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Presumably, his food preferences remained unchanged. According to his biographers, our first president did, indeed, love cherries. Washington said: “My manner of living is plain, and I do not mean to be put out by it. A glass of wine and a bit on mutton are always welcome. Those who expect more will be disappointed.

This, however, is an example of the “plain living” offered guests at a Presidential dinner: There was an elegant variety of roast beef, veal, turkey, ducks, fowls, hams, etc. Breakfast seems to have been the only meal in the Presidential house that was relaxed. At least the report of Henry Wansey, and English manufacturer, who had breakfast with the President and his family on June 8, 1794, indicates this to be so: “Mrs. George Washington’s cherry tree chopping story has long been debunked by historians as nationalistic myth.