Object: Lemon

Image Credits

Still-Life, Breakfast with Champaign Glass and Pipe 1642, Jan Davidz de Heem

Object Type(s)
Description

Lemons or other citrus trees could not be grown in New Netherland, but most ships had some form of citrus on board to prevent scurvy.   Lemons preserved in fat in a barrel were common.  Marmalade was a serious luxury, but might have been stocked for the Captain's table in a few ships.   

Joel Grossman's archeological dig found a single lemon seed amoung all the other seeds in the layer for the 17th century.   It has been assumed that this seed came from some marmalade or a preserved lemon brought onto Manhattan while the ships were docked there.

See a detailed article on the archeology of plant life in New Amsterdam by Joel Grossman, PhD. here.  Courtesy of the Holland Society of New York.