food museum blog

Nero's Rotating Dining Room? Trump That!

Archaeologists in Rome--both women, one French---have discovered a rotating dining room in Emperor Nero's Golden Palace. Written up in reports 60 years after Nero dispatched himself, and long sought, apparently the room actually exists. According to this report from the Telegraph,

"The leader of the four month dig, Françoise Villedieu, said her team discovered part of a circular room which was supported by a pillar with a diameter of more than 13 feet...The hall is said to have had a revolving wooden floor which allowed guests to survey a ceiling painted with stars and equipped with panels from which flower petals and perfume would shower onto the tables below." 

No word as to the food, alas.

Further details here.

Oldest Pubs in (Northern) Ireland?

Sean's in Athlone apparently has daub walls that go back to 900 AD, while Grace Niell's in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland, got its first license back in 1611. 

I can imagine that there were folks quaffing hootch in 900 AD, but I doubt there was any licensing involved whatsoever. Still, both are handsome spots, and one imagines a Guinness would go down well in either.

Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod--Food Heritage

Named by British voyager Bartholomew Gosnold after his mother, Martha, in 1602 the island of Martha's Vineyard apparently was rich in luxuriant grapevines. As rich in grape, as the Cape nearby was rich in cod. Gosnold named Cape Cod, as well. Such an observer of food,  our little-remembered Gosnold, and food available in such abundance in the not-yet-even colony of Massachusetts.

Gosnold, an attorney with a bent for sea exploration, returned to England intent on recruiting stout souls to help found the Virginia Colony. Five years after his New England sojourn he died in or near Jamestown in 1607, a swampy site he thought rightly to be unsuitable for habitation. Most of the original Jamestown settlers died of famine, and its accompanying scurvy and dysentery.

The tale of why settlers in a land filled with vegetation, game and fish died of hunger even in the summertime is fodder for many books, including Jamestown, the Buried Truth, in which we learn that dogs and cats were eaten by the afflicted Jamestonians.

The Obamas ( and Bo) need not fear hunger during their stay on the Vineyard, however. 35 year-old West Tisbury Farmers Market is right down the lane from their lodgings.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump--Food Heritage

A far-flung food history finder friend has alerted me to this ancient food heritage site, already recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It's in Alberta, Canada, in the foothills of the Rockies, and is apparently the largest, oldest--dating back 5500 years--and best preserved of the buffalo killing sites in North America.  Its name derives from a hapless young brave who hung out under the cliff to watch the carnage and got caught in a pile of diving buffalo.

Our reporter writes:

They were hunter/gatherers, living on inhospitable land, frozen much of the year, unreceptive to growing edible crops.  The only domesticated animal they had was the dog, and they did not know about the wheel.  But they somehow managed to psyche out the buffalo, analyze the terrain, and spend weeks gently coaxing the herd towards its ultimate doom.  

Once they had their crop of buffalo, they would use every bit of the beasts—eating the fresh meat and drying the rest in strips for future consumption.  The pelts they used for clothes, the skins for tents, the sinews for thread, etc. Without  this meat, these people would have not survived.

Yes, There is Honor Among Seeds(persons!)

Barbara Melera of Landreth Seeds ( January 14 entry) spoke with us this morning and said that Comstock, Ferre and Co., of Wethersfield, CT, claims to be the "oldest continuously operated seed company " in the USA.  Established in 1820, Comstock, Ferre began as the Wethersfield Seed Company. According to its website, " Customers who visit our store will find rows of old oak rocker bins and tin lined oak drawers which to this day hold our seed stock."  This implies the company has been in the same building--food heritage site!--since the start.

That still makes Landreth  "the oldest seed house in America." Bloomsdale, the Landreth home, which burned down about 1902, used to be part of a spread of 550 acres along the Delaware River.  It claimed the biggest barn in North America at one time, built in 1810, and bought by the family in the 1840's.

As is often the case,  the farmland was sold to developers over the years.

Which is why we at The FOOD Museum are dedicated to the entire topic of food heritage. Visit some relevant areas of the website here.

( Photo is of Comstock, Ferre and Co.)

Anticipating Growth: Seed Catalogs and Presidents

Even though many seed catalogs are now available on-line, I still feel the need to clutch them in my hands, dogear the pages, spill coffee on them, rip out certain bits. Maybe I should plant a few trees each spring to replace those that went into creating my beloved catalogs.

As I was meandering among them on line, placing my orders for catalogs,  I discovered that Landreth Seed is , in fact, a food heritage company. Established in 1784 in Philadelphia by a Brit named David Landreth, the business flourished quickly.

As the History section of the company website states, "...( Landreth's)  reputation grew steadily and soon he numbered George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Joseph Bonaparte (Napoleon’s brother) among his customers. In 1798, he introduced the Zinnia into the United States from Mexico. In 1811, he introduced the first truly white potato. Prior to this introduction, potatoes had been yellow. In 1820, he introduced the tomato, known then as The Love Apple, and later perfected the first variety of yellow tomato.

"...the D. Landreth Seed Company is the fifth oldest corporation in America. Among its many historic claims is the fact that the company sold seed to every American president from George Washington to Franklin D. Roosevelt."

And we trust that soon Landreth will resume its commerce with Presidents of the United States and become involved in the establishment of a kitchen garden on the White House grounds for Mr. Obama and his family, guests, and staff.  We have just emailed Landreth on this issue.

ps  Go on.  Check your dog's ears to see if they truly express the action "to dog-ear" a page. My terrier's do. So there!

(Freezonian peas from the on-line Landreth catalog.)

Toiling Under the Spreading Avocado Tree

In response to a Post from fellow Blogger Kathy F. at

http://whatdoiknow.typepad.com/what_do_i_know/ , I wrote the following.

"Usually I am not blogging from a small cafe table outdoors under an enormous avocado tree. Yet since I am in St Petersburg, Florida, for several weeks, working on a food history book, this site seems appropriate to a Blog dedicated to all things eclectically food. ( My usual workplace is a messy home office in New Mexico.)
My new workspace is not always tranquil. Acorns from surrounding live oaks hammer down on adjacent sheds and squirrels natter loudly.
If only my new digital camera worked with this traveling laptop, I would enclose a pic. Maybe later, after a huge avocado and grapefruit salad. The adjacent yard has numerous gfruits and friendly neighbors..."

This reminded me that eons ago, in our parlor floor apartment on the Lower Eastside of New York, just off the Bowery, we had a lovingly nurtured scrawny avocado tree in a pot, grown from an actual seed, as urban pioneers did in those days.  It did have extravagent arms, as I recall, and it became woefully dusty, but it gave a shot of rich, ripe greenery to a windows-at-each-end, none-at-the-sides little pad. It may have gone to a friend when we moved to Brussels, or perhaps it was the plant my mother found a home for at a car dealership in the 'burbs.

In any event, its cousin, the exuberant tree under which I toil, connects me with the Florida of old--the lush acres of trees and citrus groves planted by Hamilton Disston's people in this very neighborhood that later sprouted 1950's bungalows. Initially, Disston bought 4 million acres of FL land for 25 cents an acre back in 1881 and proceeded to create agricultural land. He is perhaps best known for his tireless effort to drain" the worthless swamp you people call the Everglades."

A complex fellow with vast influence over Florida, Disston's dealing went sour in the late 1890's and he died in 1896, either from a heart attack, or, as one report has it, by a single shot to the head. He was found in his bathtub.

Disston Heights, the small neighborhood where I am staying, is the one area in the entire county that does not require flood insurance. It's a dizzying 40-60 feet above sea level, thank you, and its inhabitants need not evacuate in times of hurricanes.

But if the hurricanes doen't get them, the squirrels will--the avocados, that is. We are vigilant each morning, ready to pick up the heavy fruit that have tumbled to the ground during the night. Most of them have tiny toothmarks by dawn.

Food History Finds Us Again in Florida

Out for an evening swim in the Gulf, we wandered into an older nifty strip of beach called Pass-A-Grille, described by some as an" artsy, bohemian community"---after a fine half hour of bobbing and floating, we saw the monstrous black clouds rolling in for their usual summer afternoon  lightning show and soon buckets of rain were billowing down as we headed back to St. Petersburg. 

Google then quickly informed us that P-A-G Beach was most likely dubbed that in quasi English by fishermen who stopped there to grill and eat some of their catch before heading on.

Food history is all around us, children, if we but pay attention. Remember The FOOD Museum's motto, courtesy of M.F.K.Fisher?  "First we eat, then we do everything else."

Ain't it the truth!

( Thanks to this site for P-A-G postcard: http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/fl/pinellas/postcards/ppcs-pinellas.html)

Romney Dinged at Diner, Loses Appetite

Republican candidate Mitt Romney came up against an actual American asking tough questions at the Red Arrow diner in Manchester, NH recently. The questions  about health care came from Michelle Griffin, a Red Arrow employee for 12 years. As the Washington Post reported it, Griffin was  "in no mood for platitudes."

About the Red Arrow--it's a food heritage site, in business since 1922, tra la. ( Its history page  says the joint opened in October 1921...and also "since 1922." ..) Open 24 hours, The Red Arrow was voted among the top 10 American diners by USA Today at one point.

The boom days of dinerdom were in the 1950's and then fast food joints began edging out the old silver-sides. But there's a resurgence in affection for diners these days, thankfully. To find the real thing one must get off major highways  and look along sideroads for places stuffed with cars at 6:30 am--at least that's how we choose where to stop for breakfast--apple pie a la mode and coffee, please. Plus--are those home fries made fresh?

As for the "no mood for platitudes,"  many of us are feeling that way these days, and sometimes the gorge rises. You can read Ms. Griffin's questions via the WPost link above.

Making Many Clams from a Fried Mollusk

At the end of our little east coast jaunt recently, we were strolling past some cars parked at the Jersey shore when we spotted one with a flaming red bumper sticker reading "Woodman's of Essex--Inventor of the Fried Clam 1916."  Google led me to the Woodman's website and then to Rhonda Woodman, married to one of the clamming Woodman's, who rang me up in response to an email request for more info about this invention.  Could this be true? The first ever?

It all started with Lawrence and Bessie Woodman who in 1914 began a weekend business from a stand selling homemade potato chips, chewing gum, and fresh clams, dug each day. Apparently July 3, 1916 was a slow day for trade and a passing fisherman jokingly told "Chubby" --he doesn't look fat at all-- Woodman he ought to toss some clams into the hot oil--suggesting that if the clams were as tasty as the chips, he'd have a winner. 

Of course nobody tosses a clam into hot oil!! Come on! But-- out of the shell, perhaps...Bessie and Lawrence worked together to come up with a good batter, tossed the shucked clams into it, then fried them up and served them to the locals. Naturally, the clams were sublime--and the little stand on Main Street in Essex, Massachusetts did a glorious amount of business the next day, on the Glorious Fourth.

And Woodman's of Essex was off and running. Howard Johnson came to them to learn how to fry clams, for Pete's sake. Once I learned that, I was convinced of the Woodman's claim. ( HoJo's was my childhood icon, the ultimate in road food...fried clams, fresh fried oni0n rings, iced tea and mocha chip ice cream.)

   They still dip the clams in milk and then corn meal at Woodman's and while most of the clams are the prized Ipswich variety from the area, at times they must buy from mollusk moguls in Maine, or Maryland or even Washington State.

The bones of Chubby and Bessie's original building are still there though Woodman's today is a much bigger institution--always informal and friendly and fast-paced. New England Clambakes and lobsters can be had anywhere in the country from Woodman's, for a price. ( Clambake for two starts at $124.95 with free shipping.)

Rhonda Woodman told us that in coming months their website will be completely revised and the company will kick off a new tradition--get a Woodman's bumper sticker and photograph it in an exotic spot, then post it on the website. Prizes may well be involved...