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Blog posts : "Food History"

Neolithic Croatians Rocked Cooking, Heating

"Prehistoric experts in Croatia claim to have found what they say is the world's oldest Aga. The 6,500-year-old oven was unearthed in a ancient home during an archeological dig at a Neolithic site in Bapska, a village in eastern Croatia, which experts say is one of the most important in Europe. Expe…

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A Wine Cellar Destroyed in 1600 BC, Now Unearthed

An earthquake struck a palace at Tel Kabri in Israel, about 1600 BC, destroying a well-stocked wine cellar, according to a story on Smithsonian.com.

"The remains of 40 large jugs found at the site show traces of wine infused with herbs and resins, an international team reports today in the journal …

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Sweet Company Town in PA

Imagine living in a town where everyone is your coworker: that’s what the folks at some of America’s top companies experienced between 1880 and 1930s when the  “company town” was all the rage.

Take Hershey’s Chocolates as an example. According to a recent piece in Preservation Magazine, M…

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You Mean Neanderthals Ate Plants and Little Critters, Too?!

Forgive the sarcasm, but really, did we all think that early uprights ate only the flesh of humungous beasts, slaughtered with the teamwork of a group?

Females undoubtedly wandered forth, gathering berries, roots, mollusks and greens, and netting small animals, in order to keep the group and its …

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Food Heritage from The Food Museum Now at Mother Earth News

We are three entries into a new commitment, at the invitation of the editors, to spotlight food heritage sites/initiatives in the Real Food section of motherearthnews.com. This one focuses on an old bakery in Jaffa, Israel. You can find the others by searching the tag "food heritage."

 

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Astonishingly, We Have Been Slackers!

Sorry, food fans, but we have been led astray by travel, other projects, and such, and this little blog has been quiescent.

Now, we are back, and will be aided in coming weeks by our new food history-interested volunteer, freelance writer Eustacia Huen, who will be putting some of her energy into t…

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Frogs' Legs, Auroch Steaks, Yum!

From The Guardian: "Archaeologists digging about a mile away from Stonehenge have made a discovery that appears to overturn centuries of received wisdom: frogs' legs were an English delicacy around eight millennia before becoming a French one."

Working at a site near Amesbury, University of Buck…

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Frogs' Legs, Auroch Steaks, Yum!

From The Guardian: "Archaeologists digging about a mile away from Stonehenge have made a discovery that appears to overturn centuries of received wisdom: frogs' legs were an English delicacy around eight millennia before becoming a French one."

Working at a site near Amesbury, University of Buc…

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"Kitchen Memories"--Exhibition to Dec 1 at Sonoma Valley Museum of Art

Culinary art? Kitchen gizmos? On display now in California. Full details here.

And view a video on Kathleen Thompson Hill's collection on our Home page.

Ancient Euros Spiced Their Eats

"Researchers found evidence for garlic mustard in the residues left on ancient pottery shards discovered in what is now Denmark and Germany." The shards date back about 6000 years, according to a piece by the BBC.

The (University of) York scientist ( Hayley Saul) said it was likely that prehistoric…

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UK Food Historian Added To "Foodish Blogs" Roll

Ivan Day posts on a blog called Food History Jottings, which we have just added to our blog roll, center column. ( His website is historicfood.com)

Here's what he says about himself: "I am an independent social historian of food culture and also a professional chef and confectioner. I run practica…

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Walt's Bag, Carrying Food

The poet Walt Whitman visited and supported the Civil War wounded in DC, carrying goodies in an old leather bag. According to the WaPost,  "Moved by the horror of the war’s damage to helpless young patients, Whitman made hundreds of visits, toting the haversack packed with fruit, brandy, sweets, to…

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Pyramids Not Built Via Love Alone, People

We've been saying this for 40 years---"First, we eat, Then we do everything else." It's our motto, words from the fabled food-oriented writer MFK Fisher.

Whether preparing to battle our fellows in war, or raise babies, we need to eat.

So now we see that food as a pursuit is coming into focus in ma…

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Agriculturalists Pushed Out Europe's Hunter-Gatherers

7500 years ago or so, farmers from what is now Turkey, apparently brought agricultural practices to Europe, according to a report in LiveScience. "...the earliest farmers in Germany were closely related to Near Eastern and Anatolian people, suggesting that the agricultural revolution did indeed brin…

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Happy Leek-Wearing Day, Wales!

The badge of the Welsh Guards

One of the symbols of Wales is the leek, because supposedly Saint David urged Welsh soldiers to snatch leeks from the field in which they were fighting the Saxons, and place them on their helmets/hats, so that they could recognize one another.  Why a  6th c. extremel…

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Cracked Heads Among Stone Age Herders/Farmers

Our foodie fore bearers needed helmets, apparently. Their heads were split open fairly frequently, according to a study published in the February issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

 "Linda Fibiger, an archaeologist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and her colleague…

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Olives are OLD--But We Knew That, No?

Domesticated olives date back 6-8000 years ago in the Eastern Mediterranean. 
"... findings, published today (Feb. 5) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, are based on the genetic analysis of nearly 1,900 samples from around the Mediterranean Sea. The study reveals that domesticated …

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Cacao Rebounds in Tobago

"When talk turns to chocolate, Tobago rarely jumps to mind. But this small island off the Venezuelan coast was once home to dozens of thriving estates planted with indigenous Criollo cacao trees. Though Criollo beans are celebrated for their rich, complex flavor, they are highly susceptible to disea…

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Help Create a Food Library in New Orleans

SOFAB wants your help in funding a food library  in New Orleans, people. Let's do this!

How British Fare Quality Sank After The Great War

The Great War killed off master, servant ( and farmhand,) alike, in huge numbers. "Without the skilled labor required to make them, complex, time-consuming dishes dropped off the menu. Cooks had long relied on imports of produce and other ingredients to supplement limited domestic varieties, ( food …

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20 blog posts