Wild Food Available to the Rix family in 1780
There were practically no roads or bridges so carrying the food needed for such a long journey would have been difficult and once they arrived there were no stores, there were no neighbors to trade with so they must have relied on wild edible foods for at least the first year.
What foods were available to them? How has the availability of wild foods changed over time? What wild foods are available in Vermont today. What wild foods are still gathered and eaten in Vermont today?
These are the questions that we will try to answer in this unit study. Put on your hiking boots, grab your guidebooks and come discover the wild edible foods of Vermont...
Photo Credit: Eating Wild Edible Foods in the Public Domain.
Wild Food Table of Contents
- Wild Edible Foods for the Rix Family in 1780
- My Side of the Mountain
- What wild edible foods are found in the Vermont woods?
- Wild Edible foods
- Wild Edible Foods eaten Today
- Black Raspberries
- 18th Century Cooking
- Trout with Fiddlehead Ferns
- Fiddlehead Ferns are becoming Popular
- Fishing for Trout
- Vermont Fish
- Deer
- Bear, Deer and Trout
- Bear Hunt
- The Old Growth Forest
- Did Garner Rix eat Turkey for Thanksgiving?
- Were there wild apple trees in Vermont in 1780?
- Wild Edible Foods in the Northern Woods
- Wild Foods Outside Vermont
- Twitterers Searching for Wild Edible Food
- Come Stay With Us in Vermont!
- Learn more about Garner Rix
- Which wild edible foods do you enjoy?
- About the Author of this Wild Edible Foods Lens
- Evelyn's Hands-on Learning Blog
Wild Edible Foods for the Rix Family in 1780
Gathering Edible Wild Foods before the Crops come in
Photo Credit: 18th Century Family
from Edupics.com.
The first year must have been very difficult for the Rix Family. Until land could be cleared and crops grown. They must have had to rely on wild edible plants and animals for most of their food. The amount of food they could have taken with them would have been very limited. There was no store in Royalton. The roads were almost non-existent.
Find out about the edible wild foods still available in Vermont. With a knowledgeable guide you can go on a hike and try out many of the wild foods still available in the woods.
Wild foods that are found on Garner Rix's farm Garner Rix's farm today include: raspberries, black raspberries, blackberries, fiddlehead ferns, mushrooms, Timothy grass. Red Clover, White Clover, honey, and Cat-O-Nine Tails. Can you add to the list below?
NOTE: NEVER eat wild foods that you don't know for sure are safe.
Foraging New England: Finding, Identifying, and Preparing Edible Wild Foods and Medicinal Plants from Maine to Connecticut
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 12/23/2009) 
Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places
Amazon Price: $15.83 (as of 12/23/2009)
Stalking The Wild Asparagus
Amazon Price: $11.90 (as of 12/23/2009)
My Side of the Mountain
Fictional Account of finding Wild Edible Food
Sam lives completely on his own in the woods of upstate New York eating only wild edible foods.-
My Side Of The Mountain
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A coming of age story about a boy who goes to the woods of upstate New York to live on his own for a year. He lives in a hollow tree, eats only what he can trap, fish or gather. Though he has some survival skills when he starts out he soon discovers...
What wild edible foods are found in the Vermont woods?
Garner Rix and his family probably foraged for some of their food.
Vote for the wild edible foods that you have tried and add any ones that are missing.
Wild Edible foods
What could the Rix family have eaten in 1780?
If you were Garner or Susanna Rix what wild edible foods would you have liked to eat?
- Nettles, Burdock, Wild Leeks, Chickweed, Yellow Dock Recipes
- By mid-April the earth has brought forth the Stinging Nettles, and truly the table has now been set. By the time the Nettles are of good-eatin' size, the Dandelions have gotten big enough for harvest as well. The Burdock is poking its head out of the ground, just enough for me to locate the mineral-laden roots. Watercress, Garlic Mustard and Wintercress are all in their prime season. Yellow Dock is also harvestable, and the Wild Leeks are gracing the hillsides.
The trees haven't even budded out yet, I've barely put my first garden peas and lettuce seeds down, not a single flower is in bloom besides the hardy crocuses, and I'm already enjoying a feast from God's gardens.
Wild Edible Foods eaten Today
- What is Gathered?
- Some wild foods that are still gathered and eaten in Vermont include:
Clintonia (Blue Bead Lily)
Fiddlehead Ferns
Grapes and Grape Leaves
Ground Nut/ Indian Potato Wild Leeks
Anthriscus Sylvestris (Cow Parsley)
Buy at AllPosters.com
Sumac Plant near Humbolt, Nebraska
Sartore, Joel
Buy at AllPosters.com
Quercus Pubescens, or White Oak Acorns, France
Gibbons, Bob
Buy at AllPosters.com
Wild Ginger
Photo Credit: Unless otherwise stated these photos are from Flickr, Creative Commons.
Black Raspberries
Wild Berries grow in our Yard
This summer we picked quarts of black raspberries from our yard. We made them into crisps, pies and jellies. We sprinkled them on cereal and ice cream. They stained our tongues and fingers with their delicious juice. Come to Vermont next summer and join us.
Beautiful, sweet and flavorful black raspberries. We need do nothing other than...
18th Century Cooking
Colonial Cooking (Exploring History Through Simple Recipes)
Discusses everyday life, family roles, cooking methods, most important foods, and celebrations of the colonial period in American history. Includes recipes.
Amazon Price: $20.45 (as of 12/23/2009)
Trout with Fiddlehead Ferns
Cooking Wild Edible Foods
Photo Credit: Fish with Fiddlehead Ferns
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
1. Clean and de-bone one small trout per person.
2. Salt if you like.
3. Saute cleaned fiddleheads in butter or oil with chopped fresh garlic.
4. When the fiddleheads are bright green, remove to another dish and saute the trout until cooked on both sides.
5. Stuff the trout with the fiddleheads and serve.
The Rix Family might not have had much starch to go with this meal but we prefer it with brown rice or boiled potatoes.
The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants
Amazon Price: $15.61 (as of 12/23/2009)
Fiddlehead Ferns are becoming Popular
Have you ever eaten fiddleheads?
- Artists' Reception and "Christmas at Fiddleheads Restaurant"
- Fiddleheads has been sponsoring quarterly exhibits of local artists since 2004, and has been working with the Suburban Artists Guild, based in East ...
- FESTIVE EVENTS AT FIDDLEHEADS
- FIDDLEHEADS RESTAURANT in Jamesburg will host a special Christmas-themed "Evening of Italian Opera" at 7 pm Tuesday, Dec. 15, featuring lyric soprano ...
- Fiddleheads offers evening of Italian opera with four-course dinner
- By LOIS HEYMAN ? STAFF WRITER ? December 8, 2009 The Italian-American Club of North Plainfield will hold a traditional Christmas fish dinner, ...
Fishing for Trout
The Streams and Rivers were teaming with fish.
Photo Credit: Fishing
in the Public Domain.
When Garner Rix and his family moved to Vermont the streams and rivers were teaming with fish. The water was clean and no dams had been built that impeded the annual migration of the salmon. Garner and his younger brother, Joseph, probably had the task of catching enough fish for the family.
Vermont Fish
Field Guide to Fresh Water fish
A Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes : North America North of Mexico (Peterson Field Guides)
A field guide to freshwater fishes, North America north of Mexico. Peterson Field Guide Series.
Amazon Price: $12.92 (as of 12/22/2009)
Deer
Venison Stew
Photo Credit: deer
in the Public Domain.
Deer were probably not as plentiful as they are now because few fields had been cleared and there were still wolves to keep the population under control. Still it was possible for Daniel Rix to occasionally shoot a deer which would have provided a lot of meat as well as leather.
The deer were probably cooked into Venison Stew with wild garlic and any roots and vegetables gathered during the day.
Bear, Deer and Trout
Hunting and Fishing in 1780
Photo Credit: Stealth Bear by Quicktiming
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
In 1780, wild game and fish were plentiful. Garner and his father, Daniel Rix, probably shot bear and deer. They may have also eaten squirrels, and other small mammals.
The streams were full of fish such as trout which in very small numbers are still found in the stream that runs through Garner Rix's farm today.
- Settlers of Lyndon, Caledonia County, Vt.
- The first season was devoted to clearing land and building the log house, and growing scanty supplies of provisions. As the woods were full of game, and the river of trout, the first pioneers fared more sumptuously than such adventurers would now.
They did not attempt to stay through the winter, returned in the spring after obtaining necessary supplies.
Bear Hunt
Imagine going on a Bear Hunt
If you are teaching small children about life in the late 18th century the book Going on a Bear Hunt is fun to read and then discuss what it was like to really go on a bear hunt and the need to provide food for the family.
We're Going on a Bear Hunt
Amazon Price: $7.99 (as of 12/23/2009)
The Old Growth Forest
Pine Trees were less plentiful in 1780
- Eastern White Pine - Wikipedia
Eastern White Pine
White Pine needles contain five times the amount of Vitamin C (by weight) of lemons and make an excellent herbal tea.
The name "Adirondack" is an Iroquois word which means tree-eater and referred to their neighbors (more commonly known as the Algonquians) who collected the inner bark during times of winter starvation.
The white soft inner bark was carefully separated from the hard, dark brown bark and dried.
When pounded this product can be used as flour or added to stretch other starchy products.
In the 1700's cattle and pigs that were fed pine bark bread grew well.
Did Garner Rix eat Turkey for Thanksgiving?
Were people eating turkeys in 1780?
Wild turkeys are dependent on a varied habitat consisting of hardwood and mixed forests. In the 1800s, Vermont's wild turkeys were pushed to extinction due to extensive clearing of these forests and the spread of agricultural lands.
Turkey's Have Trouble with Deep Powder Snow So the Warm Days Followed by Freezing Help Set up Snow Allowing Them Better Access to Food. Vermont Has About 40, 000 Wild Turkey's According to Vermont Wild Turkey Project Leader Doug Blodgett.
- Vermont Fish & Wildlife
- Eastern Wild Turkey Fact Sheet(Meleagris gallopavo silvestris)The eastern subspecies of wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) is the most widely distributed and abundant of the five distinct subspecies of wild turkey found
in the United States.
Were there wild apple trees in Vermont in 1780?
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Apple Trees and Apple Blossoms Unit Study
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When Garner Rix moved with his family to Vermont in 1780 he brought apple seeds with him. He carefully planted those seeds which grew into trees and produced apple blossoms in Springtime and bushels of apples in the fall. It has been 200 years since...
Wild Edible Foods in the Northern Woods
Surviving on Wild Edible Foods
Read the story of a boy living in the woods surviving only on wild edible foods.-
My Side Of The Mountain
-
A coming of age story about a boy who goes to the woods of upstate New York to live on his own for a year. He lives in a hollow tree, eats only what he can trap, fish or gather. Though he has some survival skills when he starts out he soon discovers...
Wild Foods Outside Vermont
Photo Credit: Gathering Wild Mushrooms
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
WARNING: Don't gather wild mushrooms unless you have learned from an expert. Many varieties of mushrooms are poisonous.
- ForageSF
- Who We Are.....forageSF is a wild foods community conceived of by Iso Rabins in early 2008, with the mission to connect San Francisco Bay Area dwellers with the wild food that is all around them with education, as well as through a monthly box of all wild foraged foods (CSF). From wild mushrooms to acorn flour...
- ForageSF Blog
- This is the blog of Iso Rabins. Forager and founder of forageSF, a wild foods CSF/community in San Francisco, aspiring chef, aspiring writer. For more info about forageSF, and to see what we're trying to do, check out forageSF.com
Twitterers Searching for Wild Edible Food
These are wild edible foods that were harvested in Central Park in NYC.
Photo Credit: Foraging for Wild Edible Foods
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
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- AC_Food_Wine
- Edible Wild Plants: The Wild Strawberry Plant http://bit.ly/8slFM0 #AC #Food #Wine
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- AC_Food_Wine
- Wild Edible Plants: Horseradish http://bit.ly/66XpXI #AC #Food #Wine
Come Stay With Us in Vermont!
Come discover the Wild Edible Foods on Garner Rix's Farm
Photo Credit: Vermont Dirt Road
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
-
Evelyn's Bed and Breakfast
-
Our home in Vermont is a big old Vermont farmhouse and the land that it sits on has been in the family since the town was founded. This historic 1850's Vermont Farmhouse is surrounded by pastures and hundreds of acres of woods, trails and even a wate...
Learn more about Garner Rix
Wild Edible Foods still Grown on Garner Rix's Farm
Each summer when we travel up to the farm that Garner Rix cleared we find wild edible foods. Last summer we ate black raspberry pies, blackberry ice cream and collected wild mushrooms with an expert mushroom collector. There are blueberries in August and apples in the fall. Maybe one of our favorite wild edibles are the fiddleheads in the spring.-
Building Bridges Unit Study
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Garner Rix and his family moved from Connecticut to Vermont in 1780 by oxcart. During his captivity he walked to Montreal and back. What was it like to travel in the 18th Century? There were few roads and even fewer bridges. The bridges over streams...
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Old Vermont Barn
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The old barn on our farm in Vermont was built by my Great-great grandfather in about 1870. He learned to build from his father and grandfather in a tradition passed down from the first New England settlers. He took those traditions but he applied new...
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Garner Rix and the Royalton Raid - 1780
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Garner Rix was just 12 when he moved with his father, pregnant mother, two sisters and three brothers from a farm in Connecticut to a log cabin on the banks of the White River, a place that would one day be called Royalton, Vermont. He helped h...
Which wild edible foods do you enjoy?
Photo Credit: Squirrel eating Wild Food
on Flickr, Creative Commons.
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Reply
- Pastiche Pastiche Oct 31, 2009 @ 1:59 pm
- I love wild raspberries, blackberries and blueberries ... and am lucky to have the first two growing in my own back yard.
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Reply
- BarbRad BarbRad Oct 3, 2009 @ 11:17 pm
- I most enjoy purslane, since it grows here in abundance all summer. Great lens, as yours always are.
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Reply
- _Joan_ _Joan_ Aug 16, 2009 @ 10:02 pm
- You've been added to the "Squidoo lenses on edible wild plants" lens.
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Reply
- Evelyn_Saenz Evelyn_Saenz Aug 12, 2009 @ 9:18 am | in reply to _Joan_
- Thank you, Squid Angel.
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Reply
- Stewart Engelman Stewart Engelman Aug 1, 2009 @ 8:28 am
- It all looks delicious. I've lived in Vermont most of my life, but I have to admit I'd be too scared to try any of this on my own. I think I'll stick to the supermarket until I get my degree floral biology...
Stewart Engelman
- Load More
About the Author of this Wild Edible Foods Lens
Come check out what I'm up to when I'm not looking for fiddlehead ferns:-
Evelyn Saenz: Lensography of a Teacher
-
My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies I make on Squidoo reflect my view that learning should be integrated and no skills should be taught in isolation. I believe that each topic s...
Evelyn's Hands-on Learning Blog
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My passion is teaching... (more)
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