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On a cold Saturday in February, food lovers converged on Fort York to explore how different peoples in times past nourished themselves during Canada’s long winters. The event, on the 24th and based in the Blue Barracks, was named Hungry for Comfort: A Celebration of Food History, and – with the generous help of many volunteers – we’re planning to make it an annual occasion. This year included stories and flavours from First Nations, Métis, French and English communities all across Eastern Canada. Events included demonstrations, workshops, tastings, an amazing catered lunch, many useful give-aways and the Redpath Baking & Preserving Competition.
Dr. Alison Norman, our keynote speaker, began the day by talking about “culinary exchange” in Upper Canada, explaining how Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples had helped early settlers survive. Dr. Norman is a Research Associate in the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies & Indigenous Studies at Trent University and an advisor to the Ontario government.
The day then broadened out to a national scope with a lively panel on Surviving a Canadian Winter. The panelists were Shawn Adler, of Lac des Mille Lacs First Nation and owner of the Pow Wow Café in Kensington Market; Virginia Barter, a Toronto-based Métis writer and storyteller; Chantal Véchambre, a chef well known to the walls of Louisbourg and co-author of French Taste in Atlantic Canada, 1604-1758: A Gastronomic History (CBUP, 2012); and Fiona Lucas, author of a standard work on open-hearth cooking and co-editor of Catharine Parr Traill’s Female Emigrant’s Guide: Cooking with a Canadian Classic (MQUP, 2017).
As if this were not enough to encourage an appetite – just before lunch – Shawn Adler shared his passion for Indigenous-inspired cuisine with a memorable demonstration of spruce-smoked duck. Lunch was then catered by Adler’s own Pow Wow Café. Imagine this: green salad with blackberry and honey vinaigrette; venison stew with parsnip and sage; pumpkin seed and cranberry wild rice pilaf; and sun-dried blueberry bannock with maple butter (that green salad might have challenged Mrs. Traill in mid-February!)
In the afternoon, we enjoyed a menu of workshops:
- “Traditional Anishinaabe Teas” with Mark Sault (Migizi Gikino’amaage inini);
- “Maple Syrup Memories” with Virginia Barter;
- “A Taste of Summer” with Mya Sangster;
- “Chicken Soup with Barley and Herbs” with Chantal Véchambre;
- “Give us this Day our Daily Bread” with Mark D’Aguilar; and
- “Hungry for Apples” with Fiona Lucas.
While indulging our sweet tooth with an afternoon dessert of Pippin Tart (A New System of Domestic Cookery, 1806) and Silky Ginger Ice Cream (Rose Murray’s Comfortable Kitchen Cookbook, 2017), we enjoyed a presentation by Rose Murray herself, who shared memories of growing up in rural Canada.
Many talented people helped to make this sold-out event a success, including the Culinary Historians of Canada, who not only helped to organize Hungry for Comfort but provided great volunteer support. Special thanks go to the home economists Yvonne Trembley and Pat Moynihan, who organized the Redpath Baking & Preserving Competition.
Exceptional door prizes and draws were provided by KitchenAid, Bernardin, Redpath Sugar, The Ontario Apple Growers Association, Alberta Canola and SaskCanola, as well as Canadian Living and Ricardo magazines and an armful of Canadian publishers: Goose Lane Editions, Lorimer, Penguin Random House Canada, HarperCollins Canada, McGill-Queen’s University Press, Robert Rose, and Whitecap.
More thanks go to organizers Elizabeth Baird and Bridget Wranich for arranging the sponsorship of Redpath and the many donations. And we’re especially grateful to our own Volunteer Historic Cooks and staff, who researched, tested and made the historic recipes served for morning refreshments and dessert.
We ended the day with the prizes for all the Redpath competitions. First-Place winners received a basket of goodies from Redpath, $75.00, and a rosette; Second Place received somewhat less; and Third Place was a modest encouragement to try again next year.
Ingrid MacRitchie was declared to have the best Pure Seville Orange Marmalade, while Susannah Taber’s original grapefruit recipe was judged the best Other Citrus Marmalade. Donna Pitcher’s own apple-fig recipe earned First Place for Apple Chutney. The day’s greatest Apple Pie turned out to be another achievement of Mya Sangster, who beautifully fashioned a Florendine of Oranges and Apples from a recipe first published in 1730.
Knowledgeable speakers, delicious local cuisine and congenial company – experts and newcomers alike – all made for a great day of exploration in food. Hungry for Comfort showed again why Fort York National Historic Site is a leading centre of Canadian culinary history.
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