The seeds of many of today’s culinary trends were planted in George Washington’s garden
Kale, pomegranate, pummelo, pawpaw. George Washington was growing these trendy superfoods in the 1790s. With the current interest in traditional plant varieties and preserving crop diversity—and the movement away from monoculture and large-scale agriculture—today’s generations recognize the crops George Washington grew more than perhaps even their parents or grandparents. Some of the grains, fruits, and vegetables popular today were, in fact, promulgated by the seed exchange of the 18th century, as well as the backbreaking work done by enslaved African Americans, indigenous peoples, and indentured servants.
Quitting Tobacco
By the 1760s, Washington was souring on tobacco, the main cash crop at Mount Vernon. Though the luxury export item had been the basis of the Virginia colony’s economy since settlement, it had also always been economically risky due to high tariffs, market fluctuations, and middlemen. Besides, the crop itself depleted his fields of nutrients, making them unsuitable for planting after only a few harvests.
Wheat, on the other hand, was appealing, as it could not only be exported but sold locally. A few varieties were common in Virginia at the time, and remnants of old English wheats were spread throughout the colony. Washington was no stranger to wheat, having grown up in Westmoreland County on Virginia’s northern neck, where grain grew bountifully. Mount Vernon grew a few wheat varieties before it made the majority switch from tobacco to grain. In 1770, things began to fall into place as a new mill replaced an old, barely functioning one. On December 21, 1772, George Washington, proprietor of the mill, was recorded in surviving transportation order records for northern Virginia as having to mark his casks of flour with the following brand: G: WaSHINGTON.
Growth Spurt
Washington was away for the entirety of the Revolutionary War, and his fields fell into disarray, suffering crossing of varietals, nutritional depletion, rust smut, and disease. After the war, experimentation with wheat, barley, and other grains expanded. In the mid-1780s, Washington turned his focus to farming, reading everything he could to aid in reversing the fortunes of his neglected farm. Word of Washington’s need circulated through farming scholars in Britain, reaching one in particular, Arthur Young, a published agricultural expert whose works were greatly dispersed throughout the colonies. The two never met but exchanged letters frequently.
Young not only gave the gentleman farmer past and current volumes of his Annals of Agriculture, but also helped him procure equipment, seeds, and workers. With Young’s help, Washington quickly transitioned to a seven-year crop rotation in seven fields, planting peas and beans to replace nutrition lost from wheat and corn. This new crop rotation was such a success that Washington implemented it across his five farms. In all, Washington experimented with more than 16 varieties of wheat and six varieties of barley. One type of wheat—the Yellow-Bearded, planted in 1787—would prove resistant to the pestilent Hessian fly that would ruin much of Virginia’s wheat production in the 1790s.
Fruitful Initiatives
Alongside the commercial agriculture at Mount Vernon, there was also the cultivation of and experimentation with fruits and vegetables destined for the estate’s cup and table. Well-known and connected, Washington would be sent seeds from neighbors, fellow Virginians, and acquaintances throughout the colonies and England. Prominent political figures such as George Mason and Richard Henry Lee, who were neighbors and fellow planters, as well as South Carolina cousin William Washington, contributed to the gardens and orchards of Mount Vernon, sending grafted trees of apples, pears, and cherries. Apple varieties such as Golden, Newtown Pippin, and Maryland Red Streak would be eaten, made into pies, or turned into cider or brandy. Washington records, “Received 215 Apple trees (red striek) from Major Jenifer; wh[ic]h I sent to the river plantation in the Neck, to be planted,” in his diary on November 12, 1785.
The biggest threat to the fruit orchards was weather, Washington explained to Pennsylvania senator William Maclay in a 1785 letter; that same year, there was a scarcity of apples on the estate. Pears fared about the same, being grafted usually in March with the apples. One particular variety was the Chantilly pear, sent in 1785 from Richard Henry Lee, one of the founding fathers of Virginia, along with a few varieties of cherries. Washington also grew an early relation to the Bartlett pear, called Bon Chrétien, a variety typically boiled into a stew. Neighbors and fellow landowners George Mason and George William Fairfax supplied Washington in the early years with Bullock Heart and Duke cherries. Popular with all Mount Vernon’s residents, the cherries were eaten fresh or preserved in sugar, to be later used in tarts or made into a drink called cherry bounce. There is evidence that the enslaved community partook in cherry eating; pits have been found in the cellar of a structure that housed families in one archaeological survey.
Peaches and apricots were planted as early as the 1760s. In the 1780s, the orchard grew larger with the addition of the pawpaw— the largest native fruit in North America—which tastes somewhere between a mango and a ripe banana. The pawpaw was an important food resource for indigenous tribes of Virginia and, they even named a phase of the moon after it (around September when the fruits ripen). Long before the English came to Virginia, the Powhatan Indians were eating both wild and cultivated pawpaws. In his diary on March 7, 1785, Washington wrote that he “Planted all my Cedars, all my Papaw, and two Honey locust Trees in my Shrubberies and two of the latter in my groves.” He also added two kinds of peaches to the orchard: the Portugal and the Heath Cling, considered the first named American cultivar. Washington planted the Heath Cling in 1785, a full 28 years before Thomas Jefferson. Like other fruits on the estate, the peaches were eaten, preserved, or distilled.
Alongside the commercial agriculture at Mount Vernon, for which Washington grew first tobacco (top), then wheat (above), were four gardens for fruits and vegetables for use by the estate, including the upper garden (title image).
Photos by Renée Comet and Rob Shenk.
Veggie Tales
Washington planted several varieties of beans and peas, whether for eating or for soil fertilization. These included the Eastern Shore bean, also known as the Magothy Bay pea, and the Austrian green winter pea. In a February 1793 letter to his farm manager Anthony Whiting, he writes, “Under cover of this letter you will receive some lima beans which Mrs. Washington desires may be given to the gardener.” And in February of 1798, the gardener’s report records the “Digging, Sowing pease, Spinage, & planting Onions” in the garden.
Cabbages such as the Savoy and Sugarloaf arrived in the 1760s via seed orders from London’s Robert Cary and Company and were planted in the lower garden, which served as a kitchen garden for the Washingtons. Gardeners also planted cauliflower and broccoli, close relatives of the cabbage. Another Brassica family relative is kale. In May of 1789, Arthur Young again sent his friend Washington some interesting seeds, including Algerine kale, which he recommended for feeding sheep, not for human consumption.
In 1767, Washington planted Scots-Irish potatoes, both red and white varieties, for his table and as a field crop. The humble potato had arrived with the Jamestown settlers in the 1620s but didn’t become widespread in the colonies until planted in New Hampshire by Scotch-Irish immigrants. (Though the potato was originally domesticated in South America, it was brought to Europe and spread from there back to the North American colonies.) In 1792, Washington asked Whiting to plant the potatoes as early as possible. By doing this, Washington could harvest the potatoes before planting wheat in the same field, although he preferred planting potatoes with corn.
Back to the Future
Mount Vernon continues its work of preservation and research of the estate and gardens through its Horticulture and Historic Trades departments. With the help of companies and organizations such as Anson Mills and the Carolina Gold Rice Foundation, as well as mid-Atlantic farmers growing heirloom varieties, the preservation efforts of 18th-century grains, fruits, and vegetables have prospered as awareness and interest increase. Ongoing efforts with Washington’s gristmill and my own Half Crown Bakehouse in South Carolina continue to spread the knowledge and taste of landrace, or local, grains—the great-great-grandparents of modern varieties—by actively grinding and baking with these cereals.
In the context of his time, Washington transitioned from tobacco farmer to majority-wheat farmer, exporting his flour across the ocean and selling it locally. With help from others and through the labor of the enslaved, he grew his garden with fruits and vegetables that fed and fascinated family and guests.
Mount Vernon’s gardens and farm today faithfully represent what George Washington the farmer grew, yet they seem shockingly in line with recent farm-to-table, organic, and heirloom culinary trends. Before heirloom was cool, it was the experimentation of wealthy planters looking for an alternative to the tobacco economy that led to the cultivation and propagation of diverse varieties and an unwitting inflection point in American cuisine. George Washington, his fellow Virginia planters, African American enslaved workers, and indigenous groups all contributed to a foodways system in the 18th century that would eventually grow into today’s rich, varied, and culturally layered American plate.
Eighteenth-century methods are still used at Mount Vernon to plant crops such as (clockwise from left) red potatoes, cabbages, and artichokes. Some of these were destined for the table and others for agricultural purposes. Photos by Rob Shenk
A 2018–2019 fellow of the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, Justin Cherry specializes in the foodways of the 18th century. The owner of Summerville, South Carolina–based Half Crown Bakehouse, he bakes in a mobile 18th-century reproduction clay oven.
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