In yesterday's post, I listed a number of foods that have vanished from America's tables since Mark Twain included them on a long fantasy menu written while traveling around Europe. The foods on today's list come from a more hopeful category--those Twain enjoyed that can still be found and savored today.
Andrew Beahrs: Twain's Feast: America's Vanished Foods
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Shouldn't it be spelled opossum?? (Esp. if we are waxing on about American life during Mark Twain's time?)
I'm not sad to see raccoon as a delicacy that has fallen out of favor in the US and I use the word 'delicacy' with intended sarcasm.
Maple Syrup and candy is SO good! We need a nice cold winter here in NY to get a good maple sap harvest this winter!
We were visiting relatives in Germany during the Thanksgiving holidays. While their Weinacht's fairs were opening, we were trying to make a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. We managed to find a wild turkey at the poultry shop. Also managed cranberries and to make a pumpkin pie. I don't remember if we found sweet potatoes. I think we ended up with white potatoes and my Mother made mashed potatoes out of them and served with gravy from the turkey. We also made stuffing. Our relatives were polite but I don't think it was their favorite dinner.
And I do love the idea of thinking about what 19th century writers liked to eat. :)
For bird and parrot lovers like me, this was a terrible tragedy.
I know, and can understand and appreciate the fact that many people dislike hunting or even eating meat because of industrial farming. Having said that, what most don't know is that hunters and fishermen are the ONLY people in the country that volutarily tax themselves for the preservation of wild species and wild places. It's true.
Every firearm, every fishing rod, every spool of line, lure, shotshell, and gear has a small tax on it that is intended to go for these purposes. This tax was asked for a long time ago, and has been in effect ever since. Unfortunately, no one remembers that, and the dollars go into general revenue.
Organizations like DU have taken it upon themselves to buy up wetlands to keep them from being developed in perpetuity. So, people can criticize hunters and fishing, but many sportsman's organizations are some of the most effective in preserving wild places. And, remember, ethical and effective hunters and fishermen usually know more about the game they hunt, the environment they hunt and fish in, and how everything connects than most casual environmentalists.
not absence of fearâ€
Thanks for your cooperation I know you'll take it under immediate advisement.
“Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.â€
“Don't go around saying the world owes you a living; the world owes you nothing; it was here firstâ€
"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."
"Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary."
“It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them.â€
"All generalizations are false, including this one."
"Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured."
“I was seldom able to see an opportunity until it had ceased to be oneâ€
“The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.â€
“What a wee little part of a person's life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himselfâ€
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fearâ€
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
“We have the best government that money can buy.â€
"Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else."
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
one of my favorites