Sheila Benjamin has a well deserved reputation for having the best outfitted 16th century Spanish kitchen anywhere in Florida. Her kitchenware, seen on this page, would be the envy of most Spanish expedtions including well supplied Hernando De Soto's in 1539.

Copperware adds that feeling of authenticity to our Spanish reenactments.

Metal spoons and ladels on wooden trenchers, upon which joints of meat, biscuits, and other foods were heaped in a common meal for several diners. Each person had to supply their own knife and spoon.

Wooden spoons, scoops, and other utensils.

Ship's biscuits, otherwise known as hardtack, (lower left) was standard fair on expeditions. They were baked twice to keep them from molding and therefore had to be soaked in a liquid to make them palatable. Yucca root (top) was a Carribean food which quickly became a staple in the European diet in the New World. Old World foods like beans and chick peas were the mainstay of the daily fare aboard ship.

A caldron of chick peas flavored with chunks of chorizo sausage simmers over the fire.