tarving
Virginians.

Squashes were also native vegetables. The name is Indian. To show the
wonderful and varied way in which the English spelt Indian names let me
tell you that Roger Williams called them askutasquashes; the Puritan
minister Higginson, squantersquashes; the traveller Josselyn,
squontorsquashes, and the historian Wood, isquoukersquashes.

Potatoes were known to New Englanders, but were rare and when referred
to were probably sweet potatoes. It was a long time before they were
much liked. A farmer at Hadley, Massachusetts, had what he thought a
very large crop in 1763--it was eight bushels. It was believed by many
persons that if a man ate them every day, he could not live seven years.
In the spring all that were left on hand were carefully burned, for many
believed that if cattle or horses ate these potatoes they would die.
They were first called, when carried to England, Virginia potatoes; then
they became much liked and grown in Ireland; then the Irish settlers in
New Hampshire brought them back to this continent, and now they are
called, very senselessly, Irish potatoes. Many persons fancied the balls
were what should be eaten, and said they "did not much desire them." A
fashionable way of cooking them was with butter, sugar, and grape-juice;
this was mixed with dates, lemons, and mace; seasoned with cinnamon,
nutmeg, and pepper; then covered with a frosting of sugar--and you had
to hunt well to find the potato among all these other things.

In the Carolinas the change in English diet was effected by the sweet
potato. This root was cooked in various ways: it was roasted in the
ashes, boiled, made into puddings, used as a substitute for bread, made
into pancakes which a foreigner said tasted as though composed of sweet
almonds; and in every way it was liked and was so plentiful that even
the slaves fed upon it.

Beans were abundant, and were baked by the Indians in earthen pots just
as we bake them to-day. The settlers planted peas, parsnips, turnips,
and carrots, which grew and thrived. Huckleberries, blackberries,
strawberries, and grapes grew wild. Apple-trees were planted at once,
and grew well in New England and the Middle states. Twenty years after
the Roman Catholic settlement of Maryland the fruitful orchards were
conspicuously flourishing.

Johnson, writing in 1634, said that all then in New England could have
apple, pear, and quince tarts instead of pumpkin-pies. They made
apple-slump, a