Author Archives

Bowls of peas defied the prairie dust bowl

Versatile fababeans can create an entire feast

Growing up with yogurt in rural Sask. in ‘30s
Yogurt was a staple this family could not live without, either eaten straight out of the pot or mixed with other ingredients
One certainty of life on the Prairies during the mid 1920s to the 1930s was that we had yogurt almost every day. Whether we ate it straight out of the pot or whether we enjoyed it mixed in with other ingredients, it was one of the few staples that we could not live without. Every […] Read more
Kitchens benefit from year-round herb supply
Cilantro, mint, basil and thyme stir up nostalgic childhood memories for some, but they simply taste good in any dish
If one were to walk into my kitchen, besides inhaling the seemingly constant aroma of freshly prepared cooking, one would find my “can’t do withouts” — garlic, onions and four of my favourite herbs: fresh coriander (cilantro), mint, basil and thyme. These herbs are always on hand. I plant them in my small garden and […] Read more
From prairie obscurity to stardom
Lentils in Saskatchewan have come a long way since a Syrian immigrant family puzzled their neighbours in the 1930s
I remember walking in our garden with one of our neighbour’s children on our western Saskatchewan farm during my childhood in the 1930s and we ended up in our large lentil patch. The plants were teeming with their small flat pods, signifying a good yield. I was surprised when my friend didn’t know what the […] Read more
Easter in southern Sask. — 1930s style
Preparing for the Easter holiday was a particular challenge for many prairie families during the Dirty Thirties
It was the mid-1930s and the week before Easter. For a month, my mother had been gathering and saving onion skins to make Easter eggs. She had also put aside about five dozen eggs over the past month that she had collected from our few egg-laying hens. As a young boy, I looked fondly on […] Read more
Freekeh: the ancient, yet forgotten cereal grain
