Recipes for Young Adults

Manitoba Beet Growers’ Association, Manitoba Suburban Home Economics Teachers, and Manitoba Sugar Company - 1972

Sugar beets were first grown in Western Canada around the turn of the twentieth century and were soon a popular crop in Alberta and Manitoba. Interned Japanese Canadians and German prisoners of war helped harvest the beets during World War II (Glenbow, “Alberta”), while First Nations peoples also contributed substantially to the workforce (Laliberte). Refineries for cane sugar in Vancouver and for sugar beets in Winnipeg and Southern Alberta employed hundreds. Although the B.C. Sugar Refinery Co. purchased the Manitoba Sugar Company in 1955, as well as the Alberta Sugar Company (Canadian Sugar Institute), the company produced separate cookbooks for each province. The recipes are essentially identical, but the calendars tracking the availability of different fruits and vegetables show subtle differences in the growing seasons. The book was meant as a home economics text, with recipes selected by a committee of home economics teachers.

With permission from Lantic Inc.