Transcript Life in New France - the Grade 7 Wikispace!

Life in New France
Clothing
The women made and repaired the
family's clothes. Women wore long
dresses made out of wool, linen or
hemp, or long skirts and blouses. The
material was spun and woven at
home. In the winter, the women
layered overgarments (shawls, scarves
or capes) over their dresses. They
always wore a bonnet tied with a
ribbon at the chin.
The men wore deerskin or mooseskin
jackets and pants, held up by a leather
belt. The men wore a traditional
woolen hat called a tuque. These hats
often had a tassle at the tip and were
brightly coloured.
To keep warm, both men and women wore
woolen underclothing and knit stockings.
Gloves and shoes were made from leather. In
winter they wore leather moccasins and lined
their outer clothes with fur for extra warmth.
The clothes were dyed various colours using
plant dyes shown to them by the Native
peoples.
FOOD
The habitants grew most of their own food.
They grew wheat for bread, which they baked
in outdoor clay ovens.
Bread was one of the staples (most
important) foods in New France. It was made
daily, and it needed to be since the average
person in New France ate two loaves per day.
They also had barley and oats. They grew
vegetables such as peas, beans, onions,
carrots and cucumbers. These were kept in
the root cellar for the winter. Jams were
made from berries in the fall. Fruit was also
dried. There was plenty of hunting and
fishing. Habitants ate bacon, pork, chicken,
venison, moose, wild ducks and geese as well
as different varieties of fish, including eels.
Root cellars in
Quebec
Food
The habitants traded for molasses and
spices, which were used to flavour
their cooking. Milk, bread and
pancakes were served at breakfast.
Soup, baked beans, meat or fish with
lots of bread was served regularly. Pea
soup was a traditional food as well as
meat pies called tourtières.
For dessert, a favourite was maple
sugar pie, made with maple syrup and
brown sugar.
Natives in the area taught the
habitants how to boil the sap from
sugar maple trees to make maple
syrup. Maple sap was also used to
make maple sugar and hard maple
candies.
The habitants drank milk, apple cider
and homemade beer.
tourtieres
French pea soup
making maple
syrup
Maple syrup
Sugar maple trees, and therefore maple
syrup were very abundant in New France.
Over time, the people of New France
developed a love of very sweet dishes
and desserts. The amount of sugar in
their diets was dramatically more than
virtually every other culture in the
world!!
Take a look at the this traditional recipe
for a New France maple sugar pie:
Ingredients
1 single 9-inch pie shell
1 cup brown sugar
1½ cups maple syrup
½ cup cream or milk
4 eggs beaten separately (separate eggs
and beat whites separately)
2 tablespoons melted butter
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Mix all ingredients except egg whites.
Fold in egg whites.
Pour mixture into pie crust.
Bake at 350ºF for 35-40 minutes.
Meal time
The typical person in New France ate
four times per day. The first meal was
eaten a few hours after getting up in
the morning. It was usually pancakes
(with maple syrup, of course), bread
and milk.
The noon meal (12:00) and a meal at
around 4:00 pm was typically taken to
the men who were working in the
fields. This allowed the men to use
most of the daylight hours for working,
and not wasting time walking back and
forth to the house for meals. These
meals were usually bread, cheese and
cold meats. The noon meals was
usually a little bigger than the meal at
4:00.
Meals continued
The largest meal of the day was eaten
around 8:00 pm after all of the daily
work had been done.
This meal started with a soup, then a
meat or fish dish, and vegetables and
bread. This was washed down with
plenty of milk, cider or homemade
beer.
For dessert, something sweet was
always on the menu. This may include
maple sugar pie, fresh berry pie,
sugared fruit with cream, or something
as simple as maple syrup over a slice
or bread…just as long as it was sweet!
The meals in New France were seldom
elaborate, yet food was plentiful, and
the variety was enough to keep the
citizens happy and healthy.