Of Cherry Trees & Family Trees
This post is inspired by the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks challenge by Amy Johnson Crow. The 2019 Week 1 challenge is “firsts”.
There are a lot of “firsts” in genealogy … the first moment you fall in love with family history … the first time you break through a brick wall … the first unsolved mystery you uncover … then solve!
There is always something new lurking around the corner. We relish in the firsts. They keep us seeking and searching and, sometimes, we come across a truly unexpected first. That was the case the day my family tree bumped into that of our first President, George Washington.
President Washington had no known children, therefore no direct descendants. He and Martha raised her children from her first marriage and there were grandchildren that came later. Martha Washington is my connection to our first President. Martha is my 2nd cousin 8 times removed … thanks to Ancestry for making that relative calculation for me!
Our shared ancestor is Rev. Rowland Jones, an early Williamsburg, Virginia settler with quite a fascinating story himself.
George Washington’s Favorite Foods
Before becoming our nation’s first President and before the Revolutionary War, George Washington was a farmer. Just like many of my ancestors, Washington was a man of the land. He just so happened to also be a man of refined standing, which allowed him to have and serve bountiful meals.
While we don’t know for sure what his favorite foods were, we do know what was served at Mount Vernon, the Washington family home. Fish, and a lot of it, was served with hoe cakes. Mashed sweet potatoes often graced the table along with a variety of meats like pig, lamb and roasted fowl.
Washington loved cherries, although he never actually chopped down a cherry tree as a boy. He was particularly fond of cherry pie. Mrs. Washington, however, preferred whisky cake. Honestly, I can’t say as I blame her on that one! The whisky, in this early recipe, wasn’t added to the cake batter. Instead, it was poured over the baked cake a bit at a time for several weeks to help age – or preserve – it. This would allow the cake to keep for many months.
Cooking in Colonial America
As you can imagine, cooking in the late 18th century was very different than even 100 years later, let alone of today. We cooked and baked over a wood fire and had to preserve meat and vegetables in ways that might seem outlandish by today’s standards.
Many of our earliest Colonial recipes, however, have held on and been transformed as cooking methods and technology progressed. We still eat mashed sweet potatoes and cherry pie. We still make whisky cake and we still serve hoecakes for breakfast – most of us call them pancakes and we typically use flour instead of cornmeal. But not always.
If you want to eat more like the Washingtons, you will find a variety of recipes on Mount Vernon’s website. Some, like this recipe for cocktail sausages, will be familiar, while others like cherry bounce will make you, well, a bit off kilter!
