Bay state bounty: food is a big part of the Plimoth Plantation experience, whether it's watching colonial meals being prepared and served in the Pilgrim Village or dining with the Pilgrims at one of the 1620 Harvest Dinners offered in fall - Taste Of America - food in Plymouth and Bristol counties, Massachusetts

Travel America, Nov-Dec, 2001 by Randy Mink

For traveling gourmands who seek out regional specialties and distinctive restaurants, the coastal area south of Boston offers a recipe for great vacations. Epicures soon realize there are not enough meal and snack times to adequately sample the gastronomic bounty of Plymouth and Bristol counties.

In November and all year long, thoughts of Thanksgiving flavor the town of Plymouth, where tourist attractions include Plymouth Rock, Plimoth Plantation living history museum, and Ocean Spray Cranberry World Visitors Center. Plymouth County is the No. 1 producer of cranberries, the Bay State's top agricultural crop.

The cranberry bogs' vast crimson carpets signal harvest time, which begins just after Labor Day and continues through October. In South Carver, 10 miles west of Plymouth, the Massachusetts Cranberry Harvest Festival, with cranberry arts and crafts, hayrides, and country music, takes place every Columbus Day weekend at Edaville Railroad, a family fun park. Its antique train steams through a working cranberry bog. Plymouth Colony Winery, which specializes in cranberry and other fruit wines, also has bog tours.

The Indians mixed cranberries with venison and fat to make a sturdy ration called pemmican. The Pilgrims munched them raw, cooked them with maple syrup, and used the berry as an accompaniment for wild game. But it wasn't until the 19th century that cranberries became widely accepted, thanks to the increased availability of sugar from the West Indies.

Exhibits at Cranberry World, a block from the Plymouth waterfront, spotlight the history and processing of the tart red berry and, of course, Ocean Spray products. At cooking demonstrations on the hour, guests may sample cranberry chutney, cookies, or bread. They also get to taste 10 juices. (The museum, $2 for adults, is open from May through Thanksgiving weekend.)

Across the street, Ocean Spray Cranberry House is a gift shop that sells everything from cranberry jelly and tea to cranberry soap and candles, not to mention T-shirts and other company logo items. Nearby is Plymouth Bay Winery, another producer of cranberry wines.

New England is synonymous with fresh seafood, and Plymouth boasts its share of restaurants specializing in lobster, shrimp, clams, scallops, fish, and hearty chowders. In summer, waterfront eateries like the Weathervane and Lobster Hut have outdoor sections that overlook a harbor bustling with excursion boats and commercial fishing vessels. Half-day whale-watch cruises, accompanied by marine biologists, are available spring, summer, and fall.

Local fishmarkets will pack live lobsters to take home or ship anywhere in the country. Curiously, many Pilgrims thought lobsters were only fit for pigs and would eat them only when the food supply was scarce.

Amid the thatched-roof houses at Plimoth Plantation's 1627 Pilgrim Village, costumed colonists talk in 17th century dialects as they go about their daily lives--tending crops, roasting meat, sharing gossip. A short walk from this brilliant re-creation of America's first English settlement is a Wampanoag Indian homesite where native interpreters tell about their ancestors and demonstrate skills like burning out a log to make a canoe.

On selected dates, Plimoth Plantation offers special period meals to the general public. For adventurous eaters, the 1620 Dinners in October and November recall the entertainment and hospitality the Pilgrims found in Plymouth, England, after their America-bound ships (the Mayflower and Speedwell) had to turn back a second time because of leaks in the Speedwell. The bill of fare includes "mussels seeth'd with parsley and beer," white pot (rice pudding), a salad of herbs, and a soup of cabbage, leeks, and onion, plus "beef, roasted with mustard sauce" and "a dish of turkey, sauc'd."

Plimoth Plantation celebrates Thanksgiving Day--based on the Pilgrims' 1621 harvest celebration attended by 50 English colonists and 50 Indians--with turkey and all the trimmings at Victorian-style dinners (three seatings) harking back to the 1860s, when President Lincoln declared it a national holiday. A traditional Thanksgiving buffet (four seatings) also is offered. Reservations for 2002 begin August 1.

For a taste of Thanksgiving year-round, customers at Plimoth Plantation's snack bar can sink their teeth into a Cape Codder, a large roll layered with turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. The same kind of sandwich, but with different names, is sold at other eateries in the area. (A Cape Codder, as many bar patrons know, also is a cocktail made of cranberry juice and vodka.) Massachusetts' fish hook-shaped Cape Cod peninsula starts 15 miles from Plymouth.

Other historical treasures in Plymouth include the Mayflower II, a replica of the sailing ship that brought the Pilgrims to the New World; Plymouth National Wax Museum, with 26 scenes depicting the Pilgrim saga; and Pilgrim Hall Museum, the nation's most complete collection of Pilgrim artifacts.

Traveling southwest to Bristol County, the serious sweet tooth makes a beeline to Dorothy Cox Candy in Fairhaven, a family-owned business since 1928. Toffee lovers go for milk chocolate butter crunch, the top seller. Other favorites include chocolate-covered cranberries, jelly beans, and pretzels, plus all kinds of fudge. Behind the candy counter, the ice cream parlor dishes out 24 homemade varieties, from caramel apple to blueberry pie.