Sandra Oliver on “Early American Foodways"

Sandra Oliver on “Early American Foodways January 29

As part of the Camden Public Library’s “Food History Month,” author and historian Sandy Oliver will be speaking on January 29 at 7:00 pm on “Beyond Baked Beans: Early American Foodways.” From her 19th-century farmhouse home on Islesboro, Maine, prize-winning food historian, contemporary food essayist, and freelance writer Sandy Oliver contributes frequently to magazines, travels widely as a nationally sought-after speaker, panelist, and food expert, writes books, gardens organically, cooks, and lives sustainably. Oliver’s column “Taste Buds” appears each weekend in the Bangor Daily News.

Since 1971, when she developed a fireplace cooking program in an 1830s house for Mystic Seaport Museum, she has established her niche as a recognized authority on American food history and the world of home cooks, particularly as they relate to an understanding of New England home cooking and its impact on American life. Winner of a Julia Child Cookbook Award, the Jane Grigson Award for Distinguished Scholarship, she has authored four other books: Saltwater Foodways: New Englanders and Their Foods at Sea and Ashore in the 19th Century; Saltwater Foodways Companion Cookbook; Food in Colonial and Federal America; and Giving Thanks: Thanksgiving History and Recipes (coauthored with Kathleen Curtin of Plimoth Plantation).

Sandy has contributed to the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink, and many other regional and American encyclopedias and compendia. She is the founding editor of Food History News, a quarterly newsletter which she published for twenty years. After its last issue the internationally respected Petits Propos Culinaires said, “It has always been impressive stuff, subjecting food history to detailed, rigorous investigation; no claim is left unsourced. One salutes the passing of an inspiring companion.”

Her insightful and perceptive intelligence, charismatic sense of humor and personal connection with her interests and her audiences have seen Sandy speaking to culinary historians, symposiasts at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, the National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian, Wilson Library at the University Of North Carolina, and at the Gastronomy Program at Boston University’s Metropolitan College.

Down East Books has just released Maine Home Cooking, Sandy’s fifth book, a beautifully
illustrated cookbook, and a collection of wonderful and insightful recipes and anecdotes emanating from the close relationships she has developed over seven years with the readers of her weekly Bangor Daily News column. Her love of food and people is its essence, heaped with copious amounts of humor and a deep understanding of regional taste and the Mainers that make it so. The book shows respect for the joys that come from home gardens, canning with glass Mason and Ball jars, and cooking in her 19th century kitchen on a vintage Dual Atlantic combination wood and gas stove.

Saltwater Foodways book description
Saltwater Foodways is the definitive history of New England’s seacoast and seafaring food, and the evolution of Yankee foodways throughout the 19th century. Its 16 extensively illustrated chapters consider the food traditions of New England coastal people, of cooks aboard fishing and deepwater vessels, and the celebration of Christmas, Thanksgiving, Fourth of July, and the fruits of summer. Each chapter is followed by historic recipes, 185 in all, interpreted for the modern cook. Winner of the 1996 Julia Child Cookbook Award for distinguished culinary scholarship.

Food in Colonial and Federal America book description
The success of the new settlements in what is now the United States depended on food. This book tells about the bounty that was here and how Europeans forged a society and culture, beginning with help from the Indians and eventually incorporating influences from African slaves. They developed regional food habits with the food they brought with them, what they found here, and what they traded for all around the globe. Their daily life is illuminated through descriptions of the typical meals, holidays, and special occasions, as well as their kitchens, cooking utensils, and cooking methods over an open hearth. Readers will also learn how they kept healthy and how their food choices reflected their spiritual beliefs.
          This thorough overview endeavors to cover all the regions settled during the Colonial and Federal. It also discusses each immigrant group in turn, with attention also given to Indian and slave contributions. The content is integral for U.S. history standards in many ways, such as illuminating the settlement and adaptation of the European settlers, the European struggle for control of North America, relations between the settlers from different European countries, and changes in NaNative American society resulting from European settlements.