“Close your eyes” said Laurie, “and when you open them, it will be 1855 in King’s Landing.”
Laurie Marr – Brewer was dressed elegantly from the past and would guide us into a foodie world of days gone by, a time when most of a woman’s day revolved around putting good food on her family’s table with what came from the garden and the land around her.
My husband and I had come to experience A Taste of Tradition, a visitor program at King’s Landing, that would take us into the gardens, teach us cooking in kitchens of different periods, and end with dinner at the King’s Head Inn. We hoped squirrel soup and Canada goose that was common fare with the early settlers was not on the modern day menu.
King’s Landing is a historical settlement, placed on the St. John’s River in New Brunswick that invites visitors to a recreated community of buildings and to visit characters that span one hundred years of history.
“I just know alot of little things from growing up here”, Laurie told us.
It soon became clear that she knows traditional food from the inside out, both from her past and her twenty years of working at King’s Landing.
Laurie took us to the 1880 Hagerman home where we visited a family lunching on pancakes, a daily staple at most meals, we learned. They had a wood stove, a luxury, we learned.
Along the dirt road strolled Don Rigley, a gardener at King’s Landing and an expert in growing heritage vegetables. Don took us to one of his gardens, enclosed by a fence woven of branches to keep out deer and other hungry animals. He showed us the Bull’s blood and yellow beets, not commonly grown in modern times and impressed us with a beet that had originated in an Italian garden. We tasted unusual types of fresh greens, like oak leaf lettuce and picked the greens and beets we would later have at our dinner table at the King’s Inn.
At each home, we tasted from the herb gardens and learned about the skills the women developed using herbs and plants as medicine. This knowledge and some use of wild foods had been learned from the Maliset and Walastoquiyuk, first nation locals.
Mrs. Lint waited for us at the 1830 Lint house where she and Lawrence lived with their young family. Linda Fox as Mrs. Lint taught us to make a gingerbread cake, using thick molasses and an extra pinch of ginger. She had her culinary secrets. My husband put on his apron, took a hearth shovel and pulled a pile of hot coals from the fireplace onto the hearth. We put the cake pan in a covered cast iron Dutch oven on top of the coals, and he shoveled hot coals on top of the pot. In twenty minutes, we would have a hot gingerbread cake, later to become our dessert at the King’s Head Inn. We left the Lint home and skipped a few years ahead to visit the Perley home, from 1870.
Mrs. Perley had gathered white and purple clover flowers along with some wild rose petals, and amazed us with her recipe for clover honey. Together we boiled water, sugar and alum on her blazing wood stove. When the brew was clear, we added a cheesecloth bag with the flowers, stirred, and magically it became a clear, thick honey. All the while, we laughed, fussed and sweated together, while taking turns stirring the honey.
Next, we were off to the King’s Head Inn, built in 1855 as a “halfway house”, to provide food and lodging for those travelling by stage coach.
All afternoon we had waited in anticipation to eat this special dinner that we had helped to cook.
Our salad, made from the greens that we had picked in the garden was served with old fashioned brown bread, topped with butter and the clover honey we had cooked earlier.
Our server dressed from the past brought a platter of Acadian Tortiere, Beggar’s Purse, (a type of meat filled pastry), baked beans, gravy, and the beets we had picked from the garden. We sampled traditional pies such as Acadian sugar, Maple brandy squash pie and Buttermilk pie and we took home the gingerbread we baked for a later dessert.
Diners at the Inn can choose from many menu items including Skoodawabskoosis Salad, a green salad with fresh salmon.
Toe tapping fiddle, pennywhistle and guitar music took us back to a time when the tired stage coach travelers would stop at the Inn for rest and social visits. Don, earlier the gardener, now donned fancier duds and joined his elegantly dressed real life wife Michelle Daigle, to entertain diners.
The King’s Inn has grown since1855, and has continued to be a popular dining spot for both visitors and locals. In November and December over four thousand diners enjoy a taste of Christmas past choosing from Roast Turkey, Beef or Goose and all the traditional trimmings. Other special meals are served for Valentine’s Day, Easter, All Hallow’s Eve (Halloween), Mother’s, Father’s and Grandparent’s Days.
An open hearth cooking course is offered, teaching modern cooks the tastes a fire can add to food. An apple and garden festival and a weekend of sweets are some of the other special food events that King’s Landing offers visitors.
By day’s end, my husband and I were full of good food and new knowledge based on old gardening and cooking methods.
“I can’t help feeling that there is something missing in our modern kitchens”, I whispered, not wanting to break the spell.
The heat cast a ghostly haze over King’s landing. I proudly carried the warm honey and gingerbread we had made, and headed up the lane back to 2o11, taking inspirations from King’s Landing, where tastes of the past shook hands with the earth’s future.
If you go.
Information: For more information about King’s Landing
King’s Landing is open from May 28 to October 10 from 10am to 5pm.
Location: King’s Landing is located 20 minutes west of Fredericton, New Brunswick. Take exit
253 off the Trans Canada Highway.
Admission – Adults day pass: $16.00
Child: 6-16 : $11.00
Family – 2 adults and 2 children under 16: $38.00
A Taste of Heritage: This program provides visitors with both a learning and dining
experience. The cost is $55.00 for adults and $27.50 for children.
Travel dollars well spent. Call 506-363-4999 or email info@kingslanding .nb.ca