Learning Canadian Ways The lives of Catharine Parr Traill (1802-1899) and Alice Ravenhill (1859-1954) spanned two centuries and two continents. They each left successful careers in England to forge new lives in what they thought was the Canadian wilderness. Traill immigrated to Peterborough, Ontario in 1833, and Ravenhill to Shawnigan Lake, BC in 1910. They […]
Archive | Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous
Food History Inquiry Pandemic Projects
Food History Inquiry Pandemic Projects The potential for using the study of food is often overlooked in education. Yet food is necessary to human survival and can be linked to just about every human activity or industry and almost all school subjects through food history inquiry pandemic projects. Online study has grown by necessity and […]
Cod liver oil
Cod Liver Oil Sixty years ago, school children in Alberta and BC (and likely in other provinces) were given doses of cod liver oil as a dietary supplement in the winter months. Sometimes it was by the spoonful or through gel capsules. We were told it would give us Vitamin D – the “sunshine vitamin”, […]
Putting the Trash Out – Recycling Timeline
Putting the trash out is not easy these days. Householders who are committed to recycling non-biodegradable products such as plastics, metals, paper and cardboard must separate, wash, store and get these items to one or another location for recycling … maybe. In a shocking investigation, a […]
Do Home Economics Teachers Cook?
Do Home Ec. Teachers Cook? Like the doctor’s children who get sick, or the bank managers who run up credit card debts, home economics teachers have often been scrutinized for their everyday living habits. Do they sew and cook for themselves and their families? Are they tidy housekeepers? The Vancouver and District Home Ec. Association […]
Best loved cookbooks
Best-loved cookbooks, the ones with food stains all over the pages and split bindings are very far philosophically from coffee-table cookbooks with beautiful photographs and exotic ingredients. They’ve become popular ideas these days for contests. The Old Grist Mill at Keremeos featured a “dirtiest cookbook” […]
1860s BC Mining Town Food
Mining towns such as Barkerville, BC presented a particular challenge for the provision of food for miners and others rushing into the Cariboo during the 1860s Gold Rush. There was little local food production and public eating places such as restaurants and stopping houses provided food for many people. Lately I’ve been reading The Cariboo […]
Good food tells a story: Favourite recipes from the University of the Fraser Valley
University of the Fraser Valley Library (2015). Good food tells a story, favourite recipes from the University of the Fraser Valley. Abbotsford, BC: Author. This is a recipe book assembled by faculty and staff at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) as a fundraiser for the Newman Western Canadian Cookbook Collection, part of their […]
Hospital Food
Hospital Food of the Past While there is a claim that hospital food is being revolutionized[i] by sourcing and preparing more local, nutritious food, a friend who recently spent some time in a BC hospital described the food as “downright awful.” We are reminded especially in the Okanagan that the soil is productive and at […]
BC Studies book reviews related to food history
In an earlier blog, I wrote about our project to document food related articles in BC historical journals. I annotated the articles I identified in BC Studies: The British Columbia Quarterly, a scholarly journal that published peer-reviewed research. Each issue also featured book reviews. In the early guidelines for BC Studies, Margaret Prang suggested that […]