October

Pumpkins!

What would Halloween be without carved pumpkins?  In 1893, H.W. Buckbee seed company's "King of the Mammoths" variety was on exhibit at the 1893 World's Fair. This enormous pumpkin weighed 469 pounds. Learn about the changing pumpkin varieties over the years as documented in seed catalogs and rare books.

Applejack Month

October is Applejack month.  Applejack is an alcoholic beverage made from concentrated apple cider. It was popular in colonial America, and is growing in popularity again. Here are four apple varieties that are recommended for cider-making. The Winesap apple is an especially popular variety for applejack.  The images are from the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection. They are all heritage American apples, and we chose works by women artists.

A recipe for a non-alcoholic concentrated apple cider beverage can be found in Dishes and Beverages of the Old South (1913), a copy of which is held in the Jean Meyer Cookbook Collection, NAL, Special Collections:

Boiled cider: Reduce new sweet cider one-half by gentle boiling, skimming it clean as it boils, then bottle, putting a clove or two, a grain of allspice and a blade of mace in each bottle. Cork, seal and keep in a cool place. This is especially valuable for use in mincemeat, or for flavoring sauces for nursery puddings. A variant is to add sugar towards the last, enough to make a thinnish syrup, which is itself a good sauce for simple desserts.

Old Farmers Day

(October 12)

We salute our hard-working farmers on Old Farmers Day, October 12! It’s a time to celebrate the year's harvest and honor the farmers who produce the food and raw materials we all depend on. While all farmers can't be called "old", the Old Farmers Day observance itself has its roots in the harvest festivals of many years ago. NAL's Special Collections hold many ways to discover the faces and activities of farmers from the past in our rare books and document collections.