Maryland Material Culture: Bushel Basket

Posted on by February 23, 2019

Quiz: What does a Marylander most often associate with a bushel basket?

Sure, you can put fruit or vegetables in it (pick-ur-own or picked up at the farmstead), but Marylanders most want to see this lined with newspaper and stuffed with steamed crabs, caked with Old Bay seasoning.

Here’s to summer time eating, whether you use a mallet or a knife to clear your claws.

Summer wonderful. Crabs. RL Fifield, 2012.

 

Posted in Food, Historic Foodways, History, Maryland, Material Culture Tagged , , , permalink

About Becky Fifield

Becky Fifield is a cultural heritage professional with 25 years experience in institutions large and small. She is currently Head of Collection Management for the Special Collections of the New York Public Library. An advocate for preventive conservation, Ms. Fifield is a Professional Associate of the American Institute for Conservation, Chair of the AIC Collection Care Network, and former Chair of Alliance for Response NYC. She is also a scholar of 18th century female unfree labor and dress. There's a bit of pun in the title The Still Room, delineating a quiet space brimming with the ingredients of memory, where consideration, analysis, and wordcraft can take place. Ms. Fifield’s interests include museum practice, dress history, historic preservation, transit, social and women’s history, food, current events, geneaology, roadtrips, and considerations on general sense of place. Becky and her husband, Dr. V, live in the Hudson Valley.

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