The simple everyday things of life from New Westminster’s early years often draw attention and inquiries during talks and tours.
One of the most basic is food, not just those items imported to the early town and colony, but the crops and other agricultural goods that were available locally.
One fascinating example comes from July 1868 as plans were being laid in for a fall exhibition in early October. The committee organizing the event put the necessary information in the paper: (we) “submit the following List of Articles for which prizes will be given.”
“It is desirable that the exhibition is rendered as complete and attractive as possible, any products of the Colony may be exhibited in quantities smaller than those prescribed in the list. Such articles will be entitled to Honourable Mention if judged worthy.” And so the extensive list appeared in the local paper showing cereals, roots and vegetables, fruit, horticultural, dairy produce, fish and miscellaneous.
The following are selected from the overall lists and show clearly the wide range of local goods available to those living here in the late 1860s. As you will see, we would be quite at home with these items today. A point to remember is that there were often multiple varieties of individual commodities.
Cereals: wheat, oats, barley, Indian corn, buckwheat, peas, beans, rye, clover seed, Timothy seed, and rye grass.
Roots and vegetables: potatoes (white, kidneys, blue, largest), turnips, carrots, parsnips, cabbage and mangold wurzel. The latter is a root crop known by many names, often grown for livestock.
Horticultural: peas (in pods), beans, tomatoes, onions, beets, pumpkins, squash, vegetable marrow, melons, cucumbers, cabbages, cauliflower, kale, celery and also in this category were hops, tobacco, and flowers.
Fruits: apples, pears, plums, peaches, quinces, and grapes.
Dairy produce: butter, cheese, eggs, fowl, ducks, geese, and turkeys.
Fish: salmon (spring, sockeye, preserved in tin or wood), codfish (dried), oolichan (dried, pickled), caviar, fish oils, and isinglass. The latter is a product from the dried swim bladders of fish and had a number of uses.
Miscellaneous: lard, bacon, ham, pickles, jams, jellies, preserves, wines, spirits, ale, beer, cider, and flax. Also in this category were mineral specimens, fancy needlework, Indian manufactures, curiosities, relics, and turpentine.
This is a fairly all-encompassing list of items, many food stuffs that were to be found in the stores and markets of early New Westminster. Reading through the lists you will note a number of things not included in the exhibition such as fresh meats and milk, though these do appear in other exhibitions.
We also find references at other times of the year to things like tobacco and alcohol-related commodities.
The town in 1868 was well stocked with locally produced food items as well as imported products available in the stores. Eating in New Westminster 146 years ago would have been much like today, but much simpler.
For more tales from New Westminster’s past, visit www.royalcityrecord.com/opinion/columns and click on Dale and Archie Miller.
