Concern about food additives, pesticides, and chemicals in our diets have led to the growing number of organic farms and markets across Canada.
The Slow Food Movement that began in Italy has now spread around the world. Members include farmers, researchers, educators, chefs, professional associations, and anyone dedicated to stopping or slowing down the loss or impoverishment of the local heritage of grains, vegetables, fruits, and animals that is so important to every community’s food culture. Educational programs include publications, workshops, markets, food fairs, awards, and local, national, and international conferences that have inspired a great many interested individuals, along with the media, to learn more about this concept. The Slow Food Movement has many Canadian members, many of whom believe this is a modern name for the way of life of our ancestors — plant it, grow it, harvest it, preserve it, eat it!
Canadian newspapers and magazines publish articles on a regular basis describing the latest scientific research, and we are constantly learning that old-fashioned favourites such as blueberries, cranberries, garlic, and a host of common foods will save our lives, or at least lengthen them, if we will only let them! There is a renewed interest in “comfort foods,” those everyday staples of our ancestors’ tables — bread, muffins, soups, stews, casseroles, puddings, pies, cakes, cookies. Authors of cookbooks, food editors, lecturers, and teachers have all risen to the challenge, and we have seen a multitude of articles, speeches, and publications that praise the presence of “comfort” on our tables and in our lives.
Young people love to cook and bake, whether at home, at the cottage, at camp, or out of doors on an open fire. If they are encouraged, Canada will soon lead the culinary Olympics around the world!
At present Canadians are being challenged to prepare their meals with fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, and other ingredients that have come from within a hundred-mile radius of their homes. This trend is called the One-Hundred-Mile Diet, and although it originated in British Columbia, hosts and hostesses across Canada have succeeded in their searches and have proven that it can be done.
This concern for our diet and our environment brings us in a complete circle to the First Nations. They were the original custodians and guardians of this land and its riches, and whenever we, the newcomers, sound the cry for restraint and for the wise use of our resources, we pay them tribute.
NOTES
Chapter 1: In the Beginning
1. Peter L. Storck, Journey to the Ice Age: Discovering an Ancient World (Vancouver: UBC Press in association with the Royal Ontario Museum, 2004), 8.
2. Brian M. Fagan, People of the Earth: An Introduction to World Prehistory (New York: HarperCollins, 1995), 189.
3. Ibid., 183.
4. Ibid., 191.
5. J.V. Wright, Ontario Prehistory (Toronto: National Museum of Man/Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1972), 27–32.
6. Ibid., 44.
7. Stanley Holling, Medicine for Heroes, quoted in “Dried Blueberry Flowers a Cure for ‘Craziness,’” Lake of the Woods Historical Society Newsletter, Vol. 16, No. 1 (April 1997), 6.
8. Thomas Vennum, Jr., Wild Rice and the Ojibway People (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1988), 171.
9. Shauna McCabe, Destination Prince Edward Island (Halifax: Nimbus, 2000), ii.
10. People of the Earth, 195.
11. Cross Currents: 500 Generations of Aboriginal Fishing in Atlantic Canada (Montreal: McCord Museum), exhibition and press release, May 2005– April 2006.
12. Sarain Stump, Two Forms of Art (Saskatoon: Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College, 1973; reprinted 1981), 15 and 17.
Chapter 2: They Had Never Known Anything to Taste So Sweet
1. Helge Ingstad, Westward to Vinland (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1966), 20.
2. Ibid., 16.
3. William Benton entry in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th ed. (Chicago, 1967), Vol. 16, 597.
4. Westward to Vinland, 17.
5. Ibid., 17.
6. Helge Ingstad, Land Under the Pole Star (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1966), and Westward to Vinland, various pages, particularly page 149 in Land Under the Pole Star, and page 140 in Westward to Vinland.
7. Land Under the Pole Star, 135.
8. “A Guided Tour Around the Archaeological Site,” L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site booklet (2002), 6.
9. Westward to Vinland, 134–35.
10. Ibid., 141.
11. “A Guided Tour Around the Archaeological Site,” 4.
12. Land Under the Pole Star, 146.
13. Extensive archaeological and historical research has resulted in many of the buildings being reconstructed at L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site by Parks Canada, with costumed interpreters carrying out the daily tasks of the inhabitants a thousand years ago.
Chapter 3: The Sea Was Covered with Fish
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica (Chicago, 1967), Vol. 4, 557.
2. D.W. Meinig, The Shaping of America, Vol. 1 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986), 57.
3. Richard Whitbourne, “A Discourse and Discovery of Newfoundland,” quoted in Dave McIntosh, When the Work’s All Done This Fall (Toronto: Stoddart Publishing, 1989), 10.
4. Joseph Hatton, Newfoundland, the Oldest British Colony: Its History, Its Present Condition, and Its Prospects in the Future (London: Chapman and Hall, 1883), 205.
5. James Asperne, An Account of the Island of Prince Edward with Practical Advice to Those Intending to Emigrate (London: James Asperne, 1819), 14.
6. J. Long, Voyages and Travels of an Indian Interpreter and Trader (London: J. Long, 1791), 43.
7. Ibid., 57.
8. Grace Helen Mowat, The Diverting History of a Loyalist Town: A Portrait of St. Andrews, New Brunswick (Fredericton, NB: Brunswick Press, 1976), 27.
9. Richard Lewes Dashwood, Chiploquorgan, or Life by the Camp Fire in Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland (Dublin: R.T. White, 1871), 22.
10. J. Ross Robertson, Diary of Mrs. John Graves Simcoe (Toronto: William Briggs, 1911), 158.
11. John Rowan, The Emigrant Sportsman in Canada (London: E. Stanford, 1876), 377.
12. Ivan F. Jesperson, ed., Fat-Back and Molasses: A Collection of Favourite Old Recipes from Newfoundland and Labrador (St. John’s: Jesperson Press, 1980), various pages.
Chapter 4: “Come Then, Chefs, Cooks, and Boys …”
1. Leslie F. Hannon, Forts of Canada (Toronto: Maclean-Hunter Ltd., 1969), 13.
2. Ibid., 15.
3. George Brown, Building the Canadian Nation (Toronto: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1958), 50–51.
4. Michael Weiner, Earth Medicines and Earth Foods (London: Collier Macmillan, 1972), various pages.
5. Marc Lescarbot, The Theatre of Neptune in New France, 1609. Translated by Erondelle (New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1928), 27.
6. Jo Marie Powers, “L’Ordre de Bon Temps: Good Cheer as the Answer,” Proceedings, Oxford Symposium on Food and Cooking, 1990 (London: Prospect Books), 168–69.
7. The Theatre of Neptune, 118.
8. Ibid., 118.
9. Forts of Canada, 14.
10. Building the Canadian Nation, 78.
11. André Pelchat, “Ginseng Rush,” The Beaver, Vol. 83, No.1 (December 2003/January 2004), 14–17.
12. This priceless record survives in the publications of the Champlain Society.
Chapter 5: A Chain of Men Stretched Across the Continent
1. E.E. Rich, “Pro Pelle Cutem,” The Beaver (Spring 1958), 12.
2. Florida Town, The North West Company: Frontier Merchants (Toronto: Umbrella Press, 1999), 12.
3. Alexander Henry, Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories Between the Years 1760 and 1766 (New York, 1809), passim.
4. W.S. Wallace, “Fort William of the Fur Trade,” The Beaver (December 1949), 16, and Fort William: Hinge of a Nation, feasibility study prepared by National Heritage Limited for the Province of Ontario (author’s collection), 36.
5. F
orts of Canada, 209.
6. Ibid., 209.
7. “Scheme for the North West Outfit,” North West Company Correspondence, 1791–99, Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Archives of Canada.
8. Ross Cox, Adventures on the Columbia River (London: H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1831), 279.
9. Grace Lee Nute, The Voyageur’s Highway (St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society, 1951), 54.
10. Gabriel Franchere, A Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America (Chicago, 1954), 266.
11. Adventures on the Columbia River, 289.
12. “The Oregon Territory,” The Builder, Vol. 2 (1844), 9.
13. Forts of Canada, 205.
14. Ibid., 205.
15. See The North West Company from Lachine to Grand Portage: The North West Indian Trade (Cornwall, ON: Inverarden Regency Cottage Museum, 1993).
16. L.V. Burpee, “The Beaver Club,” Canadian History Association Report (1924), 73–92.
17. Marjorie Wilkins Campbell, McGillivray, Lord of the Northwest (Toronto: Clarke, 1962), 93, and L.V. Burpee, “The Beaver Club,” Canadian History Association Report (1924), 73–92.
18. Town, The North West Company, 109 and 114.
Chapter 6: Bread Was the Foundation of Every Meal
1. Dorothy Duncan, “Victuals and Viands in the New Province of Upper Canada” in The Capital Years: Niagara-on-the-Lake 1792–1796 (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1991), 160.
2. John Oldmixon, The British Empire in America, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (London, 1741), cited in When the Work’s All Done This Fall (Toronto: Stoddart Publishing, 1989), 11.
3. James J. Sharp, Flavours of Newfoundland and Labrador (St. John’s, NF: Breakwater Books, 1981), iii–iv.
4. Marie Nightingale, Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens (Baddeck, NS: Petheric Press, 1978), 5.
5. Ibid., 7.
6. Ibid., 20.
7. B.A. Balcom, History of the Lunenburg Fishing Industry (Lunenburg, NS: Lunenburg Marine Museum Society, 1977), 2.
8. Julie Watson, Favourite Recipes from Old Prince Edward Island Kitchens (Willowdale, ON: Hounslow Press, 1989), 12.
9. Ibid., 13.
10. John Cambridge, A Description of Prince Edward Island in the Gulph of Saint Laurence, North America (Bristol, 1818), 6–7.
11. Mary Quayle Innis, ed., Mrs. Simcoe’s Diary (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1965), various pages, particularly 78, 79, 81, 88, and 109.
12. Ibid., 97.
13. Ibid., 109.
14. Dorothy Duncan, “Victuals and Viands,” 150.
15. Elizabeth Russell Papers, February 24, 1794, Metropolitan Toronto Library, Baldwin Room.
16. Peter Kalm, Travels into North America, 1753–61, cited by Mary Alice Downie and Mary Hamilton in and some brought flowers: Plants in a New World (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980), 54.
17. René de Bréhant de Galinée, The Journey of Dollier and Galinée, 1669–70, cited in and some brought flowers, 54.
18. Dorothy Duncan, “Victuals and Viands,” 160–61.
19. Mrs. Simcoe’s Diary, various pages.
20. Upper Canada Gazette, Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario), June 10, 1794, and December 10, 1794.
21. Servos Mill Records, 1794–95, Niagara Historical Resource Centre, Niagaraon-the-Lake Public Library.
22. Mrs. Simcoe’s Diary, various pages.
Chapter 7: “We Greatly Missed Our Tea”
1. Jamie Shalleck, Tea (New York: Viking Press, 1972), 1.
2. See Christopher Moore, The Loyalists (Toronto: Macmillan of Canada, 1984).
3. Wallace Brown, “The Loyalists and the Maritime Provinces,” Loyalist Gazette, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Spring 1983), 8.
4. The Loyalists, 115.
5. Brown, “The Loyalists and the Maritime Provinces,” 9.
6. William H. Tippett, “The Hannah Ingraham Story,” Annual Transactions (Toronto: United Empire Loyalists Association, 1904–1913), 115–121.
7. Peter Fisher, “The Grandmother’s Story,” in Sketches of New Brunswick (Saint John, NB: Chubb and Sears, 1825), 127. Reprinted by the New Brunswick Historical Society in 1921.
8. Thomas Earle, “Winter of Discontent: The Loyalists’ First Winter in Fredericton,” Loyalist Gazette, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Spring 1983), 11.
9. “The Grandmother’s Story,” 128.
10. Ibid., 129.
11. George Leard, “Rum ’n Ribbons,” Loyalist Gazette, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Spring 1983), 23.
12. Joy Ormsby, “Building a Town,” in The Capital Years (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1991), 17–18.
13. A.H. Young, “Letters from the Secretary of Upper Canada and Mrs. Jarvis to Her Father, the Reverend Samuel Peters, DD,” Annual Report and Transactions, No. 23, (Toronto: Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Toronto, 1922–23), 32–33.
14. Mrs. Burritt, “The Settlement of the County of Grenville,” Papers and Records, Ontario Historical Society, Vol. 3 (1901), 106.
15. L.H Tasker, “The United Empire Loyalist Settlement at Long Point, Lake Erie,” Papers and Records, Ontario Historical Society, Vol. 2 (1900), 54–55.
16. See various issues of the Telegraph-Journal, Saint John, New Brunswick, 1983, and Eleanor Robertson Smith, Loyalist Foods in Today’s Recipes (Hantsport, NS: Lancelot Press, 1983).
Chapter 8: Victorians at Table: I Looked Forward to Every Meal
1. John Howison, Sketches of Upper Canada (Edinburgh: Oliver, 1821), 39 and 118. Reprinted by S.R. Publishers, Johnson Reprint Company, in 1965.
2. Craig Heron, BOOZE (Toronto: Between the Lines, 2003), 28.
3. Jo Marie Powers and Dorothy Duncan, “Those Damned Cold Water Drinking Societies,” Public Eating: Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery Proceedings (London: Prospect Books, 1991), 240.
4. Harry Bruce, “Confederation,” in Canada 1812–1871: The Formative Years (Toronto: Imperial Oil Limited, 1967), 65.
5. Ibid., 66.
6. Louis Tivy, your loving Anna (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972), 38, 46, 51–52.
7. Ibid., 99.
8. Daily Telegraph, Saint John, New Brunswick, December 21, 1878.
9. Frances McNaught and Margaret Taylor, Galt Cook Book (Toronto: William Briggs, 1898, reprinted 1980), 441.
10. Author’s collection.
11. Pierre and Janet Berton, Pierre and Janet Berton’s Canadian Food Guide (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1974), 31.
12. Author’s collection.
13. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, “Food and Food Habits in Alaska and Northern Canada,” reprinted in Human Nutrition Historic and Scientific, Monograph III (New York: International Universities Press, 1957), 26–27.
Chapter 9: Rupert’s Land Became the Breadbasket of the World
1. Elliott Coues, ed., New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest, Vol. 1 (New York: F.P. Harper, 1897), passim.
2. Building the Canadian Nation, 299–302.
3. See Manitoba’s Heritage Cookery (Winnipeg: Manitoba Historical Society, 1992), various pages for detailed accounts.
4. Jean Murray Cole, David Fife and Red Fife Wheat (Peterborough, ON: Lang Pioneer Village, County of Peterborough, 1992), various pages.
5. See From Saskatchewan Homemakers’ Kitchens (Saskatoon: Modern Press, 1955), various pages for detailed accounts.
6. Beulah (Bunny) Barss, Oh, Canada! (Calgary: Deadwood Publishing, 1987), 132.
7. From Saskatchewan Homemakers’ Kitchens, vii.
8. Beulah (Bunny) Barss, Alberta Pictorial Cookbook (Halifax: Nimbus, 1988), introduction.
9. Elizabeth Bird, The Englishwoman in America, quoted in Canadian Farmer (October 15, 1873), 356.
10. Beulah (Bunny) Barss, “The Chuckwagon Tradition in Prairie Culture,” in Northern Bounty (Toronto: Random House of Canada, 1995), 48–49.
11. A Concise Dictionary of Canadianisms (Victoria, BC: Gage, 1973), 51.
12. A Collage of Canadian Cooking (Ottawa: Canadian Home Economics Association, 1979), 163.
Chapter 10: All Aboard!
&nbs
p; 1. G.R. Stevens, History of the Canadian National Railways (New York: Macmillan, l973), 10.
2. Ibid., 11.
3. Ibid., 17.
4. Robert Surtees, Northern Connection: Ontario Northland Since 1902 (New York: Captus Press, 1992), 229.
5. History of the Canadian National Railways, 211.
6. Moose River Basin Book #1, Ells, 1911, Gross Section Book, Box 107, Ontario Northland Archives.
7. History of the Canadian National Railways, 43.
8. Omer Lavalee, Van Horne’s Road (Montreal: Railfare Enterprises, 1974), 218.
9. Ibid., 272.
10. Ibid., 44.
11. Edmund W. Bradwin, The Bunkhouse Man: A Study of Work and Pay in the Camps of Canada 1903–1914 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, l972), 134.
12. The Skillet, Vol. 1 (Montreal: Crawley & McCracken Limited, 1934), 1.
13. Ibid., 1.
14. Private collection of Pamela and Peter Handley, North Bay, Ontario.
15. Miscellaneous correspondence, J.E. Cahoon, vice-president and general manager, Crawley & McCracken Limited, to Mr. A.H. Cavanaugh, general manager, October 16, 1945, Ontario Northland Archives (ONA), North Bay, Ontario.
16. Miscellaneous correspondence, H. Mudrick, Extra Gang #5, to T.D. Saunders, chief engineer; H. Mudrick to A. Jardine, Superintendent Englehart; C.M. Sewell to T.D. Saunders; A. Jardine to T.D. Saunders; L.W. Edwards, foreman, to A. Jardine, ONA.
Canadians at Table: Food, Fellowship, and Folklore Page 21
