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mess noun A hearty amount, sufficient portion of food.

c1830 (in 2007 Dunkerly Kings Mt 32) I have often thought, if a man would eat a mess of parched corn and s[w]allow two or three spoonfuls of honey, then take a good draught of cold water, he could pass longer without suffering than with any other diet he could use. 1862 Epperly CW Letters (July 20) wee can get Blackberrys Somtimes bake pies they eat verry well wee had a mess of pies last eavning. 1937 Hall Coll (Cosby TN) The bear killed lots of stock. He wouldn’t eat but two messes out of a big’un and then kill him another'n. 1963 Watkins and Watkins Yesterday in Hills 89 After a farmer killed a hog, he sent a good “mess of meat” to every close neighbor. 2006 WV Encycl 271 The tradition of gathering poke and other greens continues to this day. It is no uncommon sight in the spring to see women walking along the roadside picking a “mess of greens.”