; aiid in August the seed will be ripe, which should be then tut up, dried, beat out, and preserved in bags.
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Plants in Early American Gardens - Zatta di Massa Melon
Zatta di Massa Melon (Cucumis melo cv.)
Zatta di Massa Melon is an ancient melon depicted in 17th-century still life paintings. This aromatic melon has strongly ribbed skin and extremely sweet, orange flesh. In 1774 Jefferson planted 18 hills of “Zatte di Massa Canteloupe melons” at Monticello. The Zatta di Massa is known in Italy as Brutto ma Buono, which means “ugly but sweet.”
For more information & the possible availability for purchase Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello.
Zatta di Massa Melon is an ancient melon depicted in 17th-century still life paintings. This aromatic melon has strongly ribbed skin and extremely sweet, orange flesh. In 1774 Jefferson planted 18 hills of “Zatte di Massa Canteloupe melons” at Monticello. The Zatta di Massa is known in Italy as Brutto ma Buono, which means “ugly but sweet.”
For more information & the possible availability for purchase Contact The Tho Jefferson Center for Historic Plants or The Shop at Monticello.
Saturday, July 13, 2019
1794 On the Healthy Aspects of Vegetables & Irrigation
This print is from the 1790s.
Earlier in the 18C "Most New Englanders had a simple diet, their soil and climates allowing limited varieties of fruits and vegetables. In 1728 the Boston News Letter estimates the food needs of a middle-class 'genteel' family. Breakfast was bread an milk. Dinner consisted of pudding, followed by bread, meat, roots, pickles, vinegar, salt and cheese. Supper was the same as breakfast. Each famly also needed raisins, currants, suet, flour, eggs, cranberries, apples, and, where there were children, food for 'intermeal eatings.' Small beer was the beverage, and molasses for brewing and flavoring was needed. Butter, spices, sugar, and sweetmeats were luxuries, as were coffee, tea, chocolate, and alcoholic beverages other than beer." A History of Food and Drink in America, Richard J. Hooker [Bobbs-Merrill Company:Indianapolis 1981(p. 67)
On eating vegetables...
Gardens do not appear to have sufficiently attracted the attention of either the wealthy or the poor farmer. Plenty and variety of good vegetables have the most favourable effect upon the health of a family, and particularly of the children and women. The doctor's bill is greatly encreased, by inattention to the garden , and often valuable lives are lost by feeding in times of sickness in the hot weather, upon meat, cheese and butter, because there are no early potatoes, carrots, early turnips, cabbages, beans, peas, beets, &c. In every garden raspberries, currants, peaches and pears should be planted. They grow as freely as weeds in this climate, especially the two first, and if used only when ripe, they are preventatives of some disorders, and more certain cures for others, than any medicine.
On irrigation...
The French and Italians place their gardens so as to command a pond of water near them. On the bank of the pond they place an upright post, with a pole across the top, twining on a piece of wood or iron. At one end of the pole is fixed a little pail or bucket, so as to be easily dipped into the pond filled often; the other end of the pole serves as a long handle, by means of which the bucket or pail is dipped into the pond and filled, then raised (by pressing down the handle end of the pole) till the bucket is brought over a cask, into which it is emptied. Water is sometimes raised in like manner by a wheel turned by hand. It is then carried, by little rough troughs, all over the garden , so as to produce a great abundance of vegetables, and especially of those kinds, which usually fail, for want of rain, in dry season.
This is another pleasing instance of the good effects of the Irrigation or watering, so earnestly recommended in the first number of these papers. It is proper to recommend attention to the position of such ponds in relation to dwelling-houses. They should, if near or large, be on one of those sides from which the summer winds do not blow, and they should be kept running, and indeed should be occasionally emptied in the summer months. Here to, it may well to recommend to the farmer and miller, of every denomination, not to place his buildings nearer than is necessary to any mill-pond, common pond, wet ditch or drain, creek, or other stream; and so to place his dwelling, that any such water may lie on the northerly and easterly side of his house, and by no means to have even a running stream, much less a standing water or pond, or a marsh, on the side from which the summer winds can bring the dampness and pernicious vapours, which the sun always raises from such places. Farmers, whose houses, unfortunately are already built on the northerly or easterly side of bogs or marshes, would do well to drain such places, and if they are covered with wood, it will be proper to make the principal ditches or drains one reason before the wood shall be cut off, that, when the sun is let in upon the ground, it may be found, as far as possible, in a dry condition, incapable of producing vapour.
And from The Pennsylvania Gazette, July 30, 1794, copied from The FARMER'S and IMPROVER'S FRIEND.
THE PROFIT AND COMFORT OF GARDENS
On eating vegetables...
Gardens do not appear to have sufficiently attracted the attention of either the wealthy or the poor farmer. Plenty and variety of good vegetables have the most favourable effect upon the health of a family, and particularly of the children and women. The doctor's bill is greatly encreased, by inattention to the garden , and often valuable lives are lost by feeding in times of sickness in the hot weather, upon meat, cheese and butter, because there are no early potatoes, carrots, early turnips, cabbages, beans, peas, beets, &c. In every garden raspberries, currants, peaches and pears should be planted. They grow as freely as weeds in this climate, especially the two first, and if used only when ripe, they are preventatives of some disorders, and more certain cures for others, than any medicine.
On irrigation...
The French and Italians place their gardens so as to command a pond of water near them. On the bank of the pond they place an upright post, with a pole across the top, twining on a piece of wood or iron. At one end of the pole is fixed a little pail or bucket, so as to be easily dipped into the pond filled often; the other end of the pole serves as a long handle, by means of which the bucket or pail is dipped into the pond and filled, then raised (by pressing down the handle end of the pole) till the bucket is brought over a cask, into which it is emptied. Water is sometimes raised in like manner by a wheel turned by hand. It is then carried, by little rough troughs, all over the garden , so as to produce a great abundance of vegetables, and especially of those kinds, which usually fail, for want of rain, in dry season.
This is another pleasing instance of the good effects of the Irrigation or watering, so earnestly recommended in the first number of these papers. It is proper to recommend attention to the position of such ponds in relation to dwelling-houses. They should, if near or large, be on one of those sides from which the summer winds do not blow, and they should be kept running, and indeed should be occasionally emptied in the summer months. Here to, it may well to recommend to the farmer and miller, of every denomination, not to place his buildings nearer than is necessary to any mill-pond, common pond, wet ditch or drain, creek, or other stream; and so to place his dwelling, that any such water may lie on the northerly and easterly side of his house, and by no means to have even a running stream, much less a standing water or pond, or a marsh, on the side from which the summer winds can bring the dampness and pernicious vapours, which the sun always raises from such places. Farmers, whose houses, unfortunately are already built on the northerly or easterly side of bogs or marshes, would do well to drain such places, and if they are covered with wood, it will be proper to make the principal ditches or drains one reason before the wood shall be cut off, that, when the sun is let in upon the ground, it may be found, as far as possible, in a dry condition, incapable of producing vapour.
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