This garden fed the Custis and Lee families, their many guests, the enslaved house workers, and even the Federal Army. It provided for the family from early spring to late fall.The harvest included fruits and vegetables such as berries, potatoes, broccoli, artichokes, turnips, and tomatoes. Prize carrots, beets, cabbage and squash were displayed at local agricultural exhibitions. The garden also provided herbs for medicinal purposes, along with currant, blackberry, and fox grapes for wine."...there is pleasure in a dish of asparagus just from the earth, white, tender, sweet...There is joy in young peas that know no pause between the gathering and the table, green, sweet, and buttery. And what emotion of delight green corn...inspire[ed]."Elizabeth Randolph Calvert (Cousin of Mary Lee)Captions:After the Lees left Arlington in 1861, and throughout the Civil War, this garden fed the occupying Union soldiers and later the families of officers stationed at Arlington House.The enslaved workers raised chickens, milked cows, churned butter, smoked hams, maintained an ice house and canned produce to sustain the household through the winter.Old and treasured family recipes depended upon the success of the garden. Mrs. Custis, and in turn Mrs. Lee, used a cookbook handed down by Martha Washington. A great-grandaughter of Robert E. Lee compiled this book from those recipes.Robert E. Lee teased his daughter Mildred in a letter about her "exploding" ketchup, made from garden tomatoes.
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