My So-Called Pilgrim Life

Do you have plans this Veteran’s Day? All Veteran’s and Active Duty Personnel visit for FREE on Veteran’s Day! Plimoth Plantation has great events and activities scheduled throughout the day, including militia practice in the English Village! Come on down this Wednesday!

Please come, we’d love to hear your stories and hope you want to hear ours. While I am normally on the road as a Museum Teacher for the Education Department this time of year, I WILL be in the village this Vet’s Day as Capt. Myles Standish. I think he would be proud for me to doff my hat and give a comradely bow to you for your service.

Thank you very much Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Coasties!

Buddy

Saturday was one of those days. No, not one of THOSE days. One of those days that makes wet wool, sweaty pilgrim garb, not-for-profit pay scales, early mornings shoveling manure, late nights reading incomprehensible 17th century texts, freezing cold, blazing heat, and those excruciating pilgrim shoes- one of those days that makes it all worthwhile.
We had a boy coming in from hospice who also had some mobility issues. So, we brought many of our animals up to the fort area so he could meet them. This isn’t something we could do everyday, but we knew about the visit in advance, they had a special guided tour planned, and they were not coming at one of our busiest times.
So, our three lambs born in June were herded up to the fort. “Poppers,” last year’s newborn kid goat, was carried up by Shelley. And, I was able to take Damson and her new calf on his longest walk ever, so far, all the way up to the fort.
The young man and his family were able to meet them all which was quite delightful enough. His bravery and excitement were palpable, and it really was an honor to be part of brightening his day. But then it just got better.
Another visitor came in leading her blind son. His jaw dropped when I had him touch the cow, as he realized the enormity of the animal under his fingers. Then, Shelley handed him Poppers to hold; his fingers found her horns, and he beamed. Later, before we brought the animals back, a paraplegic woman from Ireland came into the fort area, and she was able to touch a cow for the first time as well. Not to mention the tour group of children from Holland and all of the other visitors coming through the fort that afternoon.
Our animal interpreters are here to delight and inform all of our visitors- young, old, city folk, farm families, everyone. But, I have to confess a special satisfaction whenever I get the chance to help folks who might have more difficulty interacting with a farm animal to get that amazing experience. It reminds me that our job here is really, dare I say it?, a labor of love.

-Jonny Larason, Agricultural Exhibits

Our little bull calf is exploring his world. Two days ago, he seemed like he really wanted to come closer to us, to come and say hello, but he was a bit too scared. We were too far away from mom I guess. Yesterday he got brave and came right up and sniffed and licked us. Today, he is licking everything. Licking different plants his mom eats. Licking the fences. Licking my apron. Licking my hand. Licking the dirt I’m working in (putting in a new fence post) which leaves powdery brown smudges on his nose. Then he gallops around in circles.
We were visited by 1800 schoolchildren today, and he even went up to the fence and licked them from in between the pales. And somehow, either in his mind or mine, his work here at this museum became clear: he’s going to spend his life around kids, families, and guests to our museum, pulling loads and maybe even plowing. (Not bad when most little guys look forward to becoming a tasty steak!) He’s going to be a bovine interpreter, hopefully making it possible for kids (or anybody) to see what cattle feel like, or look like, or smell like; or for a museum guest to learn how a cow thinks. Hopefully he’ll educate people how the colonists used animal power to do things beyond the capabilities of their own musculature—moving heavy loads of wood or hay, taking stumps out of the ground, plowing (not to mention totally transforming the indigenous landscape into what it is today, but that’s a different post…)

Earlier this week, we posted from the Village Farm about the arrival of our newest interpreter, the calf born to Damson, our red and black cow. In that post we mentioned the training Damson has gone through over the last 4 years to become the excellent exhibit animal she is today.
In all learning processes, some of steps in training are strange and mysterious to the student until they have enough background to put everything into context. In the same way, I think parts of our morning and afternoon cow handling routine (which is an essential part of how we teach our exhibit animals) must have seemed odd to Damson. I mean, I’m sure she enjoyed the part where we brush and rub her down. Lifting her legs every day may have made sense to her the first time she got her hooves trimmed. But why, she probably wondered, do they insist on reaching under me and touching my udder? Isn’t that sort of personal?
Over time, Damson stopped feeling tickled when her udder was palpated, and she learned not to move away. And yesterday, the fruits of four years of training came true, as Damson stood still for her first milking- without rope or stanchion or anything to restrain her. Her training enabled us to make milking her an exhibit that looked just like the images we see from 17th century paintings and woodcuts, dairy maids milking their cows freestanding in the fields.

This past June, we attended the Association for Living History, Farm, and Agricultural Museums’ (ALHFAM) 39th Annual Conference at Old Salem Museum and Gardens in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. ALHFAM is an organization of people who bring history to life. They achieve this through the exchange and sharing of ideas, information, tools and experiences centered around accurate, active, participatory, object-based historical interpretation. ALHFAM’s membership includes museum interpreters, educators, researchers, administrators, curators and volunteers. The Annual Conference is hosted by member institutions in the United States and Canada, and includes formal papers, interactive workshops, site visits, and networking.

This year’s conference was hosted by Old Salem, a museum of the 18th and early 19th century Moravian community in Winston-Salem, NC. Their unique site includes original and reproduction structures, costumed interpreters, craft demonstrations, and formal exhibit galleries, including MESDA, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. Visit their website at www.oldsalem.org. Pre Conference Workshops included hands on baking, a tour of the Seagrove area potteries, apple grafting, 18th and early 19th century men’s tailoring, and many more. Justin attended a historic plowing workshop, which allowed attendees try their hand at using replica plows from the 18th through the 20th centuries brought by ALHFAM members.

The conference theme was “From Strangers to Friends”, and was opened with a keynote address by Robert Morgan. Presentations and lectures included:
· A report on ALHFAM Farm Schools in which ALHFAM members promote the sustaining of historic agricultural skills for fellow ALHFAM members through intensive, hands-on workshops at an ALHFAM agricultural site.
· An insightful look at what surveys and studies of museum visitors show to be the “Best Practices in Live Interpretation”.
· A formal paper presented by Dr. Danae Tankard on “Representing the Medieval Past at UK Heritage Sites”. Dr. Tankard is a historian at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in West Sussex, UK. Weald and Downland have several exhibits that are relevant to our 1627 English Village site. Check them out at http://www.wealddown.co.uk/.
· Other presentations included topics that ranged from Collection Management to Utilizing 21st century technology in museum exhibits.

A full day was dedicated to exploring Old Salem. The museum was opened especially for conference attendees on a day on which the museum is typically closed, where Old Salem’s staff offered their fantastic, regular public programming, as well as behind the scenes tours. We were very impressed with the effort made by the entire museum and staff. The breadth and variety of programs offered and the welcoming attitude of the staff was inspiring. The Conference also included several opportunities for social networking (face to face, not face to Facebook), including an opening reception, “Salted, Smoked, and Pickled”, in which members can offer foods distinct to their region, (jar of pickles, salt fish?), an evening at Old Salem’s 1789 tavern with games, music, gingercakes, and a kiln firing, and a Live Auction to benefit ALHFAM. The Auction is an ALHFAM tradition in which Rebecca’s father Blake Hayes is the official auctioneer who recruits lovely ladies (Rebecca), as auction “Vannas” who assist Blake display and sell items donated by members and museums. I (Justin) took home a great reproduction 18th century buttonhole cutter made by Old Salem’s blacksmith.

The Conference closed with a panel discussion on the future of Living History by representatives from several different museums. We left the Conference thinking about what we do here at Plimoth Plantation, how we do it, and how we can continue to improve our ability at making the 17th century colonial experience meaningful, relevant, and personal for our museum’s visitors.

Next year’s conference will be returning to Old Sturbridge Village for it’s 40th Anniversary on June 20-24, 2010. ALHFAM’s beginnings were at OSV, and this year’s conference theme is “Roots and Branches of Living History”. We’re very excited for next year’s conference which will include visits to Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH, historic Lowell, MA, and an opening keynote address by Harvard professor and Pulitzer Prize winning author Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, who’s research helps inform our understanding of 17th century New England. Visit www.alhfam.org for more information about the organization, conferences, and membership. For more information contact New England Regional Representatives, Kathleen Wall and Rebecca Gross.

Hope to see you at the conference in 2010,

Rebecca Gross and Justin Squizzero
Colonial Interpretation Department

Four years ago, just about this time of year, a three-month old calf was introduced into the 1627 Colonial Village site. She was the size of a German Shepherd and red with brindled red and black head and legs. We called her Damson (like the plum) and trained her to be an interpreter. She learned to follow commands when led by the halter or horns. She got used to being poked and prodded from all sides by countless schoolchildren. She took on the role of the heifer William Bradford called “Raghorn”.
Well, she’s all grown up now. You see, last winter, Damson spent our museum’s off season in the company of a delightful, mild-mannered, if somewhat undersized Kerry bull named B.B. Nature took its course, and this past Sunday (St. Crispin’s Day in the 17th century English Church,) Damson gave birth to a beautiful chocolate-brown bull calf- the first calf born at Plimoth Plantation since 2003. Mother and calf are currently resting comfortably in the animal pen next to Mr. Brewster his house.
Both are healthy and well and would love to entertain guests.
-Jonny Larason, Agricultural Exhibits

A 17th century cooking lesson
I’m not sure that the Pilgrims used these particular recipes. There aren’t any cookbooks in their wills and inventories, and most of these people wouldn’t have known what to do with one if they had had one. They knew how to cook the things they were familar with in the way that was familar to them. That said, some things turn up over and over again, so they certainly cold have been familar. My history training make me want to hedge and qualify. My big sister background make want to say, “Try it, you’ll like it! And so easy!”
I keep meaning to put more recipes on this blog, but I realize that I teach cooking, not just recipes, and I teach the way of a 17th mother would have: I put out the ingredients and the various pots, and hover about ready to stir the onions, as it were. This is hard to translate into print, so please bear with me. Don’t forget to be sensible – really use all your senses: taste, sight, hearing, smell and judgment.
We’re going to start with a recipe for a salad. Salad, even a boiled one, doesn’t take much to figure out. And why boil a salad? It makes it more artificial, and artificial is good in the 17th century when they had a whole different standard of artificial, which means made by the hand of man. So, a boiled salad is the plants improved by cooking, as opposed to grazing on weeds like a cow or a hog…makes you look at that side salad a whole diffeent way, if you compare it to an animal feeding. A boiled salad will put some familiar things on your table in a way that isn’t too unfamiliar. You don’t need to be growing heirloom varieties, any old spinach will do, I mean any spinach, and it doesn’t have to be an old variety. If you have a garden, go harvest.
….So here’s how it’s gonna go –
First Lesson – Looking at a resource, in this case a period recipe, copied out of the period cookbook. It’s easier if you read it out loud, because spelling isn’t standardized, but pronunciations aren’t that far from now, or so I’ve lead myself to believe. Someday, this will be enough to start you on your way, but if you’re not there today, keep on to
Second Lesson– a version in modern spelling with parenthetical notes to explain some of what going on, define vocabulary. The second one will be the longest of the versions.
Third Lesson– a quick and easy totally 21st century translation.
Put on your aprons, wash your hands, and lets go to the kitchen.
“Diverse Sallets Boyled.
Parboyle Spinage, and chop it fine, with the edges of two hard Trenchers upon a boord, or the back of two chopping knives : then set them on a Chafingdish of coals with Butter and Vinegar. Season it with Sinamon, Ginger, Sugar, and a few parboiled Currins. Then cut hard Egges into quarter to garnish it withal, and serve it upon sippets. So may you serve Burrage, Buglosse, Endiffe, Suckory, Coleflowers, Sorrel, Marigold leaves, water-Cresses, Leekes boyled, Onions, Sparragus, Rocket, Alexanders. Parboyle them, and season them all alike: whether it be with Oyle and Vingar, or Butter and Vinegar, Sinamon, Ginger, Sugar, and Butter: Egges are necessary, or at least good for all boyled Sallets.”
From John Murrell’s A Newe Booke of Cookerie, London: 1615, p. 34.

KMWall
Colonial Foodways Culinarian

And they need to be in the right place for us to use them. For Youtube videos please join our channel and add them HERE.

For photos please join our pool and add your pictures HERE.

Anywhere else and we may not be able to use them. Thanks, folks.

Buddy

BTW, another fine photo from Justin

No, not THAT ‘First Thanksgiving’ – my first Thanksgiving consult for the 2009 season. I usually figure the Thanksgiving season as starting around here at the beginning of September, and sure as shooting, I was in a meeting and on the phone talking about the autumn of 1621. And the first questions were about food, especially recipes, especially authentic recipes for authentic food.
There is a certain extent where authenticity is in the mouth of the beholder, but I do a pretty good collection of 17th century English recipes– and some Dutch ones to cover those all important Holland years- and pretty good handle of what various evidences tell us about available foodstuffs, so if there’s something old that you’d like to see, make your requests via comments and I’ll post some recipes soon. Actually, my usual fashion is to post a 17th century recipe and then walk and talk you through it.
And while I’m at it, let me put in a shameless plug for Thanks and Giving by Kathleen Curtin and Sandra Oliver, who cover the history of the holiday, as well as provide great recipes, images and stories. Not only are they culinary colleagues, they let me test recipes for the book. Well, one. One recipe. For stuffed celery. Ok, I know you’re thinking stuffed celery isn’t really a recipe, but it’s right there in the first recipe section and I tested it. So buy the book! End of commercial break. Back to our program.
Foodways isn’t just about the food; it’s also about the ways. Thanksgiving isn’t just about the food (GASP) it’s also about the ways. Preparations. Procurements. Perceptions. Presentations. It’s about the table – where it is, how it’s set, who’s sitting at it, where they’re sitting. It’s about the kitchen – who’s in charge, who’s washing the dishes, who brings what, who chooses the menu. It’s about the meaning behind the food – what do you think and feel and remember about all this, is this something you only see and taste in this circumstance, is this familiar or usual, costly or rare or common or singular?
So just who was on First, Thanksgiving that is. There are lots of claims. They’re all right. Thanksgiving is not a race to be won going backwards in time. Each thanksgiving is the first. As a living tradition, first isn’t as important as the last – or the next. Whether you’re in a farmhouse in Missouri or an apartment in Manhattan, your Thanksgiving is authentic and the first one – the first one with someone new or with someone missing, a new cook, a new venue or a new dish or something new to be thankful for. For thanksgiving you don’t have to wait until November; you don’t even need a turkey.
K.M. Wall
Colonial Foodways Culinarian

We ARE hot is these pilgrim clothes! You all are hot and you’re only wearing shorts a t-shirts. But what about our characters? How do they feel about all that wool and linen on these sweltering New England afternoons? Well, I can’t say for certain, of course, but I have to imagine that they were just as uncomfortable as we are.

But…they were terribly concerned for their health. The prevailing medical theory of the day was the Doctrine of Humours whereby “health was seen as the proper balance of the four internal humours, blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. While a balanced state brought wellness, imbalance resulted in ill health and disease. Either harmful or helpful, the environment was a powerful agent in this dynamic physical process, such things as weather, water, air, or astrological movements affecting the equilibrium of both individuals and nations. Thus cold was not just unpleasant, but the potential cause of minor and severe ailments.”*

It is as though they might have thought that any skin exposed to the elements had the potential of allow sickness into the body. We have evidence of people fearing that they were not wearing enough even if a man did not wear a doublet over his cassock or suit.

What we will offer the visitor concerned about our comfort is the admonition that “I would not dress as you for the sun is not good for you.” And they can understand the worry of skin cancer even if our seventeenth century counterparts cannot.

So, please understand, when you see those rivulets of “liquid sunshine” pouring down our faces under those hats or coifs…we ARE hot in those clothes. But to dress otherwise would do a disservice to the actual people we represent. In a sense, we do it for YOU.

*”from “Dressing the Elite: Clothes in Early Modern England” by Susan Vincent. Thanks to our costumer extraordinaire, Denise Lupica, for this.

Buddy