More bottles of cherries found at George Washington’s Mount Vernon home in “spectacular” discovery

Buried in the cellar of George Washington’s Mount Vernon home, a treasure trove was ready to be found – an infinite quantity of preserved cherries. Archaeologists found 35 glass bottles with cherries, Mount Vernon officers introduced on Thursday, just some weeks after two bottles were found in April.

“Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine this spectacular archaeological discovery,” stated Mount Vernon President Doug Bradburn. 

Mount Vernon officers stated the cherries, which included gooseberries and currants, have been buried in 5 storage pits in the mansion’s cellar. They had been hidden for about 250 years earlier than being unearthed throughout ongoing renovation initiatives at Mount Vernon. Of the 35 bottles, 29 have been found intact.

Washington lived at his Virginia household’s property for many of his life. He took over administration of the property in 1754, and slowly constructed and added to the home. The household trusted lots of of enslaved folks to run Mount Vernon. 

“The bottles and contents are a testament to the knowledge and skill of the enslaved people who managed the food preparations from tree to table, including Doll, the cook brought to Mount Vernon by Martha Washington in 1759 and charged with oversight of the estate’s kitchen,” Mount Vernon officers stated in the assertion. 

“These artifacts likely haven’t seen the light of day since before the American Revolution, perhaps forgotten when George Washington departed Mount Vernon to take command of the Continental Army,” Bradburn stated. 

The high quality of the preserved, albeit fragile, bottles revealed intact fruit, pits and pulp, offering “an incredibly rare opportunity to contribute to our knowledge of the 18th-century environment, plantation foodways, and the origins of American cuisine,” stated Jason Boroughs, principal archaeologist at Mount Vernon. 

Analysis of a small pattern found 54 cherry pits and 23 stems. The stems have been neatly minimize and left on earlier than the cherries have been bottled. Researchers stated they consider the pits are ripe for DNA extraction and doable germination.