FOOD WEEK – 1850S FALL FEAST:  What foods may have 
been on 1850s tables during fall feasts … find out on 
Passport to Texas…

This is Passport to Texas Food Week (November 20)

In 1850s Texas, when Anson Jones – the last President of 
the Republic – retired to his plantation in Barrington [at 
WOB], Thanksgiving was not the nationally recognized 
holiday it is today. 

04— But people certainly still had feast days, and they certainly 
celebrated fall.

Barb King, lead domestic interpreter at Barrington Living 
History Farm, says they celebrate fall on the farm with a 
feast, too. Everything’s cooked on a hearth, including dark 
meat heritage turkeys raised and butchered on site and 
fresh produce from their garden.

34— Right now we’re getting a lot of sweet potatoes in. We 
have some cucuzza gourds, which are an 1850s Italian delicacy 
that we’re growing in the garden for the first time this year. We 
have pumpkins, so we’ll probably do pumpkin pie. People in 
1850 liked that as well. People ate much less sugar than we do 
today because you’d have to hunt a bee tree or go buy 
expensive sugar. So, we might do a spice cake or gingerbread is 
very popular, as is cider. Here, we might make pear cider. And, 
anytime Anson goes up north, he writes about bringing back 
barrels of apples.

The third Saturday of each month… WOB presents Living 
History Saturday…which often includes a cooking demo.

Find more information in the calendar section of the TPW 
website. 

That's our show for today… Funding provided in part by 
Ram Trucks. Guts. Glory. Ram

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.




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