George Washington Wired

This past Saturday and Monday, a group of students in Tammy Parks’ Broadcast Journalism class did a live videoconference into the NECC conference in Washington, D.C. from the front lawn of Mount Vernon. Traveling by van all the way from Howe, Oklahoma, these immensely talented students, their teacher, and their superintendent, had only one day to tour Mount Vernon, put together a script for their first broadcast early the next morning, and set up the Tandberg satellite truck. It became quickly apparent that these students were pros, especially since their previous broadcasts have won awards and been featured in the news. Bright and early on Saturday morning, the students both produced and starred in a videoconference into CILC’s conference presentation, interacting live with the teachers attending the session. Throughout the day on Monday, the students broadcast into Tandberg’s booth at the conference, introducing teachers to Billy Lee and Dr. Craik, two of Mount Vernon’s first person interpreters. If you would like to read about their journey across the country and their experiences at Mount Vernon, you can find Mrs. Park’s class on Facebook at Cle Live at Hps. We look forward to meeting these amazing students again, whether in person at Mount Vernon or via videoconference from Oklahoma!

Last weekend, three piglets were born to our proud Ossabaw Island hog parents. These rare breed hogs date back to the Spanish explorers of the 17th century. George Washington’s hogs ran wild in the woods until they were caught, fattened on corn and potatoes, and slaughtered for food each fall. Pork, bacon, sausage, scrapple, chitterlings, and lard were enjoyed by the whole Mount Vernon community, and Martha Washington often presented hams as gifts to relatives and friends. Today these heritage breed hogs are bred at Mount Vernon once a year, much to the delight of the children (and adults) who crowd their pen for a glimpse of the piglets. Fortunately for the hogs, the current Mount Vernon community does not enjoy them in the same way as our 18th-century forebears.

The Marquis de Lafayette (full name: Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roche Gilbert du Motier- whoa!) was born to immense wealth in France, but at 19 years old he bought a ship and sailed to South Carolina to join the American Revolution, arriving on June 13th. He volunteered to serve in the Patriot army without pay, saying that, “the welfare of America is intimately connected with the happiness of all mankind.” His intelligence and passion for the American cause were quickly appreciated, leading Congress to commission him a Major General. His famous friendship with George Washington led him to later give Washington a key to the Bastille (still displayed in the front hall at Mount Vernon) and name his own son after the man he saw as an honorary father.

After the Revolution, the Marquis returned to France but visited America twice; the first time at Washington’s invitation and the second time as an old man in 1824. As he toured America, crowds of cheering people greeted him wherever he traveled, and at one place, an old soldier saluted him and asked Lafayette if he remembered the snows of Valley Forge. He showed the blanket that he was carrying and said that at one point Lafayatte came upon a shivering soldier in the snow on guard, he sent the soldier to get his blanket out of his tent, and then cut the blanket in half, giving half to the soldier. He said, “I am the soldier whose life you saved.”

As we celebrate the patriotic holidays of summer, sometimes it is important to remember that it was not only Americans who were fighting for our independence. Let us know if you teach about about the Marquis de Lafayette, Thaddeus Kosciuszko, or any of the other international heroes that helped our fledgling country…

“He rose before sunrise, always wrote or read until 7 in summer or half past seven in winter. His breakfast was then ready - he ate three small mush cakes (Indian meal) swimming in butter and honey, and drank three cups of tea without cream.”

George Washington’s breakfast habits were recorded by his step-granddaughter, Nelly Custis Lewis, providing us an intimate picture of our first president’s mornings. Nelly also recorded the recipe for mush cakes (also called hoecakes because they could be cooked on a hoe over an open fire) in a letter so we know that they consist of cornmeal, water, yeast, and egg. Hoecakes are regularly cooked at Mount Vernon’s Pioneer Farmer site, and the full recipe is on our website and in publications.

Now, having sampled hoecakes made with the Mount Vernon recipe several times, I thought, “There has got to be a better way.” No offense to the father of our nation, but where’s the sugar? The processed flour? The butter!? He must have eaten them “swimming in butter and honey” because they really do taste pretty terrible on their own (I know I will be getting some perturbed emails over this post, sigh…). As educators, we advise teachers and parents to make hoecakes with their children as a fun learning activity, but children of the 21st century are not going to be impressed with the results. Taking matters into my own hands, I used cornmeal from our own gristmill to attempt to adapt the recipe slightly. After four batches of hoecakes that still tasted the same, i.e. terrible, a very messy kitchen, and an irritated husband/test taster, I had no breakthroughs. I had so hoped to find a secret ingredient to present to our loyal GWW readers. But then I realized that someone else had already found that secret ingredient… So let me present Paula Deen’s Food Network recipe for Hoecakes!