Williamsburg on meals prepared by French chefs, and together with James Monroe, his roommate in Annapolis, he often savored soufflés and tourtes de beurre. Like other Virginians of his class, Jefferson regarded the French “pleasures of table” as a mark of status and sophistication.
In 1769, seven years after Jefferson graduated from college, he initiated construction of Monticello, a mansion that he designed himself. Jefferson moved into the completed part of the building in 1770, and in 1772 he married Martha Wales Skelton and settled with her at Monticello to raise children and to tend to the estate’s large terraced garden.
Here in this natural laboratory, he experimented with growing more than 250 varieties of vegetables, including cabbage, asparagus, artichokes, sea kale, cucumbers, squash, eggplants, broccoli, and his favorite, English peas. He pioneered the cultivation of tomatoes—still considered poisonous by some at that time—for use in gumbos, soups, pickles, and preserves. From the soil in Jefferson’s gardens came the salads that were an essential part of his diet: usually a mixed bouquet of lettuce, spinach, endive, pepper grass, French sorrel, cress, and
Thomas Jefferson’s lifelong interest in the culinary arts was almost as great as his interest in politics.
In the terraced gardens of Jefferson’s home, Monticello, the future president experimented with growing hundreds of varieties of vegetables.
T H E E L K S M A G A Z I N E
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PHOTO: TETRA IMAGES/CORBIS
PHOTO: CORBIS
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