Canadians at Table: Food, Fellowship, and Folklore

by Dorothy Duncan

  The vegetables basic to everyday cooking would have included cabbage, carrots, peas, onions, and turnips, augmented by those the First Nations had been using for centuries, such as corn, pumpkin, squash, and potatoes. Dried peas have been part of human diets since biblical times, and sometimes have been used in extraordinary ways. For example, in ancient Rome they were cooked and sold as a treat at the circus, and at times have been given away by politicians in an attempt to buy votes! Once the peas have been dried and the outer skins removed, they are easy to cook, and in French Canada they became the basis for another honoured recipe — pea soup, made originally from whole yellow peas, and later from split yellow and green peas.

  The origin of the world-famous tourtière is hotly debated by culinary historians. Its ancestry may be traced to the ancient civilizations of Babylon, Greece, or Rome, or to the Middle Ages, or to the English pork pie. However, many believe the dish originated in Canada as a descendant of the “sea pie” of Atlantic communities, or its name may derive from the French word tourte, meaning “wild pigeon.” Early settlers have left us accounts of the waves of wild pigeons that would arrive at certain times of the year and could be caught in nets, clubbed, or simply grabbed by hand. Tourte also means a pottery casserole in which pigeon pie was originally baked, so either of these uses of the word may explain the savoury pie baked between two layers of crust and usually served cold. There are dozens of variations of the recipe from region to region, and through the years ingenious housewives worked with what was available, so any combinations of beef, pork, salt pork, veal, wild game, fowl, potatoes, onions, salt, pepper, mustard, cinnamon, cloves, or allspice may have been included.

  Meanwhile, people were on the move, and settlements were springing up in many locations. English settlers were attracted to Nova Scotia by free passage, free land grants, a year’s provisions, farming tools, guns and ammunition, and the promise of a planned town (Halifax). Colonel Edward Cornwallis arrived in the Nova Scotia colony in June 1749 and was soon followed by twenty-five-hundred colonists.

  The first winter was very difficult. There were not enough homes yet to shelter the settlers, and many had to stay on board the ships, huddled together to keep from freezing. Those on land were not much better off, for the rude shanties, formed of upright poles stuck in the ground and roofed over with the bark of trees, were not enough to keep out the cold. Their only food consisted of government rations of salt meat and hardtack, and thus, without fresh meat and vegetables to sustain their health, they developed typhus. It is tragic to note that almost one-third of the population died. But eventually Halifax became a town — a little piece of Old England nestled on a harbour in the wilds of North America.[5]

  The proximity of the New England colonies in what was to become the new United States of America ensured a constant flow of settlers from the south, many bringing with them their African American slaves. When the Acadians were expelled by the British governor in 1755, thousands of these new arrivals took up their vacant, fertile farms to supply Halifax with food.

  Historians believe the Highland Scots faced the greatest challenge in Nova Scotia, since they often arrived penniless. However, after cutting the timber and burning it on the land, they planted potatoes among the stumps and were rewarded with a plentiful return. In winter they would cut holes through the ice, which was often a foot thick, in order to obtain a supply of fish. They learned to hunt moose and other game, the meat of which they froze in the snow, thus providing a little variety to their meals. But they longed for the oatmeal that is so much a part of Scottish fare. The only bread to be had in the earliest days was made from grain ground on the quern, or hand mill, but this procedure was so laborious an operation that they resorted to it only when impelled by the direst necessity. The beverage served at mealtime was often a tea made by boiling the leaves of the partridgeberry.[6]

  As the years passed and settlements developed, the new arrivals began to realize that they, too, could benefit not just from their farms but also from the extraordinary marine resource on their doorstep. One example of this is the community of Lunenburg in Nova Scotia, settled in 1753 by 1,453 Protestants from Switzerland, France, and Germany, whose first interest was farming their rich agricultural land. Since the town is close to the capital, Halifax, there was a ready market for root vegetables, timber, and boards. Slowly the interest of the settlers, like that of those in the nearby communities of Liverpool and New Dublin, turned to shore fishing for gaspereau (in May), cod and salmon (April to October), mackerel (June to October), and dogfish (from August onwards). These fish were eaten fresh or preserved by smoking or pickling in brine for family or local consumption.[7]

  Île Saint-Jean, now known as Prince Edward Island, was “discovered” by Jacques Cartier in 1534. However, it was not until 1719 that two newcomers, fishermen from Normandy, decided to settle there. Mathieu Turin, along with his family of ten, settled at East Point, while François Douville and his family of nineteen settled at St. Peter’s Harbour.[8] In August 1720, three ships carrying three hundred immigrants from the harbour of Rochefort on the west coast of France sailed into what is now Charlottetown harbour and founded the community of Port la Joie. Soon a piece of ground was carved from the primeval forest, a few log homes were constructed, and an earthen breastwork was thrown up and mounted with eight cannon. Food production was of vast importance to these French settlers. One of the reasons for them being established here by the French government was to supply the beleaguered Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, for in 1713 Newfoundland and Acadia had been ceded to Great Britain, with the French still holding Cape Breton and Île Saint-Jean. French settlers came in considerable numbers, along with some Acadians seeking refuge under the flag they loved so well.[9]

  As in many other areas in the early years, turmoil and uncertainty were caused by disputes between England and France over fishing rights and the struggle to control the Fortress of Louisbourg and the surrounding territory until eventually the British emerged victorious in 1758. The island was briefly called the Island of St. John, but in 1799 it was finally named Prince Edward Island after the future Queen Victoria’s father, and Charlottetown was named to honour Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III.

  The American War of Independence had a profound effect, not only on Prince Edward Island but on all the emerging settlements in eastern Canada and Quebec. From 1783 until the end of the century, United Empire Loyalists continued to move to British North America, determined to stay, to carve out a new home on the frontier, and to prosper.

  By 1818 we have a description of the island and its settlers:

  The inhabitants consisted chiefly of emigrants from England, Ireland and Scotland, the States of America, and a few from Germany. There are also about six or seven hundred of the original Acadian French settlers, who occupy three villages, and live comfortably by farming and fishing.

  The soil is deep and light, but very fertile, if properly cultivated; in most places there are few or no stones to be seen, except on the shores, or by digging three or four feet from them. The land produces very good wheat, barley, oats, rye, peas, &c. and the various sorts of vegetables, as in England, such as potatoes, parsnips, carrots, cabbage, peas, the different kinds of beans, asparagus, cauliflower, onions, cucumber, melons, pumpkins, radishes, lettuces, celery, &c. &c. Hops grow exceedingly well with little trouble. The English apple and cherry trees thrive very well, the garden gooseberry and currant trees yield very great crops. The land produces very good herbage, both for hay and pasturing of cattle, which thrive extremely well; the farmers, in general, have good stocks of black cattle, sheep, hogs and horses: the sheep, for the most part, produce double, and scarcely a disease is ever known amongst them.[10]

  Meanwhile, in 1783 in Quebec, Governor Haldimand was prompted by the flood of refugee Loyalists to send surveyors west to lay out townships for settlement along the St. Lawrence River and later west of the Niagara River in what was to become the new province of
Upper Canada.

  The wife of the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, Elizabeth Graves Simcoe, kept a diary, and records for us some of her culinary experiences:

  We dined in the Woods & eat part of a Raccoon, It was very fat & tasted like Lamb if eaten with Mint sauce…. His Excellency & suite eat Raccoons & Porcupines which were good the latter like pork…. The black Squirrel is large and quite black. It is as good to eat as a young Rabbit…. Wild Ducks from Lake Simcoe which were better than any I have ever tasted, these Birds are so much better than any in England from their feeding on wild Rice.

  Mrs. Simcoe’s diary contains scores of other references to foods found locally, including gooseberries, apples, dried apples, strawberries, raspberries, plums, wild grapes, whortleberries, watermelons, wild geese, turkey, partridge, wild pigeon, woodcock, snipe, elk, caribou, moose, venison, bear, pickerel, cod, eel, black bass, pike, herring, and rattlesnake, as well as imported foods such as shaddocks, a species of orange from the West Indies.[11]

  The Indians are particularly fond of fruit. We have 30 large May Duke Cherry trees behind the house & 3 standard Peach trees which supplied us last autumn for Tarts & Deserts during 6 weeks besides the numbers the young Men ate. My share was trifling compared to theirs & I ate 30 in a day. They were very small but high flavoured. When tired of eating them raw Mr Talbot roasted them & they were very good.[12]

  In stark contrast she also describes the desperate decisions that travellers often had to make when confronted with the prospect of starvation. For instance, she noted how the lieutenant-governor and his party once started out on a five-day march to York with only two days’ provisions.

  The Gov had recourse to a compass & at the close of the day they came on a Surveyor’s line & the next morning saw

  Lake Ontario. Its first appearance Coll Simcoe says was the most delightful sight at the time they were in danger of starving & about 3 miles from York they breakfasted on the remaining Provisions. Had they remained in the woods another day it was feared Jack Sharp would have been sacrificed to their hunger. He is a very fine Newfoundland Dog who belonged to Mr Shane.[13]

  It was imperative to those settlers that they become self-sufficient as quickly as possible in order to survive the wildly fluctuating seasons in Upper Canada, the difficulty of transport, and the scarcity of ingredients and supplies. Following the example of the First Nations, the new arrivals turned to farming to ensure a steady food supply. Every family would have kept a cow or two to provide milk, butter, and cheese, and a few fowls. They would also have cleared and planted their fields, gardens, and orchards as quickly as possible to produce grain, fruit, and vegetables for their tables.

  To carve cleared fields, orchards, and garden plots out of the virgin forests of Upper Canada was a Herculean task that demanded strength, skill, and courage. Using a sharp axe, the settler felled a stand of trees in the early summer and let the trunks lie where they fell until early fall when the area was set ablaze to eliminate the small branches, dried leaves, and underbrush. When the fire died down, he cut the remaining trunks into lengths and pulled them, using a yoke of oxen if he was fortunate enough to own one, into a heap where again they were set afire and reduced to a pile of potash that could be used for soap-making. The stumps were sometimes left, and the seeds sown among them, but more often the farmer used the yoke of oxen and a stump puller to remove the stumps and transport them to the perimeter where they could be piled on their sides in rows to form a fence. This was slow and difficult work, and it is believed that the average farmer cleared about three acres a year.[14]

  Those who managed to make a farm out of the forest were justifiably proud. In 1794, Elizabeth Russell, half-sister of Peter Russell, the receiver general of Upper Canada, wrote to her friend Elizabeth Kiernan in England: “We are comfortably settled in our new House and have a nice little Farm about us. We eat our own Mutton and Pork and Poultry. Last year we grew our own Buck wheat Indian corn and have two Oxen got two cows with their calves with plenty of pigs and a mare and Sheep. We have not made Butter yet but hope to do so.”[15]

  Much of the fruit, such as cherries, plums, and grapes, for which the Niagara region became famous in later years, was native to the region. Peter Kalm, the first person to describe Niagara Falls in English from his personal observations, portrayed the bounty this way: “The wild grapevines grow quite plentiful in the woods. In all other parts of Canada they plant them in the gardens, near arbors and summer houses. The latter are made entirely of laths, over which the vines climb with tendrils and cover them entirely with foliage so as to shelter them entirely from the heat of the sun.”[16]

  As early as the seventeenth century, two Sulpician missionaries had described attempts to make wine from local fruit on the north shore of Lake Erie:

  I will tell you, by the way, that the vine grows here [near Port Dover, Patterson’s Creek] only in sand, on the banks of lakes and rivers, but although it has no cultivation it does not fail to produce grapes in great quantities as large and as sweet as the finest of France. We even made wine of them, which M Dollier said holy mass all winter, and it was as good as vin de Grave. It is a heavy dark wine like the latter. Only red grapes are seen here, but in so great quantities, that we have found places where one could easily have made 25 or 30 hogheads of wine.[17]

  Bread was not only an important addition to every meal, but was also used to thicken soups and stews, to make forcemeat, stuffing, puddings, and poultices, and to clean wallpaper.

  The homes dotting the Upper Canada landscape ranged from humble shelters of canvas, bark, and boughs to well-constructed dwellings of wood, brick, or stone, with appendages such as summer kitchens, woodsheds, bake ovens, smokehouses, and driving sheds. It would not have mattered whether the home was large or small, or the family rich or poor. The kitchen, with its cooking fireplace of stone or brick, was the heart of the home in this period. A crane was built into the side of the fireplace, and from it hung the trammel, kettles, and cauldrons needed for cooking; for heating water for dishes, laundry, and bathing; for melting tallow for candles; and for a multitude of other tasks. Fortunate was the cook who had either a bake oven built into the side of the fireplace, or one outside, close to the kitchen door. More often bake stones, bake pots, or earthenware ovens were pressed into service to make the daily scones, biscuits, bread, and puddings.

  In these surroundings, with unlimited ingenuity and primitive handmade iron and tin utensils, such as long-handled forks, ladles, and skimmers, some extra cauldrons and pots of various sizes, a skillet, and a trivet, the womenfolk produced at least three meals daily and accomplished a round of domestic chores. A typical day would have started with lighting the fires by 5:00 or 6:00 a.m., preparing a family breakfast, clearing it away, and washing up. Sleeping areas would have then been tidied, the beds made, slops emptied, wood chopped and water fetched, rubbish and ashes disposed of, and a midday meal prepared, cooked, and on the table by noon. Once the meal was eaten, the dishes would have been cleared away, the washing-up done, utensils cleaned and polished, the kitchen put in order, candlesticks cleaned, other rooms dusted and cleaned (if needed), guests received and entertained, the evening meal prepared, eaten, cleaned away, dishes washed, and the kitchen tidied again. Depending on the day of the week, there might have been bread to knead and set to rise in the dough box beside the fireplace, clothes to make or mend, medicines to be mixed and administered, and letters to be written before bed.

  Breakfast, the first meal of the day, broke the fast since tea or supper the day before. In a humble home, this meal could have been a plate of gruel or porridge and a cup of weak tea, and would have been eaten after the chores in the barns and outbuildings were finished. Breakfast would be taken at a later hour in middle- and upper-class homes, and could have included thinly sliced smoked bacon, fresh eggs from free-ranging fowl, poached smoked fish, freshly baked bread or rolls, butter, preserves, honey, and tea.The main meal of the day was dinner, taken at midday, and again
the menu would vary dramatically with the economic and social circumstances of the family. One main dish, either soup, stew, or pudding, with bread and tea, could comprise the meal in a humble home. For the well-to-do, the meal could be both hearty and elaborate, consisting of soup, fish, joints of meat, vegetables, puddings (both sweet and savoury), fruit, and cheese.

  The last meal of the day was variously called high tea, tea, or supper. It was served from 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. and included cold leftovers from the dinner at noon or simple fare such as biscuits, cheese, preserves, fruit, and confections.[18]

  “Taking tea” was a favourite occupation in the tiny capital, as well as in the other communities in the colony, for it was an opportunity to combine a light meal in the late afternoon with good conversation and fellowship. Many times during her early residence in Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake), Mrs. Simcoe wrote of having “taken tea” with her many friends. These occasions occurred in many locations, such as in the marquee (one of several canvas houses that Governor Simcoe bought in London, England, at the sale of the effects of Captain Cook, the explorer), in a very large bower composed of oak boughs, with the ladies of the Queen’s Rangers, and at the officers’ mess.[19]

  As Newark grew and became a social centre as well as the political hub of the province, merchants imported and advertised teas, provisions, spirits, and tableware to serve the needs of those wishing to entertain. Rum, brandy, Geneva wine, English goods, green and Bohea tea, soup ladles, tablespoons and teaspoons, and sugar tongs were advertised in the Upper Canada Gazette at Newark during this period.[20] For those who did not have cash, merchants and mill owners such as Daniel Servos carried out a lively business in barter with families of the community. Customers exchanged butter, duck eggs, turnips, cabbages, peas, apples, and venison for imported provisions of coffee, salt, and sugar; Bohea, Hyson, and green teas; and spirits such as port wine and rum.[21]