The Hans Herr House has a "root cellar." When I taking people around the house and we are in the cellar, I ask them to name what might be found here along about December 15 when Christian Herr lived in the house (he died in 1750). One of the choices that about half the people say is "potatoes." Of course, this is the reason I ask them. I have led them into a wrong answer and therefore the point is reinforced. But in the early eighteenth century, the potato was not trusted by Europeans. Its place was taken by other root vegetables such as the turnip, carrot, parsnip, and rutabaga.
I have read a will of the time, in which the author commands his son to grow one-quarter acre of turnips each year for his mother. Another vegetable which was extremely popular was cabbage.
Dr. Kuby, in his remarks about Edenkoben, makes a few comments about diet. He had been asked, "What did the people eat during the eighteenth century?" His response was that in the nineteenth century it was potatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. By then, the potato was accepted. It started coming in use late in the second half of the eighteenth and by the nineteenth century was in widespread use. By then, the Europeans were so dependent on it that a crop failure was a disaster.
But in the eighteenth century, a better answer to the question of what people ate was "our daily bread." Grains that were used were rye, spelt, and oats. Grains, millet and barley, were also used to make a pulp. They added lentils, peas, beans, carrots, onions, and white and red cabbage. They had butter and made cheese. Everybody drank wine but most people also drank milk. Most meals were without meat. Occasionally they had a chicken and very often they had eggs. In November or at Christmas they might have a goose.
For treats, the Jewish merchant sold herrings. Other treats were chestnuts, almonds, apples, and pears.
Meat was not common; taste buds were more often satisfied by wine. Though almost everyone drank wine, they probably had fewer drunkards than nowadays.
A special food was "Latwerg," a kind of jam, made from Damson plums and spices. Since they did not have the right kind of Damson plum in Pennsylvania, they used apples and produced that Pennsylvania Dutch speciality, apple butter.
Dr. Kuby's comments have a special reference to Edenkoben whose history he has studied in great depth. I believe that we could modify his comments to apply to America in the following way. Because of the availability of land, it was feasible to grow more animals. Hence, meat became more prominent in the diet. Grapes were not as plentiful and wine was reduced in importance. Apples were much more abundant. These were cut up and dried and by this technique they lasted many months. Much cider was made and it sometimes turned hard. Often it was distilled to make a very alcoholic drink for consumption and for sale. Fruit had another purpose, fattening of animals in the fall of the year. Hogs could find enough food in the forest that no special effort or attention was required during most of the year. But as fall came, if the hogs had not found the orchards, they were driven in to clean up the fruit on the ground.
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.