{"id":24902,"date":"2015-11-25T16:50:48","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T21:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/?p=24902"},"modified":"2021-02-26T16:06:55","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T21:06:55","slug":"pilgrims-prejudice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/pilgrims-prejudice\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruminations: Pilgrim’s Prejudice"},"content":{"rendered":"

At age 24, I became a professional pilgrim. Each day, I arrived hours before visitors to Plimoth Plantation<\/a>, and often grabbed a cup of staff coffee, lightened with milk from goats on the property. Grimacing at the sharp tang, my mind wandered to my in-laws\u2019 elegant parties, where they served ch\u00e8vre instead of the creamy Brie I craved. But it was early and I was tired, so I choked down the sour brew while donning various layers of my costume: Shift, sip<\/em>; stockings, sip<\/em>; garters, sip<\/em>; shoes, sip<\/em>; and on through corset, petticoats, overskirt, waistcoat, knife belt, pocket, apron, linen cap, and hat.<\/p>\n

Milking the animals was part of my job, and the sheer size of the cows terrified me. Clover the goat seemed more manageable. She was a kicker, though, and milking her required quick reflexes. I kneeled in the dirt and used three fingers to squirt streams into a small brass bucket with a dented, rounded bottom. Soon I learned to lean my head against her side so I could feel the weight shift just before she tried to overturn the pail—any session that ended with usable milk was a triumph. Clover made me work for every precious drop, yet despite our battles, I grew inordinately fond of the spirited doe.<\/p>\n

Plus, using her milk to make cheese was akin to performing a magic act. I was assigned to Alden house—a reproduction of a historic home—and I warmed the milk over a fire, stirred in rennet, and covered it against flies, often for a small crowd. An hour or two later, I\u2019d lift the lid to reveal lovely white curds in greenish whey. As I placed the curds into a cloth to drip, visitors oohed<\/em> and aahed<\/em>. I felt like a rock star—but I still didn\u2019t care for the finished product. <\/p>\n

One afternoon, after hours of tending the hearth, handling animals, cooking, gardening, talking, talking, and talking—all while bound in a corset and wearing 30 pounds of clothing—I was famished. I cast around for something to eat and found only the cheese and some bread. Desperate, I cut a slice and smeared it with curds. <\/p>\n

I braced myself for the bitter, grainy zing I disliked, but it never came. Instead, I savored every bite. I don\u2019t know what exactly caused the gustatory shift. Perhaps the bread, a dense mix of wheat and rye, lessened the sour tang just enough, its chewiness a perfect foil for the soft cheese. Maybe my enjoyment in the make process had something to do with it. Whatever the reason, the cow\u2019s milk-laden coffee I drank at home suddenly seemed lacking. <\/p>\n

Today, I eat ch\u00e8vre with gusto. It\u2019s been a long time since my pilgrim days, but thanks to my stint in the 1600s, I have this fantasy: I picture myself in a cottage on a hill. Goats graze outside. Inside, a cheery fire crackles next to a table laid with the fruits of my labors: hearty bread and a dish of freshly made cheese. Centuries come and go, but simple pleasures remain the same.<\/p>\n

Illustration by Aleks Sennwald<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How a trip back in time changed one woman’s palate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":24903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[590],"tags":[],"coauthors":[829],"class_list":["post-24902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ruminations"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRuminations: Pilgrim's Prejudice - culture: the word on cheese<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/pilgrims-prejudice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ruminations: Pilgrim's Prejudice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How a trip back in time changed one woman's palate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/pilgrims-prejudice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"culture: the word on cheese\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/grantgbradley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-25T21:50:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-02-26T21:06:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/AUT15_Ruminations_ftr.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"368\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sarah Monsma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sarah Monsma\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/pilgrims-prejudice\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/developer83.wordpress-developer.us\/culturecheesemag\/pilgrims-prejudice\/\",\"name\":\"Ruminations: Pilgrim's Prejudice - 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