Just in time for the holidays, the City of Kawartha Lakes has released four new recipes for its “Recipe Revival” project.
Launched in August, the project intends to collect, document, and celebrate recipes that reflect the region’s cultural heritage, whether Indigenous, agricultural and industrial, or immigrant.
Kawartha Lakes residents, food enthusiasts, and history buffs can participate in the Recipe Revival project by submitting their family’s favourite recipes, along with any associated anecdotes, memories, stories, and photos.
Joining three recipes that are already part of the project — Nana’s fudge by Fenelon Falls seasonal resident Barbara Hooey, tea biscuits from Abbott Sisters’ Recipe Book, and coleslaw from The Lady Hughes Chapter — are four new recipes, each coming with a story. “This recipe is a time machine that takes us back to the flavours of Coboconk in the 1920s,” according to a media release.
Kawartha Lakes Museum and Archives submitted a recipe for golden marmalade, written in 1924 by Coboconk’s Agatha Rumney on the back of a menu for Central Restaurant, which was run by Agatha’s husband Earl Hugill.
Laura Love shared a recipe for gingerbread from her great-grandfather Edward ‘Curtis’ Leslie from Fredericton, New Brunswick. Born in 1899, Edward worked on the family farm for more of his early life, but family lore has it he always enjoyed baking and, in the early 1940s, he ran his own bakery until his death in 1966.
Janet Cain from Bethany has submitted a recipe for a light Christmas cake that originally came from her grandmother-in-law. Along with traditional ingredients like raisins and fruit, this festive cake also features gumdrops and coconut.
Finally, Rachel Kruyf from Beaverton shared a recipe for shepherd’s pie that her mother often made when Rachel was a child, telling her that finding the bay leaf in the pie would bring good luck. When making the recipe for her own family, Rachel passed on the bay leaf story, thinking it was an old wives’ tale, only to find out from her mother a few years ago that she had made up the story so Rachel wouldn’t be disgusted by the bay leaf in the pie.
“Now a family joke, the bay leaf tradition lives on, showcasing the delightful way culinary customs are born,” reads the media release.
For more information about the Recipe Revival project, to see all the current recipies, and to submit your own, visit www.kawarthalakes.ca/recipes.
