I'm travelling this week and away from kitchen. To make up for the lack of new recipe, here is some info on a historic site I explored and the food finds I found there.
Wormsloe National Park, south east of Savannah, is the family home of one of Georgia's original settlers. Noble Jones travelled from England with the original settlers of Georgia hoping to make it big. Back in England he had been a carpenter. In the States he was a carpenter, surveyor, constable, and whole host of other things. He made his money, and lots of it, and his descendants still live in a manor house on his land today. Back in the 1930's the owner of the house saw the new Clark Gable movie Gone with the Wind and was so taken with it she decided to remodel the manor house in the style of Tara, the plantation house in the movie.
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| Quaint |
After comparing the cost of the renovations to the bank account the family decided to open up their driveway to the public for a fee. You might be asking how cool a driveway would need to be for regular folks to pay to walk down it?
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| This cool, apparently |
It is very impressive. There is a large arch at the front of the drive followed by the longest oak lined driveway in the world at one and a half miles long. The trees were planted in the second half of the 1800's and because of the forest behind them on either side they grew over the drive in the stylish way seen above.
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| I'm looking into getting one of these for my house |
Within a year the family had enough for the remodels they wanted but they never closed the land and eventually they donated it to the state of Georgia. It now serves as a national park. The admission fee is ten dollars. This price gets you access to the guided tour, museum, gift shop, grounds, and a short video on the history of the place. All in all it felt worth it when we left.
The real question is, how do this connect to old food? I'm so glad you asked because it does connect! Besides just being cool and historical, the park also had several books for sale in their gift shop specifically on what kind of food was available in the revolutionary era, the civil war era, and what sweets and spirits were eaten in the colonial era.
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| I got a complimentary tote for buying all these #winning |
The books include true recipes from the times they discussed, as well as, modernized recipes and guesses on how the people would have eaten. One of the original Revolutionary recipes begins...
"Take a half a pound of butter, put it into a stew pan on the fire, let it all melt, and boil til it has done making any noise"
I'm guessing you can see why I consider this to be right up my alley. When I get home I may work some of these recipes into my usual posts as appropriate.
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| Replica Oven |
If you ever find yourself in the Savannah area I suggest a trip to Wormsloe National Park where you can see old oak trees, learn about Georgia history, and see a guy in a funny outfit shoot blanks out of musket.
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| This is James. He misfired but it was still a cool picture |
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