God jul!

Today as I shoveled snow off the roof here in Chautauqua County, I was thinking about the first winter for the Swedes in Sugar Grove, many of that group were living in the barn of William Faulkner. It is not very likely that they ate bruna bönor med fläsk or potatiskorv -- maybe some venison.

The early cooking of these Swedes is not a subject that I have run across in my research. Ingredients were different: the berries weren’t the same, the sirap now was maple syrup, maybe the apple cider was similar. A great deal of adjustment had to have been made to cook in this new world.

A nice discussion of brown beans and their role in Swedish cooking can be found at www.oland.se/en/the-swedish-brown-bean

If you have any stories related to early (pre 1880) cooking of the Swedes in our area, please forward them to this site:  jamestownswedes@hotmail.com.  Tack!