George Washington, Founding Farmer
George Washington’s brilliance and entrepreneurism were as deeply rooted in agriculture as in the principles of our constitution, over whose drafting he played a key role. Indeed, the heart and mind of the “First President of the United States (1789–1797),” the “Founding Father,” the “Commander and Chief of the Continental Army,” were never far from his farm and garden. Here is a brief introduction to one of our nation’s founding farmers.
A tour this past fall of Mt. Vernon, the plantation home and farm of George and his wife, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, in Fairfax County, Virginia, added to what I had been reading about Washington’s farm interests in among others, a book titled, “The Founding Foodies — How Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin Revolutionized American Cuisine,” by Dave DeWitt.
Successful cultivation begins with the health of the soil. According to DeWitt, Washington realized that tobacco cultivation exhausted the soil. Whereas other farmers moved on to new acreage, Washington sustained the fertility of his soil through composting. In his book “Washington, The Revolutionary Farmer,” historian Dennis Pogue refers to Washington as America’s first composter.
Washington began to mix compost in 1760 in which he included animal manure, fish heads, river and creed mud, and plaster of Paris. Indeed, he located barnyard animals next to his kitchen garden, which every home in the countryside had, for the purpose of making it easier to haul the composted manure. During my tour of the brick walled Victorian-style garden, J. Dean Norton, Director of Horticulture for Mt. Vernon, stated that this was considered to be quite odd at the time.
Plantations relied on livestock for labor, fiber and food. Titled “Father of the American Mule,” Washington was the first farmer in America to breed mules for farm work — saying they were stronger and ate less than horses. DeWitt says he also raised sheep for wool and meat. Washington, using selective breeding, had one of the largest flock in Virginia, with up to 600 sheep at one point.
Washington’s cattle and swine were equally impressive and he kept precise records on all of them. On the farm today, there are five heritage breeds dating from the colonial times, including Ossabaw Island Hogs (brought in by the Spanish) and Hog Island Sheep, seen visibly grazing as one boards the bus at the end of the tour.
To learn about growing different crops such as wheat, Washington ordered books from England, such as “New Principles of Gardening,” (1728), by Batty Langley. Owing to the depletion of the soil, as well as tariffs on tobacco by the British, Washington realized that grains were a better and more profitable field crop. Eventually, he grew over 60 crops, including corn, oats (for livestock), barley and rye, in addition to wheat on the four large farms that comprised his estate, and which still exist today.
Since wheat is more profitable after it’s processed into flour, Washington, ever keen to expand his profits, wanted to tap into the overseas flour markets in Southern Europe and the Caribbean, markets that England did not control. He used innovative techniques by separating the flour into differentiated product for the market — white fine and superfine, whole wheat, bran and graham, and then advertised them as such with appropriate pricing and labeling. This too was a first locally.
The mill also produced yellow and white grits from corn, a mix from corn and barley for hoecakes, and cornmeal. Washington used to say that corn fed the plantation, wheat made the money. To increase the efficiency of the mill, Washington’s mill was one of the first licensed to use an invention of Oliver Evans’ (United States Patent #3, 1791), which included an elevator system, still in use in the mill today.
What the mill needs is what a distillery needs, grain and water. Washington built a state of the art distillery behind the mill, one of the first commercial distilleries in the country, and provided whiskey for the local economy. The waste from the fermentation process fed Washington’s hogs, which he collocated with the distillery. Today, the mill and distillery have been restored and are once again producing flour and whiskey (60% rye, 35% corn and 5% malted barley).
The mill still grinds 40–50 thousand pounds of grain per year, for chefs as flour and for the distillery as whiskey. I visited in the fall, apple season, and the distillery had just finished making a deliciously smooth apple brandy. Washington’s own peach and apple brandy was put into barrels made at the Mt. Vernon cooperage.
Washington, called “The First Angler” by Bill Mares in his book, “Fishing with Presidents,” was a commercial fisherman. He owned 10 acres of Potomac riverfront property, from which he netted tens of thousands of fish (shad and herring) through the use of seines. There were warehouses and vats for curing the fish, which were cleaned and salted and packed into barrels for the enslaved workers, with excess being shipped to the West Indies.
Of course the success of the plantation and fishing operation was made possible through the labor of enslaved peoples who themselves brought seed, knowledge, problem solving and hard work to the task. According to the storyboards at the Mt. Vernon museum, Washington is the only founding president to have freed the slaves that belonged to him upon his death. He ran his plantation with efficiency, entrepreneurial talent and calculated risk-taking, after he educated himself. He was a fair and tough boss.
The Washington’s kitchen staff fed up to 650 overnight guests a year. The food came from the plantation gardens and orchards, which were everywhere, as well as livestock and fields. There were orchards with pear, apple, plum, apricot, peach and the proverbial cherry trees in the outlying farms as well as in the lower kitchen garden. Pears and apples were also grafted and trained as tree espaliers and grown on the brick walls, because they required the warmth of the wall to survive the wintertime. This garden had cisterns, above ground wells, to warm and water plants.
Forever seeking the most innovative and creative farming practices of the day, Washington had a planned garden and crop rotation, which DeWitt writes “ran from late fall, when the beds were cleared and compost spread over them, to the following early fall, when most of the root crops and vegetables had been harvested. Root vegetables, beans, and peas were sowed first, usually in March, followed by cabbage, cauliflower, and celery. By April asparagus had sprouted from the ground, followed by fresh strawberries and lettuce in May. Other garden crops, such as onions, eggplants, cucumbers, artichokes, and peppers were harvested as they ripened during the summer months.”
Successful plantations such as Mt. Vernon required a breadth of knowledge and a spirit of entrepreneurism and self-reliance almost unimaginable today. Washington brought all that to the successful operation of his plantation as well as to the foundation of our country. He was an old-fashioned president for modern times.
Cornbread
I love cornbread, and frequently eat it with a pot of red or black beans, perhaps accompanied by winter’s bounty of collard greens slow-cooked with some of Mr. Bledsoe’s Guanciale, cured meat from the pork jowl or cheeks, available at the Davis Farmers Market. I got this recipe for cornbread at the Gristmill at Mt. Vernon. It is reprinted from, “What Was Cooking in Martha Washington’s Presidential Mansions? Cooking Throughout American History,” by Tanya Larkin.
I imagine cornbread on the official dinner table of George and Martha Washington, with their Guests of State on a Thursday at 4 p.m., with other dishes as described by Jesse Rhodes in an article for the Smithsonian, “…roasted fish, boiled meat, bacon and poultry for the main course, followed by ice cream, jellies, pies, puddings and melons for dessert.” For more on Martha Washington’s cookery, noted food historian Karen Hess transcribed Martha’s recipes in “Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery,”
Ingredients
¾ cup cornmeal (yellow or white)
1/3 cup sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons melted shortening (butter, margarine or oil)
1 cup flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
1 egg, well beaten.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl: cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add milk, egg and shortening. Mix together. Pour into a greased, shallow baking dish. Bake for 20 minutes until gold brown. Cut into wedges and serve warm with butter, honey or jam.
Serves 8
Previously published in the Davis Enterprise on January 4th 2017.
Pantry Notes and more from Ann: January, with all the lemons on the trees, is a good month for making Lemon Curd, for my recipe and more information, visit www.annmevans.com
