Special Event on the Farm
Salting Fish Visit the Farm family as they clean and salt down their yearly catch of fish. They invite you to help scale, gut and pack the fish into jars, and to learn about the important contributions the river makes to their lives. For the current year's event schedule, please see our calendar of events. Events may be cancelled due to weather conditions.

In late April or early May the melting snow and spring rains cause the rivers in Virginia to swell and rush. With this sudden swelling, or freshet as it was called in the 18th century, come the herring and shad runs. In the 18th century vast numbers of fish would come up the Potomac from the ocean to spawn. This presented a great opportunity for people to gather a year's supply of fish.

In order to get fish for salting in the spring the Farm family would have to walk to the Potomac River and catch their fish. During the runs, the river was so thick with fish that poorer people like our farm family could gather fish using small nets, called seins, or even baskets. They would then salt the fish to preserve it.

How were the fish preserved?

In order to salt the fish, the head, guts and scales have to be removed. The fish is then rubbed with salt and packed into a large jar or a barrel. Some of the fish might also be smoked to preserve it.

Poorer families would only have fresh fish this one time of year, so farm wives would take this opportunity to cook some fish for her family. She might roast a shad (type of fish) by tying it to a plank and placing it near the fire. She could also bake a pie out of fresh herring. A tasty treat for a colonial farm family!

How did other colonists use fish from the river?

Wealthy people like George Washington who owned docks and boats would often gather fish in great quantities during the runs and then sell them to plantations for feeding slaves or ship them to Europe.

Below, Washington describes a deal with Mr. Robert Adam in which Adam will buy the fish caught at Washington's landing for the price of 3 shillings (Virginia currency) per thousand for herring and 8 shillings 4 pence per hundred for whitefish (shad). It is later noted in Washington's ledger that Adam received 473,750 herring and 4,623 shad during April and May of 1770 for which Washington was paid £102 (Virginia currency):

February 3, 1770:
"Agreed with Mr. Robt. Adam for the Fish catchd at the Fishing Landing...on the following terms--to wit He is obligd to take all I catch at that place provided the quantity does not exceed 500 Barls. And will take more than this qty. If he can get Cask to put them in. He is to take them as fast as they are catchd with out giving any interruption to my people; and is to have the use of the Fish House for his Salt, fish, &ca. taking care to have the House clear at least before the next Fishing Season. In consideration of which he is to pay me Ten pounds for the use of the House, give 3/ a thousd. for the Herring (Virg. Money) and 8/4 a hundred (Maryland Curry.) for the whitefish."

At the "Fish House," the herring and shad were salted and packed in barrels the same way our Farm family does, to be sold or shipped abroad.

Source: The Diaries of George Washington. Vol. II and III. Edited by Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976.