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Join Rachel as she chats about what she’s baking, the history of some of the traditional foods, and of course what Laura Ingalls Wilder had to say about the holiday.

The Modern Homesteading Podcast Episode 265

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A few recipes and some history. Of course, we will visit what Laura Ingalls Wilder had to say about Thanksgiving.

What Rachel Is making:

Cheese cake, pumpkin pie, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce and of course turkey!

A little Thanksgiving history, the North American/United States tradition was started when the Puritans came to the new england in 1620. They had quite a rough go at it and may not have made it but the local native peoples, the (womp an o agg)– took them under their wing and shared their skills with them. 

 It wasn’t a holiday until 1863 during the civil war pressured by the editor of Go-deeees ladys book, Sarah Hale. 

And the rest is history as they say….

I wanted to talk about the food that would or would not have been at this ‘first’ thanksgiving. I mean we know giving thanks and celebrations are not new, they’ve’ been celebrated throughout history.

So first, the day was actually 3 from all that we can gather. What a feast!

Lets Talk the Main Dish: The Meat

Wild Turkey is native to North America the diaries of the Puritians record eating water fowl, fish, eel, shell fish and  venison. But it is unknown if they actually ate turkey that day. If they did they probably didn’t stuff it. They did not record anything about eating it and they wrote about these other foods but they didn’t say they ate it in this celebration.  They did record hunting turkeys though. 

If they prepared a turkey, from everything I gathered and read they probably boiled it first and then roasted it over a fire. Which makes sense when you consider the rustic cabins they lived in…

Cranberries– These were a common food for the natives since wild cranberry bogs existed then and still do.  It is unclear but suspected they were ate at the first thanksgiving. They probably  were in   the pemmican, porridge, puddings and sauces consumed. But not the sugary Sugary food gone the natives did tap trees and I would guess find the occasional honey to use. 

Pumpkin….squash…native to central america. They did record eating squash. Usually it was ate in long roasted strips or dried and pounded into a flour.  A side note did you know most canned pumpkin is actually squash? Most are Dickinson pumpkins but hubbard squash is also used because it is sweeter.

Corn otherwise known as maize or indian corn was introduced to the Pilgrims. You know that colorful stuff.  This became a staple crop for the Pilgrims and of course was one for the native americans. Traditionally this food was used as hominy, flour to thicken things, and cornbread. So it was likely they ate it as soup, bread or boiled with beans.

And the celebration went on for a few days so they made soup!  Or probably then porridge…. Etc… 

No sugary pies and such though…

So fast forward to 1863, the holiday was made…

I couldn’t talk about Thanksgiving without mentioning one of my favorite authors and historical figures. Laura Ingalls Wilder mentions, though briefly, celebrating Thanksgiving in The Banks of Plumb Creek (1874-1876, she was 7-9) —

Chapter 12 (life in a dugout, Plumb Creek, Minnesota) 

“Thanksgiving dinner was good. Pa had shot a wild goose for it. Ma had to stew the goose because there was no fireplace, and no oven in the little stove. But she made dumplings in the gravy. There were corn dodgers and mashed potatoes. There were butter, and milk and stewed dried plums. And three grains of parched corn lay beside each tin plate. 

At the first Thanksgiving dinner the poor Pilgrims had nothing to eat but three parched grains of corn. Then the Indians came and brought them turkeys, so the pilgrims were thankful.

Now, after they had eaten their good, big Thanksgiving dinner. Laura and Mary could eat their grains of corn and remember the Pilgrims. Parched corn was good. It crackled and crunched, and its taste was sweet and brown. “

In an article written by Laura decades later she remembers Pa missing getting a goose and a quarrel she had with Mary about the dressing having sage. Laura didn’t want sage and Mary did. 

On the Banks of Plum Creek (Little House, No 4)

• Wilder, Laura Ingalls (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 352 Pages – 04/08/2008 (Publication Date) – HarperCollins (Publisher)

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Homemade Orange Cranberry Sauce with Apple

• 3 cups (12 oz) fresh cranberries
• 2 cups oranges- sliced (You can leave the skin on the oranges or not, it will give it a bite plus add lots of vitamin C).
• 2 cups of apples, cored and sliced (you can do all oranges if you like)
• 1 cup honey
• 2 T plus teaspoons plus 2 t. Grass-fed gelatin
• ½ cup cold filtered water

Instructions:

• Blend cranberries and fruit in a food processor until mixture is the consistency you prefer. 
• Place in a pot, add honey and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. 
• Reduce heat and continue to stir for 10 minutes. Remove pot from heat. 
• Add gelatin to water slowly stirring while adding once dissolved add it to the cranberry mixture and stir until smooth. 
• Chill.

Links Mentioned: 

Pumpkin Pie Recipe

https://www.southdakotamagazine.com/ingalls

https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-we-eat-turkey-on-thanksgiving#:~:text=Throughout%20America’s%20colonial%20era%2C%20communities,the%20hand%20of%20the%20 table.%E2%80%9D

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/what-food-was-served-at-the-first-thanksgiving-in-1621-511554

YouTube of Cranberry Thanksgiving being read: https://youtu.be/dSdDx7jo3sg?feature=shared

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