
Written and researched by Kevin Wright©2015
As compared with present consumption, the colonial diet included relatively little fresh meat. Families reared swine and turkeys in great numbers and those destined for winter market were fenced in an appropriate place at the lower end of the garden. Pork was preferred over beef, except among Jewish colonists whose religious observance proscribed its consumption. Pigs generously fattened on forest mast, field pumpkins, buckwheat, and a sweet mash of skimmed milk and bran.