The Ontario Harvest Cookbook: An Exploration of Feasts and Flavours

Barbara Robertson is the author of Wilfrid Laurier: The Great
Conciliator and co-author of The Well-Filled Cupboard.

This very here-and-now sort of cookbook emphasizes the astounding
variety and particularity of ethnic groups and food products within the
province. There are Russian Mennonites in southwestern Ontario, a honey
festival at the Kortright Centre for Conservation in Metro Toronto, a
pick-your-own flower farm at Stouffville, a herd of British alpine goats
southwest of Ottawa, a Polish community at Wilno dating from 1858, any
number of small breweries, some cultivators of ancient grains like
spelt, not to mention 8500 beekeepers. In the Far North the wild things
really come into their own, and there is an Edible Wilds Weekend and
Canoefest at Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Park. Moreover, one should not
overlook the buffet of wild foods at the Royal Botanical Gardens in
Hamilton each September. The abundance of detailed information is almost
intoxicating.

Unsurprisingly, in view of the concentration of detail, there is no
great sense of the mainstream of Ontario’s development, either past or
present. The English must be the only neglected ethnic group. And there
is a peculiar reference to “soft winter wheat, for which Ontario is
becoming widely known,” as if we were just beginning (wheat has been a
major crop since the 1790s , and the shift from spring to winter wheat
was getting under way in the 1860s). Further, the chapters are devoted
to various geographical areas, some of them quite unexceptional, and
others a little odd. The oddest is perhaps “Lakelands,” otherwise
known as the Bruce Peninsula and the Georgian Bay area, with relatively
few lakes as compared to the adjoining Muskoka region, from which Bala
has been snatched so as to add cranberries to “Lakelands.”

The accompanying recipes are closely related to the ethnic groups and
agricultural products of the areas being considered. The emphasis falls
on soups, salads, breads, and desserts, and some of the recipes are
pretty demanding in terms of time and skills. Altogether this is a
lively, if uneven, book, likely to entice food fanciers out to local
markets and to the many festivals in Ontario.