Did Pilgrims Eat Popcorn?

Embrace the Past...

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth
by Jennie A. Brownscombe. (1914)
A mythologized painting showing
Plymouth settlers feasting with Plains Indians.
en.wikipedia.org

With Thanksgiving comes a special time to embrace the past. The feast of which we are most familiar took place when the Pilgrims arrived and the Wampanoag Indians gathered in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. This was a time of autumn celebration and that's right, it took place in the 17th century!

Within the history of Thanksgiving lies nuggets of trivia that nudge at the heart and tickle the funny bone. 

Did you know...

• Turkey may not have been the main meat that filled the guests' bellies at the first feast?
• George Washington declared Thanksgiving to be a February holiday?
• Fledgling colonists lacked butter and wheat flour for baking, thus no pumpkin pie?
• Whether mashed or roasted, white or sweet, potatoes had no place at the first Thanksgiving?
• While cranberries were plentiful, in wasn't until 50 years later that sauces and relishes were made with the tart orbs?

"Although Thanksgiving celebrations dated back to the first European settlements in America, it was not until the 1860s that Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday of November to be a national holiday" (History of Thanksgiving. (2012). The History Channel website. Retrieved 9:52, November 20, 2012, from http://www.history.comhttp://www.history.com/videos/history-of-the-thanksgiving-holiday.)

What about corn?  

So far there has been no mention of corn: roasted, boiled or popped. While corn and kidney beans were staples of the Pilgrim's diet, is it possible there was no corn gracing the table of that first Thanksgiving feast? If it was present, i.e., Indian corn, it presented itself in a form much different from that which we are familiar today. From this, a thought is interjected:

Popcorn is prevalent today as one of America's favorite snacks but . . .

Did Pilgrims Eat Popcorn?

Some believe to this day

Popcorn was a “parched” treat

Brought by the Indians

To the first Thanksgiving feast 

 

A banquet of harvest tradition

Surpasses any myth of yore

Hearty, bountiful plenty

Did grace every table galore

 

Venison, goose, duck, and eel

Beckoned the most squeamish lad

Time of rejoicing and feasting

Meant only the best to be had 

A cornucopia of fruits

Berries, grapes, apples, and plums

Competed with homegrown veggies

Squash, peas, beans, even white corn 

There were no potatoes

Pumpkin pie hadn’t been invented

Bread puddings, milk, and honey

Left no appetite unattended 

 

Indeed more beer than water

Quenched the harshest of thirsts

With gin and wine not far behind

Unbeknownst which came first 

 

But what about the popcorn?

Were pilgrims the early munchers

Of that salty, puffed corn treat

Or was someone else the launcher? 

 

Not until over a century later

Did sweet yellow corn none the least

Become the corn that traditionally “popped”

As part of a Thanksgiving feast



©2012 Awakenings
Sharla Lee Shults