Fruit in winter

[Nativearizonan]

I just ate some fresh blueberries, here in January, and it made me think of what fruit would have been available to folks in the winter.

Certainly apples and pears which store well, but what about fruit that was shipped to ports in the Colonies? Any ideas? I don't think blueberries would make the list.

 

[Black Hand]

Oranges, Pineapples and Coconuts were imported.

 

[Nativearizonan]

Other citrus as well; lemons and limes for sure, and pomelo. Not grapefruit, though, as it was not developed as a cultivar from the pomelo, until around 1880.

 

[Nativearizonan]

Christopher Columbus introduced citrus on the island of Haiti in 1493. It is believed that he brought citrus seed to be planted and grown of the sour orange, the sweet orange, citron, lemon, lime, and pummelo fruits. Records show that these citrus trees were well established in the American colonies in about 1565 at Saint Augustine, Florida, and in coastal South Carolina.

William Bartram reported in his celebrated botanical book, Travels, in 1773 that Henry Laurens from Charleston, South Carolina, who served as a President of the Continental Congrees, introduced “olives, limes, ginger, everbearing strawberry, red raspberry, and blue grapes” into the United States colonies after the year 1755.

William Bartram in his book, Travels, reported that near Savannah, Georgia, “it is interesting to note that as late as 1790, oranges were cultivated in some quantity along the coast, and in that year some 3000 gallons of orange juice were exported.”

https://www.tytyga.com/History-of-the-Citrus-and-Citrus-Tree-Growing-in-America-a/381.htm

 

[coloradoclyde]

Lot's of fruit was available...Candied, dried, preserves, wine and stored in the root cellar, like apples for example.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Blueberries in the store this time of year come from South and central America...The plants were introduced in the 1980's...

 

[Nativearizonan]

We're speaking of fresh fruit here, of course, but what about dates? It's a little hard to tell a fresh date from a dried one, but they start out fresh and travel well. Recipes don't usually differentiate between fresh and dried dates.

 

[Nativearizonan]

Cranberries may have been available, still fresh in January. I believe they store well and were used to prevent scurvy on ships.

 

[BullRunBear]

The latest issue of Early American Life has an article about Dutch cookbooks in the Hudson Valley. IIRC, some recipes from the late 1600s and later called for orange peel and other citrus. Some of the recipes were for holiday time so I assume they were imported in winter. Also, Newport, RI and other ports used pineapple images as signs of hospitality in colonial days. I don't remember if they were available year round.

Hmmm! Time for some research.

Jeff

 

[coloradoclyde]

Orange peel can be dried, candied, and preserved in alcohol, for use during the winter.

 

[tenngun]

Any ”˜fresh’ fruit transported in the days before steam would have been picked green packed in to dank holds and spent weeks at sea before sold. Transporting fresh fruit inland from ports would have been expensive to a point it was out of reach of the avarage Joe.

 

[coloradoclyde]

William Bartram reported in his celebrated botanical book, Travels, in 1773 that Henry Laurens from Charleston, South Carolina, who served as a President of the Continental Congrees, introduced “olives, limes, ginger, everbearing strawberry, red raspberry, and blue grapes” into the United States colonies after the year 1755.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Many of these wild orange groves were seen by the early American explorer, William Bartram, according to his book, Travels, in 1773, while traveling down the Saint John’s River in Florida. Bartram mistakenly thought these orange trees were native to Florida; however, they were established centuries earlier by the Spanish explorers.








Citrus plantings were extensively done in California by the Spanish missionaries; however, the commercial industry began to grow with the 1849 Gold Rush boom, and efforts to supply the miners from San Francisco with citrus fruit were successful. The completion of the Transcontinental Railway further stimulated the citrus industry, since citrus could be rapidly sent to eastern markets. Later improvements of refrigeration helped to increase citrus growing and planting, mainly oranges, lemons, and limes throughout the world in 1889.

 

[tenngun]

California was about the most cut off place in the world that had a European settlement. Travel up the El Camino Royal was difficult. Sea based travel had more lucrative places on Spanish Mexico and later Mexican California to put into. So they remained isolated. Even before settlement California was isolated. The California Indians were a culture into them selfs.
So fruit nut and wine almost all went for Californian consumption while tallow and hides was Spanish/Mexican California’s export.
Vijaho wrote ”˜we live here like kings’ . And that extended to the peons as well as the wealthy.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I often think we fail to grasp just how big sea trade was back then....How many ships there were...traveling around the world...For commerce not just war.

 

[tenngun]

That’s a trueism. The ships were small but there were lots of them. Reading the weath that flowed in to our country from privateers during the AWI, or the wealth that flowed from the great age of piracy, then to think most ships could run those risk and get through is amazing. Added to the registered ships we can research there were fleets of vessels hammered together as pirates or coastal traders (some times the same thing). They had no home port, and captains who were or chose to be illiterate. Little or no record exist for them.