What vegetables were grown in the area in 1703?
I am getting ready to plant my vegetable garden and my town, Haddonfield, is celebrating its tricentennial. In order to celebrate the 300th anniversary, I would like to try to grow some veggies that Elizabeth Haddon would have grown in 1703.
Answer
Colonial kitchen garden and field vegetables would have been root crops: carrots, parsnips, turnips, radishes, cabbages, beets. Also peas, beans, spinach, lettuce, pumpkins, gourds, melons (more commonly grown in the South) SEE: Judith Sumner’s American Household Botany : a History of Useful Plants (chapter 3)
Am also sending you a scan of pertinent pages from Rudy Favretti’s Colonial Gardens. Didn't include information on fruit growing, but certainly people would have done that as well. If you would like to research this topic in greater detail, you are welcome to visit our library. We are open 9-5 M-F. As a member of PHS you can borrow books through the mail.
Have fun with your garden!