An anonymous poem, titled “New England’s Annoyances” (circa 1643), chronicled the trials and travails of America’s earliest European arrivals. Among the complaints in these heroic couplets is:

“If barley be wanting to make into malt

We shall be contented and think it no fault

For we shall make liquor to sweeten our lips

Of pumpkins and parsnips and walnut tree chips

And other green cornstalks we make our best beer

We put it in barrels to drink all the year”

May your Thanksgiving table be gifted with better than green corn stalks and walnut tree chips.