people ate, why certain foods weren’t available, and how the technology of the day affected food choices. One of our favorite resources is the books by Jacqueline B. Williams. Her in-depth research combines American history with the daily realities of food. "Wagon Wheel Kitchens: Food on the Oregon Trail" has information on what was eaten while traveling overland. "The Way We Ate: Pacific Northwest cooking, 1843-1900" covers how settlers and homesteaders fed themselves after arriving at Trail’s end.
If you are preserving food from your garden this time of year, you’d be fascinated by the variety of techniques used by our ancestors to dry, jelly, and pickle food using whatever ingredients and resources were available. The chapter on flour will give anyone new appreciation for the abundance our country enjoys today, even though many think we have shortages! The books include creative pioneer recipes and instructions for substitutions to deal with scarcities of eggs and sugar, or how to turn an abundance of apples and tomatoes into a substitute for almost anything.
Hope you can come visit with our frontier cooks September 1st and 2nd! And if you love cooking and American food, think about picking up a copy of one of the many frontier themed cookbooks in the Oregon Trail Shop.
The Way We Ate: Pacific Northwest Cooking, 1843-1900 by Jacqueline B. Williams. $22.50.
