One fall holiday activity that we would love to see gain a following, would be early New England food cook-offs using only handmade Wampanoag-style clay pots.
It’s fun for families and auxiliary groups to get together during the winter months to make egg-shaped Wampanoag-style clay pots, or something close to it, using modern clays (I like to call my pots “Wanna-be Wampanoag pots” 
).
If your group wants to get really authentic, you can even go the extra mile and learn how to make and fire the pots using natural clay and outdoor firing methods.
You’ll find food-safe modern clay sources, stone and clay pot “proving” instructions, as well as natural clay gathering and firing instructions in our historical Thanksgiving how-to guide, The American Patriot’s Treasury of Historical Thanksgiving Dinner Ideas. However, if you would like to go the route of natural clay work, we highly recommend using the Native Clays video by Tony Soares as a visual step-by-step training resource. Tony shares historical clay preparation secrets that we didn’t know when we wrote the guide.
Whatever you decide, once you have your clay pots you’re ready to host a fall outdoor fire-pit cook-off. Cooking in the clay pots is exciting – especially the first time!
Awards might include “Most Authentic Pot,” “Best Stew,” and “Most Authentic Recipe,” etc..
If you would like to turn your cook-off into a fundraiser, you can auction off the pots, with or without contents (provide towels with the pots as they will be sooty). Very fun!
Note: The hardest part about organizing a fire-pit cook-off, is finding a location where there are plenty of properly prepared pits, and a natural setting (nothing like modern vehicles everywhere to dampen the time-travel fun!).
One More Note : Raised cooking pits are not only easier on the back, but they’re safer for ladies wearing period costumes. In any case, always keep a bucket of water nearby in case fire escapes.
