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Feed your brain and your stomach at Jamestown and beyond. (Photo by Stephanie Breijo)
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Photo by Stephanie Breijo
Trudging through local battlegrounds or past crumbling relics isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, metaphorically speaking. For some, it’s more literal: When diving into our state’s history, the real interest is, “What kind of tea were they drinking?”
Fortunately, those enthralled by the intersection of food and history can find the answer through programs at many of Virginia’s historical sites. Colonial Williamsburg’s Historic Foodways department, for instance, operates daily out of the Governor’s Palace kitchen demonstrating Colonial and Federal-era cooking techniques, recreating many of the dishes found on the blog recipes.history.org. Over at the Yorktown Victory Center, explore dining influences from the French and Hessian mercenaries who decided to stay once the fighting was done. Closer to home, Henricus Historical Park hosts demos and events such as the Annual Friendship Trade & Feast festival.
Sadly, sampling these historic bites feels as impossible as time travel, due to health code regulations — probably for the best if you’re attending a demonstration on how army food has always been bad at the fort in Jamestown — unless you’re a volunteer at the annual Food & Feasts of Colonial Virginia in Yorktown and Jamestown. For the free labor, organizers will happily feed you. And at Colonial Williamsburg's Raleigh Tavern and Bakery, you can always snack on fresh gingerbread cookies made from a colonial recipe — back after a 30-year hiatus.
Head to Monticello for Saturdays in the Gardens, when you can see and taste the heritage fruits and vegetables of Thomas Jefferson’s era. If Jefferson is your thing but crowds aren’t, venture to his personal retreat in Bedford County, Poplar Forest: Here you’ll find kitchen demonstrations and time for reflection with an examination of the culinary differences between what was served to Jefferson and to those enslaved on the property. At the end of July, Poplar Forest hosts its Barrels, Bottles and Casks tours, a plunge into era-appropriate food and drink, with samples along the way.
To learn about the production of spirits, venture north across the state to George Washington’s Mount Vernon, just outside of D.C. There, using Washington’s notes, they’ve recreated the building and distillery destroyed by fire in 1814. Of course, you don’t have to plan a huge trip to learn about historic foodways; on the first Saturday of each month in Glen Allen, Meadow Farm’s living history program presents cooking demonstrations, teaching hearth and Dutch-oven cooking close enough to the city that you won’t miss a more modern dinner from Richmond’s hot restaurant scene.
