TEACHER'S GUIDE TO

History and Folklife of the Kentucky Frontier

Lesson 6: Food on the Frontier

     The first and greatest labour after father had thus domiciliated his little family, 
was to clear sufficient land for a crop the following year, which was, of course, 
to consist of corn and a few garden vegetables.  In this labour I was too young 
to participate, and he was too poor to hire; consequently his own hands had to 
perform the whole...

...It was two or three years before his fields grew to any extent.  The soil, however, 
was highly productive and the autumn of 1789 would have brought forth sufficient 
abundance but that on the night of the last day of August there came so severe a 
frost as to kill the unripe corn, and almost break the hearts of those who had 
watched its growth from day to day in joyous anticipation.
     From the time of their arrival in Ky 14 months before, they had suffered from 
want of bread, and now found themselves doomed to the same deficiency for 
another year.  There was no fear of famine, but they cloyed on animal food, and 
sometimes almost loathed it, though of excellent quality.  Deer were numerous and 
wild turkies numberless.  The latter were often so fat that in falling from the tree 
when shot their skins would burst.  There was no longing for the "flesh pots" of 
native land, but their hearts yearned for its neat and abounding wheat-bread trays.  
In this craving it seems I played no unimportant part (though I do not remember it) 
for my parents often told me afterwards that I would cry & beg for bread when we 
were seated round the table till they would have to leave it & cry themselves.

from Daniel Drake, Pioneer Life in Kentucky, 1785-1800: A Series of Reminiscential

letters from Daniel Drake, MD of Cincinnati to his Children. (Cincinnati: Clark & Co., 1870).

After reading Drake's letter

1. List the foods available to the Drake family. Have the students make a list of the foods 
they ate in the last week and compare the two lists.

2. Make a list of uses for corn in the modern diet (don't forget ethnic dishes and condiments).
How many of these dishes were familiar to Kentucky settlers?

3. Write a report about the origins of favorite foods and dishes.

4. Give definitions for the following words and phrases. Use contextual clues or a dictionary.

domiciliated                       native          
want of bread                    deficiency
cloyed                               to loath
craving                              to yearn

This lesson comes from A Teacher's Guide to Pioneer Life in South Central Kentucky,

by Nancy Disher Baird and Carol Crowe-Carraco.