Woodward’s Food Floor I recently reviewed Food Floor: My Woodward’s Days by Margaret Cadwaladr[i]. It’s a memoir of the author’s experiences, as a high school, then university student, working part time on Woodward’s Food Floor in Vancouver, in the late 1960s and early 70s. It is a little book (only 65 pages) of stories and […]
Archive | Innovations and Inventions Related to Food
Automatic Toasters
Automatic Toasters Automatic toasters ensured more people ate toast for breakfast. A recent survey found that one out of four Canadians currently make toast their breakfast food[i]. In British Columbia this practice may be partly attributed to marketing campaigns by BC Electric Railway (later BC Electric, now BC Hydro). “ In June 1923 B.C. Electric […]
Food Grinders
Food Grinders An image of a Home Food Grinder recently surfaced on the internet, with the caption, “Do you know what this is?” I have kept my mother’s Home Food Grinder in my cupboard for years, mostly for sentimental reasons. My mother would hook it up to the kitchen table and my brother and sister […]
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 […]
The Egg Carton Invented in BC
The Egg Carton Invented in BC As this promotional ad indicates, the egg carton was invented in BC[I] It started in Aldermere, BC, in 1911 (near present-day Telkwa), when a hotel owner decided that baskets were not the best way to transport eggs[ii]. His complaint about the numbers of eggs broken in a delivery he […]
Grist and Flour Mills in British Columbia
Grist and Flour Mills NOTE: See COVID – 19 updates, May 25, 2020 Grist and flour mills have provided many homely sayings in the English language (and other languages as well), indicating how important they were to daily life. The mills ground large quantities of various cereal crops to feed growing populations, important in the […]
Technology in the kitchen – the old is new
Technology in the kitchen – the old is new Most museums have kitchen displays, and this week’s topic is kitchen technology. In the traditionally-set up kitchen display, visitors usually comment on the quaintness of the old-time kitchen utensils but the implications of kitchen technology are seldom explored. In actuality, kitchens hold history hostage; they represent […]
White Spot – a BC legend
White Spot We were recently contacted by Laura Brehaut of the National Post who was doing an article on the allure of White Spot’s secret “triple O” sauce[i]. Occasionally here at the BC Food History Network, we get such requests. Sometimes we can assist and sometimes not, but the requests always pique our interest and […]