The aroma of roast turkey wafts through the house, family and friends are busily preparing their traditional side dishes and desserts. Wine is being uncorked. Laughter is a must-have ingredient to a tasty and satisfying Thanksgiving.
I wondered what foods the Wampanoags showed the Pilgrims how to gather in 1621, what to fish for, what they hunted. They surely showed what was good in their environment to eat and what wasn’t edible. What crops did the native people help the Pilgrims plant and nurture?
What food was at that first celebration? The Wampanoags usually celebrated their harvests with food and rejoicing. They probably had venison, wild turkey, rabbit, woodchuck, lobster, clams, mussels, sea bass, bluefish. They supposedly also had beans, potatoes, corn and squash. Hmmm, lobster for Thanksgiving! I’ll have a serving of that, if you please!
What foods are planted and harvested right in your own areas? I think of the blackberries, strawberries, apples, raspberries, marionberries, blueberries grown in this area. I know of local gouda and farmer’s cheese from our dairies here. There’s also a goat farm for goat milk and cheese. We have crab, mussels, oysters, salmon. I saw a pheasant dash across the street one night; geese, duck aplenty. Deer and rabbit I’ve almost hit a time or two driving through the woods at night. We could survive on local produce, and many people are getting back to working the soil and sharing their bounty in co-ops and truck farms.
Something to think about, eh?
Well, wherever you are, as you sit down to your turkey, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, Brussels sprouts, hot buttered rolls and pumpkin pies, let’s, like the Wampanoags and the Pilgrims, thank the Great Spirit for the bounty of our land and our many blessings!
Happy Thanksgiving!
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