I’m now a West Virginia transplant so its time to explore some Appalachian food traditions and to revive many favorites from my childhood in Tennessee.  The beauty of mountain food is its simplicity – basic garden produce, fruit, poultry, fish, and game artfully combined with herbs and seasonings and slowly simmered to perfection.  As soon as its cool enough to need a fire you can bet there will be an iron pot full of soup, Brunswick stew or a similar concoction, by some obscure name, will be simmering on the hearth.    The following is a look at the most common foods grow ..read more

Rice might not come to mind when discussing American food crops, however, it has been grown here since the late 1600s.  There are two types of rice – one is an aquatic “lowland rice” and the other is “upland rice”.  The primary reason for growing in water is weed control – rice grows in water while weeds do not.  Upland rice will grow with decent rainfall much as do cotton or corn. Rice has been grown primarily in South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and western Tennessee but they are not the only states with a rice culture.  Today rice is grown commercially primaril ..read more

My article on the history of waffles is in the current issue of Early American Life. The magazine is available from Firelands Publishing or online if you are unable to find it at your favorite news-stand. Martin and I enjoyed making waffles in the July heat in the deep south (smile). We are very thankful to Buena Vista Mansion for allowing us to use the home for the photo shoot, and to Kim McKinley for taking the photos ..read more

My article will eventually end up somewhere so I can’t share too much here, but needless to say Ketchup was not always what we see today. It was most often made of mushrooms, followed by young green walnuts, etc., but by 1795 tomato ketchup is documented. It is not thick, not sweet, and absolutely nothing like modern ketchup. It did appear on tables in caster sets, but was primarily used to season foods while cooking, much as we use Worcestershire sauce today ..read more

We can do your family research! Victoria Brady has been a genealogist for 30+ years and has written books on her family and on her husband, Martin Brady’s, family.  She has completed the DAR genealogy courses and attended countless workshops over the years.  She has done genealogy for people to satisfy their curiosity as well as to prepare the documentation to join various lineage societies. *As with all such service providers, results are not guaranteed.  You determine when to end the search, however, a minimum of one hour is required, and services are provided in one-hour inc ..read more