Beyond Baked Beans: Why New Englanders Eat What They Do

MIDDAYS: Thursday, February 7, 12:15 pm
Beyond Baked Beans: Why New Englanders Eat What They Do

What happens when cultural heritage meets a new climate, new ingredients, and new neighbors? Until the mid-1800s, regional foodways familiar to baked-bean-and-brown-bread-eating New Englanders emerged from warm summers, bitter cold winters, corn, squash, and New World beans, plus encounters with Native Americans and new immigrants. In this talk, food historian and author Sandy Oliver will outline the gradual shifts from peas to beans, wheat bread to rye and Indian and back again, and tell why we ate salt fish dinners on Saturday instead of Friday.

BOOK SIGNING AND SALES TO FOLLOW. $6; FREE TO OSMH MEMBERS