Lost foods & their place in our impressions

[ACo.]

Re: Lost foods & their place in our impressions

Ive eaten the usual skurrels& rabbits but mud turtle! now theres a feast!

OOOOOH! YES! You are right, how could I forget that one. :wink_smil

[cap tassel]

Re: Lost foods & their place in our impressions

These guys had a common knowledge of stuff like which wood burned hotter or what plant was edible or not.

Regards,

I think you're right. There is a tendency to ignore the 101 and go straight to the "important" stuff. The value of living history hinges on understanding this. It's a forest and the trees thing.

[Furlough Frank]

Re: Lost foods & their place in our impressions

Bill,

This subject I find quite fascinating and there have been some marvelous antidotes that speak to the complexity of the endevor, ie. avian flu testing for heritage chickens and the lot. I wish to ditto Erick Gustin's call for a practical list of items and sources to aquire them.

We need a vendor to step forward and offer culinary rat (the pet store white rats are farby) with all the fixings! While squirrel is common, your local Division of Wildlife does impose regulations on their possession. This naturally assumes the lawful and licensed harvest of said vermin. If you get caught with a live one in a cage that you intend to tote off the the next reenactment you can expect a large fine and the suspension of hunting privelages.

Yours aye,

Frank Campbell

"An army marches on it's belly." Napolean

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Lost foods & their place in our impressions

These guys were like the equivalent of the modern day Swiss army knife…they were versatile and resourceful and knowledgeable…something that we are lacking as a whole in our impressions.

Understood what you mean fully sir, but...

... Isn't this dependant upon where your 1860s self was raised and might have lived? I usually portray a city person of the period as a generic impression... he might have had the knowledge of what wood burns hotter, etc that a city person and a country person would have still known in common, but survival in the woods on campaign for him might have been a great challenge at first...

... until he got up enough gumption (and practical field knowledge) to eat a rat because he was starving out in the field... LOL ;)

But I know what you mean... :p

-Johnny

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Lost foods & their place in our impressions

... until he got up enough gumption (and practical field knowledge) to eat a rat because he was starving out in the field... LOL ;)
-Johnny

There's the heart of it: WHEN you're portraying a soldier may be as important as where. Is he a fresh fish city boy in 1861, or in 1864 after men from his neighborhood have come back to share what knowledge they had gathered? Is he a farm boy just off the boat and marching (not always in step) to Shiloh, or is he that same farm boy almost three years later after he's familiar with the elephant in all its creases and wrinkles?

[jwoodli]

Re: Lost foods & their place in our impressions

I think it's also important to remember that city boys also ate a lot of the same country fixins that a country boy did, while he may have had nothing to do with its growing or procurement (vegetabley speaking), and probably knew what most of the crops were. A quick trip to a local organic garden before an event to pick up some tasty, seasonal, heirloom variety veggies can really spruce up an impression when appropriate and make for some tasty smells from your boiler. It would be great if we could implement more food knowledge. I recently had some awesome home-made pickled heirloom okra, nice and crunchy, and I can't wait to bring some to my next event. Does anyone know of a good pickled egg brand, I'd be willing to give these morsels another chance...

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Lost foods & their place in our impressions

Pickled eggs aren't that hard to make. The idea doesn't seem to have changed a lot over the years. If you're looking for some to try out at home, the simple way is to--
buy a jar of pickled beets (if you want red eggs) or pickles (if you want plain, which is likely to be more authentic)
enjoy the beets or pickles, being careful not to discard any of the brine/juice,
hard-boil some nice fresh eggs and
put them in the juice in the refrigerator for a couple of days. When the eggs turn pink, in beet brine, or yellowish, in pickle juice, they should have their flavor. Longer soaking, within reason, increases flavor.

It isn';t that hard to can eggs, either. I know there are period recipes, which don't differ much from modern ones except for heat processing and other safety measures.

[jwoodli]

Re: Lost foods & their place in our impressions

I guess I always tend to overestimate the difficulty of pickling... Thank you very much for the insight.

[BCIDick]

Re: Lost foods & their place in our impressions

Here is a link to a list of heirloom seed providers.
http://www.halcyon.com/tmend/links.htm

New England Heritage Breeds Conservancy is another resource for heritage/heirloom livestock, unfortunately their website is down.

Plimoth Plantation has done a lot of research with heritage livestock breeds. One successful project delivered several head of cattle to developing nations in Africa, where the more hardy, disease resistant heritage cattle would thrive where conventional breeds die.

Many gourmets swear that heritage produce and livestock, raised without hormones and fed a natural diet are vastly superior to commercial products that are raised to mature in the minimum amount of time with the largest size, with flavor not being a consideration.

[Darrell Cochran]

Re: Lost foods & their place in our impressions

I would also caution lurkers not to go overboard about the knowledge soldiers had of the land, since large numbers of them (at least among soldiers of the Union) were city dwellers. (snip) There are probably some good first person moments to be had between city slickers and country boys about food in an encampment scenario.

Indeed Bill ... Armed with a copy of Virginia Mescher's booklet "Did They Eat That" I can see a scenario where the city boy introduces the country boy to those tins of smoked oysters of yours, among other delicacies we find on our grocers' shelves that were common in those days as well.

[rmassella]

Re: Lost foods & their place in our impressions

I recently planted some heirloom variety fruit trees. They include the Belle of Georgia Peach tree, the Arkansas Black Apple (Winesap), and the McIntosh Apple. I'm looking forward to when I can actually get to eat them in the future.