Autumn Dinners, 1895
Imagine what an Autumn Dinner might encompass in 1895. The following seven menus were published in the Vernon News which began publication in May 1891. The News was sub-titled “The Okanagan Farm and Live Stock Journal” and included articles on all aspects of agriculture and industry of the area. It included information and advice on what at the time was the “homemaker’s section”.
In November 1895, the Homemakers’ Section included menus for “Autumn Dinners” that give some indication of what people may have been eating in that era. This would have been before Thanksgiving was celebrated as a Canadian holiday. The menus suggest that even then, eating local and in season from the bountiful autumn harvest was popular.
Autumn Dinners.
- Fresh pork, sweet potato roast, lima beans, bread pudding.
- Rabbit soup, broiled ham, cauliflower, tomatoes, apple pie.
- Pigeon soup, beefsteak, onions, potatoes, beans, Indian fritters.
- Oxtail soup, veal cutlets, turnips, tomatoes, dried peach pudding.
- Pigeon pie, smoked tongue, winter squash, turnips, apple-rice pudding.
- Stewed heart, cold ham, cabbage, potatoes, pumpkin pie.
- Roast fowl and oyster sauce, turnips, beets, roast potato, cranberry pie, preserved quince.
(Vernon News, November 21, 1895, p. 6)
