Thanksgiving in Plymouth

“Thanksgiving?” The dark-eyed girl in a white cotton bonnet and layers of heavy wool skirts seemed puzzled as she looked up from the vegetable garden.

“We do not have a thanksgiving that we celebrate every year. We declare a day of thanksgiving when we have something to be grateful for--when a drought is ended, say. Those days are spent in fasting and prayers.”

She returned to her digging, refusing to be coaxed into the 20th Century.

Fasting and prayer. Not the traditional image of marathon feasting with friendly Indians. That’s just one of the traditional Pilgrim images dispelled when you visit Plimouth Plantation, the re-created Pilgrim village outside Plymouth.

At this living-history museum, farms, houses and gardens have been constructed with an eye to accuracy. Using letters, diaries and other period writings, the inhabitants have taken on the identities of those who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620 and have re-created life in America circa 1627.

We asked the young girl with the wooden hoe another question: “Wasn’t there a celebration here the year after you landed?”

“Aye, that there was,” she answered, as she tended the beet root. “That first year were a hard one--a lot of sickness, a lot of dyin’. When the harvest was good that fall we had a day of feasting and merrymaking.”

By the end of our day in Plimouth Plantation we’d learned that the 20th-Century concept of Thanksgiving is really a combination of two 17th-Century customs--a solemn religious occasion, called whenever one wanted to give thanks, and a traditional autumn harvest festival that included feasting and games.

No cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie, but there was turkey, or “wild fowl,” though it was scrawnier and tougher than its modern farm-raised counterpart.

“We have venison, clams, stuffed codfish, wild goose, carrots cooked with wild currants, squash, Indian corn and soured whole-wheat breads,” said Elizabeth Hopkins, a pretty red-haired young woman who walked with us through the dirt streets. “Squash and corn grow here naturally, but we import a lot of spices.”

We stopped at a wooden fence to admire a hog that looked handsome and healthy but seemed lean by modern standards. The plantation has begun back-breeding in an effort to raise livestock similar to that of the 17th Century, and all the vegetables and fruits grown in the gardens are authentic to that period.

“Of course, we have a lot of seafood,” said Hopkins, as we strolled toward the Atlantic Ocean that lay just beyond the bluff.

Each week visitors discover what it was like to dine in 17th-Century Plimouth.

Our group consisted of several families that had stayed for dinner.

We were ushered into a simply decorated room in the Visitors Center and seated at a long table strewn with herbs and flower petals.

“You’ll be wantin’ to wash ye’r hands afore dinner,” said our host, Master James Cole, a portly young man with a trim beard and ruffled collar. He offered a copper basin of warm water scented with mint leaves. His wife, Mary, in a long wool dress and white bonnet, followed with earthenware pitchers of cool cider.

The Coles served dinner, kept the evening lively and answered questions in the context of their times. Our plates were pewter, and our linen napkins, the size of small tablecloths, were placed not on our laps but over one shoulder. The only silverware was a knife. It seems that the Pilgrims ate mostly with their fingers.

First came wooden platters of cheeses, nuts, fresh fruits and mussels cooked in beer (the Pilgrims made beer from barley and corn). Small rolls of stone-ground wheat were served with unsalted butter, cold spiced carrots and a “belly pudding,” a liver pate flavored with nutmeg, mace and currants.

“We call it a ‘belly pudding’ because it’s often served inside a turkey or goose, like a stuffing,” said Hopkins, who had joined us for dinner. Next came a salad of “cress,” large flavorful shoots of watercress served with currants in a dressing of vinegar and oil.

The main course was beef.

“It was for many a year we did without the meat of any cow,” Master James said, “but now it seems we have more cows than people.”

Hopkins explained that cattle were brought to the New World a few years after the Pilgrims arrived, and by the time of this meal (about 1650) they were being bred for meat. This beef had been perfectly roasted and was served with fresh rosemary.

An alternative was chicken carbonado , a French recipe from that period--chicken roasted and served with a spicy orange sauce (oranges came from the West Indies to the American Colonies).

Accompaniments were stewed sweet potatoes with spiced apples, and buttered peasecods (pea pods) with mace and nutmeg. The ingredients were all fresh--many had been picked from the plantation gardens, and the flavors were rich and distinct.

We discovered that eating with only our fingers and a knife seemed to enhance the pleasure. Several children among the guests had no trouble getting into the mood.

For dessert there was cast cream, like a liquid custard with nutmeg. It was sweet and light and we used a spoon.

As we lingered over dessert a group of madrigal singers strolled into the room singing an old English ballad. They entertained us with madrigals, country rounds and even some bawdy drinking songs.

Darkness was enveloping the plantation as we walked back to our car and the 20th Century. But we left with a deeper, more realistic understanding of those early settlers.

Hopkins had given us a copy of a letter that one of the Pilgrims, Edward Winslow, wrote to a friend in England at the end of that first year, and we recalled one passage: “Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling so that we might after a special manner rejoice together. These things I thought good to let you understand, that you might on our behalf give God thanks who hath dealt so favourably with us.”

For those who would like to visit Plimouth Plantation next season, it is open from early April through the end of November, including Thanksgiving. The 17th-Century dinners, at $24.95 per person, are served at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday evenings in the Visitors Center. Reservations highly recommended. For more information contact Plimouth Plantation, P.O. Box 1620, Plymouth, Mass. 02360, phone (508) 746-1622.