The American Tolkien Society first declared September 22nd as Hobbit Day in 1978 in honor of Tolkien’s most well-known characters. I love the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books – they are the ones that made commit to reading the books before seeing the movies because of how different they are. Do you feel the same way?
Last year I decided to participate in this holiday by eating like a hobbit for a day. I had no idea what I was getting myself in to! It was a joke when I was pregnant with our youngest that I ate like a hobbit, but it was nothing like this! Two main problems popped up for me: exactly what does a hobbit eat and when do they eat? Since I promised my family I would not try to do this again this year, I thought I could recount my experience last year in case you want to eat like a hobbit tomorrow!
What do hobbits eat?
If you’ve ever watched the movies, there’s this classic scene where Sean Astin’s character Samwise Gamgee (my favorite hobbit) talks about potatoes. Lots and lots of potatoes. That was a good bit of my inspiration for my food. I also used the scene from The Hobbit when the dwarves eat dinner at Bilbo Baggins’ home for inspiration – there’s lots of meats and cheese and loaves of bread. In my head, I also consider the hobbits to be a bit like Irish leprechauns, so my Irish roots show through this menu quite a bit.
When I woke up, the very first thing I did was to make two loaves of soda bread. My traditional soda bread has no fruit in it (I know…sacrilege), and it has always felt like one giant biscuit to me. I also made Hobbit Hash – I fried some homestyle potatoes, added some eggs and sausage, and topped it with cheese. That is still one of my favorite breakfast meals when I have time!
Keeping with the potato theme, which is my favorite food group, I included mashed potatoes and potato-leek soup. And given that dinner scene, I decided the hobbits must make big batches of food, then have left overs for at least some of these meals because….this was going to be a lot of cooking! I also decided the hobbits drank quite a bit of tea and “high society” type drinks, so, in staying with typical British fashion, tea and light pastries made the list for this menu.
With a loose idea of what foods the hobbits ate, it was time to craft our schedule. With 7 distinct meals typical to any hobbit’s day (and a full time job I was still committed to that day), and around 14 waking hours, I took some time to plan out when I was going to eat to space things out in a more appropriate way:
Breakfast – 7AM
This was actually pretty easy. As soon as I could get the bread in the oven, I made breakfast. I sat down to eat around 7AM that morning.
Second Breakfast – 9:30AM
Again, this one was pretty easy. I normally take a quick 10-15 minute break around 9:30AM and used it to toast a few slices of soda bread and make a snack.
Elevensies – 11AM
This was where I was starting to wonder how I was going to eat all this food…I normally go to lunch around this time, but instead, made a cup of tea and grabbed a biscotti at 11AM.
Luncheon – 1PM
At 1PM, I reheated my beer-battered fish and mashed potatoes for lunch. I was already stuffed and ate a much smaller plate than I would normally have enjoyed. SO. MUCH. FOOD.
Afternoon Tea – 3PM
I normally take another quick break around 3, so I used this as the opportunity to eat some leftover apple-blackberry crisp and another cup of tea. This was actually a nice pick me up – I love sweets!
Dinner – 5:30PM
I honestly thought about caving at this point. I was so full after all the other food, but still had 2 meals left to go. I decided to make this one an easy small meal with a charcuterie board of cheese, crackers, hot pepper jelly, deli turkey, soda bread, and a glass of wine.
Supper – 7PM
Our house usually has our final meal around 6PM, but delayed it because there was no way I could eat anymore before 7. A few years ago, we tried a potato-leek soup recipe for Saint Patrick’s Day and it has been a staple ever since. It’s a light soup and veggie packed – it’s actually pretty healthy. I finished my day of hobbit eating with a small cup of soup and another slice of soda bread
After eating like a hobbit for the day, I was so very stuffed. I barely at anything the next few days! If you decide to eat like a hobbit I have one piece of advice: small portions. They were small beings and at very small portions…don’t eat full sized plates or you’ll never make it!
If you do decide to try it out, I’d love to hear about your experience – drop me a note in the comments or tag us in your Instagram posts!
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