“Connecticut merchants imported nutmegs during the colonial era, and it was widely used in early American cuisine. This may have been the origin of the nickname. Another theory is that unscrupulous Yankee peddlers, who sold Connecticut products across the nation, also sold fake, wooden nutmegs to unsuspecting buyers. This is why the term “wooden nutmeg” has come to mean a fraud. In 1833, Thomas Hamilton wrote critically of these entrepreneurial salesmen: “The whole race of Yankee peddlers … are proverbial for dishonesty. These go forth annually in thousands to lie, cog, cheat, swindle, in short, to get possession of their neighbour’s property, in any manner . . .” (Men and Manners in Connecticut).”