Enjoy food a little differently this Thanksgiving at “Food & Feasts of Colonial Williamsburg.”
The annual three-day event explores centuries-old cooking and preservation methods, from the 17th century to the Revolutionary War. The festivities begin Thanksgiving day, occurring 9 a.m.-5 p.m. from Nov. 26-28 at Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center.
Visitors can watch as venison, turkey and various game roast over an open fire, while stews brew in clay pots, at Jamestown’s Powhatan Indian village. A program at 10 a.m. each day will reveal Powhatan hunting techniques, and at 2 p.m., another program will demonstrate the importance of and ways in which corn was used among Powhatan Indians.
At Jamestown’s recreated fort, interpreters will bake bread and illustrate open-hearth cooking of pudding, pies and more, using historical recipes from 16th and 17th centuries. A pig will be processed into hams and bacon, and preserved, from . on Thursday and Friday. Nearby the fort, visitors can watch European military tactics and drills at 4 p.m. each day.
During a program at the ships’ pier at 3 p.m., visitors can lug cargo – reenacting how the colony was provisioned – from a replica of one of the three ships that carried America’s first permanent colonists in 1607. At noon, a program will explain the celestial navigation techniques of 17th-century sailors.
Author, historian and performer Simon Spalding will present “Food at Sea in the Early 17th Century” at 1 p.m. on Nov. 27, enhanced by poetry and song.
At Yorktown Victory Center, visitors to the Continental Army encampment can watch how soldiers transformed rations of dried beans, salted meat and hard bread into savory soups and stews. Soldiers will show how they earned their rations during daily artillery drills at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. At 2 p.m., a program demonstrates the consequences of plundering and theft of rations.
The center’s Revolution-era farm will offer a glimpse into 18th-century open-hearth cooking techniques within the farm kitchen. From Thursday and Friday, interpreters will also demonstrate a pig’s processing and preservation, followed by methods of food preservation at 1 p.m. At 4 p.m., visitors can learn 18th-century herbal remedies for indigestion.
On Thanksgiving Day, the Jamestown Settlement Café will serve a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. The meal is offered on a first-come, first-serve basis, from 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Nov. 26.
Tickets to both locations can be bought at $21 for adults and $10.50 for kids ages 6-12. Admission to Jamestown Settlement is $16.75 for adults and $7.75 for kids. For the Yorktown Victory Center, tickets are $9.75 for adults and $5.50 for kids. Children under age 6 are free.
Residents of James City County, York County and the City of Williamsburg – including College of William and Mary students, receive free admission with proof of residency.
Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center are located just 25 minutes apart. The settlement is on Route 31, southwest of Williamsburg. The Victory Center is located on Route 1020 in Yorktown.
For more information, call 888-593-4682 or 757-253-4838, or visit historyisfun.org.
Bridges can be reached by phone at 757-275-4934.
