When your turkey feast is a pleasant memory and guests are ready to move away from the table, set your GPS to 17th-century Maryland and discover how the first citizens celebrated a bountiful harvest. Historic St. Mary’s City will present Hearth and Home in Early Maryland on Friday and Saturday, November 23 and 24, from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. This year the focus is on a local culinary tradition — stuffed ham.
There are as many recipes for stuffed ham as there are stories about who first thought to meld greens, pork, and spices. Some suspect African American origins and there is a good argument that the idea of “stuffed chine,” served in Elizabethan England, was brought to the New World by the Maryland colonists. George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore and Maryland’s proprietor, wrote that he dined on stuffed ham while at the family estate in Yorkshire.
During Hearth and Home, visitors can watch the process of making stuffed ham: volunteers Pete Himmelheber and Becky McDonald will demonstrate the technique they have honed over decades of stuffing together. Savor a sample – while supplies last – and record your memories of making and enjoying this special dish. Meet some unique and historically accurate pigs at the Spray Plantation. Pig stories and a special “pig passport” for youngsters will encourage the whole family to get into the day’s theme. Enjoy seasonal, hands-on activities and demonstrations of early food preservation techniques and open-hearth cooking at each of the museum’s four living history sites. Each will feature colonial consumables that are stuffed, including “stuffed chine” at the Town Center.
Admission is $10 for adults, $9 seniors, $6 students, and free for those 5 years and under and Friends members. Visitors contributing a non-perishable food item will receive a $1 discount off admission benefiting the Southern Maryland Food Bank. The Stuffed Ham project during Hearth and Home is supported by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Historic St. Mary’s City Foundation. Historic St. Mary’s City is a museum of living history and archaeology on the site of Maryland’s first capital in beautiful, tidewater Southern Maryland. For more information about the museum contact the Visitor Center at 240-895-4990, 800-SMC-1634, or info@stmaryscity.org.
