RURAL LIFE IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY 



seldom raised; and when it was, the flour, though not 

 much like the product of the modern flour mills, was 

 saved for extra occasions. The common bread was 

 "rye and injun," made of rye meal and corn meal 

 mixed. 



The farm garden was probably meagerly supplied in 

 those early days. Aside from the field crops of rye, 

 buckwheat, wheat and corn, they had beans, peas, 

 turnips, parsnips, and carrots. Potatoes were little 

 used until after the Revolution. The native pumpkins 

 and squashes were much appreciated by the early set- 

 tlers and were utilized in astonishing ways, and what 

 they couldn't eat fresh the good housewife dried for 

 the winter's supply. Helen Evertson Smith, in her at- 

 tractive book "Colonial Days and Ways," transcribes 

 a letter describing Thanksgiving Day in 1779. The 

 writer remarks that they have no beef and have not had 

 for three years because it has all gone to the soldiers in 

 the army. They had venison from a good red deer, 

 huge chines of roast pork, a big roast turkey, a goose 

 and two big pigeon pasties. "Then there was an 

 abundance of good vegetables of all the old sorts and 

 one which I do not believe you have seen yet. Uncle 

 Simeon had imported the seed from England just be- 

 fore the war began and only this year was there enough 

 for table use. It is called Sellery and you eat it without 

 cooking. It is very good served with meats. ... It has 



