They Ate What?

Lobsters, Oysters and Eels, "Oh, My!!!"
If you're lucky enough to have a schoolhouse that is open during the Thanksgiving holidays you might add a lesson on what the Pilgrims actually ate at the first Thanksgiving. It is not surprising that the feast didn't exactly mirror the one we see in the  Norman Rockwell painting or on our own tables. No green bean casserole with Onyums? No sweet potatoes with marshmallows? No apple pie? No Pepperidge Farm Stuffing? If you ever read of the Pilgrims' condition (after losing half their number in the first year), you'd find that eating whatever they could muster up was a luxury!

A good source for that information comes from a food timeline site and their references were Plymouth Plantation, now called Plimoth-Patuxet Museums, in Plymouth Massachusetts. I've adapted their article as a PDF for use in our schoolhouses and you can access it by clicking on the photo below.
Link to: www.foodtimeline.org

CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO ACCESS THE ARTICLE