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Holiday Hours: The Folger is closing at 4:30pm on Dec 24 and Dec 31. We are closed all day on Dec 25 and Jan 1.

All 3 posts by

Julia Fine

was a Plant Humanities Postgraduate Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks, where she studied the relationship between food, agriculture, and the environment in the British Empire. As a Dumbarton Oaks Humanities Fellow in 2019-20, she worked with Before 'Farm to Table' at the Folger. She also took part in the launch of the Before 'Farm to Table' website this summer. Her work on food has been recognized by the James Beard Foundation, the World History Association, and the Oxford Food Symposium.
Eating plants in the early modern world
Shakespeare and Beyond

Eating plants in the early modern world

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Julia Fine

Explore turmeric, cinnamon, mint, and sugar to learn more about plants as food, and what they reveal about the early modern age and today.

Much Ado About Stuffing: Recreating an early modern stuffing recipe
cutting open to the turkey and stuffing
Shakespeare and Beyond

Much Ado About Stuffing: Recreating an early modern stuffing recipe

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Elisa Tersigni Jack Bouchard Julia Fine Michael Walkden

Photo credit: Brittany Diliberto, Bee Two Sweet Today, turkey and stuffing are central fare on the holiday table. But turkeys weren’t even known in England until the 1520s, when they were introduced by explorers returning from the Americas. Turkey was…

Food culture and First Chefs: Appreciating the layers of meaning behind food in Shakespeare’s world and our own
marmite food memory
Shakespeare and Beyond

Food culture and First Chefs: Appreciating the layers of meaning behind food in Shakespeare’s world and our own

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Author
Julia Fine

In Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, Petruchio grabs a leg of roast mutton and throws it to the ground. Doing so, he exclaims, “it engenders choler, planteth anger,/ And better ‘twere that both of us did fast.” As food…