The daily fare of New France was not of limitless variety,
but it was nourishing and adequate. Bread made from wheat
flour and cakes made from ground maize were plentiful.
Meat and fish were within the reach of all. Both were
cured by smoke after the Indian fashion and could be kept
through the winter without difficulty. Vegetables of
various kinds were grown, but peas were the great staple.
Peas were to the French what maize was to the redskin.
In every rural home soupe aux pois came daily to the
table. Whole families were reared to vigorous manhood on
it. Even to-day the French Canadian has not by any means
lost his liking for this nourishing and palatable food.
Beans, too, were a favourite vegetable in the old days;
not the tender haricots of the modern menu, but the feves
or large, tough-fibred beans that grew in Normandy and
were brought by its people to the New World. There were
potatoes, of course, and they were patates, not pommes
de terre. Cucumbers were plentiful, indeed they were
being grown by the Indians when the French first came to
the St Lawrence. As they were not indigenous to that
region it is for others than the student of history to
explain how they first came there. Fruits there were
also, such as apples, plums, cherries, and French
gooseberries, but not in abundance. Few habitants had
orchards, but most of them had one or two fruit-trees
grown from seedlings which came from France. Wild fruits,
especially raspberries, cranberries, and grapes, were to
be had for the picking, and the younger members of each
family gathered them all in season.
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