WPA Mississippi Drinkways
Juke Joint, Clarksdale, Mississippi Delta, 1939, Courtesy of the New York Public Library
Here is a recipe from our series on drinkways. It comes out of WPA food sources archived in the Library of Congress in Washington DC. in the Mississippi folder titled America Eats Notes, Reports, and Essays. William Wheeler of Leflore County, Mississippi shares this recipe:
Persimmon Beer
I take a bushel of right persimmons pick out the seeds and take half a bushel of corn meal, and half a bushel of sweet potato peelings. Line a keg with real clean corn shucks. And pour in the meal, potato peelings and persimmons which have all been mashed together real good. Covered them all with water. Bore a hole in the keg to draw out the beer. Mash up some cornbread in a cup and fill it up with the beer. It sure does taste fine.
Take away: What kind of fruit trees do you have growing in abundance around you? A friend and neighbor and I joked about the pear and apple trees in his yard that produce more fruit that his family and even perhaps his neighborhood can consume. So why not sell the overflow from your fruit trees to area micro brewers along with sharing a link to recipes like this one?Swap out persimmons for other fruit and come up with a great local beer that people would buy and enjoy.
