from Taste and Tales of Cape Cod and the Islands
from A Taste of Cranberries and some tales too
from Taste and Tales of Massachusetts

Sample Tales from Taste and Tales of Cape Cod and the Islands

Cape Cod Canal

In order to get the Cape Cod Canal dug, the Canal Company imported
500 Italian immigrants to build it. Finally, after five long years of exhausting and
arduous work, the Cape Cod Canal opened on July 29, 1914, to a great deal
of fanfare and horn blowing. In 1927, the U.S. Government took control of the
canal and built the Sagamore, Bourne, and trestle bridges. In 1935, the Army
Corps of Engineers widened the canal to 480 feet and deepened it to a minimum
depth of 32 feet at low tide. Today, the canal carries over 20,000 vessels and 24
million tons of cargo annually and is considered the widest man-made sealevel
canal in the world. Weary travelers who traverse the bridges every weekend
only wish that they had built them wider.

All About Oysters

Oysters have been a staple in Wellfleet since 1665 when Jacobus Loper introduced the famed oyster to Boston. Originally the town was known as Billingsgate, after a famous fish market in London. In 1763, the Northern end of Easton formed its own government and named the town Wellfleet, after an oyster from the Eastern waters of England. Originally, the oysters were transplanted from Connecticut and the Chesapeake Bay and the oysters today are descendants of those. Many believe that the best oysters in the world are here in Wellfleet. The distinctive "Wellfleet
flavor" is said to come from the "colder-than-average water and the relatively high
salinity in the estuaries around Wellfleet produce clean-tasting oysters. The fastmoving tides along with a unique mix of nutrients and local phytoplankton add up to a plump oyster with a balance of sweetness and brine." In mid-October, thousands come to the Wellfleet Oyster Festival.

Sample Tales from A Taste of Cranberries and some tales too

It has been an unchallenged doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo of overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it… There are some things in every country that you must be born to endure; and another hundred years of general satisfaction with Americans and America could not reconcile this expatriate to cranberry sauce, peanut butter, and drum majorettes.

~ Alistair Cooke, Talk about America

In the 1870s, growers in Wisconsin lost a great many cranberries due to flooding and freezing weather. As growers installed irrigation systems, they learned that loses due to frost could be minimized by flooding the marshes. Today, owners now sprinkle the water over the cranberry plants to prevent frost damage (in Florida they do the same for the strawberry and orange crops.)

Sample Tales from Taste and Tales of Massachusetts

Cows on the Common

The Boston Common, one of the oldest public parks in the country, was owned originally by William Blackstone and used primarily as a pasture. Upon becoming a public park, it became illegal to graze cows on the Common. Today, the Common is the heart of Boston. In the winter there is skating on Frog Pond; and in the warmer months, visitors and residents alike are seen performing Tai Chi or walking their pets. The Common hosts many parties throughout the year, from First Night in January to the annual lighting of the Christmas trees. The first football game in America was played on the Boston Common around 1860.

I remember as a teenager walking through the Common, which was resplendent with the symbols of Christmas – from Yule logs to reindeer.

Famous Firsts

So many firsts happened, and continue to happen, in Massachusetts. It only seems appropriate that they all began with the first Thanksgiving in 1621.

Academically, the firsts include:

• Harvard University, first American university (1636)
• Boston Latin School, first American public school (1635)

Other firsts in America include:

• Boston Commons, first public park (1634)
• Boston Public Library, first public library (1653)
• Arsenal at Springfield, first federal armory (1777)
• Boston News-Letter, first regularly issued newspaper (1704)
• Mount Auburn Cemetery in Watertown and Cambridge, first landscaped cemetery (1831)