Thank you, Bill! To give credit where credit is due, the "I tried..." titles are the work of David on our blog team. He is guiding me away from a tendency to write every thing in the passive voice. :)

Thank you for sharing the poem, Fiona! It's perfect.

That's a wonderful initiative, MP. Gathering outdoor to knit warm garments for those in need sounds very much in the spirit of the women's knitting circle shown in the blog.

Bonus pattern! Thanks, Anne.

That's very interesting, Victoria! As a librarian, I can appreciate a professional woman in a cardigan. ;) I hope you get some use out of the patterns.

Thank you!

Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it!

I did that very thing for mitts to use this winter! (But it didn’t feel appropriate to include my pampered texting mitts in this blog post. 🙂)

This is a very interesting behind the scenes look at preservation techniques!

Yes, I would, but I think I prefer lemon squares with a shortbread-style butter crust rather than the lard-based one I used here. That being said, I find it so interesting to experiment with the options. One of the things I like about the approach taken in these old cookbooks is that they encourage working with what you have. There are a lot of similar recipes that can be selected from based on whether you're short on butter, have a surfeit of eggs, etc. Thank you for your comment!

Thank you, Jessica. I have never been a school librarian, but I have been both a children's librarian and a high school outreach librarian for Toronto Public Library. Our paths may not have crossed, but they have likely run parallel at times!

With good behavior you might get let off after just 10 slices... A pint of yeast sounds like a lot, but those old yeast proportions don't map neatly onto what we have commercially available now. Another recipe I tried required a "gill" of yeast, but a packet of instant dry yeast did the trick. You could give it a try. Maybe you'll find yourself saying, "Please sir, I want some more!"

I had already puzzled out the recipe and baked the pie when a coworker pointed out the more detailed 1972 recipe. Nothing like doing things the hard way. 😂 Thanks for the link!

I agree that a larger family would have been good to have around to share the pie. That’s another thing they did well in the 1800s!

I can also recommend the “Economical Fruit Cake” in the Dominion Cook Book! https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-37131055351217D&R=DC-37131055351217D

No, I haven’t—but I’ll have a look! https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-37131055386056D&R=DC-37131055386056D

Thanks for the thought Gary, but that would have to be a pretty big hat. The page sold for US$158,500!