Article from Recreation News

Check out this article which appears in the current issue of Recreation News.  Thank you's go out to Reed Hellman for becoming a "Volunteer for a Day" as he researched this piece.

http://recreationnews.com/pdf/12/05/1/05-1-12/0690501121.pdf

More pictures at www.flickr.com/groups/nmbshpvolunteers

Reed, hard at work making Sausages and Sauerkraut

Dining with the Bushongs

by Reed Hellman

Early spring was a lean time in the antebellum

Shenandoah Valley. On family farms, fresh foods

were long gone and provisions stored during the

previous autumn were running low. New crops

were still weeks away and the few remaining staples



made for a monotonous diet.

Even though they were a cut above middle

class, the Bushong family on its 200-acre farm west

of New Market, Virginia, faced the same seasonal

shortages. Most of the food on its table had been

preserved months ago during the harvest. Meats

had been smoked; vegetables pickled; grains



ground into flour; apples and root vegetables carefully

packed in containers filled with sand or sawdust;

and milk churned into butter and cheeses.

However, by the spring of 1859, only two small

hams hung in their smokehouse, and their fruits

and vegetables were literally coming from the bottom

of the barrel.

When dishing up the meal it's "All hands on deck!"

Despite their dwindling resources, the Bushongs

could still host a festive dinner for their extended

family and invited guests. They had smoked

sausages and bacon and newly shot venison; cabbage

fermented into sauerkraut; carefully stored

potatoes, carrots, and onions; dandelions or other

early greens; butter and jams; and apples and pastries

for a sweet finale.

A century and a half later, I joined a crew guided

by Stacey Nadeau of the Virginia Museum of the

Civil War at the New Market Battlefield. We prepared

that same meal on the same kind of hearth

and served it in the same room, probably with the

Eating together bridges the centuries

same hospitality. Our group of costumed and

hearth-wise volunteers used period correct equipment,

recipes, and techniques to cook, serve, and

eat a meal typical of the pre-Civil War Shenandoah

Valley, all the while explaining our work to visiting

tourists.

The 19th Century Bushong Farm and Virginia

Museum of the Civil War are parts of the 300-acre

New Market Battlefield State Historical Park. Original

settlers Jacob and Sarah Bushong immigrated

to the Shenandoah Valley from the greater Lancaster,

Pennsylvania, area around 1818. The existing

home was built in 1825.

Central to the battle
On May 15, 1864, Union and Confederate troops

faced each other 150 yards north of the Bushong’s

backyard. At a critical moment in the melee, 257

young cadets from the Virginia Military Institute

bolstered the Southern lines and became a legend,

helping to repulse the Yankee troops.

During what is known as

the Battle of New Market,

three generations of

Bushongs found shelter in

the basement as the fighting

roared around them. Some of

the fiercest combat tore

through their orchard just

behind the house. After the

battle, the house served as a

field hospital. Wounded soldiers

left permanent blood

stains in the parlor.

Today, the farm is a working

interpretive center. Visitors

can explore nine

structures that were key to

farm life in the Shenandoah

Valley, including the Bushong’s house, bank barn,

summer kitchen, and bake oven. Working with

nearly three-dozen dedicated volunteers, Stacey

Nadeau has developed a lineup of interactive

events that present everyday life in mid-century.

Battle reenactment

One of those events, The Battle of New Market

Reenactment, is one of the few that takes place on

the original battlefield and is the nation’s oldest

annual Civil War battle reenactment. Along with

this year’s clashes May 19-20, numerous demonstrations

and living history presentations will transport

visitors back to the Civil War era.

Reenactment visitors see signal corps, artillery,

cavalry, medical corps, and musket demonstrations,

as well as learning about camp life, sutlers,

and other wartime activities.

Foodways program
The farm’s foodways program focuses on those

culinary items and techniques that the inhabitants

would have used in 1859. Nadeau and the historical

interpreters pay careful attention to the details,

starting with a well-researched menu and creating

a tableau as it would have appeared.

Each volunteer has an assignment. I tackled the

sausage and sauerkraut, cooking on the stone

hearth, with my pan perched on an iron trivet set in

glowing coals raked out from the central blaze.

Next to me, Kaitlyn Hunsberger, a student volunteer

from James Madison University, hard boiled

eggs. “Lift them out of the water,” coached her

mother, Christie Anne Detamore-Hunsberger. “If

the shells dry by a slow seven count, the eggs are

done.”

The cookhouse milled with women in wide

skirts and men in britches and braces, as we all literally

sweated over the hearth. Daniel Harmon, another

student volunteer, fed dried logs into the fire,

maintaining our supply of cooking coals, while Lesley

Mack, a retired school teacher, peeled potatoes.

Right on time, the meal came together, and we

carried each carefully prepared dish from the summer

kitchen to the dining room in the lowest level

of the main house. The whole “family” eating the

meal together is also period-correct, as that is how

the Bushongs would have dined.

“I grew up on a farm where we did all this stuff,”

volunteer Charmaine Detrow said. “It’s fun to get

back to it. It’s important to know where you came

from to know where you are going.”

Bushong Sausages and

Sauerkraut

(Original recipe taken from

The Ladies’ New

Book Of Cookery

by Sarah Josepha Buell Hale,

1852)

Sausages

Lard

Sauerkraut

1/4 cup butter

1 large onion

1/4 cup brown sugar

To fry sausages: Put lard into a clean frying pan.

As soon as it is melted, put in the sausages, fry

them gradually over a moderate fire, shaking the

pan, and turning them frequently. When done, put

them before the fire on a sieve, to drain off the fat,

and serve hot. Finely chop the onion. Melt butter in

a large skillet. Sauté onion until golden brown. Add

sauerkraut and brown sugar. Simmer until heated

through. Add sausages to the skillet and simmer

for 15 minutes.

Reed Hellman is a professional writer living in Alberton,

Maryland. Visit his Website at www.reedhellmanwordsmith.

com, or e-mail your questions and

comments to RHWay2Go@yahoo.com.

For more informationVirginia Museum of the Civil War: 540-740-3101,

vmi.edu/newmarket