Each November, on the third Thursday of the month, Americans gather with family and friends to give thanks for what we have and indulge in a traditional feast of turkey, stuffing, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. The holiday has been celebrated since 1621 when early settlers feasted with Native Americans who introduced them to these now traditional Thanksgiving staples.

 
While the history of the first-holiday meal is complex, Pilgrims sat down to the first-holiday meal after they were introduced to corn, pumpkin, ham, carrots, cranberries, and more by Native Americans. These foods also helped sustain the settlers through the frigid winter. The natives had the knowledge of the land and successful planting practices that they used to survive, making them America's first landscape professionals.

They taught pilgrims about planting squash and pumpkin, which the settlers called "pompions," or the French word, puopon, meaning melon or squash. Native Americans taught them to plant these hearty fruits in between corn to shade out weeds.

Prior to that first dinner, Bradford invited Pawtucket Indian Chief Massosoit as a sign of graditude, where he showed up with 90 people and brought a deerskin sack filled with popcorn, introducing the Pilgrims to popcorn.

Cranberry is another seemingly American food that the Native Americans introduced to Pilgrims. The tart berry, while challenging to grow, is one of the few native fruits that Americans have mainstreamed over the centuries and is now a well-respected Thanksgiving staple.

LASN wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and a great kick-off to the holiday season and for the landscape professionals that make the holiday possible.