At the table with
John Quincy Adams.

THE HISTORICAL TABLE

The president who grew dessert

John Quincy Adams took an active interest in gardening at the White House. The White House Historical Association records strawberries and blackcurrants as regular fruit at his presidential table.

A bowl of those berries is the starting point here. Cream and a little sugar make a simple modern serving of the garden’s produce, with the sharp currants balancing the strawberries. The fruit connection is recorded; this particular bowl is our culinary reconstruction.