There were no grocers or supermarkets during colonial times, so getting food to the table required a lot of work. Colonial meals were simple, but in order for families to have enough to eat, farming—from small kitchen gardens to giant plantations—was a critical part of colonial life. Almost all families in colonial America had at least small kitchen gardens with a few farm animals. Others lived and worked on large farms. Early colonists planted gardens to grow vegetables such as pumpkins, carrots, radishes, cabbages, and onions. Corn became a staple once the colonists learned its value from the Native Americans. In the Deep South, large plantations raised food crops as well as valuable cash crops such as tobacco and indigo.

Colonial Crops
Farmers who kept animals often grew hay. They harvested the hay, stored it in a dry place, and used it as animal feed during the cold winter months. It was critical that the hay be completely dry before being stored. If the hay was stored damp, it would start to rot or decompose (like a giant compost pile). The heat from the decomposition, trapped in the center of the pile, could cause the entire haystack to catch fire.

Apple trees came to the New World with the earliest colonists. Some brought small trees, others carried seeds to plant around their new homes. The climate in the northern colonies proved to be perfect for growing apples, and soon whole orchards thrived. Apples could be stored for up to six months, meaning that people had access to fresh fruit even during the winter. Apples were also turned into two colonial favorites: apple cider and applesauce.

Southern colonial plantations grew cash crops such as tobacco, indigo (a plant grown to make a blue dye), and rice. Tobacco was a very labor-intensive crop. It grew best in soil that had not been used as farmland, which meant that each year new land had to be cleared for the next year’s tobacco crop. Tobacco seeds were started in specially prepared seedbeds. When the plants reached a certain size, they were transplanted to the tobacco field. As the plants grew, plantation workers watched for the dreaded hornworm—a plague of these worms could destroy a crop in one week! If workers found these worms, they picked them off and crushed them underfoot. Tobacco planters also had to trim the tops of each plant to encourage the growth of prime tobacco leaves.

Virginia soil grew the best grade of tobacco, where only the top few leaves were harvested. Elsewhere, production wasn’t as high, and the entire plant was harvested. One farmer could manage only three to five acres per year, and every acre yielded about 5,000 plants. When the entire plant was harvested, each acre would yield about 500 pounds of tobacco. This was dried, bundled, and shipped to England in hogsheads (large barrels) that each held 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of tobacco.

Rice and indigo both grew well in the swampy conditions found in the Deep South. Unlike annual crops, which have to be replanted every year, indigo is a perennial plant that comes back every spring. But that didn’t make it an easier crop to prepare for market. Indigo was harvested several times in a year. Farm workers would cut the stems and leaves of the mature plants and place them into large vats. They then crushed the cuttings and filled the vats with water. Left alone for a day, the mixture would start to rot. The stinky liquid was drained into a second vat and churned until sediment formed. You might think the sediment would be discarded, but that’s actually what was kept. The sediment was moved to a third vat, where the moisture evaporated. The resulting paste . . .