CHAPTER FOUR

Food Production in New York City from 1790-1860

Eli Bierman, Christina Borovilas, Melanie Boyce, Lucia Cappuccio, Khatiya Chelidze, Stephanie Cherestal

INTRODUCTION

New York City today teems with life and boasts one of the most compelling reasons to visit any location: incredible food. Thousands of restaurants, street vendors, and small shops crowd the streets, offering the inhabitants a large variety of culinary delights. Poised on the Hudson River, New York City benefited from the temperate climate and its bay, which made foodstuffs plentiful and readily available. In today’s world, a rich assortment of food is available for consumption, affected largely by the global market and cultural diversity of Gotham. Centuries ago, however, it was more common to eat what was locally produced.

Local markets were accessible in many points throughout the city, particularly on the island of Manhattan; New York City’s proximity to farmland and major waterways allowed these markets to flourish. An increase in immigration to the city and population led to a demand in agricultural goods, meats, fish, shellfish, and alcoholic beverages.  The accessibility of these products, especially fish and shellfish, was an important factor in the availability and variety of goods found in the city’s markets, frequented by people of all socio-economic backgrounds.

Consumption of these products increased over the time period of 1790 to 1860, and was fueled by an ever- growing population. Agriculture provided the primary source of income for many of the colonists who, especially during the earlier years, were self-sufficient because of New York’s fertile and plentiful land. Technological advancements aided in the production of foodstuffs, strongly affecting grain productions and the brewing process. Advancements in transportation later became vital in supplying the city; as the value of land increased, farming was pushed further away from the inner boroughs. Developments in technology led to canals, steamboats, and railroads, all of which transported more products eastward as less land became available for agricultural use.

New York City in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century was a center for trade and contained active markets thanks to high availability of goods supplied local land.  During the years 1790 to 1860, consumption of agricultural goods, meats, seafood, and alcoholic beverages increased tremendously.  Demand grew and New Yorkers expected to obtain a wide assortment of food products to suit their needs.  Although consumption grew, production gradually moved away from New York City as population increased, and the metropolis came to rely heavily on outer portions of New York and neighboring states to supply its ravenous inhabitants.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The area we call New York City today was mostly farmland in 1790. Throughout the period, the production of various agricultural goods, meats, seafood, and alcoholic beverages peaked and then moved further away from the city. In order to fully explain this phenomenon, it is necessary to describe the context of these industries’ growth.

Consumption

During the 1790s, New Yorkers expected to obtain foods from their neighborhood marketplaces; various items, such as produce, meat, seafood, and alcohol, were available for sale and included in meals for people of all socio-economic backgrounds. Produce was grown, meat was butchered, and seafood was caught locally. All collected, they were brought to and sold in local markets. An area where businesses offered goods, services, and labor for sale, markets flourished within New York City due to the close proximity to farmland and waterways. A variety of trade professions were represented, including carpenters, grocers, coach makers, and stonecutters (Burrows and Wallace 1999). Fly Market, Fulton Street Market, and Harlem Market were popular places for shopping during this time.

During the 1820s, immigrants began to add to New York’s population in large numbers. As the urban population in New York City grew, a large market for fruits and vegetables arose. This demand was soon filled as farmers in nearby areas like Brooklyn and Queens began to focus on growing fruits and vegetables to sell to New Yorkers.

The types of meat available for sale were influenced by local tastes; beef was especially high in demand. In 1760, the consumption of fish per year rose by 23 percent (Hauck-Lawson & Deutsch 2009). This change was brought on by the flourishing fishing industry; new cultures added to the demand of fish, making the industry more productive. Oystering also saw a major increase in production as its popularity increased both domestically and internationally.

New York and Philadelphia had established themselves as prime centers for trade, especially in the alcoholic beverage industry. Downard writes that more than twenty brewers were working in the city from the years 1695 to 1786 (by comparison, there were no working breweries in the city by the 1970s) (132). Despite these isolated industry centers, the colonists soon realized that the ingredients conducive to good beer were simply not available to them in their new land. Their British inclinations would soon be forced to change not only in the vote, but also in the glass.
Production

In the British colonies of the United States, the primary source of income was agriculture; 85% of colonists farmed for a living. They grew crops to sell and make a profit rather than to merely feed their family. Farmers in New York typically grew corn, wheat, barley, oats, and rye for profit. Each individual household commonly grew fruits and vegetables in small kitchen gardens, so there was not much demand for large-scale production of these items until later.

Important meats consumed included beef (cattle), pork (pig), and mutton (sheep). Originally, these animals were raised and slaughtered within New York City. Afterwards, the meat was brought over to local markets for sale and consumption. Beef was the most profitable and popular of the meats due to its taste and texture. Wild game was also popular, but once the first era of settlement passed, beef took prominence over other meats in New York.

Many different kinds of seafood were found in New York’s surrounding waters, including striped bass, cod, oysters, and clams. This gave consumers a wide variety of seafood to choose from in markets. Fisherman and oyster merchants were able to make a good living because of the dependability of their product. Fish and oyster demand during this time were incredibly high because of their easy accessibility, almost effortless production, and cheap price. Fishermen native to the Atlantic Ocean traded along foodways to a variety of different ports and markets. Fisheries began humbly, slowly developing to propel community interest in the fishing economy of local waterways like the Long Island Sound and Hudson River. Oysters were cultivated by thousands of sea farmers, and merchants sold millions of oysters every year.

During the early 1800s, the search for the new national American drink was underway. Researchers have found countless recipes for beers in the records from this time. These include instructions on how to make beer from the local crop, maize, ingredients like grains and fruits, and even more unorthodox beers crafted from items such as “essence of spruce” (Baron 1962), as well as traditional recipes based on barley and hops. This suggests that there was a brewery in every home during the colonial period; this implies that much of the brewing and distilling ‘industry’ was in fact a loose network of private home brewing at this time. Some historians are now dubbing one of America’s greatest folk legends, Johnny Appleseed, the “American Dionysus” because he “brought alcohol to the frontier” (Pollan 2001). Alcoholic beverages were deeply ingrained in the American daily way of life during the colonial era, and this continued into the days of the early republic.
Technology

Progression in the creation of new technologies was relatively new during the first half of the 19th century. Later developments, however, especially in the steel industry, sparked a wave of advancements that would lead to less local trade and a greater dependence on national markets.

In the early stage of American colonies, farming was done largely by hand. Technology was not highly developed, nor was it readily available. Plows, now considered a vital tool in agriculture production, were hard to come by. Technology improvement during this time mainly affected grain production, which was no longer taking place in New York City when significant advancements began to happen. Advances in fishing technologies, based on what kind of fish fishermen were trying to seize, were relatively stagnant as well. Hooks and nets were the preferred gear of choice. Instruments used for shellfish include nets and cages (usually used for lobsters and crabs). Concerned more about the size of their daily catches, fishermen left the expensive developments of safer gear for a later era. Contrastingly, the brewing industry invented three items that would hold great importance: the hydrometer, the thermometer, and the steam engine. Both the hydrometer (along with its offshoot, the saccharometer) and the thermometer gave the brewer instruments to measure and monitor processes more exactly, and the steam engine—which replaced horses—opened possibilities of working with greater volumes in the brewery (Olsson 2010).

Advancements in transportation came to impact the exchange of various food products, such as grains, wheat, corn, seafood, alcohol, sugar and meat. This trade of food in turn had an enormous impact on the country’s economy. New York offered a multitude of transportation options that allowed for trade over long distances. Canals were frequently used in the early nineteenth century. One example is the Erie Canal, which shuttled agricultural commodities. The steamboat, invented by Robert Fulton, was used in conjunction with canals to provide a faster way to transport both people and goods than horse ferries (Burrows and Wallace 1999). The steamboats ensured that New York remained economically linked to the mid-west.

Railroads, adapted from the developed railways in England, were an important technology as well. After the Reconstruction era, it was clear that railroads were needed to shuttle settlers west and agricultural products east. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Companies were licensed in 1827 to build a steam railroad to the west. A number of shorter lines were additionally built to provide connections to river systems, such as the Pontchartrain railroad, which connected the Mississippi to Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans (Burrows and Wallace 1999). Beginning in 1840, refrigerated cars, patented by J.B. Sutherland, were used to transport milk and butter.  By 1860, refrigerated transportation was limited to seafood and dairy products; later, there were various car designs based upon the type of cargo, such as meat and fruit (Krasner-Khait 2010).
RESULTS
While compiling the research for this chapter, various trends in food consumption, production, and trade became apparent from 1790 to 1860. Production and consumption of meat, primarily beef, increased. This increase was also seen with fish and shellfish. Consumption and demand for various alcoholic beverages rose dramatically, reached its peak in 1830, and then later saw a steady decline. Agriculture and trade saw a subtle decline.

Meat
Types of meats

Common types of meats eaten in New York City between 1790 and 1860 included beef, pork, mutton, veal, lamb, and poultry (Jackson 1995). These meats were consumed because major ethnic groups in New York City retained their eating habits when they settled in the New World; often they brought a taste for domestic animals with them. Occasionally, wild meats such as venison, turkey, wildfowl, and small animals like rabbits were consumed on special occasions (Oliver 2005). Domestic animals were found primarily on family farms in the Colonial era into the late eighteenth century, but in the nineteenth century, an increase in population and land value spurred an increasing arrival from areas outside New York City (Well 2004).

Markets and population

Several markets were established or in use in New York City between 1790 and 1860. A few well-known markets contained butcher stalls; meats sold included beef and pork, along with meats from smaller animals such as mutton and veal (Voe 1862). The Spring Street Market was erected in 1800 on the corner of Hudson and Spring Street. Meats such as roast beef, pork, veal, mutton, turkey, and geese provisions were sold at this location. Franklin market was built in 1821 between Water and Front Streets, Tompkins market in 1826 on Bowery and 3rd avenue, Clinton market in 1827 (erected near the north river), and Jefferson market in 1832 on the corner of Greenwich Lane and 7th Avenue. Weehawken Market or the “Greenwich Market” was established in 1834; this market was not as successful as some others and supported about five butchers. In 1835, Union Market was established and bordered by Houston and Second Street; six butchers purchased stalls as soon as the market house was finished. The Monroe Market followed this in 1836 (built on Monroe Street), as well as the Harlem Market in 1840, which was situated west of Third Avenue near 120th street (Voe 1862). A detailed map of Manhattan market locations in the year 1808 is seen in Figure 4.1 on the following page.

The population of New York State and New York City

Although it lagged behind Philadelphia in terms of population until the 1790s, New York City experienced a constant rate of growth in the late eighteenth century. From the mid eighteenth century to 1780, the city grew from 49,000 to 211,000 people. It was affected significantly by the waves of British immigrants; a large number of these immigrants were Scottish.  Speculators at this time began to negotiate with Iroquois for land around the Hudson Valley. The Iroquois ceded most of their land to New York State after the War of Independence since they had sided with the British, who lost the war. This allowed for extensive colonization as well as land speculation. The population of New York State increased from 340,000 inhabitants in 1790 to 1.4 million in 1820 (Well 2004).

Figure 4.1 is a map of market locations within Manhattan in 1808 (Rothschild 1990)

Figure 4.2 Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages and Absolute Alcohol (Rorabaugh 1976)

The New York brewing and distilling industry, having had its peak during the eighteenth century, reached a plateau of strength. Before the introduction of lager beer in the 1840s, many breweries produced  beer, ale, and porter in a small, twelve-square block area of Brooklyn known as “Brewer’s Row” (Downard 1980).  Elsewhere in the state, the Albany Brewing Company, founded in 1796, was being heralded as one of the finest centers of ale production in the country (5). Although there is evidence that the brewing industry was gradually moving west, “by 1860, the nation’s 1,269 breweries produced more than one million barrels of beer, [and] 85 percent of it [was] still brewed in New York and Pennsylvania” (Boyer 2001). This information supports the statement that the “primacy of cider” is a scholastic misconception, at least in regards to New York City. Beer was New York’s most popular drink, while cider and whiskey were frontier beverages, centered around the areas of Kentucky and southern Indiana (Downard 1980).
Worth mentioning is the fact that drinking spaces shifted significantly over the focus period. Spirits were considered good for beginning a day’s worth of hard labor, and this is evident by the fact that the prominent area of drink consumption changed from the home to the tavern (i.e., a place closer to the area of labor). Additionally, an influx of Irish immigrants in the 1810s and German immigrants in the 1840s facilitated the opening of porter-houses and beer gardens, respectively. The collective existences of these establishments allowed for a more widespread popularity of a variegated smorgasbord of drinks that now included ale, brandy, cider, gin, ginger-beer, mead, mint julep, porter, and punches (Hauck-Lawson 2009).

Fish and Shellfish
The Hudson River, Raritan Bay, and Long Island Sound can all be found within the confines of New York. The Hudson is located to the west of the Manhattan Island. Flowing for over three hundred miles, the river serves as a boundary between New York and New Jersey (Jackson 1995). It is home to hundreds of species of fish and shellfish (Levington & Waldman 2006). Raritan Bay is located in the southern-most tip of New York. Throughout the 1800s the bay was a vital area for fishing as well as clamming and oystering (Jackson 1995). Over-extraction of these resources led to the bay’s downfall; productivity peaked around the late 1880s (USGS). The Sound can be found between Connecticut and Long Island, New York. With about 1310 square miles of water stretching 110 miles long, the Sound was home to a bevy of saltwater fish (Andersen 2004). Great prosperity came to the sound for its whaling and sealing industry, but only for a limited time.

Colonists developed the Port of New York from the Upper New York Bay. Its size and proximity to the open sea made it an ideal location for trading (Jackson 1995). So many fishing vessels and merchants passed through the port to trade fish and other seafood that by around 1850 it became one of the world’s most important ports (1995).

Deerfield, a town located in the upper mid-west of Massachusetts, provided a great deal of fish to New York. Sold by the quintel, the most popular fish brought from Deerfield to New York were salmon and shad. Fish in barrels were preserved by pickling; in the late 1700s, salt would become the main method of preservation (Benes 1984). Gloucester, also a Massachusetts town, is located in the upper east tip of the state. Winter fishing was a very popular occurrence in Gloucester for it brought year-round employment for fishermen (Kurlansky 2008).

Figure 4.3 Fish commonly found in New York Markets c. 1804 (De Voe 1867)

The most popular types of fish provided for New York City included cod, mackerel, bluefish, striped bass, salmon, shad, and sturgeon. Eels and some species of sting ray (Clear-nosed, Spotted, and Whip-Sting to name a few) were also sold in markets (De Voe 1867). Fish were reared and locally brought to markets, or they were preserved and shipped to trading ports to be sold. Menhaden, a miniature fish used mainly for oil and bait, was caught around the metropolitan area.

Fishhooks, nets, and the occasional spear were most commonly used in procuring fish. Passive gear, such as gill nets (nets attached to poles that could tangle a fish’s gills), fyke nets (nets that trapped fish into pockets), and the classic hook-and-line fishing poles, relied heavily on the movement patterns of the fish. The gear was kept still on the waterway’s floor, then reeled up and brought to the surface once full of fish (Hubert 1996). Active gear, such as dredges (half-oval shaped nets) and trawls (funnel-shaped nets), is attached to moving vessels to capture fish as it moves along (Hayes, Ferreri, and Taylor 1996). Both passive and active gears were used primarily during deep-sea fishing and could rear a great amount of fish; fishing poles and spears were usually utilized in freshwater fisheries and could only capture 1-2 fish at a time.

An assortment of fishing boats were used during the first half of the 19th century. Schooners, a boat created in 1713, were “sleek, two-masted vessel[s] with fore–and-aft rigging and the ability to put a tremendous amount of canvas in topsails” (Kurlansky 1997). Their speed reduced sailing time between ports. Dories were smaller than schooners and less heavy, making them easier to paddle until the boat was full of fish (Kurlansky 2008). Some fishermen would unload their catches from the nets into cars. “Cars” (large covered boxes floating in the water with cracks to keep water flowing in an out) would travel alongside boats and were equipped to carry up to 4,000 pounds (McKay 1969).

In regards to the shellfish industry, the Hudson River was one of the most important oyster areas not only because of its closeness to the heart of Manhattan and the seaport, but also because of its prime conditions for oysters. Staten Island’s Raritan Bay, the Great South Bay, Jamaica Bay, and the Long Island Sound were also home to many of the oysters that were traded and sold in the city. Staten Island’s waters produced the greatest amount of oysters in the city and were eventually some of the first to be depleted.

The demand for oysters in New York led to a depletion of oyster beds throughout the city and forced farmers to find innovative ways to revive these habitats. Farmers began to import oysters from out of state to replace the native oysters. The locations of these oyster beds changed because of depletion and polluted waters. New transportation methods, such as steamboats, canals, and railroads, increased the shellfish trade in and out of New York and allowed oysters to be exported and imported more easily.
Agriculture and trade
Grain production
During the years between 1790 and 1860, grain production moved increasingly further away from the city. When the Erie Canal opened, grains could be imported from interior states at a lower price than it would cost to produce them closer to New York City. Many farms around New York City that once produced grains, especially in Kings and Queens County, began to focus more on fruit and vegetable production instead (Linder and Zacharias 1999).

Technology and farming
As this machine-focused farming began to emerge, the shift of focus of agriculture in New York from grains to fruits and vegetables also began to occur more rapidly. While corn shelling was one of the most time consuming chores of farm life, this practice stayed relatively constant until shelling machines were introduced in the early 1800s.
A-shaped drags were commonly used to break up soil. Hoes were used to plant corn, and small grains such as wheat, oats, and rye were seeded by hand. Sickles were the main tools used to reap the grain harvest until 1750 when the cradle scythe became popular. This simple tool increased efficiency threefold. Small weeds were fought off with hoes, and flails were used to thresh the grain. In New York, however, where a greater volume of grains were produced, this method was not efficient enough. Farmers instead used horses and oxen to tread on the grain to thresh it. Although this method was crude and not much faster, it required less labor, and therefore kept costs down.
Winnowing, or removing the chaff from the grain, was done by hand by farmers until well into the nineteenth century. Generally, the grain would be put in a basket and repeatedly thrown into the air so that the chaff could fly away in the wind. This chaff blew into the fields, which helped to fertilize them. Harvesting corn, also known as shelling, was also done by hand and was very time consuming and labor intensive. This practice stayed relatively constant until shelling machines were introduced in the early 1800s, but the chore was still labor intensive (Hurt 2002).

Food consumption
The diet of New Yorkers did not change dramatically between 1790 and 1860, but one significant change was the popularity of potatoes. The potato had been seen as a food fit for hogs rather than people ever since it had been brought to America. Its production remained low, and it would mainly be found growing in people’s home gardens. Around the year 1850, however, the potato began to assert itself as a major starch in Americans’ and especially New Yorkers’ diets (Hedrick 1933).

Agricultural trade
In different regions of the United States, certain agricultural products were better suited to be cultivated, so oftentimes regions would specialize in producing and exporting different foods. For instance, the New England region, while able to produce a variety of agricultural goods, was never able to produce export goods comparable to those of the middle or southern colonies. New England colonies frequently grew and traded corn, root crops, fruits, and vegetables in abundance, as well as raised a considerable amount of livestock (Hilliard 1972). On the other hand, corn was the main trading crop in the more southern regions of the Northwest and was often shipped in great quantities to the South (Clark 1966). The South also cultivated a specific variety of crops, mainly including cotton, rice, sugar, and tobacco. These crops were popularly grown in Southern regions due to the fact that they were well suited to slave labor (Benedict 1953). Figure 4.4 below, provided by Robert E. Gallman in his article “Changes in Total U.S. Agricultural Factor Productivity in the Nineteenth Century,” provides data documenting the amounts of different food products that were cultivated in various regions in the United States in the year 1791.

Figure 4.4 American crop yields in bushels per acre (Gallman 1791)

Some food products that were vital to international trade were various grains and sugar. Exports of bread products to England averaged at $738,000 annually, and had not surpassed $1.2 million since 1820. Data shows, however, that between 1846 and 1850 the figure increased to 13.9 million. During this time, approximately 10 percent of America’s total domestic exports were composed of grain exports to England. In 1847, it is documented that 40 percent of England’s imports of wheat and flour originated in the United States (Clark 1966).

The public consumption and trade of sugar in the United States increased rapidly during the nineteenth century. This occurred primarily in richer, more industrialized cities. At this time, however, those who cultivated sugar cane in America did so more often for their own use or for domestic sale than for international export (Galloway 1972). Some domestic centers of sugar production were located in Hawaii and Louisiana (1972). Because of the high demand, and the fact that sugar cane was cultivated best in humid, tropical areas, various outside groups competed to supply the United States with its sugar needs. One important country to do so was Cuba, which was located close by and therefore a convenient source of supply (1972).
As different regions in the United States specialized in the production of various agricultural products, it was initially difficult to transport these products across the nation due to a lack of effective methods of transportation. This all changed, however, with the construction of the Erie Canal in 1825. This waterway became financially beneficial to the United States, especially to New York City and the regions through which the canal passed (Clark 1966). This is illuminated by looking at the Erie Canal’s effect on one neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York: “King’s County’s transition from grain to vegetable production from about the 1850s was driven by advances in transportation, especially the opening of the Erie Canal, which shifted regional cost advantages and thus made commercially possible the importation to the growing urban population of the New York City area of cheaper grains grown in upstate New York and the upper Mississippi Valley. In neighboring Queens County, too, wheat and flour had been the staples until the canal was built “ (Linder & Zacharias 1999). It is clear that advances in technology affected the possible exchange of goods, and therefore changed the patterns of domestic trade within the United States.

DISCUSSION

Consumption

Meat

The region of New York was settled by an ethnic mix, and the meats eaten reflected characteristics of the people who settled there. (Oliver 2005) The Dutch brought cattle and hogs to America and bought hardy beef cattle from New Englanders. The Dutch also ate thick, Holland hogs and made certain to have a variety of domestic fowl, including chickens, turkeys, and geese. Among affluent Dutch, meals consisted of mutton, beef, veal, and poultry with seasoned vegetables (2005). It is interesting to note that a much greater amount of meat was consumed in the New World than in Europe (2005).

The English took advantage of the New World’s climate because it was similar to the country they had left behind. Pigs and cattle were raised on family farms and slaughtered in the fall or winter to take advantage of the natural preservation that would occur in the cold (Smith 2006).  Beef was salted and smoked and sausage was occasionally produced. Mutton was also consumed, but the consumption and use of the sheep itself depended on the value of wool. Breakfasts for the wealthy usually consisted of chicken, ham, veal cutlet, beef, and pork, along with various fruits and breads (Oliver 2005). English style boarding houses, taverns, and chophouses were scattered throughout the city offering beefsteaks, muttonchops, and broiled chicken (Grimes 2009).

The Germans were known for cooking salty meat and sweet fruit. They thus made plenty of use of smoked ham and pork sausage. The Germans continued their meat-eating habits from the old world, displaying a preference for pork, lamb, venison, turkey, chicken; pork was consumed most widely (Oliver 2005).

Alcohol

In this age of extreme drinking in American history, it becomes of interest to address the question of why people drank so much during the early nineteenth century, as the reasons for consumption will have profoundly affected its rate. One frequently cited reason for the circumstance of drinking is that of medicinal health. There is a perception among scholars that alcohol was prescribed left and right.

One historian writes, “Doctors …suggested consumption of alcoholic beverages for a wide variety of ailments” (Williams 1980). Not only was alcohol considered healthy, but water was considered unhealthy. As a beverage, beer “was still required in New York during the eighteenth century because the public water supply continued to be unsafe…people would go on drinking manufactured beverages, preferably those with some alcoholic content” (Baron 1962). The fact of alcohol’s prevalence as a medicine is reflected in the positive attitude the general public had toward this beverage. “Most people thought whiskey was as essential as bread” (Lender 1982). This also gave rise to a change in the way drinking was displayed and perceived. Within the home, the religiously inclined society of the nineteenth century northeast curbed any deviant and disturbing acts one may associate with drunkenness. However, “The explosive growth in the number of taverns [in New York City] between 1830 and 1860, [and] their roles as centers of working-class recreation and social life” promoted an amazing surge in tavern violence and social conflict (Kaplan 1995).

It is in such behavioral issues that the origins of the Temperance Movement found themselves. A desire to curb drinking existed even in colonial times, but gained speed during the second quarter of the nineteenth century as the loss of certain religious, social, familial, and institutional mores that controlled behavior became more and more apparent. Temperance was a way to “re-establish control over the increasingly popular middle classes making up the American ‘modern man’ (Grusfield 1986). This movement began in an organized way with the establishment of the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance in 1826, and continued until the prohibition of alcohol in 1920.

Fish and shellfish

Deep-sea fishing was the most popular form of fishing. The amount of fish brought to markets from the sea spurred an increase in demand. Farmers living on New York City and Long Island shores would also contribute to fishing production. Seen as a means to supplement their income, farmers would often fish in their local fisheries. Afterwards, they would either personally bring their catches to markets or load them onto boats that operated between their towns and Manhattan (Jackson 1995).

In addition to deep-sea fish, oysters, which were native to New York City harbors, were also very popular. Oyster consumption in New York City was so high that by the 1820s, most beds in New York had been overharvested and were nearly barren (Kurlansky 2008). With depleted beds, farmers had to come up with a way to keep oyster production strong. They did this through a process called cultivation. Artificial beds would be created where natural beds once stood and oysters from other locations would be brought in to grow in the water. This oyster farming including planting seed, cultivating the bottom, putting down shell material called cultch, and then transplanting and harvesting outside oysters (Timmons et al 2004). By 1830, many of New York’s oysters were no longer natives from the city’s waters. Cultivation allowed the city to continue to produce oysters even if they were not naturally from New York.

Agricultural Products

The ethnic mix of people in New York City created a demand for a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Grain consumption generally consisted of wheat, barley, rice, and oats from the Europeans with corn from the Native Americans, but fruit and vegetable consumption was much more diverse. The influx of German and Irish immigrants changed the market and created a demand for products like cabbage and potatoes. The market responded to this demand by growing more potatoes and cabbages commercially, mostly in Queens and Brooklyn. Racist attitudes towards the Irish, who were often thought of as inferior to other white Europeans at the time, kept the “Irish potato” in America limited to being merely a small garden crop for home use until around 1850, when potatoes began to be more widely accepted in the American diet (Hedrick 1933).

Technology

Meat

As the United States entered the nineteenth century, the northeastern states were becoming industrialized and rapidly growing in population, and therefore, increasing amounts of foods were needed to sustain these regions. The development of steamboats and the construction of the Erie Canal created a new passageway to ship from the interior of the country to New York City in order to supply the ever-increasing demand for food. The Erie Canal grew in significance and had considerable influence in shipping meat products from the Midwest to New York City. Pork and beef packed in Chicago were regularly shipped to the city through the water routes. The opening of the canal pushed horse, cattle, and sheep production further from New York City. The Erie Canal remained economically competitive until the development of road and refrigerated train cars, which led to a decline in bacon and pork trade on the river (Clemen 1926).

Agriculture

The growing urban market in New York City created a demand for grains that could not be met by local farms, which were now focusing more on fruits and vegetables. The importation of grains was made possible due to the technological advances mentioned previously, specifically the Erie Canal and steamboats. An illustration of this situation can be seen in the New England area: “New England, an importer of certain kinds of food even during the colonial period, became increasingly important as a food deficit area throughout the 19th century…Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York actively imported western foodstuffs as early as 1820 (Hilliard 1972).”

Through this data, it is clear that, when certain regions in the United States lacked the ability to cultivate certain food products, they developed the ability to import what they needed from distant regions with the help of new technologies. This is never clearer than when one looks at the effect of trade in New York City: “Farming in the New York City area, which had been devoted largely to grains and livestock, was transformed by the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. On the one hand, the canal made it possible to transport grain cheaply from the Ohio Valley, where the cost of production was lower, to the city…On the other hand, the canal helped spur the transformation of New York into the country’s leading port and most populous city” (Linder & Zacharias 1999). We can see here that the evolution of technology in New York not only helped to feed the city, but it helped it to grow, both financially and in population.

Fish & Shellfish

Most advances in fishing technology during this time were made solely for the reaping of more fish, not for safety precautions; fishermen didn’t see fish “as a finite resource until the twentieth century” (Kurlansky 2008). Big catches equaled more money, and fishermen were more interested in reaping a profit than taking cautionary actions. Small-to-medium sized boats were ideal in the fishing industry for fish capture because fish tended to steer clear of the larger ships, like steamboats. Because of this, boats were subjected to dangers like capsizing or sinking under heavy loads. Though these dangers were present, fishermen continued to overfill their boats for chances of more profit.

Several advancements in technology benefitted the oyster trade. The introduction of the steamboat and steam technology increased trading between New York and other locations, particularly Connecticut and Philadelphia. New York was also now able to ship enormous quantities of fresh oysters upstate to Albany and to Europe as well as import oysters from Long Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Steam powered dredges were introduced to collect more oysters from the water. This new method increased the number of oysters brought to the market dramatically. Because of the havoc it wrecked on beds, however, the use of steam-powered dredges was soon banned in New York (Kurlansky 2008). The finished construction of the Eerie Canal in 1825 also brought more efficient and profitable trade to the city. Connecting New York Harbor to the Great Lakes and Midwest, the canal opened the oyster trade up to the western region of the United States, and helped put more money in the hands of merchants. The rise of railroads had similar positive effects on trade. Railroads to Boston, Washington, the Great Lakes, and the West allowed New York oysters to be shipped out to these places on beds of ice (2008).

Production

Meat

After the Revolutionary War, thousands of settlers began to pour into the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. Thus, the heartland of agricultural production in America was pushed father west, away from Manhattan (Benes 1984). New York compensated by ensuring that connections to the west were still established through the development of the Eerie Canal (Burrows and Wallace 1999). As farmland disappeared from Manhattan, meats were acquired from further locations, such as Westchester and Duchess counties, New Jersey, and New England (Horowitz, Pilcher et al. 2004). The products of the farms of more northerly states such as Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois could travel to Manhattan on the Eerie Canal (Danhof 1969).

Although most meat was imported, early New Yorkers were able to provide some of their own food by keeping domestic animals; Manhattan was full of English Cattle, hogs, sheep, and goats. As population increased, however, land became too valuable to use for food production. Inhabitants of the city came to rely almost entirely on food through the market. The practice of keeping domestic animals, particularly pigs, continued into the next century, however, as signified by a succession of laws that kept them from running free (Rothschild 1990). By the eighteenth century, most food came from the markets. The first markets arose in the late seventeenth century, and slowly became more abundant; the marketing system existed without any intermediaries. Legislation prevented middlemen from buying cheap and hiking prices, and protected the quality of food. Meat, poultry, fish, and produces were acquired on a daily basis (Rothschild 1990). It took a small amount of time for a cattle market to develop in New York, although pigs were driven to market as well as some wild game. Meat and poultry, though widely available in city markets, were often expensive, even at a reduced price at the end of the market day. Thus many working class wives kept their own animals, mainly pigs (Burrows and Wallace 1999).

Beef was a highly cherished domestic meat among European settlers. Within a decade or two of colonization, raising cattle became an economically significant activity. After the era of first settlement, wild food decreased in importance and beef predominated over other meats. Most people preferred to eat beef fresh, but the fatty portions were corned or salted; later, some of the corned or slated meat were smoked. Making sausage was another way to preserve beef: Beef was produced on farms for family use, usually slaughtering in the fall or winter to take advantage of natural cold for preservation, so that most was available for use fresh. (Oliver 2005)

Fish & Shellfish

Fisheries played a vital role in the economy of this time period. With an influx of immigrants coming from overseas during this time, specifically during the 1820s, the fishing industry helped to provide jobs as well as a source of food for new families (USGS). The developments of man-made waterways, such as the Erie Canal in 1825, also brought a flood of trade from other fisheries in the northeast (Burrows 1999).

The whaling industry was probably the most prosperous (and hazardous) sublet of the fishing industry. Whales were once bountiful in the Long Island Sound, and the Port of New York held at least forty-nine whaling vessels in its base (1995). Though rearing a whale could potentially destroy a ship or drown an entire crew, it proved to be highly profitable: over 100 barrels of oil could be extracted from a full-grown whale (Andersen 2004). One sperm whale could be worth over to $3,000; the worth of a bowheads whale could reach over $5,000 (Moment 1957). Soon, however, whales were hunted to such an extent that they were almost brought to the brink of extinction; this, in addition to the surplus of whale oils in the markets, brought the whaling industry’s prosperity to a close during the 1860s (Davis, Gallman, & Hutchins 1988). In regards to sealing, the New Haven South Street Fleet was a leader in the industry. Based in Long Island, the fleet hunted seals in the St. Felix Islands of the Pacific west, dried the seals’ skins on the way to Canton, and traded the skins for goods such as tea and spices (Andersen 2004). Due to sealing competition from other ports and a drastic decline in the seal population, the industry came to a halt around 1806 (2004).

With the second wave of the Industrial Revolution, new industries started to take up residence in New York. Shipbuilding, ceramics, chemicals and paint manufacturing, electrolytic copper refining, petroleum refining, and other industries brought more prospective employment to New Yorkers (USGS), and the arrival of the gold rush during the end of the 1850s drove some fishermen away from their boats and westward (McFarland 1911). The opportunity for new jobs in new environments showed to bring a slight decline in fishing careers.

The shellfish industry also became a great economic asset for New York. The hunting and gathering of shellfish, particularly oysters, is a relatively simple process. Oysters lend themselves to cultivation because of three prime reasons: they are unable to move from their beds on their own accord, they can withstand rough handling and long periods of exposure to air, and they have a unique life history which allows farmers to create new methods to control and increase their population. The most popular method for taking oysters from their beds involved the use of a dredge to drag along the bottom of the water and collect the shellfish. Boats would normally have two to four dredges that would scrape the bottom of the ocean and bring up shellfish. These boats were capable of gathering from one to five thousand bushels of oysters per day.

Because companies dumped their waste into New York’s waters without consequence, many of the city’s waters were polluted by 1860. Although many bodies of water, such as the Harbor and Hudson River, were still used for oyster cultivation, it was evident that the pollution would hamper oyster production in the near future. By 1850 both the Gowanus Bay and Jamaica Bay’s Rockaway beds were closed to oystering because of raw sewage in the waters.

Agriculture

During the years between 1790 and 1860, grain production moved increasingly further away from the city. As described above in the meat section, the location of major farms began to shift west, and grains began to be imported along with meats. Although grains were being shipped in, fruits and vegetables were far more perishable and would not have survived the long journey. For this reason, farms around New York City, especially in Kings and Queens County, began to focus more on fruit and vegetable production. These farmers generally practiced “truck farming” and took their perishable produce to sell at nearby urban markets. The term truck farming, coming from a Middle English meaning of “truck,” simply implies that the crops were produced for local markets. The portion of the population that kept kitchen gardens to supply their fruit and vegetable needs decreased, although Brooklyn and Queens were still predominately farm land until the middle of the nineteenth century.

As the population grew and people crowded into the dense urban area of the city, many people no longer had room for kitchen gardens. This opened up a new market for perishable goods that had never before been significant enough to cause mass commercialization. Farms in Brooklyn and Queens began to focus on growing fruits and vegetables to provide for the growing urban market. This urban area centered around the tip of Manhattan began to expand into Brooklyn and Queens more than ever before, and by the middle of the nineteenth century Brooklyn was no longer dominated by farms (Tanner 1835).

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were exciting moments in the history of New York City’s food and beverage production and consumption. The onerous demand for goods that arose from the bustling city’s rapidly growing population fostered an enormous boost in New York’s reputation as a center for trade. Marketplaces expanded and popped up all over the city, and many different kinds of meat, seafood, and produce were sold there. Alcohol likewise was produced heavily in New York, and consumed both privately and publicly. The technological advancements that came about in virtually every city food industry allowed for the movement of production from the inner city center to the rest of the state, the rest of the region, and eventually, the rest of the country. This chapter has outlined the boom in trade that occurred in the early nineteenth century, its subsequent tapering, and eventual decline. This drama of trade is part of the never-ending one that defines our city.

GLOSSARY

Beer: A beverage that consists of barley, water, hops and yeast. Beer is produced by a four-stage process in which the barley is malted (or allowed to sit in its own digestive enzymes, and subsequently cooked) and then crushed into a powder called grist.  Grist is boiled in yeast and water, a mixture called wort. This concludes the “brewing” aspect of beer-making, and the final stage is the fermentation, carbonation and filtration of the brew. Ale and porter are dark, strong, aromatic beers that are produced through top-fermentation, a procedure which utilizes a yeast that rises to the top of a fermenting vat during fermentation. See also: Lager beer
Bushel: A unit of dry volume equivalent to eight gallons.
Canals: Man-made channels of water.
Cider: Drink made from the juice of crushed apples. ‘Hard’ cider, as its alcoholic counterpart is known, is formed when this juice, known as must, ferments in special casks made for this purpose. In this paper, the above beverage will be called simply ‘cider.’
Fisheries: Places where fish are reared for commercial purposes
Fishing: The act of catching fish, usually by means of a hook and line, net, spear, cage, or other tool. See also: oystering
Foodways: Routes along which food is traded
Markets: An area where businesses sell goods, services, or labor.
Lager beer: A clear, sparkling beer introduced to the United States in the 1840s by an influx of German immigrants. It is made by a different yeast that settles at the bottom of brewing vats during the fermentation process. See also: Beer
Oystering: The act of procuring oysters, usually by means of a net or cage. See also: fishing

Quintel: One hundred pounds.

Shelling: The act of harvesting corn.

Truck farming: The term truck farming, coming from a Middle English meaning of “truck,” simply implies that the crops were produced for local markets.

Winnowing: The act of removing the chaff from the grain
Whiskey: Exists in two major forms: bourbon and rye. Rye whiskey is made almost completely from its namesake, whereas bourbon, which originated in Kentucky, is a blend of three different grains, one of which is usually acorn.

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CHAPTER TWO

Before and After Contact

The shift from the hunting and gathering to more sedentary life in the New World

Shadi Ali, Michael Behan

INTRODUCTION

Since its birth, America has often been referred to as the “melting-pot” of the world. Indeed, the United States that we see today is a melting pot of different ethnicities, cultures and religions from all over the world, and the city of New York is a rather unique example of this. The use of the term “melting-pot” to describe America, and especially New York City, is particularly adequate because when it comes to food, and the allusion can be taken in a literal context. With people from all over the world moving into New York City, and blending their various food traditions and customs with those of the previous inhabitants, this city has been, for centuries, an actual melting pot of nutrition from all around the world.

The first true inhabitants in the area now occupied by New York City were a group of Native Americans known as the Lenape. Now, when one considers the Indians of the United States, certain names and images come to mind: the Sioux Indians traversing the Central United States on horse, living in tee-pees and also the Pueblo Indians of the Southwest, surviving the desert heat in their adobe structures. It is safe to say that the extent of our knowledge about the Native Americans who lived in the New York region is limited to the anecdotal claim that “the island Manhattes from the Indians for the value of 60 guilders,” (Grumet 2009, p. 11). It is tempting to clump this group of people with the other Native Americans of the Northeast such as the Iroquois or the Algonquin. However, due to the rather unique ecology of the region surrounding New York City and the culture of the Lenape, a distinction must be made between these Woodland Indians and their northern neighbors. For all these native peoples, however, food was an item of vast importance and took precedence before all else. The environment around them largely determined the dietary culture of each group.

Just as with the Native Americans, food was also a key issue for the European settlers arriving in the 17th century, the “native New Yorkers.” Once the explorers decided where to build their homes, shelter was no longer a problem. Furthermore, as the first outsiders to settle in New York City and with fur trading as their main source of income, clothing was also not a problem. Food, however, was not something that could be shipped from their home countries on a daily basis. Once the colonists had run out of their stock of food they had brought with them to the New World, it became imperative that they adapt and learn how to acquire resources from the land around them.

As the first outside settlers in the New World, the Europeans brought with them their recipes, cooking methods and even supplies with them; what these outsiders brought with them depended primarily upon which part of the world they had come from. During this period, explorers from not just the Netherlands but also France, Spain and England were claiming territory in the New World causing an influx of different cultures in different parts of America. Thus, the Dutch settling in New York ate differently from the Spaniards claiming St. Augustine, the English colonists in Jamestown, and also the French who had migrated to Canada. Although the difference in the diet of each colonial group is fascinating to compare, our main focus will be how the Dutch learned to obtain food in the New World by implementing methods brought from their homeland with newly adapted methods they needed to learn in order to survive.

There are many archaeological findings that support that changes occurred in food production and production technology used by the Lenape Indians, perhaps introduced by the arriving Dutch settlers in the 17th century. Despite significant evidence that in later years the Lenape had established some form of agriculture, some argue that this was merely the result of European contact. Prior to this contact, the natives made extensive use of the only resources already present around them. Similarly, the Dutch who arrived sustained themselves with a combination of learned techniques from the Motherland, and the resources introduced to them in the New World, by the Lenape. The exchange of resources and technology between the Europeans and the people of the New World had significant effects on their respective forms of nourishment, though ultimately leading to a modified form of the European diet; specifically, the exchange between the Dutch and the Lenape was crucial in shaping the food culture of New York City.

Figure 2.1. Lenape men preparing soil for cultivation. Reprinted from The Lenapes by R. S. Grumet and F. W. Porter, 1989, New York, Chelsea House.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The Native Americans of the Northeastern United States, pre-contact
History of the natives of the Northeast

Though more specific groups exist in the Northeast, with rather distinct cultures, the Native Americans throughout the northeastern part of the United States can be described in a few general terms. Arriving in this area during The Woodland Period, from 1000 B.C. to A.D. 1600, these Pre-Columbian natives can be characterized by several key traits: they began the practical use of pottery making, domesticated various plants, and had a progressively more settled village life (Kraft 1986, p. 89). The Archaic Period before it ranged from 8000 B.C. to 1000 B.C., and during this time life in North America consisted largely of hunting and gathering for survival. With each stage in the subsequent Woodland Period, the Native Americans slowly developed the more sedentary lifestyle that the Europeans would encounter upon their arrival in the 17^th century. While the Early Woodland Period (ca. 1000-1 B.C.) was nothing more than a continuation of the previous Archaic Period except for the introduction of pottery, the Late Woodland Period is seen as the era when large-scale farming became much more widespread, in particular the “three sister” crops of corn, beans, and squash (Kraft 1986, p. 115).

Before the arrival of the Dutch in the area, the group of Native American peoples called the Lenni Lenape settled much of the area that is occupied today by the city of New York. These people occupied lands from as far south as the state of Delaware and as far north as Connecticut. The two main bands of Lenape in this region can be identified by the dialect they spoke: either Unami or Munsee, both derived from the Eastern Algonquian language called Delaware. The Munsee primarily occupied the area of New York City and areas further north, bordering with the Five Nations of the Iroquois (Grumet 2009, p. 11). These were the natives of what would become Manhattan.

The Woodland Indians, including the Lenape, lived a seasonal life, characterized by regular mass movements from the south to the north and back. During the winter, when wild plants and animals became unavailable to the natives, “large groups of people were unable to survive in areas with such diminished capacity for producing food…Under such stressful circumstances, it was in everyone’s best interest to fragment into smaller bands or family units and scatter across the landscape….” (Grumet 2009, p. 111). When spring came about and life returned to the land, “families reunited and cooperated in sharing nature’s bounty,” (Grumet 2009, p. 112).

Food production in the Northeast

“The food quest of the Woodland Indians was based primarily on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild crops. They practiced some agriculture [or horticulture, according to Kraft, which consisted more of gardening than what is considered to be larger scale farming and agriculture], but it was definitely of secondary importance and consisted mostly of the Indian staples—corn, beans, and squash” (Ritzenthaler 1983, p. 19). Among the things collected by the Woodland Indians were maple sugar, various berries (cranberries, gooseberries, June berries, blueberries, raspberries), fruit (grapes, cherries), nuts (acorns, hickory nuts, hazelnuts), and vegetables (wild potatoes and onions, milkweed, water lily root).

“To the Woodland Indians, fishing was a year-round occupation,” (Ritzenthaler 1983, p. 21). Fish were caught in a variety of ways, including the use of fishhooks, nets, spears, traps, lures, bait. They also hunted and trapped the animals in the forest, such as deer, moose, fox, otter, beaver, and mink. In addition, some groups (such as the Chippewa and Menomini) took advantage of wild rice, which grew in shallow lakes and streams.

As we’ve seen throughout the Eastern United States, hunting and foraging seemed to be the primary means of finding subsistence, while agriculture played a secondary role. With regard to maize, the following claim can be made:

As explorers pushed out into the New World…they found maize in cultivation in almost all places where the climate and soil permitted the growth of any of its numerous varieties…This area included the greater part of both continents from about the northern limits of what is now the United States to within a thousand miles of the southern tip of South America…In most parts of this area it had been the stable crop for so great a time that the Indians had no record of where it came from or how long their ancestors had it” (Weatherwax 1954, p. 48).

Considering the Northeastern seaboard, history shows that, “some of these plantings covered hundreds of acres and were well cultivated” (Weatherwax 1954, p. 50). Thus, we see that while the Woodland Indians largely sought nutrition through hunting, fishing, and gathering from the environment around them, the Late Woodland Period saw much development in terms of agriculture.

History of Food Production for the Lenape

For the Lenape, New York City (and more specifically, Manhattan) was not a permanent home; “rather, it was more of a three-season ‘resort.’ The Lenape moved to Manhattan for fishing in spring; stayed over to plant some crops, hunt, gather, and fish in the summer; then pulled together their things in a furious fit of activity in fall, bringing in the crops and smoking and drying the meat before the retreat to winter quarters” (Sanderson 2009, p. 112). During their time in Manhattan, the Lenape made extensive use of the animal and plant resources all around the island. Among the animals that were hunted were the various fish and shellfish of the waterways and larger animals such as bears, deer, and fowl. The list of plants that they managed to use was even greater, and illustrated an extremely efficient use of what the environment provided them. They made nets out of hemp and milkweed fiber, as well as the inner bark of American basswood. They gathered all types of berries, and made flour out of acorns, goosefoot seeds, and artichoke tubers (Sanderson 2009, p. 108-9).

Importance of Maize to the Lenape

It is without a doubt that corn, or maize, would eventually be the most important crop of the Lenape Indians. First hand accounts by Dutch settlers described the use of it as one of the “three sister” crops, for example, “The food supplies are various. The principal one is maize, which is their corn…When the maize…is grown two or three feet high, they stick the beans in the ground alongside the maize-stalks…” (Jameson 1909, p. 219). Corn was eaten in numerous ways: from the cob, boiled in water, with beans vegetables, meat or fish, made into hominy (corn kernels soaked in lye and then dried), dried and pulverized to make flour used to make bread and corn meal. (Kraft, 1986, p. 141).

Figure 2.2. Maize plants. Reprinted from Mannahatta: a natural history of New York City (p. 121), by E.W. Sanderson, 2009, New York, Abrams.

Food culture of the Dutch, arriving in the 17th Century
Introduction to the Dutch

Unlike other colonizing groups who settled in the New World and learned to farm the land for food, the Dutch in New York were at first primarily concerned with fur trading. Despite the income that the fur trade yielded, the Dutch had no direct source of nutrition. Eventually, “as the number of settlers who brought livestock and farm implements increased, farming became a full-time livelihood” (Walsh 2000). Bringing over many of their own methods of agriculture from their homeland, the “most important contribution [they] made to the New World was the introduction of grain.” (Lee 1992, p. 51-53) As the first settlers in New York, the Dutch set the foundation of how the first New Yorkers would find sustenance. Their principal crops included wheat, raised barley, rye and buckwheat, which they learned to grow on their new land to make cakes, pastries and breads. Among other foods, dumplings, pancakes and waffles were also prominent in their daily diet.

The Diet of the Early Colonists

The Dutch is credited for many of the recipes and the diet that the first New Yorkers depended on. Their predominance in the field of baking, would eventually lead to the establishment of America’s first bakeries in 1656 in New York. Bringing cooking utensils from their homeland such as long-handled waffle irons, the Dutch heavily impacted the diet of later generations who would grow up as “native New Yorkers”. As the original settlers of the New York region, the Dutch established the basic style of nutrition with the recipes and menus they brought over.

Other foods, such as dairy products were also popular with the Dutch; by bringing over cattle from Holland with them, the Dutch were able to procure milk, butter and cheese. Some of the favorite dishes of the Dutch settlers included hodgepodge (cornmeal porridge cooked with chunks of corned beef and vegetables), roast duck with dumplings, pork with cabbage, and roast goose (served on holidays). Dessert was also enjoyed by the early settlers, the most popular being, “Oliekocken…pastries made with a raised yeast dough, shaped into small balls, and fried in hot lard until golden brown” (Lee 1992, p. 51-53) which today we widely recognize as doughnuts. Also included in their diet were, “Tea, sugar, spices, chocolate, wines and brandies [which] were all readily available in the Dutch colony” (Lee 1992, p. 51-53).

Factors Involved in Determining Early New Yorker’s Diet

Delving deeper into the study of what foods native New Yorkers ate, statistical data of the time period involving food provides interesting information regarding the eating habits of the native New Yorkers. For example, “…for English yeomen [small landowners] of the seventeenth century, their own pigs were the principal source of the meat in their diet. Cattle were kept primarily for dairy production and were slaughtered and eaten only when they could no longer be maintained through the winter” (Stavely 2004, p. 178-180). This excerpt makes it clear that native New Yorkers did not choose to eat more pork than beef merely because of preference, but that there were more intricate details behind why they ate what they ate. This idea that the native New Yorkers diet was largely determined by need rather than want can be further confirmed by the following claim,

“Americans have no doubt always preferred beef, but what they actually ate was             necessarily that which was available, and for the first three centuries of white history in America, what was most readily available was pork” (Root 1981, p. 192-195).

Availability of land and the impracticality of using such land for grazing when it could be used for other purposes were two of the main factors that made New Yorkers depend on swine for their meat intake, regardless of their preference of beef over pork. In fact, during the beginning period of America’s growth as a nation, it was actually reported that Americans ate twice as much beef as Englishmen. As a whole, the New World was plentiful of land and space available for grazing which allowed, “Each settlement [to be] capable of raising for itself as much beef as it needed…But [with] the population of the East Coast [increasing] rapidly; its inhabitants discovered they were not quite as rich in space as they had thought; and much of the land could be better employed for other purposes than grazing” (Root 1981, p. 192-195). Although the space required for grazing large quantities of cattle was eventually found in the Far West, New York with its increasing population and lack of available land was required to continue relying on pork as its main source of meat until much later when beef could be transported across the nation with the use of railroads.

Early Menus for New Yorkers

Near the end of the Revolutionary War, New York once again saw an increase in the diversity of foods consumed by the people. Also, with the end of the war, more and more immigrants from other countries began to flock to New York bringing with them more new recipes and methods of cooking distinct to their culture. Ultimately, in post-revolution New York the daily intake of food by a native New Yorker could be described as depicted below:

Breakfast (Break of dawn/Early morning)

• Porridge
• Cornmeal Mush and molasses
• Cider/Beer
• Breads
• Cold meats
• Fruit pies and pastries
• Scrapple (cornmeal and headcheese)
• Dutch sweetcakes (fried in deep fat)

Dinner (Early afternoon)

• Several meats plus meat puddings and/or deep meat pies containing fruits and spices
• Pancakes and fritters
• Sauces, pickles and catsups
• Soup (cornmeal, porridge, meat broth etc.)

Dinner/Dessert (Afternoon)

• Fresh, cooked or dried fruits
• Custards
• Tarts and sweetmeats
• “Salads” (salads)
• Cakes (Any of the following: pound, gingerbread, spice and cheese)

Supper (More like a bedtime snack)

• Generally consisted of leftovers from dinner
• Gruel (a mixture made from boiling water with oats, “Indian” [corn] meal)
• Roast potatoes prepared with salt
• Ale, cider or some variety of beer

As seen in the above menu, fruits were popular for after a meal and were enjoyed raw with no need for preparation, and were often a poor man’s dessert. Those who were wealthier could enjoy baked goods could choose among a variety of pies such as raisin pie, apple pie or pecan pie just to name a few. Other baked goods such as wheat bread, which had been first introduced by the Dutch colonists remained popular throughout the revolutionary era and even into the post-revolutionary time period.

The congregation of settlers in New York arriving after the Dutch played an important role in providing diversity in the diet of native New Yorkers. What played an even more important role in creating this diversity of food, however, is attributed to New York’s involvement in the Triangular Trade during the 18th century that allowed molasses and rum to become a staple part of the average New Yorker’s diet. After the initial colonial period but prior to the revolutionary era, it was this Triangular Trade that allowed for an even larger diversity of food consumed by native New Yorkers to develop.

RESULTS/FINDINGS
Evidence of European influence on the Lenape lifestyle
Introduction of fertilizer by the Europeans

Conflicting with the idea that maize was the most important crop to the Lenape is the argument that, until the arrival of the Europeans, it was nothing more than a secondary crop to the natives, and of much less value. In her article, Lynn Ceci proposes, “in Coastal New York, native cultivation of maize began, with questionable success, only after European trade and colonization provided the stimulus (and economic basis) for sedentary life,” (Ceci 1990, p. 148). The article describes numerous factors which may have led to the ineffectiveness of corn as a plentiful crop, as has been presented by other researchers. For example, soil quality in the area around New York City and climate both would not have allowed growth as successful as that of southern Algonquians. In addition there is the issue of fertilizer simply being unavailable to the Lenape, “There is…no evidence to support the indigenous development of this advanced technology anywhere in North America, and even the traditionally accepted use of fish as fertilizer by New England’s Algonquians is seriously in doubt.” A resident of New Netherland claims to have never seen the native people of the area use any manure or properly till their land; at most, the burning of forests and brush produced ashes, which served as light fertilizer (Ceci 1990, p. 162). Herbert C. Kraft, archaeologist and a specialist on the Lenape of New Jersey, is in agreement when he states, “Although it is sometimes written that Indians placed fish in the earth as fertilizer where corn, beans, and squash were to be grown, there is no evidence for this practice. Using fish as fertilizer was almost certainly introduced by Europeans in the historic period,” (Kraft 1986, p. 117).

In a different section of the same text, the relationship between the Native Americans and the colonists is described as one in which the Europeans assisted the native agriculture:

At the end of March they begin to break up the earth with mattocks, which they buy from us for the skins of beavers or otters…They make heaps like molehills, each about two and a half feet from the others, which they sow or plant in April with maize, in each heap five or six grains; in the middle of May, when the maize is the height of a finger or more, they plant in each heap three or four Turkish beans, which then grow up against the maize…” (Kraft 1986, p. 107).

Thus, we see that although corn may have been a major crop to the Woodland Indians of the Northeast, there is reason to believe that this was not the case for the Lenape. Evidence seems to suggest that the Dutch arrival was crucial to the establishment of maize cultivation or any other form of true agriculture in New York City (and thus more sedentary living).

Native American contributions, and other New World influences on the colonial lifestyle
Introduction of maize and other plants to the Dutch

As a result of encounters with the Native Americans the Dutch, “quickly adopted Indian corn, which they called ‘Turkey wheat’ “ (Lee 1992, p. 51-53) and learned to make it into porridge that became a central food in their diet as native New Yorkers. Another vegetable that was introduced to native New Yorkers by Lenape Indians (that proved to be as useful as corn) was the potato tuber, which became an important part of native New Yorkers’ diet during the revolutionary era. The many different ways that potato was able to be prepared, combined with its high nutritional value made it not only popular, but also a dietary necessity at meals. Served in various forms including mashed, boiled, stewed, baked and scalloped, potatoes proved to be an important source of sustenance during times when food was scarce. Aside from corn and potatoes, there were also vegetables unknown in Europe that became a regular part of colonial diets. These included a variety of beans and legumes and some peppers, which were popularly grown in vegetable and herb gardens cultivated by the colonists around their homes (Strelch 2009).

Beginnings of a fishing culture

With the increasing development of New York after the initial colonists had settled down, the diet of native New Yorkers evolved from one purely supported by agriculture, to include fishing. The level of fishing increased so drastically later in 1868 that measures were taken to maintain the fish population with the use of fish cultures, artificially depositing ova from fish into streams and allowing them to mature before further heavy fishing was allowed (Times 1868).  The addition of fish into the diet of native New Yorkers brought in a plethora of new recipes and dishes that assimilated themselves into the pre-existing diet of New Yorkers.

DISCUSSION

Despite evidence that both the Native Americans and the arriving Europeans (who would eventually displace them) contributed significantly to each other’s development, it is possible the interactions between them merely accelerated a process that would have occurred regardless.

Was fertilization necessary for the production of corn?

Narrative and archaeological evidence seem to be at odds with regard to the Lenape use of corn. Some research indicates that corn was the most important of the Lenape resources, and that it was more or less a ubiquitous part of their diet. However, this theory requires larger scale agriculture, which in turn requires some form of land renewal (i.e. fertilization). Was it possible for the Lenape to settle down and cultivate corn on a large scale, and if so, did they?

To efficiently grow the maize crop, particularly in a region such as New York, the natives needed to have some knowledge of the benefits of fertilizers. Further south, one “Captain John Smith…note[d] that the Indians of Virginia used no fertilizer for their corn” (Weatherwax 1954, p. 124). Apparently in New England, the natives recognized the importance of fertilizers, and taught the English colonists how this could be achieved by placing a fish in each hill of corn. In addition, he mentions that there is some information regarding the Iroquois in New York pre-contact that suggests that they also knew about the value of fertilizers. As a result, they repeatedly planted corn in the same fields and continually produced “some of the heaviest crops known in the eastern United States at that time” (Weatherwax 1954, p. 124). Between the colonists who repeatedly describe the abundance of maize among the natives, and the scientists who provide archaeological research proving its importance, one might have trouble disputing the value of this crop to the Lenape and related Native Americans in this area.

The central issue that is most often contested is whether fertilizer was used or not. The Lenape were a mobile people, and “could only plant in one place for about twenty years before the soil was depleted and a new field was needed,” (Sanderson 2009, p. 123). This suggests that the Lenape did not understand that the resources in the soil could be renewed through the use of fertilizer. However, twenty years is still a fairly long time for the soil to remain fertile enough for growth. The inconsistency can be accounted for by the oft-mentioned fact that when the corn crop was grown, it was not solitary but one of three sister crops: corn, beans, and squash. “…The beans, which have nitrogen fixing nodules on their roots, transformed nitrogen from the atmosphere into a natural fertilizer, which fed the maize and the beans. The squash, growing its large green leaves between the mounds, kept the weeds down and held in soil moisture between rain showers,” (Sanderson 2009, p. 120). The following diagram shows the effects of different levels of bean-facilitated nitrogen on corn production over time:

Figure 2.3. Model of effects of different levels of bean-facilitated nitrogen on corn production over time. Reprinted from Mannahatta: a natural history of New York City (p. 121), by E.W. Sanderson, 2009, New York, Abrams.

In this manner it seems that it may have been possible for the corn crop to grow in an environment as unsuitable for it as New York, even without the contributions of the Dutch.

Eventual Displacement of the Lenape Indians

With the arrival of the Dutch in New York City came the eventual demise of the Lenape people and culture. While for the most part many American Indian groups were eliminated through direct conflict with the Europeans who settled in the New World, their displacement was facilitated by the exchange of culture between the two groups. As detailed above, at the time of the Dutch’s arrival, the Lenape were nearing the end of the Late Woodland Period, when the hunter-gatherer culture was beginning to die out. Their stays in Manhattan involved some regular growth of crops and new means storing food (which usually indicated long-term settling as opposed to nomadic movement). By introducing the use of fertilizer and certain agricultural tools to the Lenape, the Dutch only furthered the Lenape transition away from their previous migratory lifestyle. Despite this, the Lenape did not develop their own sedentary, agricultural societies alongside the Dutch, and few members of that tribe exist today.

On the other hand, the Lenape provided the newcomers with trade and introduced them to many new resources that would become central to a colonial diet. This allowed the Dutch to easily adapt to this new land; for the most part it was not the techniques they used to sustain themselves which they were forced to change, but rather the actual food supplies that they could use. With the aid of the Lenape, the native New Yorkers were given a leg up in the New World, and as a result they continued to grow and expand. The Lenape, who were still adjusting to settled civilization, were no match for the quickly growing colonial societies that were formed, and consequently the Lenape were pushed further west. Today, small groups of Lenape remain in parts of Oklahoma and Wisconsin.

CONCLUSION

For most societies, food is by and large one of biggest components of each respective “culture.” Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the various native peoples of North America made efficient use of the plants, animals, and other natural resources around them; in this way, their environment largely determined their diets. In the case of the Lenape Indians during the 17th century, this meant that they were still a predominantly hunter-gatherer society, only just discovering agriculture. Europeans, like the Dutch, had dietary traditions which had been developed centuries before, and they had thus long passed the hunter-gatherer stage and were well versed in trade and agriculture. As a result, their diets suited their more sedentary lifestyles. Upon arriving in would-be New York, however, they needed to adapt to a new set of resources which they could make use of. It was at this stage that the Dutch and the Lenape cultures would meet, and an interchange of ideas and customs would take place. This blending of culture was so extensive that, coupled with a lack of historical evidence, it is truly difficult to determine who contributed what technology, or what resources. The conflicting stories of maize cultivation by the Lenape in the New York area are one example of this rather ambiguous subject. What is clear, however, is that contributions were made from both groups, despite the eventual dominant influence of the Dutch, who gave rise to the native New Yorkers. Nevertheless, the blending of food traditions has allowed otherwise lost cultures like that of the Lenape to be persevered to this very day.

REFERENCES

Anonymous. 1868. Fish Culture. The New York Times Oct 24, 1868.

(1984). The Lenape Indian: a Symposium. South Orange, NJ Seton Hall University Museum.

Beauchamp, W. M. (1978). Aboriginal occupation of New York. New York, AMS Press.

Becker, M. J. (1999). “Cash cropping by Lenape foragers: preliminary notes on native maize sales to Swedish colonists and cultural stability during the early colonial period.” Bulletin 54(1999): 45-68.

Bolton, R. P. (1972). Indian life of long ago in the city of New York. New York], Harmony Books.

Ceci, L. (1990). “Maize cultivation in coastal New York: the archaeological, agronomical, and documentary evidence.” North American Archaeologist 11(2): 147-176.

Danckaerts, J., P. Sluyter, et al. (1913). Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680. New York, C. Scribner’s sons.

Dimmick, F. R. (1994). “Creative farmers of the Northeast: a new view of Indian maize horticulture.” North American Archaeologist 15(3): 235-252.

Grumet, R. S. (1995). Historic contact: Indian people and colonists in today’s northeastern United States in the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press.

Grumet, R. S. (2009). The Munsee Indians: a History. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press.

Grumet, R. S. and F. W. Porter (1989). The Lenapes. New York, Chelsea House.

Hart, J. P. (2000). “New dates from old collections: the Roundtop site and maize-beans-squash agriculture in the Northeast.” North American Archaeologist 21(1): 7-17.

Jameson, J. F. (1909). Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664. New York, Charles Scribner’s.

Janowitz, M. F. (1993). “Indian Corn and Dutch Pots: Seventeenth-Century Foodways in New Amsterdam/New York.” Historical Archaeology 27(2): 6-24.

Kraft, H. C. (1986). The Lenape: archaeology, history, and ethnography. Newark, New Jersey Historical Society.

Lee, H. G. (1992). Taste of the states: a food history of america. Charlottesville, VA: Howell Press.

McLanahan Elverson, M.A., & T. Elverson, V. (1975). A cooking legacy. New York : Walker and Company.

Olver, L. (2010, November 24). The food timeline. Retrieved from http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodmeats.html

Ritzenthaler, R. E. (1983). The Woodland Indians of the western Great Lakes. Milwaukee, Milwaukee Public Museum.

Root, W, & De Rochemont, R. (1981). Eating in america: a history. New York: Ecco.

Rose, P. G. 1989. The Sensible Cook. Syracuse University Press: Syracuse NY.

Sanderson, E. W. (2009). Mannahatta: a natural history of New York City. New York, Abrams.

Skinner, A. (1909). Lenape Indians of Staten Island. New York, American Museum of Natural History

Stavely, K.W.F. (2004). America’s founding food: the story of new england cooking . Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

Strelch, M. (2009, September 5). Colonial american foods and diets: meat, fish, and a variety of vegatables & fruits in the 13 colonies. Retrieved from http://www.suite101.com/content/colonial-american-foods-and-diets-a145814

Walsh, L.S. (2000). Feeding the eighteenth-century town folk. Colonial Williamsburg Interpreter, 21.

Weatherwax , P. (1954). Indian corn in old America. New York, Macmillan

Weslager, C. A. (1953). A Brief Account of the Indians of Delaware. U. o. Delaware. Newark, Delaware. 1.

Weslager, C. A. (1978). The Delawares: a critical bibliography / C. A. Weslager. Bloomington:, Published for the Newberry Library [by] Indiana University Press.

CHAPTER TEN

Regulating What We Eat

The development of agricultural and food safety policies and regulatory systems in the United States, 1900-2010

Kimberly Milner, Swathi Mummini, Olga Myszko, Alexandra Napoli

INTRODUCTION

The current United Sates’ food regulatory system is a complex network that depends upon multiple components that include the federal, state, and local governments, as well as the public, both as producers and consumers of food. These components must be incorporated into the even more complex network of food supply, which includes all aspects from production to consumption. The federal government’s role in food regulation lies in the domains of supervision, research, surveillance, enforcement, and education of the agricultural and processing sectors of food production and consumption. World War II and the Great Depression greatly affected agricultural policy, and drove the necessity for change and reform. Poverty, new technologies, and new research methods, as well as the ultimate desire for efficiency, income, and nutrition helped shape new laws and programs in the United States throughout the years. The existing food system has evolved piecemeal over a century in response to changes in the food supply and changes in the scientific and social environments in which the system operates. Since the passing of the first food and agricultural laws, legislations have evolved from concerns of food fraud, to food safety, to, most recently, the relationship between health and food. Agricultural policy is continuously adjusted to merge with the economical and social state of the United States. This chapter will examine the policies enacted from postwar to present day, analyzing the shifts made in agricultural legislation.

BACKGROUND LITERATURE REVIEW

Over the last century, there have been dramatic changes in food technologies to meet shifting supply demands and to improve the quality, safety, and availability of the food supply. Research in agriculture; food composition and nutrition; food science and technology; and food production, processing, and preservation all played a role in changing food sources from local and rural systems to much larger systems that provide foods to national and international markets.

Developments in chemistry, microbiology, plant and animal breeding, food science and technology, refrigeration, distribution, and in the marketing of foods changed the face of the food supply. These activities led to the current systems used to supply foods to urban and rural populations in many countries. Systems vary based on geography, production and processing resources, levels of development, environment, and food habits and culture (Lupien 2005).

The development and rapid growth of food processing industries for fruits, vegetables, and animal products in Europe, North America, and other regions of the world, caused concern about the quality and safety of foods among consumers and legislators. Around 1900, several countries adopted new laws on assuring the quality of foods to protect consumers from deceptive practices and low quality foods. Many of these laws also covered drug products, and, in some cases, other consumer products and marketing practices were also addressed (Lupien 2005).

At the international level, efforts have been made to develop food standards, codes of hygienic and good agricultural practices, a general standard for food labeling, and to relate information and guidelines. Since the 1960s, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and World Health Organization have jointly developed international standards for foods and information networks to protect the health of consumers (Department of Food Safety and Zoonoses ; Codex Alimentarius Commission 2010). Alliances, such as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and the International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council, of governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations have also formed to assemble influential policymakers, agribusiness executives, farm leaders, and academics from developed and developing countries to develop and advocate trade and practice policies (Who We Are 2005-2006; History 2007).

In the United States, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) operate the major national food regulatory systems. Other agencies have smaller roles in regulation. State governments and local authorities also have food control systems, and efforts are coordinated with federal authorities.

Post-World War II national agricultural policy, especially that concerning price support and supply controls, is rooted in previously established New Deal agricultural legislation. The programs enacted by USDA were created to counter the Great Depression of 1929 and aimed to put the country back together after the Great Depression by introducing and implementing three key terms: relief, recovery, and reform. Later in the 20^th century new agricultural topics such as soil conservation, food aid using surplus crops, wetlands conservation, and food labeling all came into play as issues that needed to be addressed in these policies.

One of the most significant New Deal agricultural measures, the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 (AAA)[1], was still seen in policy in the 1960s. This act provided price support and production control through the formation of marketing quotas or acreage allotments. One of the United States’ main concerns was overproduction. In this system, when it appeared that some crops covered by the act would be in surplus, the Secretary of Agriculture, working through the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) could enact price supports at a level determined by government. The secretary could also impose allotments or quotas based on predicted crop consumption for the following year to avoid a surplus. The 1938 AAA also grounded the concept of parity, a standard on which to base price support. This was determined by the parity ratio, which showed the increase in farmer costs to the increase/decrease in received prices (Blanpied 1984). Farm bills that used to consist of several pages are now more than 700 pages long (Browne 2003). After World War II there was a farming boom in research and machinery. Research funding of agriculture grew to almost 40 percent of the total money spent on research and development.{Ganzel,  #2} In the more than 60 years after the end of WW II, agricultural policy has gone through many changes, mainly in response to the growing free market in agriculture.

Regulation of food safety in the United States was largely the responsibility of the state and local governments until the twentieth century. Nineteenth century legal theorists questioned whether the Constitution gave Congress the authority to legislate matters of health and safety. Prior to national regulation, federal authority was limited mostly to imported foods and drugs (Institute of Medicine and National Research  Council 1998). However, the beginnings of a US national food regulatory system can be traced back to 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln founded USDA (Roberts 2001). In 1880, President Rutherford B. Hayes subsequently established USDA’s Bureau of Chemistry, the predecessor to FDA (Hygiene in Food Processing  2003). The origins of the current food-safety system are in the 1938 Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, which was enacted at a time when Americans had a much simpler diet and processed foods were rare. Congress has amended the law numerous times since to account for changes in American diets, including the growing popularity of seafood and other products imported from other countries, where diverse controls apply. As a result, 15 federal agencies now administer at least 30 food-safety laws (Food Safety.  2008). Regulatory agencies are authorized to define standards; to maintain research programs; to monitor risks in the supply; and to provide information and education (Institute of Medicine and National Research  Council 1998).

I think for the video we should do documentary type of thing about the local food markets, for example go to the farmers’ market at Union Square, and compare this to the food markets in stores, for example Morton Williams. It would be cool to maybe get an interview with the manager of Morton Williams and a seller at the farmers’ market and ask them from how far way they have to ship their foods.

During the Industrial Era, an expansion in food industry led to a greater access to the products by more consumers. With this expansion, there was a particular change in the distance between the market and the origins of raw materials. Refrigeration aided the access to availability of certain perishable foods. These included meat, beverages, seafood, and fruits. The development of refrigerated cars aided the development of larger-scale packing companies. As a result these companies were able to produce more meat, which forced the prices of the products down. This expansion and lowering of prices forced out smaller meat markets and made the products available to consumers of a wider scope of household incomes. The development of various types of technologies like refrigeration turned the selling of beverages into an industry of mass production. As with the meat industry, this allowed for a greater availability of the beverages that were being produced in factories, breweries, and distillation plants. Refrigerated freight cars also aided transportation of raw material as the origins of these materials became more and more distanced from the markets. Because of refrigerated cars, the source of the fruits and vegetables sold in the markets moved from local farms to out-of-state farms. The source of raw fish moved from local New York City waterways to fisheries outside of New York State. Markets for grain and wheat, which were not impacted by refrigeration, expanded in order to cater to the growing population density of New York City. The production of these crops, however, further away from New York, because small local farms failed to meet the high demands of New Yorkers. Using data provided from various sources such as the New York Times Archives and the Census of Agriculture, we observed the impact the Industrial Revolution had on food industry.

This study covers food production during the years between 1790 and 1860. This period is important because technological developments and a rapidly growing population coincided with fundamental changes in the New York City economy, de-emphasizing its role in food production and emphasizing its role as a center for trade. Technological developments, more specifically the Erie Canal, better roads, and steamboats, facilitated domestic trade. As both foreign and domestic trade increased, the importation of food products became increasingly more common and New York became more reliant on grains, livestock, and fish from other states. The farms surrounding New York City began to grow perishable products such as fruits and vegetables to sell to the increasing number of city-dwellers. As land became scarce and more valuable, farming grains and raising livestock was no longer as profitable, and these practices steadily moved farther away from the city during this time period. In 1790 the fishing industry in New York City was booming, and technological advances allowed for greater catches. As other industries expanded at a faster rate, the fishing industry died down and New Yorkers became more reliant on domestic trade. Shellfish, primarily oysters, were harvested in massive amounts and became the largest industry in the city. The oyster beds started to become depleted in this time period, and oysters were brought in from nearby areas. We used mixed research methods, with both secondary sources and primary sources. Our main sources include the Census Bureau, secondary sources like historical books and journal articles, and maps drawn during our time period.