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Show Fried Pumpdin llfas A Revolutionary Idea In Revolutionary war memoirs, mention is made again and again of the "pum-pion" "pum-pion" or pumpkin. On returning return-ing victorious from the battle of King's Mountain, a militiaman, mili-tiaman, Thomas Young, reported, "We all came near starving to death. The country (Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains) was very thinly settled and provisions could not be had for love or money. "I THOUGHT green pumpkin sliced and fried was about the sweetest eating I've every had." Some of the pumpkins undoubtedly un-doubtedly came from the fields of the Cherokee who had been growing them among their corn rows, a practice copied by the Colonists. ON OCCASION, small units of troops were stationed near the homes of friendly families who shared with them what food could be spared. Memoirs particularly praise the generosity of Pennsylvania and New Jersey "Dutch" (often German) families and their meals that included "butter dented mashed potatoes and creamed coleslaw." IN BATTLE-wracked Massachusetts, Mas-sachusetts, such amenities were denied our harried troops who, without as much as a kettle or a cook pot, were forced to make bread by spreading flour paste on a hot, flat rock. THE SAME hot rock was used for frying pumpkins, Indian In-dian meal and buckwheat slapjacks. |