Vegetable Cook Book

Katharine Middleton and McFayden Seed Company - 1948

Elizabeth Driver points out that this book was one of two major vegetable company cookbooks to come out of Manitoba in the pre-1950 period; the other was produced by the A.E. McKenzie Co. (Culinary 923). The author of the McFayden book, Katharine Middleton, was at that time a Home Economics editor at the Winnipeg Tribune, as well as a popular speaker, radio host, and author. Scientific approaches take precedence here, with emphasis on minerals, vitamins, and proper digestion, in keeping with Middleton’s systematic education, both at the University of Manitoba and the Kahler Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota (Driver, Culinary 976). The farm home was another market for trends in dietetics and technology. Indeed, this 1948 edition, a revision of the original 1941 book, contains new information about freezing vegetables. Though not all of the plants advertised are good for human consumption (mangels, for example, are generally used as animal feed), the variety of vegetables (and fruits), including muskmelons and colourful varieties of squash, points to a diversity now largely lost.