Cherries

From Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia

Cherries were grown and consumed at Monticello. Archaeological excavations done in 1981 found wine bottles containing preserved cherries at the bottom of a dry well, dug in 1770 and abandoned and filled in soon after.

Primary Source References

Undated. (Mary Randolph). "Lemonade Iced. Make a quart of rich lemonade, whip the whites of six fresh eggs to a strong froth--mix them well with the lemonade, and freeze it. Other Fruits. The juice of morello cherries..."[1]

Undated. (Jane Blair Cary Smith). "Led by Mr. Jefferson, who climbed the cherry trees and threw into our aprons and hats the luscious bunches of cherries..."[2]

Undated. "Cherries dried. May or Sugar 11 lbs. Morella 15 do. Kentish 2 do. Black 1-3/4 do. 30 lbs."[3]

1774 May 14. (Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson). "Eat cherries at Monticello."[4]

1816 March 5. (Jefferson to James Barbour). "I send however cuttings of the Carnation cherry so superior to all others that no other deserves the name of cherry."[5]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Mary Randolph. Virginia Housewife (Washington, 1824), 151, 178, 196-197, 212-214.
  2. ↑ Jane Blair Cary Smith. Carysbrook Memoir. University of Virginia. http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/
  3. ↑ This appears on a sheet with a list of "house lined at Monto." University of Virginia. http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/
  4. ↑ Martha Jefferson's household accounts, in "Record of Cases Tried in Virginia Courts," Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers/
  5. ↑ Betts, Garden Book, 556.
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