Acadian Bread Oven Workshop - June 8th

Farmers' Bank of Rustico Lunch and Learn 
     A course will be given on how to build an outdoor Acadian Bread Oven by Arnold Smith at the Farmers' Bank of Rustico (2188 Church Road Rustico) on Saturday June 8th starting at 9:00 am.
     The session will feature a hands on demonstration and participation in building a full sized bread oven which will replace the one now existing at the Doucet House. As well, a lunch which will be cooked in the traditional way in the stone fireplace of the Doucet House will be served to participants.
     Admission: $50.00 per person - $80.00 per couple.
     Book your ticket at info@farmersbank.ca or call Theresa Gallant at 963-2997.

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     Here are a few photos from the "Building an Acadian Bread Oven Workshop" held at Doucet House, Rustico in June 2004 with Jef Ackenbach and Perry Everett of Annapolis Thatching Co-op Inc. from Annapolis, Nova Scotia.  They have conducted considerable research into 17th and 18th-Century Acadian building techniques.

     First you mix sand, brick clay, marsh grass and water and shape them in to cobs, once they have rested for a bit then you can start to shape the bread oven.

The first fire to bake the clay - then its ready to make bread.

We had a great day and learned alot!!

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     Below is an excerpt from the Journals of Rev. Robert William Dyer of Kildare/Cascumpeque, P.E.I. on his travel from Kildare to Tignish to see the newly constructed St. Simon St. Jude Cathedral.  The previous two pages were missing from the manuscript and this is where his comments end on the topic of local Acadians.  Rev. Dyers Journals cover a period of 42 years: 1841-1859 in Newfoundland and 1859-1883 in Prince Edward Island. 

September 10, 1859

“...they are all little farmers, I think; a fine part of the country, fine land and a large portion cleared, but badly cultivated.  One thing we noticed as we passed which seems peculiar to the French, is an oven where they bake their bread, built of mud, on some little framework some distance from the dwelling house.  This is, I should think, a safe, but rather an unhandy usage. We arrived in Tignish about half past 5 o’clock…”

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     Below are photos from the Mont Carmel Parish 100th Anniversary Book 1912, showing an Acadian woman with a bread oven.

1812 - 1912

Premier Centennaire

…DE LA…

Paroisse de Mont Carmel

Ile du Prince Edouard

Le 20 Aout, 1912