ISSUE 31, FARMERS MARKETS, Part 2: Norfolk VA in 1809
The Norfolk VA Market
The Meat found in Early America City Markets-Norfolk 1809
What did a meat market look like in a southern city when America was young? An English woman, Anne Ritson, in 1809 supplied a poetic portrait in a book entitled A Poetical Picture of America. My friend Bernie Herman first brought this book to my attention over 15 years ago—and it remains a treasure trove of information about the material world of Tidewater VA. So here is the scene at the Norfolk market with the editorial judgments of a woman who has seen the stalls in the great English market towns.
Men mostly morning hours employ,
And marketing, the needfuls buy,
It being an uncommon sight,
For females to usurp that right;
And none but of the lowest mien,
Are ever with the hucksters seen.
Their beef is but indifferent meat,
It’s kill’d by much too young to eat;
But, during winter, some is brought
From New-York, of a better sort;
The mutton tolerably fat,
The veal as lean as any cat.
No cattle is like ours indeed,
They cannot boast so fine a breed;
The cows are small: the calves are sold
About the time they’re four weeks old.
The lamb is sometimes fine enough,
Tho’ oftener very skinny stuff;
Pork, you’re sure is always good,
They live so richly in the wood,
Feasting on the very prime
Of peaches, all the summer time;
Oppossums too, when not too big,
Are brought, and often sold for pig;
Bear’s flesh may frequently be had,
And ven’son too, but thin and bad.
The beef in price is mostly found
At fourpence half-penny a pound,
And is the only meat they weigh;
The rest you always take away
In joints, or quarters, as you like,
And with the seller bargain strike.
Poultry are generally fine,
Without some sort, few people dine;
Turkies are often very large,
For which they seven and sixpence charge;
But mostly, when they’re young and nice,
A dollar is a fine one’s price.
For geese you half a dollar pay,
The giblets tho’ they keep away;
A quarter dollar, duck or chicken,
When on their bones there’s ought worth picking.
Rabbits are seldom seen, or hares,
The few they sell are caught in snares.
Racoons are also brought for sale,
The little squirrels never fail;
When in a pie, or nicely fri’d,
They are by many much enjoy’d.
Small birds, that ev’ry taste may hit,
They bring from blackbirds to tom-tit,
Which in a bunch they closely tie,
And you may for a trifle buy.
The partridges are small and good,
But seldom venture from the wood;
And are so scarce, that those who buy,
And want to make a partridge pie,
Are glad when they can get a few,
Upon some other birds to strew,
Well season’d by a clever cook,
And they they’re all for partridge took;
These birds, which epicures regale,
Are smaller than an English quail.