There's an exhibit at Mount Vernon right now entitled "Hoecakes & Hospitality: Cooking with Martha Washington." It is a interesting account of life in colonial times as it relates to food. One of the depictions states:
George Washing kept a careful eye on Mount Vernon's crops, but Martha Washington oversaw the kitchen gardens that furnished foodstuffs for the dinner tables. In a time before grocery stores or farmers markets, the kitchen gardens were "a necessary support of life," as one gardening manual observed. Mount Vernon's hired gardener and two or three enslaved workers tended herbs, vegetables and fruits, which the cooks transformed into tasty dishes.
One of the garden crops was asparagus (see VinnyPost March 1). Here is one of Martha's recipes for "a ragoo of asparagus."
Scrape a hundred of grass very clean, and throw it into cold water. When you have scraped all, cut as far as is good and green, about an inch long, and take two heads of endive clean washed and picked, cut it very small, a young lettuce clean washed and cut small, a large onion peeled and cut small, put a quarter of a pound of butter into a stew pan, when it is melted throw in the above things; toss them about, and fry them ten minutes; then season them with a little pepper and salt, shake in a little flour, toss them about, then pour in half a pint of gravy. Let them stew till the sauce is very thick and good; then pour all into your dish. Save a few of the little tops of the grass to garnish the dish.
Sounds like Martha was accustomed to cooking for a crowd...
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