William Woys Weaver

William Woys Weaver (born March 13, 1947) is an American culinary historian and scholar of heirloom plants. His specialties include Pennsylvania Dutch cookery, medieval Polish cuisine, and Cypriot cooking during the Lusignan period.

Biography Early life and career William Woys Weaver was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, on March 13, 1947, to H. William and Alameda Weaver. He is descended from 13 generations of Quaker ancestors through his paternal grandmother, Grace Weaver(née Hickman), a Quaker. His paternal grandfather, Ralph Weaver, was a former Mennonite and spoke the Pennsylvania Dutch language, teaching Weaver as he grew up. Ralph Weaver was an avid seed collector, and in 1932 he founded the Roughwood Seed Collection. Seeds were collected from branches of the family in Lancaster County. Other varieties came from Ralph's friend Horace Pippin, the prominent African-American painter, who supplied peppers such as the Fish pepper. Ralph Weaver died in 1956.

Weaver was profiled in The Christian Science Monitor in 1988. At that time, Weaver had amassed a large library of ephemera—engravings, antique cookware—through inheritance and purchases that he drew upon to illustrate his writings. He lived in Devon in Chester County, Pennsylvania, working on the restoration of Roughwood.

Weaver received his PhD degree in food ethnography from University College in Dublin, Ireland.

In 1997, Weaver's book Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener's Guide to Planting, Seed Saving and Cultural History was published by Henry Holt & Company.

In 2001, Weaver published Sauer's Herbal Cures, an annotated translation of a herbal originally written in the late 18th century by Johann Christoph Sauer, an apothecary who lived in the Philadelphia area. Weaver described his goal as the preservation of the genetics of seeds that may otherwise not be preserved as most food was grown through cross-breeding.

Works

1980s A Quaker Woman's Cookbook: The Domestic Cooking of Elizabeth Ellicott Lea (1982)

Elizabeth Ellicott Lea was born in 1793 in Maryland, and spent much of her life in the state until her death in 1858. In 1845, she released Domestic Cookery, a recipe book focused on popular fare rather than the elaborate preparations that dominated the cookbooks of the time. A second edition, published in 1851 expanded the book to contain advice on the domestic duties of housewives, including preventing food waste and treating sickness. Weaver's A Quaker Woman's Cookbook deals with this second edition, providing annotations, bibliography, and an introduction with contextual information on Ellicott's biography, and the book's writing, editing and reception.

In a review for the journal Pennsylvania History, Emma Weigley found Weaver's analysis worthwhile contributions; a reviewer in The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography likewise called Weaver's context "informative". A review in Publishers Weekly commented on the overall text, describing it as "valuable as a footnote to Middle Atlantic States folklore of the early 19th century". In Keystone Folklore, the reviewer gave strong praise to Woys's contributions, finding the bibliography capably done and the glossary so "graceful, amusing and informative that it is a delight to read".

Sauerkraut Yankees: Pennsylvania-German Foods and Foodways (1983)

Weaver's next book was written around his translation of ('The Handy Housewife'), a Pennsylvania Dutch language-cookbook first published in 1848 by Gustav Peters, a printer in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Weaver excised some of the non-cookery content and organised the remaining 139 recipes, accompanying each with an essay. In addition, an introduction, a bibliography, footnotes, 19th-century illustrations, and nineteen recipes from other period cookbooks and household manuals were included.

2010s Culinary Ephemera: An Illustrated History (2010) A trade-card from the T. A. Snider Preserve Company, circa 1890; a piece of ephemera showcased in Culinary Ephemera Designed and composed by Claudia Smelser, the book annotated 352 illustrations of sheet music, business cards, and almanacs, among other ephemera, mostly from Weaver's own collection. The book's thesis argues that ephemera give more insight into the social history of food than one produced by cookbooks.

In The Public Historian, a reviewer described Weaver's prose as "breezy and devoid of jargon", identifying the book as ultimately a success, and at its best as "a snapshot of American culinary history through culinary ephemera". The reviewer found the section on how the American diet differed from diets elsewhere, while disagreeing with Weaver's treatment of gender and race. The book was also reviewed in Gastronomica. While some criticism was given to the inclusion of platitudes and design choices such as justifying text, the review overall judged the book to be a "lovely coffee-table book" that offered a "thoughtful reference". In both reviews, the intended audience was reflected on, with notes that serious collectors may find the lack of bibliography and purchasing advice disappointing.

The book was also reviewed in the Wall Street Journal, and in the The Minnesota Star Tribune. It was named "Best Culinary History" book at the 2011 IACP Awards.

As American as Shoofly Pie: The Foodlore and Fakelore of Pennsylvania Dutch Cuisine (2013)

In 2013, Weaver published As American as Shoofly Pie through the University of Pennsylvania Press. The book covered the cuisine of the Pennsylvania Dutch; both what emerged from cooks in homes, and what emerged as part of the tourist trade, identifying the latter as examples of invented traditions. Like his other books, Weaver here drew upon culinary ephemera—including menus, cookbooks, tourist merchandise—as well as interviews he had conducted over the previous 30 years. The book placed a strong emphasis on debunking popular perceptions about the cuisine.

In the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Jennifer Rachel Dutch found Weaver's debunking of invented traditions "powerful", yet identified the book's best part as its coverage of the cuisine that was and had been cooked in the homes of the Pennsylvania Dutch. The presence of recipes Weaver held out as authentic and tasty was particularly appreciated: described as a "faithful tribute to the Pennsylvania Dutch".