Grub in the Woods-Food in the Newfoundland Lumberwoods.

Grub in the Woods

I actually had the idea to start this blog when I was rummaging around looking for a copy of an AND Co menu from the early 60’s. It was done up in response to the IWA strike and outlined what grub would be served in the logging camps. Unfortunately I still haven’t found it, but I do remember Vienna sausages being an option on  the lunch menu and cold plates being on the supper menu.

When I was very young I asked my grandfather what grub was and he explained to me that grub was food. In the woods conditions were rough and men worked hard so they consumed lots of grub. I have always had a special interest in this matter. One of my great grandfathers was a camp cook on the Rattling Brook Line, his son, my great uncle, cooked in the woods for years as well (and he still has a reputation as a good cook in Point Leamington!). I also did an extensive interview with a camp cook; Mr. Douglas Reccord who cooked in the woods from 1935 up until the 1970’s.

Mr. Douglas Reccord of Victoria Cove, NDB. Cooking at a camp in the Lake Wilding area of Millertown Division sometime in the 1940's. I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Reccord ten years ago about his experiences as a camp cook for over forty years. He started at his brothers camp on Lake Wilding in 1934 or 35 and finished up at Rocky Brook Camp in the 1970's.
Mr. Douglas Reccord of Victoria Cove, NDB. Cooking at the 26-Mile Depot near Victoria Lake in Millertown Division Circa 1960. I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Reccord in 2004 about his experiences as a camp cook for over forty years. He started at his brother Mark Reccords  camp on Lake Wilding in 1934 or 35 and finished up at Rocky Brook Camp in the 1970’s. In the picture you can see two “Adam Hall” stoves. Note the ring near the center of the picture, the men would run poles through the rings to carry the “portable” cast iron stoves.

Newfoundlanders in past years were never had the most varied of diets. Salted meats and root vegetables that could survive in the cold climate were staples along with anything dried or picked that could last a long time. Basically most people were limited to what they could grow and what could keep. A diet limited in variety was especially true in the logging camps of the interior, what could be grown, what would keep and add to that what was cheap.

The way in which logging camps were run also impacted on how the men were fed. In the old system with the AND Company the foreman or “Skipper” as he was called ran the camp as a company employee. But he was allotted so much money to run the camp. This money also paid the contractors salary. So the more the contractor could save on food the more he would make at the end of the year. This said most contractors were fair and wouldn’t skimp on the food budget to save them money. If a contractor got a reputation for being stingy with the grub  loggers would be reluctant to work in their camps. It should be noted that loggers paid a daily amount for board which paid for their meals.

The cookhouse was the center of the logging camp. It was where all the eating and much of the socializing took place. It was usually the largest building in the camp since it was needed to seat fifty plus men. For many years between the 1890’s and the 1930’s the cookhouse and bunkhouses were all in one structure with an alleyway between the buildings. Later on the cookhouse was a separate building altogether.

loggers camp badger
Inside of a very early A.N.D Co or Newfoundland Pine and Pulp Company cook house, 1909. The Pine and Pulp Company had limits in the Badger area at the time and supplies the AND Co with 25,000 cords of wood per year-a significant portion of their needs at the time.
grub loggers eating supper
Supper in a large woods camp in the early 1960’s. By this point the diet had become more varied and the facilities more modern in response to the IWA Strike.

Inside the cookhouse there would be the cooks quarters the main room with the Table and benches and one or more stoves for cooking. The furniture was usually pretty rough especially in the early days, one old logger working for the Exploit’s Lumber Company in the 1890’s reported that instead of washing down the table, every Sunday they would plane off the top layer of wood! Some of the early benches were most likely just halved logs.

loggers mug up
Boil-up in the lumber woods, early 1900’s. Tea was the staple drink in all logging camps, sweetened with molasses and without milk.

The stoves were wood burning until the 1950’and 60’s when oil ranges were introduced in the camps. The most common type used over the years was the “Adam Hall” ”Portable” Stove. The Adam Hall was specifically developed for use in logging camps and was portable inasmuch as iron rings attached to the frame could accommodate poles so that a team of men could move the several hundred pound cast iron monstrosity.

cook in woods2_around Newfoundland with a camera
Cook serves beans at an A.N.D Company camp. 1946-7. Cooks worked from early in the morning into the evenings feeding logging crews. In most camps the cooks would be assisted by one or more “cookees.” Cookees took care of the camp, washed the dishes, cut fire wood and assisted the cook.(From Through Newfoundland with a Camera. )

So what was cooked on and in the old Adam Hall? Well you have heard of the three R’s well I guess up the woods you had the three B’s-Bean’s Bread and Bologna. If you know a little about logging in Newfoundland and if you have heard what life was like in the camps you might wonder if they really did eat that many beans. Some of the old timers were prone to exaggeration but prior to the IWA Strike of 1959 baked beans were the staple in most logging camps for most of the week. Beans were on the table at breakfast, beans were on the lunch grounds  at lunch and beans were on the table at supper even if supper consisted of something else. The  beans were accompanied by unlimited amounts of freshly baked white bread. A man’s abilities as a lumber camp cook were measured in how well he could make bread and beans-along with how far he could stretch the food out for the contractor. The cooks bread making ability could make or break how good a camp would be-inexperienced cooks and drafty cookhouses led to a lot of sour bread in many camps.

Up in the cookhouse
A camp cook had to do a significant amount of baking. It was very common to have to bake two dozen loves of bread a day depending on the size of the camp. My Great grandfather cooked for “Skipper” Jim Rowsell on Bishop’s Falls in the 1920’s and 30’s (Authors painting)

Though beans were the staple, at various times there was a little more variety at the supper table. This consisted of boiled dinner when vegetables were available as well as boiled duff usually on Tuesdays.  Friday’s evening meal usually consisted of fish and brewis, Saturdays was pea soup and on Sunday there might be cooked dinner with, if you were very lucky, fresh meat. By the 1940’s this fresh meat was beef, but often over the years it was caribou. When the A.N.D Company first started logging operations it was not uncommon for contractors to shoot a number of caribou to feed the men in the camps. Back then the animals were plentiful and the government allotted so many of them for the camps. Even by mid-century it was not uncommon for a contractor to shoot a moose or caribou to feed his crew.

Wild game and fish accounted for a noticeable percentage of the fresh meat eaten by loggers for fifty years. As camps moved to a new area it might turn out that this virgin territory was full of moose, caribou, rabbits or partridge. The camp might even be located near a brook or lake that was teaming with trout. All of which would be exploited to break the monotony of camp food. After a conversation with my great uncle many years ago I was struck with how common firearms were in logging camps. The Foreman or skipper always had a rifle-this was to deal with bears or for moose and caribou. Loggers were known to bring their own guns into the camps-after all if you were stuck in the woods you might as well do some hunting. This invariably led to Sunday hunting illegal but ill enforced in pre-confederation Newfoundland.

Whatever could be caught or killed was kept frozen (in season) to take home or brought to the cook. The camp cook was one of the hardest working men in the woods. Thought he was not pushing a bucksaw his hours could sometimes last from four in the morning until nine in the night. As soon as he got up he would have to get the beans and the bread ready. Bread in most camps was done in batches of twenty five loaves at a time and mixed in a massive half barrel.

Most of the grub was washed down with tea served in large “slut” kettles and sweetened with molasses. Sugar wasn’t as easy to get or to transport. So if it was available it was reserved for pies and cookies. I would be many years before there would be sugar on the cookhouse tables. Though the food was generally rough desserts were common up in the woods a good cook could whip together dried apple pies, lassy buns or ginger snaps. During the Second World War sugar was especially coveted by cooks since it was rationed often a very small amount of sugar had to do the entire camp.

grub pies and pastries at camp
Even during the roughest times and in the most remote camps the cooks always managed to whip up something for dessert. Pies and molasses cookies were the most common. (AND Company photo)

The Second War War brought shortages and rationing everywhere and if things were bad for the ordinary civilian they were even worse for the woodsmen. Old correspondence with the Newfoundland Lumbermens Association from the times reveal men being fed substandard food like salted mutton that had gone “rusty” and pickled herring gone “smatchy.”The War also brought about a shortage in a lumber woods staple. During the war years there was a shortage of Bologna! Men in a number of camps complained to the union on how rarely it was available. When you were lousy, working ten hours a day and sleeping on boughs around a converted oil barrel stove grub was one of the few comforts.

Food slowly started to get a little better after World War Two. A little more fresh meat began to get into the camps, canned food became a little more common and even some fresh fish and fresh salmon was available in some areas. It is interesting to note that canned food was preferred by many men. And canned food was what was eaten when loggers were fighting forest fires so many saw that as being the benefit of firefighting duty.

But food had not improved enough after confederation to keep pace with the rest of the island. One of the main issues during the IWA Strike of 1959 was food and conditions. Mainly the men wanted bacon and eggs for breakfast once and a while! After the strike the A.N.D Co was forced to improve the food. Oil ranges and refrigeration gradually found their way into the camps-aided by an improved network of truck roads. Cooks also now received training in how to prepare and serve food. The way that food was served also changed. Generally it was served cafeteria style rather than bowls of beans and plates of bread being placed on the tables. Lunches also changed and often came to include a tin of Vienna sausages, tinned sardines or some other canned goods.

Gradually as food improved the number of men eating in logging camps started to decline, improved roads, increased vehicle ownership coupled with mechanization and a decrease in the number of loggers meant a drastic reduction in the number of camps. During the 1920-1950’s period it was not uncommon for there to be dozens and dozens of camps in a division. By the 1970’s this had decreased and by the time the last meal was served in an A.N.D/Abitibi camp in 2009 there was just one camp in the old Badger Division, Holletts Camp near Black Duck Brook.

Epiloge:

I found the menu I was talking about at the beginning of the article! I think beans are only there once a week for breakfast (though tinned beans are there a few times for lunch)and eggs are on the menu for breakfast 5 days a week.

menu-and-co-menu-1960
AND Co Menu 1960-61. This came from the Dunfield report on conditions in the logging camps which was done in the wake of the IWA strike.

Further Reading

Kitchen, John By the Sweat of My Brow.

http://buttercup.library.mun.ca/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ich_oral&CISOPTR=307&CISOBOX=1&REC=9

18 comments

  1. Is there anywhere where I can find these photos with the names? Is the Loggers Museum still in Grand Falls?

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  2. Anyone in the Grand Falls area can see a museum on the logging camp. I’ve been there several time and enjoy it every time I go there. Hope this site is still open, going back again this year

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  3. My father Dave West was a cookee and then cook in those days.Worked in camps around Millertown, Buchans, Badger area. We spent many a summer camping near Catamarand park near Badger. Lot of Wests from Ladle Cove area worked cooking in the camps.

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    • I was a cookee with your dad on Buchan’s Road around 1962 when I was in grade 10..Ed west was the foreman.Two nice men . My dad was the district foreman. One day your dad pointed to a large pot and told me to strain the potatoes . When I had it mostly strained I realized it was soup . All the pots were exactly alike .

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  4. I grew up in Grand Falls and can vaguely remember visiting a woods camp with the boy scouts and my dad back in the 1960’s and staying overnight (one night). I do not know which camp it was but I do remember how fantastic the food was, especially the baked goods, and catching more trout than my dad.
    Great, great memories.

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    • There were dozens and dozens of camps in central in the 1960s. I do believe there were a set of camps between Lemottes and Grand Falls back in the late 60’s. If memory serves me correctly a feller Armstrong and Les Harris were cutting close to Grand Falls back then.

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  5. My dad was a second hand or foreman for contractor Harold Stanley if GrandFalls Windsor for years . Very interesting stuff it should be in our history books .

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    • I knew Harold, last time I saw him before he passed away he said we should have a talk about the woods. One of Harold’s old camps was still up around Pamehoc until a few years ago. Is your father still around?

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      • No he pasted in 2011 , but my brothers in Birchy bay along with numerous other people worked for different contractors in the lumber woods . It would be a shame and a big lost to the way of life to lose these archives . History is in the stories .

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      • Too bad. Would your brothers be interested in talking to me. I am looking for more information on logging operations in the 1960’s to 1980’s especially if they worked on any of the drives.

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  6. I Really enjoyed this. My Dad, Pat Cooke, cooked in camps near Rattling Brook or Bishop’s Falls. I remember as a kid of about 10 in 1952 or so, visiting for a week or so with him at Tote Brook. . I remember the men on the drive. It was a great experience.

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  7. My dad worked has a cook for many years His name was Lloyd Boyd , everyone loved his cooking… we would spend many weekends with him … I remember one time we got stranded big snow storm we were at Millertown it was Christmas good thing our Mom took gifts … we had plenty to eat we had Duck instead of Turkey that year. Great memories.

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  8. MY Dad was a check scaler for Bowater’s , then Kruger. He lost his life in the Mill Yard in Corner Brook when he fell off a pile of 8 foot logs. His name was Gerald Turner. Cheers, Chris Turner. cturner@bluejack.ca if you wanted to reach me.

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