There is only one line in the Pilgrims’ history, “Mourt’s Relation,” that refers to the first harvest festival in Plymouth in the fall of 1621, so, it is difficult to know what was eaten that day.
But at Plimoth Plantation in Plymouth, Ma., they've made some educated guesses about the menu for that harvest dinner, which is believed to be the one that inspired our modern day Thanksgiving observance. The Pilgrims were hosts that day, when the Sachem Massasoit arrived with 90 of his Wampanoag tribe. And they feasted for not one day, but three.
Kathy Rudder, Plimoth Plantation's manager of domestic skills, speculates that venison would have been the main course, along with fowl of all kinds, including ducks, geese and, of course, turkeys.
Also on the menu would have been fish and shellfish, which were in abundance. The Pilgrims, Rudder said, would have provided various root vegetables and salad greens, along with a sauce made of cranberries — the English were familiar with gooseberry sauce back home, which was similar. Not likely on the menu? Alcoholic beverages, since the Pilgrims' supply would have been exhausted by the time of the feast, which was almost a year after they arrived.
