Even before I could
walk we would spend 2 weeks to a month down South with my
great aunt Edith & uncle E. Wise Harmon in a little town on
Route 13 on the Del-Marva Peninsula in Virginia.
First thing my same
age cousin Ida Lynn would demand was that I had to take off
my shoes and walk barefoot on the grass, sand and "The Stone
Road" (highway) .. no young person wore shoes in the Summer
!
Food - it was a wonderland and families ate
Breakfast at normal time, Dinner was at about 1:30 - 2:00 PM
and Supper was about 6:30 - 7:00 as the evening cooled and
of course that was also "Story Time" as my uncle had a
reputation as the greatest story teller on the Eastern
Shore close to the Chesapeake Bay !
“Down
Home Virginia Cooking”
with Matched Wines !
Sunday, July 22nd ‘12
What
is it about Virginia and basic cooking that distinguishes
itself from our other
original colonies especially those below
the ‘Mason–Dixon’
line ?
Virginia was a very large state and had great wealth and
with that established the largest number of slaves.
Generally the cook was the most skillful female slave and
the one on whom the household was most dependent. She ranked
at the top of the domestic hierarchy in eighteenth centuryVirginia
households.
After the
Civil War freed all Blacks, some took the 40 acres & a
mule
for farming while many others stayed just where they were as
it was the
only home they had known but now there was payment for that
particular developed skill !
As the years, passed cooking became an admired profession
and filtered
down throughout all segments of Virginia society and though
there were some recipes .. most of it was, “a pinch of this”
and “a little of that” and “into the oven when hot enough”
.. all ‘passed down by ‘rote’ over the centuries. If you
will look at the old wood & coal kitchen stove on
display at the back of the dining room .. under the 2 ovens
are 2 small
doors that when depending on “how far they were opened”
determined
just how hot the oven would become – the ‘more’ they were
opened –
the hotter the oven became and the only way to learn this
was repetition !
The
Tasting Event is from 12:30 to 3:30 in the afternoon !
2
Whites &
3 Reds & 5 Courses
$40.00 /
person
(server gratuity not included)
908-453-2322
roaringrock@embarqmail.com
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