Advent Activities: Pop! Goes the Cracker

As part of our busy weekend, about which I'll expound in a series of posts, we went to the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford.  I attended a lecture on New England historical foodways presented by Kathleen Fitzgerald and Keith Stavely, authors of Northern Hospitality.  They sought to revive understanding of 17th- and 18th-century Yankee cookery, which has been overwhelmed by 19th-century colonial revival favorites such as Boston brown bread and baked beans as well as clam chowder.  My favorite parts:  the slide-by-slide adaptation of historical recipes to a modern kitchen and the post-lecture tasting of plumb cake (fruit cake).  I'm looking forward to perusing their blog, which continues the recipe updating.

Meanwhile the kids explored the galleries, particularly enjoying the hands-on activities including an assembly line of mess kits, mock-up textile factory work, and a colonial play kitchen with hearth, table, and yoke with water buckets, their favorite part.  Mama was being quite the museum educator as she asked them to compare and contrast their morning at the Lego festival with their afternoon at a museum and then examined a wall of historical tavern signs and asked them, based on the signs, which inn they would choose.  Well done, Mama!  (Just please don't quit your day job!)

But best of all was the day's craft activity, which we actually arrived too late to participate in.  But,this being a small institution, the wonderful educator heard that we had missed it (by about 10 minutes) and generously let us do the craft.  She taught the kids how to make poppers, or English crackers, the tubes that go "pop" when pulled and release little trinkets and treats.  She chatted enthusiastically and encouragingly as they worked and the kids returned in kind, being even more voluble than usual.  We were so grateful and enjoyed it all immensely.