Between the 17th and 19th centuries some 50,000 enslaved Africans disembarked on the island of Cuba. Born in Cuba 1860, Esteban Montejo experienced slavery first-hand and observed the many strategies enslaved people used to survive including cultivating community gardens. Cutting the rations allocated to slaves, especially in the sugar producing regions of Louisiana, Brazil, and the Caribbean represented a common strategy masters/employers took to reduce their expenses. Esteban says it was the small gardens "that saved many slaves" from starvation "providing them real nourishment" thus most had a garden plot that they maintained when they had the space to do so. They raised food for their tables and sold what they raised on Sunday market days when they did not have to work for their masters. I thought about this food strategy and something I heard community garden activist John Spencer said during round table discussion on the local food movement held at Babson College. Spencer said that when he started the community garden movement in Wellesley, Mass, some 10 years ago he couldn't give away garden plots to residents. But, he said today there is a 20 year wait to get a plot! I've read of protest that enslaved people organized against their masters to demand time and space for subsistence gardens. Now it's time to plant tomatoes (corn and beans) in many places. Tomatoes sold in the majority of supermarkets are flavorless unless you are willing to pay high prices for them. Why not plant your own, save money, eat more nutritious pesticide free produce that taste better?
Okra patch at Stone Barns, the working farm located on Rockefeller estate Pocantico Hills, New York
As part of my spring gardening series going to review a book today. In her book The Founding Gardeners (Knopf 2011), British Historian Andreas Wulf reveals just how infatuated leaders of
our new nation like George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson had become
with horticulture. The book is a fascinating look at colonial British America and the early national period through the lens of gardening. What is most interesting
is to learn how the founding fathers intentionally began to define their separation from
England and North American identity through the selection of plants cultivated in their gardens and advocated other citizens to grow as a sign of their patriotism. These included plants native to North America as well as okra from Africa. As
a historian of history and foodways I love exploring topics with lots of
crossover appeal. That certainly is the case with Wulf’s book which catches the
attention of the avid gardener, history buff, and foodie.
Catfish po-boy from the Sugar Shack in downtown New Orleans
“I will never forget the day I left New Orleans by train for Saint Louis to join the steamer Saint Paul. It was the first time in my life I had ever made a long trip by railroad. I had no idea as to what I should take, and my wife and mother did not either. For my lunch Mayann went to Prat’s Creole Restaurant and bought me a great big fish sandwich and a bottle of green olives,” Louie Armstrong. This quote reminds me of my first meal in New Orleans. I got to my hotel on Charles Street about 11:30 pm hunting for a place to eat. Accustomed to restaurant scene in New York City, it surprised me to find out there were not a lot of restaurants open on a Wednesday night. A local sister working the hotel front desk turned me on to the Sugar Shack at 808 Iberville at Bourbon. The black cook in the joint hooked up a fabulous catfish po-boy similar to what Satchmo describes above. The history of the term po-boy is controversial with many interpretations in New Orleans folklore. We do know that Armstrong grew up in New Orleans and lived there until 1918, yet this iconic figure who loved food and slang never once uses the term in his autobiography when he refers to a sandwich in New Orleans. Most date the origins of the term po-boy to a 1929 street car workers strike and the sandwich that the Martin Brothers Restaurant (former street car workers) created to feed and support the members of their former union as they struggled for collective bargaining rights from city officials.
Before traveling to New Orleans for the first time last April, I contacted my colleague Lolis Eric Elie, one of the writers for the HBO series Treme and a fellow food writer, and New Orleans Native. I asked him for his take on the must see restaurants for a foodie like me near my Charles Street hotel. Lois emailed back a list of places including Willie Mae's, Dooky Chase, Loretta's, and Fay's Take-Out and Honey Whip which unlike the others, is across the Mississippi in Gretna, a suburb of New Orleans. Before I made it to any of his recommendations, on my first full day in New Orleans I did what I almost always do when traveling; I go jogging for the dual purpose of staying in shape and doing a culinary reconnaissance of the area where I am staying. Hobnobbers at 139 Carondelet Street was one of the first places I found just around the corner from my Charles Street Hotel. It was a hole in the wall restaurant tucked in an alley and attached to a sport bar. It was also like a lot of places I found in the center of New Orleans' downtown hotel tourist district--white owned and black worked especially the cooks and wait staff. The restaurants bargain prices keeps the place hopping during its hours of operation 7am to 2 pm. The place had particularly good key lime pie which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Malcolm X taking a photo of Mohammad Ali, at a restaurant, related recipes below
I recently had a conversation with a student here at Babson college, which is a business school, who will be graduating in May. Her dilemma was that she had come to the conclusion that she had a burning passion to teach literature and not enter the business world. She heard me make a comment about teaching people how to be good teachers at an event celebrating the work of her and other students who taught a no credit courses this semester here at Babson. Afterward she and I talked about her goals and I how how as a education major returned to school to earn a PhD so that I could teach history at the college level. The conversation reminded me of the time I came across my GRE scores from 1991 while cleaning out files last year. I had an extremely low GRE verbal score (380) yet a list of elite institution I hoped to attend; I had no contact with reality and allot of delusions of graduate school grandeur. As a prof now, I've seen undergrads who I work with both over and under estimate of their academic record. Back then I aspired to be a Christian version of Malcolm X. Like Malcolm I always had a book or two on hand to read and I was constantly consuming National Public Radio keeping up to date on world events (Malcolm read papers but people like me with ADD do allot better with an oratory consumption of the news). My list of graduate schools in the fall of 1991 included Union Theological, Yale Divinity and history programs at Columbia, Princeton, Berkley, Duke, Howard, Maryland, and Syracuse. In reflection, all these graduate programs were grand cannon reaches for my academic record—I just didn’t know it then. During my second time trying to get into PhD programs I had learned the importance of communicating with potential advisors. One does so because they will serve as your advocate and intellectual personal training for the next five to seven years of your life. You need to know early on in the process if there is flow or not between you and a potential advisor.
Encebollado de pescado, recipe below and related links
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Fishing season has started here in New England and I've seen aficionados and others with the itch standing on the banks of creeks and lakes with polls in hand looking to awl in a whopper and share an amusing fish story. As part of my ongoing series on fishing, let's turn to a fishing, history, and a related recipe from Ecuador. In 1735 Jorge Juan Antonio De Ulloa, Captain in the of Spanish Navy, made a voyage South America where he made interesting observation on the culinary culture of Guayaquil, Ecuador a coastal city which came under Spanish colonial control in 1538. Today it’s the largest city in contemporary Ecuador. “The coasts and neighboring ports abound in very delicious fish” he writes. Seafood constitutes “a considerable part of the food of the inhabitants of Guayaquil. Here is a Guayaquil fish recipe for encebollado de pescado, a popular fresh tuna soup made with cassava, olive oil, onions, garlic, cilantro, and limes. I'll be back tomorrow with more fishing history from South America with a related recipe.
This is another in our ongoing series Feeding the Revolution which looks at the role of food in radical movements in world history. Today is the Boston Marathon which is run on Patriot’s Day here in Massachusetts which recalls the start of the American Revolution. This my family’ 2nd marathon since we moved to the Boston area in 2010. The wheelchair leg of the race just sped by as I watched it from a window in our house. Patriot’s Day is a big here in the Boston area and its great as an historian to be able to live 15 minutes from Lexington and Concord etc. But not everyone took up arms when the fighting first broke out there. For example, in 1776 a group of Mennonites declared themselves passivist refusing to take up arms on either side of the American Revolution. Instead they among activities sold food to the army. Members of the Continental Army did (irregularly) receive government provided rations. When they arrived on the battle field they included besides 1 pound (lb.) bread and or flour, lb “of beef, or 3/4 lb. of pork, or 1 lb. of salt fish; 1 pint (pt.) of milk, or payment of 1/72 dollars, and 1 quart of cider or spruce beer; 3 pts. of peas or beans per man per week” says one source. Patriot officials, along with the British, confiscated salt for preserving most of these food stores, thus price of salt and food in general skyrocketed as shortages set in. Most specialist argue that rank and file troops spent more time starving on the battle field and depending on the donations of women, freedmen, enslaved Africans, and friendly Native Americans for food than on the Continental Congress. It figures that during the revolutionary war the population of wild game like deer became greatly dimensioned which is the opposite of what we are experiencing here in England after such a mild winter. Below is a recipe that calls for far more lavish ingredients than soldiers would have had.
James Weldon Johnson made a name for himself in several fields. He served as one of the first editors of the NACCP magazine the Crisis; he composed the Negro National anthem Lift Every Song and Sing, and became one of the first African American to serve as an U. S. Ambassador serving in Venezuela and Nicaragua at the turn of the century. But people forget that Johnson, of Caribbean descent, came from the city of Jacksonville, Florida and he loved to talk about the food he grew up eating. His Grandmother came from Nassau in the Bahamas and she lived with his family in Jacksonville and did most of the cooking. “She was a good cook,” says Johnson, “especially skillful in the preparation of West Indian dishes” like fish piquant dishes, shrimp pilau, crab stew, crab and okra gumbo,” he recalls from his childhood. “We talk a great deal about impressions made upon us in childhood that influences us through life,” says Johnson, “but we seldom recognize the importance of the states formed for the things we loved to eat. . . .”
"A Southern Oyster Peddler," Harper's Weekly, March 2, 1889
Baltimore oyster pie, recipe below
as part of my series for those who love to fish and to eat fish I want to talk about an illustration set in 1889 entitled a “Southern Oyster Peddler”in an old edition of Harper’s Weekly Magazine. The illustration reminded me of the centrality of the ocean and coastal ingredients in Chesapeake foodways. Oyster peddlers sold their goods to private homes, retailers, and tavern cooks. I have descriptions of tavern culture and food from earlier in the nineteenth century from which we can extrapolate what late nineteenth century taverns in the Chesapeake region might have been like. Nineteenth century taverns in port cities like Baltimore provided both lodging and meals which included among other items, “fish and oysters, with a great variety of hot bread, both of wheat flour and Indian corn [corn bread],” writes Adam Hodgson speaking of Petersburgh, Virginia in 1821. Here is a recipe for Baltimore oyster pie that is appropriate for this story:
Fried fish, hush puppies, fries, and tartar sauce, recipes below
It's opening day for fishing in many places and as result I am sharing fish stories and related recipes. To make ends meet during the Depression some turned to strategies like throwing rent parties. On a Saturday night during the Depression, one could always find buffet-flats, rent parties, whist parties, and dances, where, for a small fee, one could purchase down-home food and dance to good music. Langston Hughes recalled: The Saturday night rent parties that I attended were often more amusing than any night club, in small apartments where God knows who lived—because the guests seldom did—but where the piano would often be augmented by a guitar, or an odd cornet, or somebody with a pair of drums walking in off the street. And where . . . good fried fish or steaming chitterling were sold at very low prices. This is the last post in a series I been doing on fish, I’d love to get some feedback on the stories and recipes and please share your own fish stories and or recipes from your own families. Here is a recipe for southern fried fish and hush puppies Fried Fish and Hush Puppy Recipes: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=346878
It's the start of fishing season in many parts of North America. I will be doing a related series of the next couple of weeks. Here's a very old fishing story to kick the series off. Scottish explorer Mungo Park (1771-1806) traveled through Mandingo country in Gambia, West Africa. During “the dry season, the people who live in the vicinity of the large rivers employ themselves chiefly in fishing,” he writes. The fish they caught “are prepared for sale in different ways. The most common is by pounding them entire as they come from the stream in a wooden mortar, and exposing them to dry in the sun . . . . this preparation is esteemed as a luxury, and sold to considerable advantage.”Mande women would purchase the dried fish at market and then use pieces of it along with boiling water, vegetables, seasoning, and couscous to make a fish stew. Here is a recipe for a West African fish stew
West African Fish Stew recipe
Ingredients
Use dried or fresh fish (sea bass, croakers, porgies or rock)
Vegetable oil
Green bell pepper
Onion
4 ripe tomatoes diced or 1 can of crushed who tomatoes
Making lump meat crab cake at Faidleys in Lexinton, Market, recipe below
Today is the GOP primary in the state of Wisconsin,Washington DC, and the state of Maryland. GOP strongholds in Maryland include northern and rural areas such as Montgomery and Columbia counties, and the Eastern shore of Maryland. When it comes to stumping and eating in Maryland "its all about crabs," said Frank Kelly III,whose father Frank Kelly Jr (D turned R)was a State Senator. Candidates have spent some time in the state which traditionally has not played an important role in the GOP presidential primary. Put since the end of the Louisiana primary they have been stumping and eating around plates of soft-shell crabs, crab legs, crabs cakes, and crab soup. When in the city of Baltimore, which is a Democratic stronghold in the state, check out the Lexington Market and Faidleys Seafood a takeout eatery that sells local specials such as lake trout, Maryland Crab soup, and its signature item lump meat crab cakes.These are not cheap selling for 12.95 each or 18.95 with a platter. Faidleys is white owned with black folks in the kitchen and behind the cash register.
Tomorrow is the Republican primary in the state of Wisconsin. Republican voters in there are mobilized in that state like no other state in the country with the exception of perhaps Ohio. The GOP governors in the state of Wisconsin and Ohio created a standoff last summer when they decided to introduce an initiative that would significantly affect the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions including the organizations that represent police officers and firefighters. The initiative failed and Ohio and has led to a recall movement against the Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin. Both opponents and supporters of the recall in Wisconsin are spending lots of money and working overtime to get voter to support their positions and in the upcoming recall elections In the midst of this is the Republican presidential primary which has taken a back seat to the recall campaign. As a result, each of the candidate is trying to align itself with Walker who as strong support from an energized and mobilized republican base. The candidate who can best prove to voters that he's like Walker will get the most votes in tomorrow's primary election. This reminds me of state wide campaigns during the Great Depression when candidates running for office tried to associate themselves with President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) who established emergency food stations in communities facing imminent starvation. In 1938 the staff of an emergency food station in Ohio, passed out oranges, apples, and a pound of rice to starving residents. Food relief both helped communities facing starvation and they also got out the vote for the candidates who established strong affiliation with FDR (See the Related Recipe Mushroom risotto recipe below related to one of the ingredients distributed as food aid during the Depression). Love to hear from readers on the roll food is playing Wisconsin politics and related events and recipes.
The Book’s grassroots approach to foodways reveals the global origins of food traditions, the forces that shape food traditions, and the distinctive cultural collaborations that have occurred among Africans, Asians, Europeans, and Americans throughout history. Hog and Hominy shows how food can be an indicator of social position, a site of community building, and cultural identity.
ADD Warning
For those, like my wife, who can’t stand typos, watch out! I have severe ADD which kept me from moving forward with this blog for too long. My friend encouraged me to start blogging and just disclose my disability the same way I do on the first day of class as a college professor. Folks I regularly make spelling mistakes because of my disability. In order to get two books and several academic journal articles published I use a professional copy editor. To blog that would take too much time and money. So if you can overlook my typos, enjoy my musings.
Frederick Douglass Opie is the author of Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America, Black Labor Migration in Caribbean Guatemala, 1882-1923, and the forthcoming book Black and Latino Coalitions in New York 1959 to 1989. He has appeared in the NYC cable TV series Appetite City hosted by former New York Times food critic William Grimes,the History Channel's "101 Fast Foods That Have Changed the World," and Film Maker Byron Hurt's documentary Soul Food Junkie. Opie is the Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellow at The W. E. B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University and Professor of History and Foodways at Babson College
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