Farmers' Bulletins Advice to Women on Diet, Food, and Cooking

ABSTRACT The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published Farmers' Bulletins since 1889 and they are readily available from many academic libraries. The bulletins have a unique quality, since researchers created them to acquaint the public with their work. Many are addressed to women as housekeepers and give advice on diet, food, and cooking. Farmers' Bulletins presented new nutritional information, advice on novel foods such as okra or dasheens that could be grown more widely, cooking methods to improve nutrition and ease of preparation, or new preparation methods. The bulletins provide insight into what was known and what was new at the time they were first published, as well as a look at some of the tools and practices of food preparation in the early twentieth century.