Feasting and Fasting is an introduction to the foods and beverages that were a central part of how our ancestors celebrated important events.

Long before the arrival of newcomers, the First Nations were celebrating the passages of life, the changing seasons, and the gifts of the Great Spirit with feasting. As settlers from around the world arrived on Canadas shores, they brought with them the memories and traditions from home. Diverse and unique culinary histories began to develop as the newcomers were unable to find some of their traditional ingredients and were forced to compromise. Wild game, fruit, plants, grains, vegetables, and maple sugar were often transformed from survival foods to the foods of celebration.

Food brought families and communities together to pay tribute, to honour, to celebrate, to mourn, and to be comforted. This is a sampling of their events and what was on their tables at births, weddings, funerals, religious holidays, garden parties, and more!

Dorothy Duncan began her career as an elementary school teacher, and it was as a teacher-guide and curator at Black Creek Pioneer Village that her love of history and her passion for food led her into the world of culinary history. As a Museums Advisor for the Province of Ontario and Executive Director of the Ontario Historical Society, she worked with organizations across Canada and around the world to ensure that Canada's culinary history was recognized, researched, and recorded. Dorothy has lectured internationally on Canada's heritage foods and customs, including at the Culinary Institute of America and at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery in England. She was the Toronto Women's Culinary Network's Woman of the Year, and in 2006 she was chosen by the Ontario Hostelry Institute to receive the Gold Award for Media and Publishing. Nothing More Comforting: Canada's Heritage Food, Dorothy's first book for Dundurn, was published in 2003 to wide acclaim.

Dorothy Duncan's profile page

This book is a delight to read.

Resource Links

Feasting and Fasting certainly gives readers plenty of food for thought.

Canada's History Magazine

Attendees at a Dominion Day picnic held at Uxbridge in 1876 certainly didn't walk away hungry. Or bored...The generous spread is one of many recounted within the pages of Orilla Author Dorothy Duncan's recently published book.

Midland/Penetanguishene Mirror

A great purchase for anyone interested in Canadas culinary history.

Bradford/W.Gwillimbury Times