Book Description

Includes 25 adapted historic recipes.Prompted by a serendipitous visit to a bookstore, an epiphany leads Paula and her husband, Harvey, to southern Maine where they both fall in love with the General Ichabod Goodwin House--affectionately called Old Fields. Built at the end of the eighteenth century, the historic house still has its original nine-over-six windows, early Georgian moldings, and wide-plank painted wood floors. But it was the keeping room with its eight-foot wide, five-foot high hearth that captured their imaginations. After they sign the deed, the author begins to diligently research the house's first inhabitants, taking us back into early American history. Paula's research continues as she undertakes the challenge of furnishing the eight rooms in the original part of the house. Trying to evoke an eighteenth-century atmosphere, Paula and Harvey visit historic house museums and build a library on early American décor. Most helpful were the two inventories the author found in the collection of Goodwin family papers at Dartmouth--those of the first two Goodwins to head Old Fields, a father and son, both named Ichabod.Once the house is furnished, Paula's favorite pastime becomes imagining the lives of those first two Ichabods and their families over 250 years ago, not only their daily routines, but how their lives intertwined with larger historic events that helped shape America. Aside from having a passion for early American history, Paula's avid interest in the culinary arts leads her to research and recreate historic recipes, which are woven throughout the text. Another wonderful addition to this story is the discoveries from the archaeological dig in progress outside their front door. Based on the myriad items unearthed since 2011, many details about the chronology of the property and the house have come to light.This book is for anyone who lives in a historic house; who loves archaeology, early American history, and historic cooking; or for those armchair adventurers who will enjoy the Bennetts journey as they "cultivate a slower, less technology-based existence, cherry-picking from the past" and incorporating those pickings into their twenty-first-century lifestyle.