Green Living

The Tyrconnell Heritage Society will be participating in the local Earth Expo with an information display at the Dutton Dunwich Community Center. This is the first year for the area Earth Expo (coinciding with Earth Day and Earth Week here in Canada). This week long schedule of events has grown from the desire of local residents to support environmental conservation practices.
The Tyrconnell Heritage Society has chosen to explore a small number of ways that the lifestyle of a Talbot Settlement inhabitant would have worked well within the growing practice of resource conservation. Granted the activity of a settler was not “carbon free”. Comparatively speaking, the 1850’s individual had a much smaller carbon footprint then his contemporary counterpart.
For those who don’t know, a carbon footprint is really a measure of the effect we have on the climate in terms of the total amount of greenhouse gases we produce (measured in units of carbon dioxide). Your carbon footprint is calculated based on the amounts of electricity, heating oil and natural gas you use as a household.
The average Canadian household creates about 11 tonnes of carbon emissions per year. That’s about 3 Olympic sized swimming pools of carbon dioxide each and every year going out in to the environment.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased 30% since pre-industrial times. Obviously the low carbon levels of the 1850’s were the result of the level of societal and industrial development. What was mandatory behaviourally for a Talbot settler could make a great deal of sense as an option for contemporary individuals concerned about environment conservation and resources. So why not try ….


GREEN LIVING 1850’s STYLE

EAT LOCAL ~ EAT IN SEASON
Do you think about the cost of gas when you buy tomatoes in January? Many fruits and vegetables in supermarkets are shipped or flown in from far-off countries, even if it can easily be grown locally. This requires the burning of fossil fuels for transportation.

The 1850’s family in Upper Canada ate a diet consisting of very few imported items. The staples of the Talbot Settlement dining regiment consisted of the seasonal crops grown on local farms supplemented by native plants, local game and farm livestock.
You can reduce your carbon footprint by eating local and eating foods that are in season in the manner of the Talbot settlers.

WASTE NOT ~ WANT NOT
RENEWABLE SOURCES OF ENERGY
A settlement resident had several sources of energy available to bring comfort to both work and home. Households were heated by wood from nearby woodlots. Taking only what was needed allowed reforestation at a sustainable rate. Livestock based products like tallow were rendered from fat to make candles or soap ensuring that no part of an animal went to waste. Wind power played a part in the settlement as well with water being pumped up from deep wells by windmills.

You can reduce your carbon footprint by reducing your use of electricity. Dry your clothes on the line or enjoy a candlelit dinner. Take only what you can use and use all of what you take.


BUY SMART~ BUILD TO LAST
Craftsmanship flourished in the 19th century as can be attested to by the longevity of household and agricultural items from that time. Handmade cloth, furniture that is functional and attractive as well as innumerable household and farm accoutrements that still serve in contemporary households are a testament of a commitment to quality and the conservative nature of the Talbot Settlement homesteader. By creating or purchasing quality objects, built to last, the local residents limited their impact on the level of resources available to them.

You can do the same by making sure you purchase durable goods. Buying quality products and taking some care in the maintenance of your possessions will reduce demand on product resources as well as decrease the amount of fuel used to transport the multiple number of inferior items that would be required to take the place of one good quality item

Give us this day our daily bread....

Bread in some form has graced the human diet since the Neolithic period (approximately 8500 BC). Evidence suggests that leavened bread (as we most usually see it today) probably hit the proverbial table during the era of early Egyptian culture. There are as many kinds of bread as there are nationalities in the world today. Each recipe has evolved based on the agricultural materials available. The families that landed in the Talbot Settlement would have brought their own recipes with them and adapted those to the local crops and resources.

Leavening of bread dough was facilitated in a number of ways. Baking was usually done on a schedule and a bit of dough saved from the week before could be used as a “starter” for the next week’s batch. Cakes of compressed dry yeast could be ordered from back home. Mixed and unbaked dough could be left out overnight to rise with the help of airborne yeast spores.

The living conditions of the very first settlers would have been quite primitive. This recipe for griddle bread could have worked well in those kinds of surroundings as the ingredients would have been easy to bring along and no oven would be needed to cook the bread. The leavening in this recipe occurs as the soda reacts with the lactic acid in the milk to form carbon dioxide bubbles thus causing the dough to rise.

Ingredients

1 pound flour
1 tablespoon sugar (sugar could have been available in pressed cones)
½ teaspoon soda
Pinch of salt
Sour milk or buttermilk as needed

Knead ingredients into a stiff loaf and then flatten out on a floured griddle. Cook slowly on top of a low fire, 1/2 of an hour each side or until done.

Under a Spring Sun

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.

~Charles Dickens

Spring Swing

The Elgin St. Thomas Community Foundation is a wonderful organization that works to support local charities. In the past the Tyrconnell Heritage Society and the Backus-Page House Museum has benefited from the Foundation's assistance in purchasing our temperature loggers for the museum. The Elgin St. Thomas Community Foundation is holding a fundraiser to help support their operational expenses in order to continue in their mandate of community involvement.

In 2007 the Foundation granted over $21,600 to local charities in response to community need adding to a total of $76,000 of financial contributions to deserving candidates since the Foundation's inception. Join the Foundation APRIL 12th for a Spring Swing featuring the fabulous Sahara Swing Band. There will also be 10 extraordinary items for auction....all with a spring/gardening theme,......and you will NOT want to miss the opportunity to bid on these! Please help the Elgin St. Thomas Community Foundation to continue to support our local interests!

Fair Weather or Foul (Fowl)

Here in South Western Ontario there’s a saying, “If you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes and it will change.” Those who love the mercurial nature of the climate along Lake Erie’s shoreline weren’t disappointed this week. Residents were treated to high winds, substantial snow falls, dense fogs, hoar frost mornings and bright sunny days all within the span of 3 or 4 days. To top it all off flights of tundra swans have been witnessed passing overhead. At least 7 or 8 flights have been seen noisily following the shoreline heading towards Rondeau. On a windless Monday afternoon a small flock stopping over at old Port Tyrconnell could be heard quite clearly up shore at the John E. Pearce Park outlook. It might be hard to believe that spring is on the way but the swans seem to think so.

Out of the Woods

If you’re going to be in the Simcoe area in the near future be sure to stop by the Norfolk Arts Center to take in their new exhibition “Out of the Woods” which begins on Friday March 28th and will run through until Friday June 27th. “Out of the Woods” features the work of Turkey Point folk artist Robert McCairns.
Robert McCairns was born in Scotland and came to Canada at the age of 18 in 1923. McCairns settled in the Turkey Point area and made his living on the land hunting, fishing, managing marsh lands and acting as a guide. It was during this time that he tried his hand at carving decoys and that was the start of his journey into the world of folk art. After a severe illness led to semiretirement, McCairns began to use his carving skills to recreate the likeness of the birds inhabiting the marshes of Long Point. It wasn’t long until he began to branch out and include other subject matters that included cats, dogs, pigs and fish.
Robert’s first major exhibition was in 1977 at the Lynnwood Art Center which was the predecessor of the Norfolk Art Center. In 2008, the Norfolk Art Center is pleased to exhibit a selection of these marvelous carvings once again.
The Norfolk Arts Centre is open Wednesdays to Fridays, 10am-4pm. For more information please contact 519-428-0540 or email bob.missen@norfolkcounty.on.ca .

Hare Stew

Small game was plentiful in the Talbot Settlement and would have been a welcome addition to the pioneer table any time of year. Hare or rabbit would have been a regular part of the fare that graced the 1800s menu. Today the rabbit is domestically bred for the table while its cousin, the hare, is considered the true game animal.
This recipe calls for hare but rabbit would work just as well. The domestically bred rabbit does not need to be hung but if you’re using wild hare remember it needs to hang for around a week before it’s ready to use in this recipe.

Ingredients

3 hares cut into pieces (disjointing a hare is very similar to cutting up a chicken)
1 cup flour
1 tsp of pepper
1 tsp of salt
½ tsp of thyme
3 or 4 cups stock
2 Carrots, sliced
Butter (or vegetable oil)
½ pound of salt pork, diced
2 carrots, sliced
4 large onions, each cut in six
1 pound of mushrooms
Hare liver, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Set the hare liver aside for later.
Mix flour, salt, pepper and thyme together in a good sized bowl. Dredge the pieces of hare in the flour mixture and let rest until needed. Save 4 tablespoons of flour mixture in a small bowl.
In a large cast iron or heavy bottom stewing pot brown salt pork and onions over a medium high heat until salt pork is crispy and onions are slightly translucent and caramelized. Remove mixture from pot. Reduce heat and brown hare pieces in the same pot. Add butter or oil as needed. When the hare is nice and brown add enough stock to cover, put the lid back on and simmer for about an hour. Sauté the mushrooms in a little bit of butter. When the meat is cooked through, add the mushrooms, carrots, onions and salt pork to the pot. Cook for around 15 minutes or until the vegetables are tender. If the stew seems a little thin make a beurre manié* with the leftover dredging flour. Just before serving, sauté the chopped hare liver in butter, add to the pot, season the stew to taste and plate.

*Beurre manié is a good way to thicken a sauce or stew at the end of the recipe. Take 4 tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of butter. Knead them together to form a paste. Roll the paste into little balls or small pellets and add to your hot liquid, whisking continuously to dissolve the butter and disperse the flour. Simmer the sauce until it thickens and the flour has totally dissolved. Be sure not to let your liquid boil while adding the beurre manié or it might separate.