For those of you who are able to social distance, it might have been a couple of weeks since you last made a grocery run, and you might be getting to the point where you’re running low on supplies. It’s okay, we ate all our emergency snacks in the first two days too. Rather than pb&j again, or ordering in, why not try making some of these simple dishes from the 18th century with the kitchen staples you already have? Baked Rice Pudding If this recipe seems pretty bare-bones, i

Before Gatorade, Powerade, and Vitamin Water, Switchel was the drink of choice for rehydration. by Kate McGowan, Museum Interpreter “I will give a traveler a cup of switchel, if he want it; but am I bound to supply him with a sweet taste?”– Herman Melville, “I and my Chimney” It’s hot. Really hot. Not “stay in the shade during midday” hot but “thank the universe that you have air conditioning and don’t even think of going outside until the evening” hot. At least, we would lik

The National Colonial Farm imagines a fictional family—the Boltons—to reveal the realities of life for non-wealthy landowners and enslaved people in early America. How like a winter hath my absence been From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year! What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen! What old December’s bareness everywhere! - William Shakespeare The spring equinox is just days away, purple crocuses have emerged as small pools of color among the brown landscape, a

“Now Letter-Writing is, to me, the most agreable Amusement and Writing to you the most entertaining and Agreable of all Letter-Writing” —John Adams to Abigail Smith, April 12th 1764 Were your Valentines this year a bit… uninspired? Are you tired of the endless stream of stale and saccharine sentiments that line the shelves of every stationery store? Do you shudder to think of sending yet another card to “my hubby” and sigh to see texts proclaiming “ay bb ily”? Fear not, dear

Frances Payne Bolton was the founder and first President of the Accokeek Foundation. She purchased the 500-acre Bliss farm in Accokeek in 1955 to ensure that it would not be developed in any way that would spoil the magnificent view from Mount Vernon. She organized the Accokeek Foundation as a private, non-profit land trust and donated her land to the new organization so that it would be preserved and protected forever. In the history of land conservation in America, Mrs. Bol