Diet.

Americans of the revolutionary era relied heavily on salted meat, root vegetables, milk, and porridge. The frontier experience, a foundation of colonial society, had eliminated all but the hardiest of vegetables from the diet. Beans, turnips, potatoes, and sweet potatoes were easy to grow and could be stored for long periods of time. Regional variations in diet among the colonies were significant, determined by what foods were at hand and on the origins of the people who settled there. The Breadbasket. New York, New Jersey, and particularly Pennsylvania made up the breadbasket of the British colonies; the farmers of eastern Pennsylvania produced most of the wheat consumed in Canada and the West Indies. Consequently the diet in this region was more varied than in other colonies. The Germans and the Dutch introduced many foods to the bland English diet, including cheeses...