Q 01/05

Per Edward Winslow's 1621 letter, what did the four men sent hunting bring back for the Plymouth harvest feast?

A) Enough fowl to feed the colony for a week

B) A dozen barrels of salted eels

C) Baskets of oysters and mussels

D) Twelve deer and a bear

Answer · why

A) Enough fowl to feed the colony for a week

Winslow was trying to lure more colonists across the Atlantic, so the letter reads a little like a brochure.

Q 02/05

Based on Winslow's letter, some historians think the 1621 harvest feast was mostly which food?

A) Venison

B) Seafood

C) Cornbread

D) Wildfowl

Answer · why

B) Seafood

Lobster, fish, eels, mussels and oysters were all on hand in coastal Massachusetts, and mussels could simply be pulled off the shoreline rocks.

Q 03/05

There were no pies at the 1621 harvest feast because the colonists had no butter, no sugar and no what?

A) Fresh eggs

B) Sea salt

C) Wheat flour

D) Pork lard

Answer · why

C) Wheat flour

Potatoes were missing too: they are native to South America and had not yet entered the global food system.

Q 04/05

Roughly what share of the turkeys Americans eat are Broad Breasted Whites?

A) About 60%

B) About 75%

C) About 90%

D) More than 99%

Answer · why

D) More than 99%

The breed can top 40 pounds but has to be artificially bred and suffers health problems because of its size.

Q 05/05

What was the compact 8-to-15-pound bird with extra breast meat that the USDA bred and sold from 1947 called?

A) Beltsville Small White

B) Broad Breasted Bronze

C) Standard Bronze Mini

D) Maryland Royal Palm

Answer · why

A) Beltsville Small White

It was developed at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland and later lost out to the much bigger Broad Breasted White.