melons, and roasting ears of Indian corn. All of the English vegetables flourished in the soil of Virginia. Walnuts, chestnuts, hickory, and hazel nuts were obtained from every forest. Honey was a common article of food, much attention being paid to apiculture; there were few householders who did not have hives under the eaves of their outbuildings, one planter owning as many as thirteen stocks.[1] Mr. George Pelton, who lived about the middle of the century, obtained from his bees an annual profit of thirty pounds sterling.[2] There were many wild swarms in the woods, the honeycombs, which were concealed in the hollows of trees, becoming very frequently the booty of the colonial bee-hunters.
Among the imported articles of food was rice and sweetmeats, and spices in large quantities were also brought in. There were pepper and cloves, mace and cinnamon, ginger, sugar,[3] and lime-juice, oranges, lemons, raisins, and prunes. Salt formed a part of the stores of every planter, being needed not only for giving flavor to the different dishes appearing on the table at meals, but also for the preservation of meats reserved for household consumption, or designed to be exported.[4] Wheat-bread was in common use among the members of the highest class, but bread made of Indian corn baked in large or small
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1664-1672, p. 446, Va. State Library. See also Records of Henrico County, vol. 1677-1692, p. 354, Va. State Library. New Description of Virginia, p. 4, Force’s Historical Tracts, vol. II. Mr. Nicholas Seabrell of York owned seven hives. Vol. 1664-1672, p. 162, Va. State Library.
- ↑ New Description of Virginia, p. 15, Force’s Historical Tracts, vol. II.
- ↑ In a letter to John Cooper of London in 1685, Fitzhugh writes: “I have only in my former sent for 100 pounds of sundrey sugars, and about 60 or 80 pounds of powdered sugar.” June 1, 1685.
- ↑ Among the articles in household use owned by Giles Mode in 1657 were two hogsheads of salt, one of white, the other of bay salt. Records of York, 1657-1662, p. 48, Va. State Library.
