The Superior Express -

Happy Thanksgiving! Though we should be thankful for what we have been given year around, this is a special time of the year set for us to be giving thanks.

Somewhere along the way, it wasn’t just enough to give thanks on this special day, it became a time to eat all the wonderful foods that through the years has become associated with Thanksgiving. On social media a person can find all kinds of ways to incorporate a Thanksgiving food item into recipes such as whipped cranberry salad, cranberry and orange salad, Cranberry Jell-O Supreme. Recently I saw a way to cook a turkey completely wrapping it with strips of bacon. Sweet potatoes are “candied,”and I best not try to list all the variety of pies served.

Thanksgiving started very humbly. I did some research on how the first Thanksgiving was celebrated in November 1621 at Plymouth. The Pilgrims had faced harsh times that first year in the new country. The hard trip on the Mayflower ship had taken a toll and many lives were lost before they had even made a landing. Seventy-eight percent of the women died either on the ship or during the first winter ashore. So only a few women attended the first Thanksgiving. There were only 50 colonists alive at that time. According to recordings made at the time, there were 22 men, four women, and 25 youths in the colony that first Thanksgiving,though they had termed it to be a Harvest Celebration. It was the Wampanoag Native American Tribe who arrived at the colony to help provide food and partake of the meal with the Pilgrims. The Native Americans outnumbered the Pilgrims more than two to one.

It was naturally thought the first Thanksgiving feast included all the menu items we enjoy at today’s feast, but not so. The records state four colony hunters were sent out to get some “fowl” for the table. Turkeys were available in the wild but so were ducks, geese and swans so it is not certain the colonist brought back turkey. There was also an abundance of fish and lobsters near their colony they could have included in the feast. The Native Americans brought deer to share with the Pilgrims.

All the sugar on the ship had been used so there was no sugar to use in the making of their dishes, but honey could have been implemented. Potatoes hadn’t been introduced at that time and neither had sweet potatoes so they weren’t on that first menu. Vegetables that could have been used were onions, beans, lettuce, cabbage, carrots and peas. Pumpkins and squash had been grown there so they could have been on the menu. Corn was available but not used in the way we’d think as it was dried and ground into cornmeal or a corn mush which could have been made. There was no wheat flour so pie crusts were not made. Butter was not available either. Berries were plentiful which included blueberries, gooseberries, raspberries and cranberries. Grapes and plums were available to add to the feast. Without sugar, one can imagine how the cranberries and gooseberries would taste.

The Pilgrims and Native Americans shared their feast together and though it was a humble feast compared to the feast we eat together today, it sounds like they still had plenty to eat. Friendship, thanksgiving for the new land and the harvest were all celebrated that first feast.