Another fine day spent in an 18th century summer.
But this wasn't just any day - it was a long-forgotten holiday~~~
And that means today's post will be mostly centered on 18th century agriculture.
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August begins with Lammas Day (or Loaf Mass Day).
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| Wheat is strongly associated with Jesus Christ, who is referred to as the "Bread of Life". |
Many colonial farmers celebrated this agricultural holiday (or holyday, as these special days of celebration or worshiping were called) on August 1st, which marked the first major harvest of the beginning fall season. In fact, before the names "fall" and "autumn" became common, the season between summer and winter was simply called "harvest". This was because it was the time of year when crops were gathered, or "harvested". Think about it: even in our modern day, if you have a backyard garden, your tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and numerous other vegetables are coming in and more will be as August progresses.
You are harvesting.
So, even though it is still technically summer, it only makes sense that August was (and is) considered one of the months of harvest time. As such, in centuries past, Lammas Day was a sort of Thanksgiving, a cause for celebrating a bountiful growing season, and so it remained for many colonial families not only here in America, but in many parts of the world, especially the British Isles.
On a colonial-era Lammas Day, it was customary for the head of the household to bring to church, for a blessing by the priest or minister, the first loaf of bread made from the recent summer wheat crop, which was harvested in July.
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| Harvested wheat -- now flour. |
Lammas Day itself, August 1st, falls at the halfway point between the June summer solstice and the autumn equinox in later September. That bless'd loaf of bread, baked with flour from the July-harvested wheat or corn, was then used as the center of the family’s Lammas Thanksgiving feast. It's one of the oldest points of contact between the agricultural world and the Church.
This year was our third time celebrating Lammas Day.
Though I portray a farmer - no, I am not a farmer in real life, nor do I claim to be - I have little means of doing any actual colonial farming beyond our kitchen garden at the Waterloo cabin. I am a historic presenter, and therefore, aside from my living history experiences, I have never actually farmed outside of gardening, aside from a few opportunities here and there, such as what I do here at the cabin and even experiencing plowing a few furrows a number of years ago. Those of us at the cabin don't have access to large fields for plowing, nor are we able to use oxen or horses for our work. In fact, we cannot come out daily or every other day to weed, as much as we'd like to, due to the long driving distance, sadly, though we do come out as often as we can. However, our kitchen garden still thrives and gives us a wonderful period experience.
And this kitchen garden gives us a chance to try different things and to learn from each.
I very much appreciate the folks I experience 18th century cabin life with and celebrate Lammas Day with, as well as Waterloo Farm Museum for allowing us the opportunity to do so.
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| How true this is! I hold its message to my heart~~~ |
By the way, according to Medieval Historian Ian Mortimer, it was by religious festivals such as Lammas Day (and Candlemas and Rogation Sunday) that villagers told the passing of time, especially in the Middle Ages (click HERE for historical Candlemas information). Events would be dated by their coincidence with - or proximity to - a particular saint's day or festival. Few in the Medieval period knew the exact year according to the Christian chronology, and even literate men & women living in the manor houses looked at the passing of time in terms of the monarch's reign. Until the later 1300s, the hours of the day were calculated by the position of the sun or sundial on the church tower. Of course, ideas and inventions took much longer to spread in those long ago days, and minor developments were added over the decades and centuries.
Because the seasonal tasks were the same every year, and because only a major public or private event, such as a plague epidemic, a drought, or the death of a monarch or a family member, for example, would distinguish any one year from all the others, the perception in the passing of time meant little to most people.
So Lammas Day was one such religious festival or celebration to help the marking and passing of time.
To coincide with Lammas Day, the harvest fly, more commonly referred to today as the cicada, was thought to make its first appearance of the year on that day. This is particularly true for the dog-day cicadas, which are the ones most commonly referred to as harvest flies, for they appear during the hottest part of the summer season. The timing of their emergence most often aligns with the time when farmers are actively harvesting crops like grains and other produce.
Therefore, the association between the insect's appearance and the agricultural activity of harvesting led to the nickname "harvest fly".
Here in my neck of the woods, southeastern lower Michigan, the cicada's arrival has tended to come a couple weeks early of late, but still at the time of the summer wheat harvest soon after the 4th of July celebrations.
On August 3, 1805, Noah Blake wrote:
"Very warm. The harvest fly was two days late."
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| "I did something new today," she wrote on her facebook page, "and loved every minute of it." |
To prepare for our celebration this year of 1775:
my friend, Theresa, lives in Michigan farm country, in a town called Lapeer. I really wanted to have some wheat to thresh but, sadly, most farmers have already done their harvesting.
But then I remembered, "Hey---Theresa is a country girl!
I messaged her:
"Do you live near farmers?"
She laughed at this one, for she lives in the 'heart' of farm country~
"I'm looking to get/purchase a couple bundles/sheaves of wheat that I can thresh."
She then sent me a photo of herself wearing her colonial clothing.
Wait---what??
You're going to dress period to do this??
"Might as well."
I have the coolest friends!!
Then she sent me the pictures of herself harvesting wheat, and I was so impressed (and a bit envious). I shared it with numerous friends on my Facebook page. I was hoping Theresa could take part with us at the cabin but, well, not this time.
We'll get her out there---just wait and see!
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I decided to have some photo fun with this one picture and made it look like Theresa could be a Daggett daughter...perhaps Talitha! Yes, this photo is a mixing of three different pictures that I combined to make one cohesive image, and I included the mid-18th century home of Sam Daggett there in the background. "Bringing in the sheaves...🎵🎵" |
Now, let's head over to our Lammas Day celebration at the cabin:
Per what has become our normal, this was such an agricultural day at the Waterloo Cabin.
I mean...
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| Patty and I brought the sheaves of wheat to lay upon the canvas. |
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| I also brought two flails with me. |
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| It's been a while since I did this chore, but I was pleasantly surprised that my back didn't hurt nearly as much as I thought it would. |
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| Flails were the primary method of threshing for centuries, remaining widespread until the mid-19th century when mechanical threshers became common. |
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| The big mistake I made was that I did not winnow. I must admit, actually doing this chore from wheat to flour is new to me, though I've watched it almost annually over the past few decades---still, no excuse---I know better! It also didn't help that it was not a windy day to blow the chaff away. |
Farmers would scoop up the threshed mixture of grain and chaff and toss it into the air, often using a winnowing fork or shovel. The wind would carry away the lighter chaff, while the heavier grain fell back down, ideally onto a tarp or other clean surface.
But all is not lost for me, for I can still winnow what I have and still make the flour...and bring it to the cabin next time.
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| Norm wanted to give threshing a try. |
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| At one point I folded up the canvas tarp to keep the grain from bouncing out. |
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| As we were out taking care of the wheat, the harvest fly (cicadas) were a-buzzin'-- right on time! |
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| I purchased a quern - a hand mill for turning grain into flour. |
Being that we, in our 18th century lives, are living in a frontier cabin, far away from civilization (which would include a gristmill), we have a quern to make our flour.
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| This was my first time ever to try such a thing. After a few tries that tended to lean to being a failure, Waterloo president, Chad, gave it a try, and--by golly---it worked! When I asked him what he did that I didn't do, he answered with, "Spun it faster!" |
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| I was getting flour! But I really need to winnow! |
Last year (2024) Patty and I came out to the cabin quite often to work on weeding in the garden. But this year, due to a variety of reasons, including extreme heat and mugginess, rain, illnesses, and a myriad of other reasons, taking the 90 minute drive to Waterloo from Eastpointe wasn't nearly as feasible, so our visiting and working there just did not happen like we hoped.
So here on this Lammas Day 2025 - August 1st - my wife spent a good portion of her day in the warm sunshine, weeding as much as she could.
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| Patty's biggest glory is being in her garden. She just gets so excited when she sees how well the vegetables planted are all doing. |
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| Rake and hay rake. |
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| With the sunshine and the rain - lots of both this summer - so many vegetables that we planted are doing very well. And so are the weeds... |
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| We have a few Brussels Sprouts growing and all seem to be doing fairly well. |
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| Our Green Beans are also doing well~~ |
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| And what I'm most proud of and most excited about: Pumpkins! |
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| I planted a lot of pumpkins (back in May--click HERE) and they are pretty much everywhere along the edges. And there are plenty more plants in our garden: lima beans, salat, onions, turnips. |
There are three goals here:
1) To be able to do quite a bit of harvesting on Pioneer Day (in 2025 that day is Sunday, October 12th 10am - 5pm)
1) To be able to do quite a bit of harvesting on Pioneer Day (in 2025 that day is Sunday, October 12th 10am - 5pm)
and
2) To have kids experience picking pumpkins out of the pumpkin patch
3) To eat our yield for our own Thanksgiving meal in November right there at the cabin as we did last year (click HERE)
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| Our 18th century minister, Norm, blessed our crop again this year during Rogation Sunday back in May. |
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| Norm had a new 18th century minister's robe made for him. This man is in a constant state of research, and it shows! |
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| Okay - from the garden to the hearth! Patty certainly was the 18th century housewife this day! |
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| For her first time, Patty experienced cooking on the hearth, with Jackie at her side. |
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| Though Patty did help quite a bit, Jackie was the chief cook of the day and spent nearly all her time at the fireplace. |
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| Giving the baked bread a "thump" she finds that it is ready for eating! |
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| My son Tommy actually made the dough the day before for us. Normally it would have been made at the cabin but due to some unexpected situations, we had to cut corners. However, it was only the bread dough that was brought to the cabin, so the rest of the process was done right there at the hearth! |
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| The colonial women who spent their time at the hearth were nothing short of culinary geniuses. |
Whereas the hearth where all the cooking was done during colonial times was the heart of the home, so many in our modern day eat frozen dinners heated quickly in a microwave or will "drive thru" a local fast food restaurant because of late work nights, or maybe so they could spend more time in front of the TV or playing with their smart phone. Just as new diets are touted each month in women's magazines, so are ideas for eat-in kitchen tips on how to build banquettes, counters, and islands for the quick, casual meal that "today's busy families" grab on the run.
Heck!---it's a chore just to get modern families to eat together at the kitchen or dining room table at the same time!
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| 18th century cooking methods. The bread is baking in the Dutch Oven (the black pot in front), and the pasties are cooking in the tin kitchen/reflector oven. |
Running a kitchen really did require a staggering range of skills, including chopping kindling, keeping a fire burning indefinitely, knowing which wood was best for baking or frying, plucking feathers from fowl, butchering animals large and small, cosseting (caring for) bread yeast, brewing beer, making cheese, adjusting 'burners' of coals on a hearth and gauging the temperature of a bake oven. In fact, the colonial cook would have to begin their work by "building a good-sized fire on the hearth, but once the logs had burned to coals, the embers were moved around, and carefully selected pieces of wood would be added to produce different kinds of heat, often having several small fires going at once. Piles of live embers on the hearth were like burners on a stove; a gridiron set over a pile of coals could be used for broiling; a pan set over coals on a trivet could be used for frying; and coals could be piled over and under a Dutch oven for baking."
(From the book America's Kitchens by Nancy Carlisle and Melinda Talbot Nasardinov).
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| The pasties were ready - - now to keep them warm~~~ |
The portable tin reflector oven appeared in America around the second half of the 1700s. Old probate inventories referred to it as a “tin kitchen” or “tin oven.” (The Webb Deane Stevens Museum) The Webb Deane Stevens Museum has a very interesting bit of information on these tin kitchens. Click the orange name link to learn more.
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| Just look at those pasties coming out of the tin kitchen! And they were SO good! |
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| Norm gave a wonderful - simply perfect - Lammas Day prayer over our freshly baked Lammas Day bread. This is what this day was centered on, and it truly was perfect! |
To keep your mindset in the old ways, in the Bible, wheat symbolizes several important concepts, primarily sustenance, spiritual nourishment, and the cycle of life and death. It represents God's provision for physical needs, mirroring the bread that sustains life. Furthermore, wheat's connection to bread, the "Bread of Life," signifies spiritual nourishment and the presence of Christ. The process of harvesting, threshing, and winnowing wheat also provides powerful metaphors for judgment and separation of good and evil.
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| And then we had a blessing said over our meal. |
The 1700s was a very religious time, contrary to what is seen (or, more accuratly, not seen) in 18th century historical presentations.
In the 18th century, religious revivals like the Great Awakening (beginning in the 1730s and going through the end of the century) in the American colonies were a powerful force, significantly increasing the importance of religion in people's lives and reshaping religious landscapes. These movements emphasized personal and emotional experiences of faith over traditional church structures and doctrines, leading to the rise of new denominations and a greater focus on individual salvation and piety, according to some historians.
In order to show the history of this time accurately, these revivals should, at the very least, be spoken of. Sadly, I've yet to see any museum of late not afraid to tell the whole story of life "back then." It seems nearly all aspects of religion in the 18th century have been cast aside---forgotten about (perhaps purposely?)---and its importance ignored. "We don't want to sound preachy or offend!" comes the response.
I am proud to say that we don't only speak of it, but we show it, and the public who witness what we do have all been very appreciative.
And we are not preachy---just accurate.
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| The ladies put together a fine Lammas Day/Harvest meal for us. Norm and I are very appreciative. If you leave hungry, it's your own fault! |
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| Our Lammas Day group image - - - |
These special 18th century cabin days are, perhaps, the highlight of my reenacting year. The experience received at each is beyond anything I could have imagined or wished for.
And to think this whole idea of experiencing colonial cabin life here came to me in a dream...
Living the research.
Living the dream!
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| There it is...our home away from 21st century home |
I'm going through a lot personally, so these cabin days are very beneficial to and for me. To be surrounded by such family and friends is/was the best medicine.
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| Living in summer 1775. Concentrating on the best of the times. |
These cabin excursions began mostly as a way to experience 18th century Colonial American life. And I/we are experiencing it, though not necessarily in ways expected, for it has become much more of an agricultural experience than any of us may have originally thought. Oh, it's not like we didn't know of the high amount of agriculture at that time, but I believe it just sort of hit us in ways unexpected. At least it did for me. But then, in 18th century Colonial America, approximately 90% of the population were farmers. This high percentage reflects the predominantly rural nature of the colonies, where agriculture was the primary source of livelihood for most people. And, most colonial farms were geared towards subsistence agriculture, meaning they primarily produced what was needed for the family's survival, rather than for large-scale commercial sale.
That's what we represent: 18th century subsistence agriculture.
I must say that my two favorite blog posts that I've written involves agriculture:
Marchin' Through the Ruins of Time - Ancient Farming & Daily Life Practices from the B.C. Era Through the Early A.D. Period (click HERE)
and
A Year on a Colonial Farm: Living By the Seasons (click HERE)
The other thing we've experienced (and continue to experience) are ancient holidays (or holydays) that are either no longer celebrated or have changed from its original meaning, such as Candlemas, Rogation Sunday (I have not written about Rogation Sunday as a sole subject---thinking about doing so in 2026, though click HERE to read of our Rogation Sunday celebration), and, as you just read in today's post, Lammas Day.How about our previous colonial life cabin excursions? Look in the descriptions here, which denotes some of our Candlemas, Rogation Sundays, and Lammas Days celebrations (remember - each year listed here we are representing 250 years earlier:
2020 = 1770
2021 = 1771
2022 = 1772
2023 = 1773
2024 = 1774
and now
2025 = 1775
~To read about our 2020 autumn excursion - our first time at the cabin - click HERE
~To read about our 2021 wintertime excursion at the cabin - click HERE
~To read about our 2021 springtime excursion at the cabin - click HERE~To read about our 2021 summertime excursion at the cabin - click HERE
~To read about our 2021 summer harvesting of the flax at the cabin - click HERE
~To read about our 2021 autumn excursion - click HERE
~To read about our 2022 winter excursion at the cabin - please click HERE
~To read about our 2022 spring excursion at the cabin - please click HERE
~To read about our 2022 summer excursion at the cabin - please click HERE
~To read about our 2022 autumn excursion at the cabin (Pioneer Day) - please click HERE
~To read about our 2023 winter excursion at the cabin (Candlemas) - please click HERE
~To read about our 2023 spring excursion at the cabin (Rogation Sunday) - please click HERE
~To read about our 2023 late spring at the cabin - click HERE
~To read about the 2023 early summer - please click HERE
~To read about the 2023 summer (Lammas Day) - please click HERE
~To read about the 2023 autumn Pioneer Day - please click HERE
~To read about our 2023 Thanksgiving harvest celebration - please click HERE
~To read about our 2024 Winter experience at the cabin - please click HERE
~To read about our 2024 spring excursion at the cabin - please click HERE
~To read about our 2024 late spring with just Patty & I - click HERE
~To read about our 2024 summer (Lammas Day) - please click HERE
~To read about our 2024 mid-and-late-summer - please click HERE
~To read about our 2024 mid-September - click HERE
~To read about our 2024 autumn Pioneer Day Celebration - please click HERE
~To read about our 2024 Thanksgiving Harvest - please click HERE
~To read about our 2024 Christmas at the Farm Cabin presentation - please click HERE
~To read about our 2025 winter & Candlemas Day - please click HERE
~To read about our 2025 spring/early May Rogation Sunday excursion - please click HERE
~To read about our 2025 Memorial Day/Late May visit, please click HERE
Including today's post, that makes 30 days spent in the good old colony days!
By the way, I simply cannot thank enough those special folk at the Waterloo Farm Museum for their allowance for us to have such experiences.
We are so honored. And grateful.
I am also honored to visit the past with my cabin cohorts of Patty (who just happens to be my wife), Norm, Jackie, Larissa, and Charlotte (and sometimes a few others here and there), for, without them, none of this would even happen.
Brian, Chad, Arlene...and others from Waterloo - past and present - my heartfelt thank you.
Until next time, see you in time.
Happy Lammas Day and Harvest Time!!
Oh! To read a deeper history into the Colonial Kitchen, please click HERE
~~~---~~~
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