b'Reprinted from the Lone Star FarmsteadF or many Americans, the Thanksgiving mealbrought to North America. White potatoes comeLugging a large cast iron stove across the wild and includes seasonal dishes such as roast turkeyfrom South America and sweet potatoes are from theunpredictable west was not a possibility for most with stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes,Caribbean. They were first brought to North Americapioneers, and while some did, in fact, have stoves, and pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving dinner is the largest100 years later. Also, there would have been nomany of those who were new to an unsettled region eating event in the United States; people eat more oncranberry sauce. It would be another 50 years beforehad to make do with a fireplace in the common Thanksgiving than on any other day of the year. that was invented. To wash it all down the Englishroom (or in some cases, only room) of their small and Wampanoag drank water. cabins or huts. Dinners were prepared over an open According to what traditionally is known as The Firstfire using spits to cook the meat (which was usually Thanksgiving, the 1621 feast at Plymouth ColonySo how did the Thanksgiving menu become what it issalt-cured), cast iron Dutch ovens, and cast iron pots in Massachusetts between the Pilgrims and thetoday? Thanksgiving as we know it today began in theto cook most of the other dinner items. Utensils were Wampanoag probably contained waterfowl, venison,mid-1800s. Around this time, an author referred to therudimentary in most cases, with the exception of a ham, lobster, clams, berries, fruit, pumpkin, andharvest celebration in 1621 as the "first Thanksgiving."metal ladle or spoon if one were lucky. Cooking a squash. Letters from the time show that they also ateDuring this time period there was nostalgia forThanksgiving meal, or any meal for that matter, was wild birds, corn, and grain. William Bradford notedthe colonial era and by the 1850s, most states anda process that started early in the day and involved that besides waterfowl, there was great store of wildterritories were celebrating Thanksgiving. By 1857,a considerable amount of time and effort. Spices turkeys, of which they took many. Many of the foodsturkey had become part of the traditional dinner. and milk were not on hand in the form that we have that were included in the first feast (except, notably,today. The cow had to be milked, butter had to be the seafood) have since gone on to become staples ofDuring most of the 19th century, Thanksgiving washand-churned, animals had to be slaughtered, bread the modern Thanksgiving dinner. not an official holiday. It had started as a tradition inhad to be made from scratch, and spices had to be the New England states and was widely celebratedhand-ground with a mortar and pestle. Fires had to Turkey was not the centerpiece of the meal, as it isthere and into the mid-West. The actual date of thebe kept burning and coals had to be tended. When today and most people preferred goose or duck. Theholiday was left to the governing body of whateveryou use your oven youll truly be thankful for gasuse of the turkey in the US for Thanksgiving precedesstate or region a pioneer happened to be in. Theand electricity. Lincolns nationalization of the holiday in 1863.dates could vary widely from September through Alexander Hamilton proclaimed that no CitizenDecember, although most traditionally celebratedLife on the frontier was hard. Warring Indian tribes of the United States should refrain from turkey onsometime in November. Sarah Josepha Hale wasoften slaughtered settlers in their homes. Crops Thanksgiving Day, and Benjamin Franklin had higha leading voice in establishing Thanksgiving as anhad to be planted by hand. Meat had to be hunted, regard for the wild turkey as an American icon, butannual event. She was the editor of the populardressed, and cured. Homes had to be built by hand, the turkey was uncommon as Thanksgiving fare untilwomens magazine called Godeys Ladys Book. Haleoften by only the family with whatever resources after 1800.was also famous for writing the nursery rhyme "Marywere on hand. Winters on the plains were harsh with Had a Little Lamb." She started writing to presidentssnow and sweeping winds that could prove fatal Small birds were often roasted over a fire. Largerto make it a national holiday in 1827. She finallyto settlers caught out in the open. Despite all these birds were boiled. It is possible that the birds werepitched her idea to President Lincoln as a way to unitehardships, our pioneering homestead ancestors of stuffed, though probably not with bread. The Pilgrimsthe country since the country was in the middle ofthe 19th century remained true to tradition and instead stuffed birds with onions and herbs. Thethe Civil War. Lincoln listened to her and he madecelebrated Thanksgiving, remembering that it was first Thanksgiving was a three-day celebration. ThisThanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. a time set aside to be thankful for the harvest, and probably meant that birds were roasted on the firstHale printed many Thanksgiving recipes in herin many of their cases, another year alive. In 1938, day. Then they were thrown in a pot and boiledmagazine even before Thanksgiving was a nationalMrs. Hulda Esther Thorpe remembered the dangers to make broth the next day. That broth could beholiday and she also published a dozen cookbooks.that settlers faced on the prairie in the 1800s, and the thickened with grain to make a stew. The colonistsMuch of the Thanksgiving food that we think of todaymany reasons settlers had for giving thanks: One of and Native Americans probably also ate eels, clams,can be found in her cookbooks. the best Thanksgiving dinners we ever knew of was and mussels as they were some of the seafood thatwhen a family of settlers had their nice wild turkey was easy to find. The Wampanoag lived in theIn 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt set andinner taken by the Indians, who came in silently and woodlands and had a very good diet. The forestofficial date for the national holiday of Thanksgiving.just shoved the folks back and ate it up. They did not provided different kinds of nuts and they also grewBecause of this unofficial status, pioneers in theharm the settlers though and after they were gone multicolored corn, beans, pumpkin, and squash. mid-west were left to their own devices to determinethe women made a big corn bread and with what when the governor of the state or territory set thefew things the Indians left, they had a feast. Their This is not what the colonists would have eaten if theydate. Pioneers in the South would not begin todaughter said that it was the best Thanksgiving dinner had stayed in England. In England, people often ateobserve the holiday in a formal fashion until wellshe ever ate. This was because they were so happy and pie. Colonists did not have butter and wheat flour toafter the Civil War. thankful that the Indians spared them.make pie crusts. Instead, they ate a lot of meat. Meat without potatoes, that is. Potatoes had not yet beenHappy Thanksgiving and God bless! ArizonaRealCountry.com November 2023 75'