The Dish on Food and Farming in Colonial America- social studies non-fiction book

Book Title: The Dish on Food and Farming in Colonial America	Author:  Anika Fajardo
Illustrator:	Awards
Book Type:  Non-fiction	Approx. Reading Level: 4.6
Age of Content Appropriateness: grade 3 and up	Date Published: 2012
Genre and Topic: social studies, history, food	Personal Rating of the Book:  4
ISBN: (13 or 10 digit) 978-1429672177

Summary- This book is a great one to understand how different the food we eat in modern day America is from what the colonists ate when they arrived in the New World.  With no grocery stores or fast food restaurants, colonists had to eat what was available to them.  This book covers such topics as “mealtime,” “hunting and farming,” and “cooking and preserving,”  It will be a great addition to a history unit on Colonial America.

Ideas for using this book

·         This book could be used as a jumping off point for additional research on foods readily available in nature like game or wild growing plants and berries.

·         Students can compare modern day food to Colonial foods. 

·         Students can create a poster or report about heritage recipes that their families may still make and how many generations have done so.  Lutefisk comes to mind as a food we continue to eat to celebrate Norwegian heritage but a food that really isn’t much in the taste department.  It was a way of preserving the fish before we had fast transportation and refrigeration.

·         Here is a link to more information on this subject.  Colonial & early American fare

·         Here is a link to a lesson plan I wrote for this book as part of a social studies wiki on food.  Kernels of Truth Wiki

Vocabulary

climate: (page 4) the usual weather that occurs in a place

ration: (page 11) a limited amount of something.  In this case, a limited amount of food that was given to slaves.

venison: (page 14) deer meat

root cellar: (page 22) a dirt walled and floored basement under a dwelling that kept foods at a constant temperature.  Natural refrigeration.

Triangular Trade: (page 26)  the slave trade- specifically, the boats brought slaves to America, then loaded tobacco to take to Europe and then the boats would take cloth and other goods to Africa  before loading up human cargo to start the cycle over again.

Trait of the 6 + 1 Traits to Highlights

I would look at the organization of this book.  The information follows a natural sequence that describes the environment the colonists were surrounded by and then discussed how they acquired their food and how they stored it.   It is a logical pattern and helps to illustrate the food cycle we all are part of.   There are also interesting factoids called, “fast facts” that appear throughout and are set apart in a small box.  This gives a little added trivia that students may find interesting.

“Fast Fact: Some colonists wouldn’t eat vegetables because they thought veggies were bad for them.” (page 22)

“Fast Fact: Colonist ate the brains, skin, tails and blood of pigs.” (page 11)

Concerns with this book: None