Historic Foodways: Fireside Talks

  • Feb 22 - Apr 18, 2020

  • Strawbery Banke Museum

    14 Hancock Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 03801

Ticket Price $25.00-$35.00 This event is now over
Description

Join culinary historian Melissa Vickers and social historian Andrew Towne in new, Historic Foodways: Fireside Talks at Strawbery Banke! Presented in historic Wheelwright house, attendees enjoy the warmth of a crackling hearth fire and sample historic foods while learning about 18th and 19th-century cookery in a working period kitchen. Tailored for a hands-on learning approach, attendees feel the weight of cooking implements, use a flint and steel, and get a closer look at the tools, methods, and ideology that inhabited historic kitchens. Participants may attend one, two or all of the talks. 

Cost per talk: Member $25; Non-members $35.
For more information on membership benefits and to become a member, click here!

Acts of Preservation 
Saturday, February 22, 2020, 1 - 2:30 PM
How did people keep food edible before the invention of modern refrigerators, freezers, canners, or dehydrators? In this session, Melissa and Andrew discuss the need for and various methods of preservation of all manner of foodstuffs for the larder, including smoking, pickling, drying, potting, candying, dairying and the use of a root cellar. An assortment of preserved foods available for sampling. 


Tools of the Trade Saturday
March 21, 2020, 10 AM – 12 PM
Join Melissa and Andrew in discovering the various tools, appliances, and cookware typical within the mid-18th and early-19th century kitchen. Learn how a bake kettle differs from a bake oven, yet accomplishes the same task. See how different modern toasters are from historic ones. Learn to identify a gil, tamis, crane, peele, and so much more! A light lunch of hotch-potch soup and roasted cheese provided.

A Mindful Diet Saturday
April 18, 2020, 1 – 2:30 PM
An abolitionist, a teetotaler, and a vegetarian come over for tea…. No, it’s not the start of a history joke. It’s a very real scenario with which a housewife might be confronted. It was her responsibility to serve foods that would conform to the specific dietary restrictions that each individual’s convections required. In this lecture, Melissa and Andrew discuss a variety of historic social and economic influences and the effect on food and food culture in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Issues include abolitionism, temperance, vegetarianism, frugality, and whimsy. Samples of historic fare served.

Date & Time

Feb 22 - Apr 18, 2020

Venue Details

Strawbery Banke Museum

14 Hancock Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 03801

Strawbery Banke Museum
Strawbery Banke Museum
Strawbery Banke Museum, in the heart of historic downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is an authentic 10-acre outdoor history museum dedicated to bringing 300+ years of American history in the same waterfront neighborhood to life. The Museum is a place for children, adults, multigenerational families, and groups to gather to explore eight heritage gardens, 32 historic buildings, and traditional crafts, preservation programs, hands-on activities, the stories told by costumed role-players and the changing exhibits that offer hours of fun and discovery. The Museum's restored buildings and open space invite visitors to immerse themselves in the past, using objects from the museum's collection of 30,000 artifacts, and the histories of the families who lived and worked in the Puddle Dock neighborhood to engage, educate, and entertain.