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Virginia Historical Society Looks to the Past with Cider from Colonial Times

Virginia Historical Society

The Virginia Historical Society is preparing to take people back in time through their taste buds with an unusual spring fundraiser. 

Once upon a time, colonial women depended on a book called the Complete Houswife - a compendium of advice on how to clean your house, prepare food and make cider.  That, says Virginia Historical Society CEO Paul Levengood, was critical to keeping families alive. 

“In the early Chesapeake, cider was made in huge quantities. The basic reason was pretty practical.  You couldn’t trust the water supply, because they didn’t understand germ theory, but they sure understood that if you drank bad water, you got sick - got dysentery or cholera - all sorts of nasty things.”

One of the recipes in that book guides the making of cider with raisins, and it’s this year’s choice for a fundraiser hosted by the society at the Blue Bee in Richmond.  Last year, Levengood says, the featured beverage was beer made from the persimmon fruit

“It was a little on the tart side, but it was very crisp - the kind of thing you might imagine drinking on a hot Virginia afternoon.”

When that recipe was published, in the 1740’s, colonists used all kinds of fruit to make beer - apples, peaches, cherries - anything with juice.  With tickets for the upcoming fundraiser selling for $20 apiece, Levengood doesn’t expect to make much on the event but hopes it will draw more people into Virginia’s history.

“This is one of the most immediate ways I can think of to really put yourself in the shoes of someone who went before and learn a little bit about what their life was like by the sorts of things they consumed.”

The Blue Bee will make a 50-gallon barrel of cider for tasting on April 21st, and the evening will also feature a talk on the history of beverages in the Commonwealth. 

Sandy Hausman is Radio IQ's Charlottesville Bureau Chief
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