Barbecue has its roots in Native American, Spanish, and African culinary heritage. The Arawak people of the Caribbean had a diet that included a lot of non-sauce barbecuing of meat on green wood grills they called brabacots.
Elizabeth began planning the menu for the May breakfast. Her fruit cellar still contained a wide variety of jellies and preserves, many of them put aside at the time of their making, for this particular event. The wild strawberries, preserved on the glass by the heat of the sun’s rays, for instance, were a delicacy which the family had enjoyed only at Thanksgiving and Christmas practices.
