Celebrating the harvest
Amy Jordan, Special to the Gazette
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Vegetables and fruit play an important part of most Thanksgiving meals. Sweet potatoes are almost always on the menu in some form, often with lots of butter and marshmallows.
Then there are the green bean casserole, corn, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. There is usually a veggie tray for snacking with celery, carrots, olives and pickles. All of these foods have become part of our modern day Thanksgiving meal, but what do you suppose was eaten at the first Thanksgiving?
The meal shared by the Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians in 1621 was in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful bounty of crops. Foods that may have been available to them at that time have some similarities to what we still include in our Thanksgiving meal.
Carrots, onions, peas, lettuce, and radishes may have been eaten. Green beans may have been on the menu, but probably not with cream of mushroom soup and French fried onions. Pumpkin may also have been eaten, but not in the pie form. The pumpkin may have been stewed instead.
Leeks and parsnips are other vegetables that may have been common then. Fruit would have included grapes, plums and dried currants, and nuts that may have been eaten were walnuts, chestnuts and acorns.
Sweet potatoes were not common in 1621, nor were Irish potatoes. Corn was usually dried and ground at this time of the year. Cranberries were grown then, but sugar was not in great supply, so sweetened cranberry sauce was not eaten.
Just like the people at the first Thanksgiving, many of us eat what we have available to us. We may also have our own “harvest celebration” and eat foods that we grew this season or purchased at the Farmers Market.
Sweet potatoes are very well-adapted to Kansas and ones you grew may be on your table today. Irish potatoes and onions keep well and many gardeners may have some left from a spring garden. A late planting of lettuce may make for a great salad, or beans and corn that was frozen or canned may be on the menu as well.
Whatever we choose to eat and regardless of where it was grown, let us all be thankful for a safe, abundant food supply.
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