2026 Plummer's Kitchen Event Recap (Riversdale, MD)

I recently visited the Riversdale Historic Site & Museum’s Plummer's Kitchen program, which is held annually during Black History Month.

The educational program highlighted the contributions and lives of Adam Francis Plummer & Emily Saunders Plummer and the other enslaved people who worked at the Riversdale mansion. African American foodways were the focus. The Kitchen Guild volunteers prepared traditional local recipes in the hearth: hamhocks, greens, rice, hoppin john, johnny cakes, (as well as tamarind water). There was also a great presentation by museum director and folklorist Shyra Peyton about African American foodways and folklore.