Gardens and Food

Food

Eating and preparing food is a time for Métis families and communities to come together and enjoy large meals. Food is considered medicine and recipes would be passed down through generations.

A piece of art by Leah Marie Dorion made with mosaics shows two Indigenous people standing near animals, sun, and water.

Neighbours would come over to share a meal

Flip

Bannock Recipe:

3 cups flour
2 Tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
½ cup shortening (margarine, butter, lard)
1 cup water

Mix ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Then roll into a ball and cover for 10 minutes then fry the bread mixture in a pan, over an open fire, or bake in the oven until golden brown.

Flip

Métis diets consisted of food that could be foraged, hunted, or grown. Some traditional Métis dishes include galette (baked bannock), pemmican, Rubaboo (stew), boulettes (aka bullets) meatballs, la pouchin (pudding) and a variety of different berry dishes.

Boulette soup

Gardens

Gardening provided Métis families with fresh vegetables such as potatoes, onions, cabbage, carrots, and turnips. They also had a wide knowledge of plants that could be used for medicine. Gardens supplemented the traditional Métis diets of wild game, fish, and berries. Planting and harvesting gardens happened in certain seasons, so they did not get in the way of the buffalo hunt.

Photo Credit: Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan (R-B9739)

Women harvesting a garden of potatoes in Cumberland, SK

The food they got from their gardens was either eaten fresh, sold, canned, kept in cellars, or dried out to supply themselves with food throughout winter. Métis women grew gardens to provide food for the Hudson’s Bay Company posts, which prevented starvation among fur traders.

Canned or preserved foods were stored in a cold room to keep for the winter months

Check Your Understanding

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