I grew up next door to my grandparents on a small family farm. I remember my grandmother spending the latter part of her mornings in the kitchen fixing dinner for my grandfather and herself. The midday meal was their main one — usually a stick-to-your-ribs, meat-and-potatoes menu that filled the gap since breakfast and stayed with my grandfather until evening.

Turns out my grandparents’ meal routine in many ways resembled that of colonial farm families: a small, cold breakfast, followed by a big midday spread with lots of protein, and then a small evening meal. But colonial meals, such as those prepared in the Daggett Farmhouse in Greenfield Village, were much more dependent on the calendar.

At Daggett, the 1760s Connecticut home that became part of Greenfield Village in 1978, “Everything is done according to cookbooks of the period and foods of the season,” says Cathy Cwiek, The Henry Ford’s manager of historic foodways and domestic life programs.

Each day, presenters at the Daggett Farmhouse prepare one midday meal: a main dish, one or more side dishes, a bread and sometimes a sweet. Presenters choose from seasonal menus that may include about a dozen main dishes, a dozen sides, a half-dozen breads and a dozen sweets.

This time of year was a time to plant the year’s crop and finish using up the foods preserved from the last harvest. One recent dinnertime at the Daggett Farmhouse, presenters Suzanne Geliske and Patience Hotton prepared and served a meal that — judging from its appearance and aroma — indicated that the Daggetts ate well, at least at midday.

On the menu:
– Chicken in the Dutch Way, “basically boiled chicken served over rice,” Suzanne says. Rice wasn’t grown in Connecticut, so the rice in the farmhouse would have been purchased from a merchant in a market town. Both the chicken and the rice were boiled in pots over the great room hearth.
– A garden salad made from greens (white cos lettuce, chive blossoms, rose petals and lovage leaves) harvested that morning from the garden just outside the kitchen. The salad was served with a hot dressing of oil, vinegar and herbs.
– Fresh asparagus heated over the hearth and pickled items (beets and cauliflower for this meal) preserved from last fall’s harvest.
– Pea soup made from dried peas and smoked sausage and heated over the hearth.
– Molasses-wheat bread with butter. Although main and side dishes varied depending on what foods were available, the constant at every meal was bread served either with butter or cheese.
– Rice pudding, heated over the hearth, for dessert.
– Cool well water to drink.

The Daggett family’s dinner looked and smelled delicious — freshly washed greens, steam rising from the platter of succulent chicken pieces on a bed of fluffy rice, colorful pickled vegetables, an inviting loaf of bread with butter — and had me glancing at my watch to see how long until my own lunchtime.

During dinner, Suzanne, Patience and fellow presenter Russ Eichold told visitors about some utensils that seem unusual today. Patience pointed out that many colonial spoons were crafted from animal horn. Russ held up his knife and fork. The fork had just two tines, and they were extremely sharp. And the knife was very wide. Demonstrating with a piece of chicken on his plate, Russ explained that colonists used the fork to hold food for cutting, then to slide pieces of food onto the wide knife blade. Once the food was on the knife, it was simply a matter of lifting the knife to the mouth.

Cathy says meat was a mainstay of 18th-century dinners because farm work was difficult and workers needed a lot of energy. In 1760s New England, she says, seafood was available and an occasional main dish — sometimes served at the Daggett Farmhouse — was eel. “You mention eel, and a lot of the workers say ‘Eeeeeewwwww!’” Cathy says. “But it tastes good.”