“Ye Corne Beer and Rosted Deer:” Thanksgiving Food and Drink Traditions of Early Virginia

This event will demonstrate the old and new traditions of how English people mixed giving thanks for a successful harvest with what bounty Virginia offered the people arriving here and will look at how the English were influenced by other cultures and places – Asia, Africa, and the Americas – in their foods and feasts. Staff will especially examine how the interactions with the Powhatan Indians wove a new diet into their experiences in the New World. Pottages, roasts, loaves of bread, desserts, and drinks common to feasting in early Virginia and what forms of thanks were given on those occasions will be demonstrated