For wonderful reading and cooking, Edna Lewis's The Taste of Country Cooking. She grew up in Freetown, a Virginia town (now lost to history) that was founded by freed slaves. She goes through the 4 seasons describing what they grew and hunted and cooked. Totally delightful and informative.
Lastly, Cross Creek and Cross Creek Cookery by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Wow! Her long chapter in Cross Creek on the food of northern Florida - Cracker food - is to think you died and went to heaven. She was also a most felicitous writer. You'll not be disappointed.
I make a basic slaw: Savoy cabbage (make sure you use the dark green as well as the light), grated carrot, mayo, red wine vinegar, sugar and salt and pepper and a bit of celery seed to complete the pix.
Thank you so much for those tips. I’ve been aware of the Laura Ingalls Wilder story, but haven’t really investigated yet.
Here is a more recent, but also historical American cookbook that has always intrigued me because of the exigencies of getting food up there and cooking it: The Lookout Cookbooks - I’m not sure I’ve posted this link before (it may intrigue me, because when I was taking those tests in Elementary School that are supposed to indicate your aptitude for certain careers, I always came up as “forest ranger” :-):
http://www.foresthistory.org/ASPNET/Publications/Cookbook/Lookout_Cookbook.aspx
-JT
-JT
Those cookbooks sound very interesting! thanks for listing them - I’ll add them to my list of books to look for.
There are a number of Little Prairie or Little House cookbooks. If you get a chance, please post the author of the one you found so great.
My wife loves all things L. E. Wilder. We even became endowment members of her museum.