Food From Home to the War Front Food was one way that Canadians at home could support their troops overseas, either by rationing or economizing or sending care packages. A previous post described War Cake, popular during both World Wars I and II and modified in peacetime. It stores and travels well, remaining moist and […]
Author Archive | Linda Peterat
Canadian Stew and War Cake
Canadian Stew and War Cake What makes stew “Canadian”? Why was the name of War Cake in the First World War changed to Eggless Spice Cake in the Second World War? An extensive collection of military rations and cooking in Baird and Wranich’s book Recipes for Victory features almost 150 pages of recipes drawn from […]
What’s Making Food History – 11/03/19
Hazelnuts – also known as filberts… a local Fraser Valley food that’s making a comeback. https://www.cbc.ca › hazelnut-farming-rebirth-fraser-valley-bc-1.5344557
Recipes for Victory
Recipes for Victory Every November our thoughts turn to Remembrance Day and the role food has played during wartime over the years. In 2018, Elizabeth Baird and Bridget Wranich released Recipes for Victory, a collection of recipes and research papers that were part of a 2014 Great War Food Symposium organized at the Fort York […]
Cook Stoves for BC
Cook Stoves for BC In the period between 1858 when the gold rush and early settlement began in British Columbia and 1887 when the first train reached Vancouver, most settlers were dependent on local manufacture for their heating and cooking stoves. Albion Iron Works in Victoria began in 1862, founded by Joseph Spratt primarily to […]
First Patent Granted to Woman Inventor for Cook Stove
First Patent Granted to Woman Inventor for Cook Stove Our blogs usually focus on British Columbia food history but the fact that the first patent granted to a woman in Canada was for a cook stove is worthy of a blog post. The patent was granted pre-Canada, pre-Confederation in what was Upper Canada or Ontario […]
Cook Stove Revolution of the 1800s
Cook Stove Revolution of the 1800s Recently I bought a new cook stove or “range” as they are now known, when I moved into my new apartment. It displays all the latest technological, in this case digital, innovations of the current day. When a surface element is turned on, a fan blows air forward and upward […]
Community Cookbook Analysis – “Personal Recipes”
Community Cookbook Analysis – “Personal Recipes” – All Saints Anglican Church, Vernon, BC Old cookbooks are endlessly fascinating. They cause us to remember events and occasions of the past and when we thumb through them we may remember aromas, first tastes, traditions, failures, good and bad times. Community cookbooks provide a window into women’s lives […]
A Locavore in 1877: Indigenous Foods in G.M. Dawson Journals 1877-78
A Locavore in 1877: Indigenous Foods in G.M. Dawson Journals 1877-78 The word locavore, meaning a person whose diet consists only or principally of locally grown or produced food was invented in 2005 by Jessica Prentice and declared the Oxford Dictionary word of the year in 2007[i] For the Indigenous Peoples of BC, the definition […]
Indigenous Food Practices 1875-76
Indigenous Food Practices 1875-76 The careful observations of an early geologist in British Columbia provide a unique window into how BC’s Indigenous peoples lived local and off the land. My reading has recently taken me to The Journals of George M. Dawson: British Columbia, 1875-1878. The Journals are two volumes edited by Douglas Cole and […]