What did early white settlers eat?

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #1

I found this a fun read.

#2

Turkey. Everybody knows that. :wink:

(Kirk) #3

Long pig in the Donner Pass

(Ken) #4

Not only Settlers. When Market Hunting of Wild Game was legal, it was sold in the cities at even lower prices than farm raised meat.

(cheryl) #5

I have an old old family photo , presumably from the 1910-1915 era where they had ran their trap line and it pictured at least 20 rabbits tied on a line, I am going to assume they ate quite a bit of rabbit meat.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #6

And deer since both were easy to tote back home after a day of hunting. I wish rabbit was more available in the USA, I just found a butcher who carries them frozen, we had such a lovely meal. Turns out chicken was rarely eaten due to the need for the eggs so it was a rare visitor to the dining table.

@240lbfatloss Wild game must still be legal here there is a shop in a couple towns over that processes hunters game and sells wild game like elk and venison as well.

The surprise for me was the fact that bear was the most desired, probably for the fat for cooking.
I just had a great time reading all of this. Confirmed a lot of what I thought probably happened, after all some of the first colony villages failed due not getting crops in on time and not enough wild game in the areas they were trying to settle.

(Bunny) #7

Last two paragraphs are very telling?

”…In other words, meat eating went down just before coronary disease took off. Fat intake did rise during those years, from 1909 to 1961, when heart attacks surged, but this 12 percent increase in fat consumption was not due to a rise in animal fat. It was instead owing to an increase in the supply of vegetable oils, which had recently been invented.

Nevertheless, the idea that Americans once ate little meat and “mostly plants”—espoused by McGovern and a multitude of experts—continues to endure. And Americans have for decades now been instructed to go back to this earlier, “healthier” diet that seems, upon examination, never to have existed. …” …More

Sorry Vegans your story :violin::roll_eyes: is falling apart!
:rofl::joy::rofl::joy::rofl::joy::rofl:

(Bunny) #8

Lots of smaller critters to eat:

“… In the woods, there were bears (prized for their fat), raccoons, bobo­links, opossums, hares, and virtual thickets of deer—so much that the colo­nists didn’t even bother hunting elk, moose, or bison, since hauling and conserving so much meat was considered too great an effort. A European traveler describing his visit to a Southern plantation noted that the food included beef, veal, mutton, venison, turkeys, and geese, but he does not mention a single vegetable …” …More

#9

sidenote, invaders & landgrabbers rather - not mere “settlers” pretty shortly after the very earliest arrivals of religious refugees (Puritans to Plymouth Rock, followed by the Quakers - all of whom weren’t seeking to steal or harm - and survived because of assistance from local native communities). In the U.S. - things quickly escalated based on the interests of the British Crown and its breakaway elite Lords who were the early landowners and signed treaties with Native Americans that were broken, broken, broken. In Canada, similar - but based on the interests of French elites.

Many U.S. cities are changing the “Columbus Day” holiday to “Indigenous Peoples Day” for that reason.

Some estimated 60 million Native American people were massacred throughout the Caribbean and North America since the arrival of the Spaniards and onwards through the British reign and the later batch of founding fathers of “United States” which relied on enslaved peoples to build Washington D.C., etc.

Like some others here, I have at least one very dear relative not too far back (a great-great gran) who was native - and some members here on this forum were raised within indigenous cultures.

For more on that, highly highly recommend the Native American professor Jack D. Forbes book Columbus And Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease Of Exploitation, Imperialism, and Terrorism. I think his roots-oriented critique of the modern “civilized” lifestyle is more relevant now than ever before!

For more on this, see the multi-disc documentary series 500 Nations produced & narrated by the much-loved American actor Kevin Costner and featuring voicing & singing by Native American actor Wes Studi. It looks at the real history of Invasion and empire throughout North & South America - going back to pre-Columbus up through the last century - and what it all entailed. It’s a great series to watch with family and friends in the weeks leading up to what is called Thanksgiving.

Also very much appreciate how the LCHF/Keto film The Magic Pill begins with a very real exploration of the cultural genocide and traditional culture reclamations of Australian aboriginal women.

(Brian) #10

Thank you for posting this!! Loved it!!

(Ken) #11

In America, Venison and other game meats are either farm raised or imported. Selling of wild game is illegal.

(Karen) #12

Great article!!

K

(Bunny) #13

Is it legal to sell wild game meat?
There is no law prohibiting the sale of wild game meat (venison, etc.). There are, however, laws prohibiting the sale of uninspected wild game meat. If wild game meat has received a mark of inspection by a state or federal inspection program, or it has been legally imported, then its sale is legal anywhere within the United States.

Game meats that do not have a mark of inspection cannot be sold. This is the case for game meat harvested by a recreational hunter. The inspection and processing requirements will not be met and the meat cannot be sold.

Meat from “game animals” as defined by state wildlife agencies that are harvested within that state cannot be sold. The restrictions and definitions vary from state to state. However, in most states native species (like whitetail deer) are deemed to be “game animals” while non-native species have different classifications, usually deemed “livestock.” If it is restricted then it will not be inspected and cannot be sold. However, if it is inspected then that is assurance that it is legal to sell. …More

(Omar) #14

There was no mega food industry.

So people will eat locally grown things. meat was a lot and easy to get . I would say 70% meat/animal products and 30% plants

(Bob M) #15

I would say more like 90/10, though it probably varied by season. I remember finding a patch of wild blackberries, and they were more trouble than they were worth. And I tried to grow stawberries, onions, other plants, and the vast majority of them were decimated by animals or bugs.

(Brian) #16

I know there are pressures from the critters with me trying to grow my garden now. I can only imagine the frustrations had the animal pests been way more concentrated.