Where Do Marshmallows Come From

ericwardlaw

An age old question.  Something I’ve pondered for years:  Do marshmallows grow on the ground or in a tree?

Now, thanks to none other than founding father and scientist farmer Thomas Jefferson I can definitively state that marshmallows grow on the ground!  And they are still growing today thanks to the preservation society that maintains his Monticello estate.  Unfortunately, marshmallows were out of season when we visited back in October, but you can clearly see the row labeled by TJ himself in this pic.

Yes, that row of marshmallow bushes is in Thomas Jefferson’s garden at Monticello.  He had a ton crops growing in his garden and according to the tour guide he kept meticulous notes on everything.

If you are in the area, put Monticello on your to-do list.  We made a short visit spending only about 4 hours there.  You could easily spend the whole day if you took multiple tours, watched the movie, shopped in the shops, ate lunch there and walked the whole grounds.

Here’s how a visit to Monticello works:

  1. You arrive and park your car in the parking lot.  That’s free.
  2. Walk to the welcome center and purchase the general admission tickets and any tour passes you’d like (basic ticket I think was about $23 each).
  3. Spend time at the welcome center watching the Thomas Jefferson movie, visit the shops with all sorts of stuff, eat lunch there (or do all this on your way back).
  4. Take a shuttle from the welcome center up to the house ( about a 10 minute ride) or hike the 1/2 mile trail up to the house if you’d prefer.  We did the hike.
  5. On the hike we stopped at the family cemetery.  It is kept behind a wrought iron fence.In this pic  you can see TJ’s headstone/obelisk.   He didn’t care about being remembered for his several inventions and innovations, or being the 3rd President of the United States.  When he died he only wanted to be remembered for 3 things:
    • The Declaration of Independence
    • The Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom
    • Father of the University of Virginia
  6. Once at the top of the hill where the house and gardens are you can wander the grounds or take one of several tours.  We only took the house tour.  It lasted about 20-30 minutes and was very interesting.  You cannot walk through the house except on a tour.
  7. There is a little store with snacks and drinks and momentos at the house.
  8. There is an underground passageway with various storage rooms.  This is where most of the house workers worked. They used dumbwaiter systems to move food and stuff from this lower area up into the house.  It’s a nice little walk.
  9. There are some rooms around the base of the house with various historical items and displays too.
  10. Once you’ve taken your tours and walked around the garden and grounds you can head back down the hill to the welcome center.  Either by shuttle or the trail.

 

 

I didn’t realize TJ was so tall.  Like George Washington he was very tall for the time at about 6’2″ (George I think was 6’4″).  Also, TJ was a little paranoid about his books.  He had thousands and when you take the house tour,  look very carefully and you will see that Jefferson had security cameras installed in the spines of a few of his books.  Obviously he did not fully trust the many visitors he invited to Monticello (Mostly John Adams I think)!

 

Here’s a view looking down on the gardens and across the Virginia countryside. We sat for a while in that little solarium and enjoyed the sun warming us through the windows.

 

 

Tina and her English degree got all worked up when she saw this ‘life-like’ statue of TJ, she had some questions.  “Uh, shouldn’t it be ‘inalienable’ ?”    :-O

 

Here we are all dressed up for lunch with the President on his back porch. Went all out with the black, formal T-shirt. You can’t tell, but my hair is even combed (Ha! Psyche! Not really!)