Next week, many of us will mark the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence from England with a feast that looks nothing like the meal our revolutionary forebearers might have enjoyed on July 4th, 1777. Their spread likely featured era favorites such as Turtle Soup, Poached Salmon, and seasonal vegetables including boiled peas, cucumbers and potatoes. They didn’t have hamburgers or hot dogs. Their corn would have been just a few feet tall with no ears formed yet. Tomatoes were considered poisonous. And watermelons were likely only enjoyed by enslaved Africans, grown from seeds they brought from their homeland, for their own consumption.
Like much of the food we eat today, most July 4th favorites were adopted from immigrant or native cultures rather than that of the first settlers. Corn originated in Mesoamerica and worked its way north and south, eventually spreading all over the world. Likewise tomatoes. Watermelons originated in Africa. Potatoes were adopted by European farmers before the colonization of North America by the British, but originated in Peru.
Once our modern Independence Day foods became established, though, they were not locally available in most of the U.S. Outside of the south, corn is rarely big enough to eat by early July and watermelons and tomatoes may not be ripe. Even here in California, it can be challenging to be have these crops ready to harvest by July 1st or 2nd so that they can get to market in time for holiday shoppers.
Obviously that is not going to be a problem this year at Terra Firma. We’ve been harvesting Sweet Corn and Tomatoes for several weeks now, thanks to the unusually hot and dry March we experienced. The tomato crop is very respectable, with plenty of tasty fruit, but the corn is really astonishing us with the size of the ears and the amounts we are picking. And of course it is delicious.
We don’t plant Watermelons here until early April, so they didn’t benefit from the early heat as much. But we got them in the ground just a day or two before the weather turned wet. They are ripening right on schedule and you will see them in your boxes next week.
If you are celebrating next week and were hoping to make Turtle Soup, well, you’ll have to figure that one out yourself. But we’ve got you covered in the fruits and veggies department.