November 26, 2015

Cooking and Baking at the Freeman Farm at Old Sturbridge Village!

Celebrating Tasha Tudor's 100th Birthday Year!
Cooking and baking at the Freeman Farm at Old Sturbridge Village.


Tasha Tudor has many, many delightful illustrations in books and cards of baking and cooking in an old fashioned way!


In the drawer is kept "pumpkin leather". Pumpkin leather was made by boiling pumpkin, then putting the pumpkin through a sieve. The pumpkin was then spread on sheets to dry in a warm oven.
The sheets of pumpkin could be put with milk and reconstituted for making into pumpkin pies.

There is a receipt for pumpkin leather in "Old Sturbridge Village Cookbook, Authentic Early American Recipes for the Modern Kitchen."



Our second cousin John May married Delia, one of the Freeman daughters. John May, Delia, and their children lived with Delia's parents at the Freeman Farm in the late 1830s.

In the story "An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving" written by Louisa May Alcott, when the children were left alone due to an emergency, the older girls of the family thought they would continue fixing the Thanksgiving meal. In pondering what "yarbs" would be best to put in stuffing for a turkey, sage was considered but sweet marjoram and summer savory were decided upon. Mistakenly catnip and wormwood were the "yarbs" grabbed in the darkness of the storage area. The catnip and wormwood totally ruined the stuffing!

My 5th great grandfather Eliakim May was 1st cousin to Louisa May Alcott's great grandfather Samuel May.



Thankgiving is a tradition passed down from our early New England ancestors.




We at the Corgyncombe Courant hope that all of our Dear Readers had a wonderful Thanksgiving!


Our email:
atthecottagegate@yahoo.com



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copyright © 2015 Diane Shepard Johnson and Sarah E. Johnson
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