Presidential Dinner

Now that we’ve made it though the feasts of Lunar New Year, Super Bowl, Fat Tuesday, and Valentine’s Day you think it would be time to lay off the feed bag for a while. But there’s one last holiday to get through before the lull until Easter and Passover. Although no we have no cultural or religious festivals surrounding this federal holiday, it was once a big thing in our young nation—George Washington’s birthday.

After the death of our first president, America began celebrating his birthday, February 22, beginning in 1800. In 1885, that day was officially deemed a public holiday. Even more confusing is the fact that Washinton was actually born on February 11th, but at the time of his birth the United States was using the Julian calendar, but in 1752 the British and all its colonies began using the Gregorian calendar that had an eleven day difference thus moving the date to the 22ns. Leave it to Nixon to change the official holiday to the third Monday in February, no matter the date, when the  Uniform Monday Holiday Act was signed into law so federal workers could have three-day weekends each time a holiday rolled around. As a farmer, this eludes me.

Regardless of the actual date, I got to wondering just how Washington might have celebrated his birthday.

In addition to being an accomplished leader, Washington was quite the entrepreneur and businessman with his estate, Mount Vernon, encompassing over 8,000 acres. It was basically a small town producing over 60 different products, including a commercial fishing fleet.

Given that there was (and still is) a distillery, you can bet there was drinking. Unfortunately, the Revolutionary War interrupted the planting of his vineyard so Washington’s winery never got off the ground. There was tobacco for smoking. He selectively bred Hog Island sheep to produce fine wool for his woolens mill so lamb was definitely on the menu. He also raised Red Devon beef which were a multipurpose breed used for milk, meat, and oxen.

Although there were livestock at Mount Vernon, Washington’s heart was with experimental crops, especially small grains, and vegetables.

In addition to cultivated foods, Washington’s meals also consisted of wild game. Several years ago while visiting a culinary exhibit at the Library of Congress I happened to see an exhibit of a book of instructions for the Washington’s kitchen. The one I had to try, given that pheasant is one of my favorite game birds to cook, was to hang one undrawn (not cleaned) by the feet so the air could circulate about the body for three to five days. When I gave it a go the directions produced one of the tastiest meals I’d ever eaten in my life, but no matter the chef or restaurant, the health department would never let that one fly today.

But being a humble man, Washington’s favorite meal was the simple hoe cake which are basically cornmeal pancakes that were cooked on iron hoes (what griddles and peels were called back then). Made from cornmeal, water, and salt, hoe cakes  originated with Indigenous people who taught both colonists and slaves to make them.

So this President’s Day I think I’ll celebrate by firing up a griddle, making some hoe cakes and lamb chops while sipping a little Virginia whiskey and contemplating how much has changed since the days of George Washington while everyone else gets out of town for their three day weekend.