Founding Foods: Seasonal Eating on Martha’s Vineyard from 1642 to 1850 with Norah Van Riper

At 6:00 PM on Thursday, January 9th, the Vineyard Haven Library welcomes local historian Norah Van Riper for an interactive program entitled, “Founding Foods: Seasonal Eating on Martha’s Vineyard from 1642 to 1850.”  

What did Islanders eat in the days before refrigeration and takeout? Norah Van Riper will delve into the complex reality of the way Martha’s Vineyard’s inhabitants fed themselves in the earliest days of English colonization–before the Industrial Revolution and its advances in technology and transportation up-ended seasonal and local patterns of eating. 

This interactive program features an array of unusual historical foods, recipes, preservation techniques, and samples of dishes available on Martha’s Vineyard in days gone by. The program will be presented in historical costume from a modern perspective.

Norah Van Riper, itinerant historian, has been in the museum and living history trades for the better part of twenty-five years. Though her focus is primarily on historical agriculture and domestic life in New England before the Industrial Revolution, she’s known to dabble in a number of other subjects and periods. Her real passion lies in giving voice to the forgotten and misunderstood people of the past. She lives in Vineyard Haven

This event will be held on the upper level of the library, with refreshments provided by the Friends of the Library. For more information, please contact the library at (508) 696-4211 or send an email to vhpl_programs@clamsnet.org.