Salal Jelly How to make salal jelly continues a BCFHN blog from May of 2018 on the topic of salal, http://www.bcfoodhistory.ca/salal/. I was inspired by a patch of salal under a stand of cedar trees close to where I live on Vancouver Island and intended to follow up with a post on salal jelly when […]
Author Archive | M. Gale Smith
Pine Mushrooms
Pine Mushrooms Pine mushrooms provide a source of income in various parts of British Columbia from August to November. This summer, you may come across signs like this one, when people are mostly travelling in-province. The arrow points to a mushroom depot where buyers pay cash to wild mushroom foragers and commercial harvesters for BC […]
Book Review – Street Farm
Book Review – Street Farm: Growing Food, Jobs and Hope on the Urban Frontier by Michael Ableman (2016). Chelsea Green Publishing. I found this book on BC Ferries before the COVID 19 pandemic and I just finally got around to reading it. It was the perfect feel-good read for lockdown times. Street Farm is a heartwarming tale […]
Book Review – Chop Suey Nation
Book Review: Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Café and Other Stories From Canada’s Chinese Restaurants, by Ann Hui, Douglas and McIntyre, 2019. Ann Hui is a food reporter for the Globe and Mail. She writes about her fascination with Chinese Canadian cuisine, sometimes called “chop suey” cuisine or in her family, “fake” Chinese food. […]
Soda Water
By M. Gale Smith on April 8, 2020 in BC food businesses, Heritage foods and recipes, Innovations and Inventions in Food History
Soda Water in BC As food history researchers we never know what might pique our interest. Recently I was looking at the collection of food images in the BC Archives Royal BC Museum website[i]. When I came across an advertisement for Thorpe’s Soda, I immediately wanted to know what it was all about. It turns out that […]
Make Toast Your Breakfast Food
By M. Gale Smith on February 5, 2020 in Consumer education, Innovations and Inventions in Food History, Kitchen Appliances, Utility companies
Make Toast Your Breakfast Food Do you eat toast for breakfast? I do! A recent survey found that one out of four Canadians made toast their breakfast food between 2002 to 2012[i]. In British Columbia this practice may be partly attributed to marketing campaigns by BC Electric Railway (later BC Electric, now BC Hydro). […]
What’s Making Food History – 01/29/20
https://time.com/5771436/space-cookies-experiment-taste/ Astronauts Baked Cookies in Space. What Do They Taste Like? | Time time.com The cookies, baked on the International Space Station in a specially designed oven, were the first food baked in space from raw ingredients
Penny Wise – BC Food Writer
By M. Gale Smith on January 20, 2020 in Consumer education, Food writers, Local foods, Resource management
Penny Wise – BC Food Writer “Penny Wise” (Vancouver Sun) joins “Edith Adams” (Vancouver Province) and “Cousin Rosemary” (Country Life in BC) as one of several newspaper writers who wrote about food and everyday life. Evelyn A. Caldwell used the name “Penny Wise”, a twist on the old saying, penny-wise and pound-foolish to help BC […]
Food Grinders
By M. Gale Smith on January 5, 2020 in Innovations and Inventions in Food History, Kitchen Appliances
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 […]
What’s Making Food History – 17/11/19
https://thetyee.ca/Solutions/2018/08/22/Last-BC-Cannery-Standing/ St. Jean’s Cannery near Nanaimo is owned by five of the 14 Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations. In the article by Frances Backhouse, it is described as the last of 80 canneries to be operating and thriving in BC.