April 22, 2024

"He stuck his finger in the mouth to see if he might wiggle the piece loose. 'And my finger came back wet,' he said."

"'I thought about it for a half-second longer and said, "Oh my God, my finger is wet,"' he recalled. 'I got my flashlight out and shined it in there, and the thing is completely full of liquid,' he said. He summoned colleagues. They were stunned. Here was 'an out-of-the-box, next level, spectacular find,' said Jason Boroughs, Mount Vernon’s principal archaeologist.... 'There are whole, recognizable cherries,' said Boroughs. 'It actually smelled like cherry blossoms when we got to the bottom.'"

From "Centuries-old bottles of cherries unearthed at George Washington’s home/The two, rare intact bottles, about 250 years old, were discovered by archaeologists working in the Mount Vernon basement" (WaPo).

I would have thought they'd have cleaned out the basement by now. This is a feel-good story on so many levels.

22 comments:

Joe Smith said...

Those are racist cherries.

Aggie said...

..."The cherries were likely picked, bottled and stored by some of the hundreds of enslaved people at Mount Vernon, Boroughs said. But they were probably eaten in the main dining room, upstairs...."

"The archaeology was part of larger project to rehabilitate, among other things, the mansion’s deteriorated connection to its foundation, officials said."


I can think of something else that's deteriorated and in dire need of rehabilitation too, and good news: It's above ground, completely within reach, and subject to persuasion of all kinds. Even though some would think it's become a Lost Cause.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

I would have thought they'd have cleaned out the basement by now.

The bottled cherries were buried.

EAB said...

Cherry Bounce?

Joe Smith said...

Macaroni...

Howard said...

I cannot tell a lie, I'm glad to see that the cherries didn't go to waste after George Washington chopped the tree down.

MadisonMan said...

I would've thought Ben Gates had found them about 10 years ago.

Skeptical Voter said...

That cherry tree that little George chopped down (or was about to chop down) carried some special cherries that would last 250 years once preserved.

Unfortunately the spirit, intelligence and civic understanding that led to the American Revolution, and ultimately the Constitution almost 250 years ago isn't holding up so well these days. You've got bozos cheering the trampling of the flag, yelling "Death to America" and "From The River To The Sea" on what purport to be the elite educational institutions of the country. What did we do as a country to deserve these little shites? (I'll Irish here in describing them).

CJinPA said...

George Washington's days are numbered, right? Not to sidetrack a nice story, but there is no way he survives The New Rule: Anything and anyone related at all to the slavery trade will be canceled.

I can't help but think of the coming purges every time I read about a founding father.

Yancey Ward said...

But did they find the body of the cherry tree concealed on the property?

iowan2 said...

Sugar, Fructose is a great preservative. I don't see the big surprise here.

Fun fact to amaze your friends at your next 420 party. Honey is the only food that never spoils.

effinayright said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jamie said...

The thing that amazes me is that the scientific instrument they used to make this discovery was a bare finger!

That said, cool!

Tom T. said...

Approach with caution. Zachary Taylor was killed by bad cherries.

Kevin said...

He stuck in a thumb and pulled out a plum and said, "What a good boy am I."

The Godfather said...

Anne, have you been to Mt. Vernon lately? I went there many times (I lived/worked in DC for decades), most recently about 5 years ago, but they're constantly improving things. It's one of the DC-area sites that doesn't disappoint.

To the best of my knowledge, they've never found any classified documents that Washington secreted there. Rumor is that Jefferson got them all.

Mikey NTH said...

Somebody call Parson Weems! We got evidence!

mongo said...

CJ in PA Said, George Washington's days are numbered, right? Not to sidetrack a nice story, but there is no way he survives The New Rule: Anything and anyone related at all to the slavery trade will be canceled.

Rest assured that the article mentioned at least twice that the work at Mount Vernon was performed by enslaved persons.

mongo said...

CJ in PA Said, George Washington's days are numbered, right? Not to sidetrack a nice story, but there is no way he survives The New Rule: Anything and anyone related at all to the slavery trade will be canceled.

Rest assured that the article mentioned at least twice that the work at Mount Vernon was performed by enslaved persons.

Wince said...

Finally, they popped George Washington’s cherry?

Rusty said...

Slavery was a lot more complicated in the colonies than we've been led to believe.

RonF said...

"I would have thought they'd have cleaned out the basement by now."

LOL! Line of the week!