A Loving Legacy: Recipes and Memories from Yesterday, and Today, for Tomorrow

Arlene Gryfe is a Toronto-based professional nutritionist and home
economist.

Pioneers have had to be hard-working, innovative, and imaginative, in order to survive with limited food supplies, inclement weather, and primitive storage facilities.

As a child, Eleanor Thomson learned by example and by story of the life of her ancestral family of farmers and loggers in the Ottawa Valley. Her affection and admiration for these people moved her to preserve these tales and recipes for her daughters, who now have their own homes and families.

The author has a genuine appreciation for the women who created delicious meals for 40 farmhands at a sitting, or 60 loggers in the bush, eating 4 huge meals each day. Her grandmother cooked on an 8-burner wood stove in the logging camp, 4 days from civilization, rising at 3 AM, assisted by her 12- and 14-year-old daughters. This phenomenal feat included a monthly output of 1,036 pies baked by the 12-year-old!

The family’s traditional recipes have all been interpreted for today’s ingredients, appliances, and desired portions. (“Grandma considered it useless to cook less than a 16-pound ham.”) Eleanor Thomson even includes some recipes she thinks it unlikely that her daughters will try. She has retained them to emphasize the effort and extreme economy of the pioneers. Who today makes her own headcheese from pig’s head and feet? (Instead, a modern facsimile is developed for readers.)

The book is more than a collection of recipes. It is an insight into the commonsense, strength, resourcefulness, and sense of humour with which Thomson’s ancestors met life’s daily adversities. It is these qualities that she wants her daughters (and other readers) to appreciate and develop.

It is delightful to be allowed to share the author’s recipes and reminiscences.