Oysters: ‘A Maryland Favorite’

I had the pleasure of accompanying my daughter on a field trip to Rose Hill Manor in Frederick last week.

My husband and I each had fuzzy memories of being served mint tea and some sort of  cracker when we had visited Gov. Thomas Johnson’s retirement home during our own elementary school field trip days many years ago, so it tickled me when my daughter also was served that distinctive mint tea; however, she and her class had the pleasure of having fresh popcorn popped over the kitchen fire instead of that dreadful cracker.

While in the kitchen, I noticed a poster outlining a recipe for frying oysters that came from a book called The Frugal Housewife published in 1772. “The taste for oysters was carried from the short to the mountains by English and Scots-Irish immigrants as they settled new areas. With the development of the railroad oysters became more available and affordable,” according to the poster. It even displayed a few oyster shells that had been found underneath the kitchen floor.

My daughter enjoyed her visit so much that she wants us to return with her brother this summer. I call that a successful field trip!