nova scotia hodge podge
I no longer blog about food. But don’t fret!
You can find the recipe for Nova Scotia Hodge Podge in this ebook:
I no longer blog about food. But don’t fret!
You can find the recipe for Nova Scotia Hodge Podge in this ebook:
From one Maritimer to another, ‘Thank you’!! This reminds me so much of my childhood. I am going to stop at the local market on the way home from work and have some for supper tonight!
Yippie!! I hope you manage to find all of the ingredients – some markets don’t have everything in yet. But we’ve had some for the past two weekends, so it CAN BE DONE!
Just back from Kempt Shore maritime Acoustic festival – where a vendor was selling hodge podge. Today spend some time copying and pasting recipes for hodge podge, and was surprised about the turnip, corn, flour, and order of cooking the vegetables. Until I found your recipe. Sounds very authentic and will be off to the supermarket for the makings. Thanks Ontario Sue
Thanks, Ontario Sue! I hope you’ve gobbled up a big batch of hodge podge!
Well how embarrassed am I?? I honestly never knew that Hodge Podge was something that you eat!! Although it makes sense I guess, because I’ve always known it as a “bunch of stuff” all mixed together…but not necessarily food related. So I guess that’s where it comes from?
I also know it as some fancy shmancy glue used for making decoupage!
The things you learn! Thanks Movita!
You are exactly right – that’s how hodge podge earned it’s name – it’s a bunch of stuff all thrown into a pot. I’m assuming that back in the day, when money in a lot of households was scarce, this recipe would be fairly economical to prepare. (Today’s economy ain’t much different.) Nova Scotia has a lot of fishing and a lot of farming – so traditionally, local ingredients were easy to find. Of course, nowadays, butter costs more than bloody lobster!
Now, the fancy schmancy glue? That’s MOD Podge. But I think I’ll call it Hodge Podge from now on…
I think I may live under a rock, or it hasn’t made it’s way to Ontario. Either was it looks yummy!
As far as I know, hodge podge is a Maritime thing. Though I’m pretty sure it has some origins in France and England. Clearly, you’ll have to take Ontario by storm. With all of the amazing farms out there, you should have no trouble at all!
I don’t even like vegetables….but what did I buy today? Vegetables. Because of you! I think you might have some sort of subliminal, psychic,esp, vegetable vibe…or something like that…going on.
Now if I could just sit back and get you to cook it for me!!
SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! That is way awesome! I hope your body doesn’t reject them…
Beautiful dish Movita! Love the photos too!
Thanks, Sheryl!
I ate about 4 pounds of it yesterday – left over from the weekend. It. Was. So. Good. And it thickens up a little in the fridge, and just keeps getting better and better. Man. I’ve gotta make some more…
This sounds delicious! I’m ashamed to say I’d never heard of hodge podge before – how could I call myself a Canadian?! Well, I can now! I may be all citified now that I’ve left the farm, but I still felt pretty smug when you pointed out the pea pods do not go into the pot. I knew that! Now I’m feeling better …
That’s how I take care of big city folk. I tell them they don’t have to eat pea pods. I hope they appreciate me.
Okay, don’t listen to the big city folk. Gotcha! I’m on team Maritimers. I like butter, and I like cream. Seriously, who gets rid of the fatty deliciousness? Not me. This hodge podge looks creamy and delicious. All it needs is a big hunk of crusty bread. None of that whole wheat, seven grain stuff, either.
Nope. Don’t be using what my brother calls “bird seed bread.” A nice hunk of crusty bread will do yah just fine. And that way you can sop up the fatty deliciousness!
AMEN. The perfect, accurate hodge podge post. (Those not from the Maritimes would probably call it a vegetable chowder. Weirdos!) 🙂
Agreed!
*sigh*
i’ve decided i need to become some sort of honorary Maritimer. i like too many things that go on up there. and i love boats and shippy things. also docks. and baby lambs and seafood. and especially this hodge podge, which i have never heard of and have to make this instant.
so…who can i see about that. i didn’t know who made those types of decisions.
Oh, and those things are just the tip of the iceberg! We’ve got ocean, farms, city and all things in between. We party in kitchens – well, not all of us – just the cool Maritimers. We’re really festive. We’re warm and friendly – which freaks some city folk out. And we’re way funny. Trust me. People From Away don’t want to leave. You’ve got to get your butt over here. I’ll see if I can get some strings pulled…
Love this whole post today.. your humor, the name of your recipes.. the fresh from your garden ingredients and your beautiful photography!! Win . win. win. win.!! xo from out west where we don’t have a Hodge Podge
I’m seriously digging on this piece of Canadiana! I’ve made Nova Scotia blueberry cream cake before, but never hodge podge! I have a feeling this will make it to the dinner table (read: desk in front of a computer) sometime this summer, because, seriously — if you don’t get the best veggies in Canada during the summer, say hello to “local” canned goods and potatoes until June… our weather — sheesh!
What about blueberry grunt? Have you made that? I bet you’d like it! (It goes very well with hodge podge…)
In the first half of 20th century Nova Scotia all of the ingredients for hodge podge could be found on the family homestead in rural areas. Most people kept a cow and had their own cream and butter to go with all the fresh vegies they grew in their gardens. Now if you will excuse me I have to go to the garden before it rains and get the fixings for my own hodge podge.
I knew it. I knew I needed a cow.
Thanks, Katy! I’m happy to have you here! And I hope you’ll let me know how your furniture turns out…
I know what you mean about people having different versions/misconceptions of this amazing recipe!! I was shocked & somewhat disappointed to buy a “Celebrity Cook Book” and find a “Hodge Podge” recipe from Ann Murray – after reading her version I wondered if she really is from Nova Scotia. HaHaHa –Just sayin’ !
I bet Anne got all high falutin’ once she hit it big, and then changed her hodge podge recipe!
I am a transplanted Maritimer now living in Indiana. Coincidentally I was just telling my neighbor how we fixed vegetables as soon as we could in the early summer. It brought back such wonderful memories of scarfing down copious amounts of my Grammie Bent’s delicious Hodge Podge some 40+ years ago. Thanks so much for sharing this…your version of this recipe is exactly how my Grammie fixed it! From another former “Valley girl!”
So nice to hear from you, Cindy! I was just thinking about making some hodge podge, as the veggies will be hitting the markets here in Nova Scotia. Hope you’ll be making some in Indiana – and spreading the Maritime way down south!
Your recipe is very similar to my Nanny’s Hodge Podge (except hers was less precisely measured 🙂 and has been a summer staple at my place. I’m not much of a cook, but summer just isn’t summer without u-Pick strawberries made into jam and hodge podge. And after making my jam last week with a combination of local berries bought at the Seaport Farmers Market and local berries bought at Sobeys, I’m not only convinced local is better, I’m now convinced straight-from-the-farmer is better.
now for a tip for all the city dwellers out there…I found seeds this year that grow carrots and beans IN A POT on your deck! So you can even grow your own on your deck, if you don’t have a yard.
I hear ya! The Maritimes rock!
I’m very curious about these potted veggies – seems way easier than tilling a field…
I have been eating Hodge Podge all my life…it is only eaten in July / August when you have access to the veggies out of your garden……..it is a South Shore tradition….having my mothers family from Cape Breton, my dads extended family in Halifax, and the Valley …….they never heard of it until moving to Lunenburg County…… the recipe you have here is not exactly how it was made by those of us Bridgewater area……..NO SALT in the water it ruins the flavor……….if you use new baby veggies…. potatoes, carrots, bean green and yellow and peas…all get cooked together, no chopping required just freshly washed if you use only new baby veggies they are the correct size already.( and sweetest ) should only boil for 8-10 minutes . Fully drain….put back in same pot, on medium low heat the add one stick of real butter about 1-1 1/2 cups let butter melt by stirring gently then a full can of milk (its creamy and thick on its own) gently stirring until all is coated…once milk has heated about 1-2 mins then its ready to eat. grab some fresh homemade bread and enjoy.
Ahhh, so here I go…. a girl from New England, originally from Cape Cod, living in New Hampshire… and a lover of all things Maritime and Nova Scotia. You can be sure I checked the recipe closely, got my vegies from our local farmer’s market and ready to make it today. I’ve been known to alter “some” recipes to suit my needs or tastebuds but I know better than to change up a great recipe with such “honorable” roots, lolll. I believe in those great old recipes that have reason and purpose rooted in the lives of people throughout the seasons. It just feels and tastes so right to do it the way they have done it over the years. TY movita for posting this. Next to my discovery of Colcannon a few months back, this Hodge Podge recipe I’m really looking forward to trying out.
BTW, my love of Nova Scotia and the Maritimes comes from not only that I was born and grew up on Cape Cod but also, I’ve visited Nova Scotia and PEI and immediately fell in love… with your lovely land…. hopefully to visit again. I love my best friends from Nova Scotia. You all are such wonderful folks. <3
Hi,
I remember eating Hodge Podge as a kid in Canning (Valley). I haven’t had it since moving away in ’86. I am back to the valley regularly nowadays, seeing a woman again I knew as a kid. “Happy Days are here again”. My mother made it but we didn’t, as I remember, use cream. I think it was whole milk, yes I know whole milk! Today we got the stuff but couldn’t find any yellow beans! I am making it following your instructions, not the quantities but the sequence. We decided to get some ham to have with it but I don’t remember having any meat with it as I kid. A great read btw, too bad you turned out be a city dweller. I am from Canning, Windsor is a city to me.
Thanks movita
Brad, I grew up in KINGSTON. Smallest place on earth. So, though I’ve lived in both Toronto and Halifax, I’m a Valley Girl at heart! I remember driving to New Minas and thinking it was very metropolitan. And Kentville? I thought that place was so ritzy! (And just so you know, I often have whole milk in my fridge for baking. Long live whole milk!)
Hope you enjoyed your hodge podge – it’s great any way you make it!!
I too am a Kingston girl but sadly, my mother never made hodge podge! I see the signs at the local farmer markets advertising for the veggies every summer but never seem to get around to it. Today seems like the perfect day to make it! Thanks for the recipe – I’ll be following it nice and close 🙂
Last year when visiting NS, I had Hodge Podge for the first time (I can’t believe that no one had served it to me before then). It was wonderful! I do a recipe column for our community newsletter and I wanted to share this great recipe with everyone but kept coming across ‘authentic’ recipes that made no sense at all. Then I found this one with all of the wonderful stories. I will be quoting you in my article and sending people here for more Nova Scotia. We are heading down again next week. I hope someone is making Hodge Podge.
I’m just about to make hodgepodge. We’re supposed to be having a hurricane here in Nova Scotia but really not. The recipe I use is mainly in my head – South Shore, Chester area. Very like yours only we did use salt pork (or bacon). I’m a slackatarian and don’t usually eat meat but I was going to for my early summer feed of hodgepodge. Now I’m not sure… the way we always had it was a bit like chkwder without the fish. I loves it. Thanks for putting your memories out there for others to enjoy. Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens has a recipe I think. Also Dutch Oven, a Lunenburg cookbook.
I have both of those books, Jan, and survived yesterday’s hurricane here in Halifax! I have met a number of people recently who remember salt pork in their hodge podge – it sounds divine, and I think I should try making it that way some time. My partner’s parents are from the South Shore, and we make our hodge podge exactly as they did and still do – I love family/traditional recipes! (Don’t you just love the illustrations in the Dutch Oven book?)
Thanks, Lynda! I hope your belly gets filled with hodge podge when you are here…
Thank goodness there is a REAL Maritmer out there. Except for the carrots, the recipe is just exactly as I remembered it. My summer memories from B’Water, NS are laced with lobster, corn boils, and hodge podge sans the carrots but with full cream and salted butter. (A corn boil was just that, lots and lots and lots of corn on the cob.) I have some lovely little colourful carrots in my garden, though, so will use your recipe. Sadly, I cannot eat wheat so Mrs. F.’s wonderful oatmeal brown bread will not be added to my feast. BTW, Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens does have a hodge podge recipe that uses salt pork. Not my idea of the best summer dinner out there. Thanks for the recipe and for the memories of summers in Pleasantville, N.S. From Duncan, BC.
Solution to the butter problem: keep a cow in your backyard 🙂
The great hodgepodge has been a summer tradition in my family since my brother and I were old enough to shuck peas! Also we had to have Herverd not sure if I spelt it right corn beef alongside with homemade rolls. Yummers!
Actually to elaborate further.Half of the enjoyment of hodgepodge was the gathering of vegetables out of the garden and preparing them.We would have three pots one for potatoes,one for string beans and finally one for green beans. Unlike other families we didn’t include carrots don’t know why we just didn’t. Anywho I can still remember Sunday mornings my brother and I would be busy snipping the end pieces off the beans and shucking the peas.no pods for us lol.
Darrin Lively Not Licely (made me laugh out loud), I’ve got fond memories of picking veggies as a child too. I think that’s why I love hodge podge so much – it’s simple, tasty, and just as everything was in the old days!
Cherie my home was just down the river by the Yatch Club. We had a dairy farm there.
Exactly what I do.. I DO NOT put onion or corn in mine, (some of my friends doooo) and I use blend .. AND butter!!!!!! Made it Monday night (FOR 7) with strawberry shortcake for dessert!!!
I grew up on the South Shore(West LaHave). Hodge Podge season started early July and continued throughout the summer as long as we had the fresh veggies.We had our own cream and butter, a neccessity for hodge podge. And no onions corn or turnip!! I still make this but put all my veggies in the pot at the same time. Hodge Podge season is followed by Blueberry grunt season.This is a grunt with dough boys, not a biscuit or cobbler..After eating a bowl of this you will literally GRUNT getting up from the table.Hope everyone has a chance this summer to enjoy both, I will be filling up for sure.!!
I have a blueberry grunt recipe here on the blog – you’re preachin’ to the choir!!
My father belonged to the Yacht Club for a couple of years in the mid-50s which is when we lived in B’Water. He owned an old wooden boat, and we had a wonderful time on it. Their closest friends were Mabel and Walter Feindel. Mary, their daughter, and her husband still have a cottage on the LaHave (Pleasantville) and David, their son, owns the family cottage now which is right next door. I will always miss Nova Scotia and New Brunswick even though I have lived in BC since 1979! Our N.S. years were the best of my childhood.
And Mary and Jim’s family still sit around the cottage eating it along with there grand children being introduced to the dish as soon as they are on solid food. Walter and Mabel were my grand parents and I learned to sail at the Yacht Club in the 70’s and my son is heading down to the cottage next month (August). So I understand completely Cherie we used to tour the strawberry socials and fire halls for lobster dinners with the excuse we were supporting charities. I dream of living on the south shore and when I am ready to retire I will be in the market for a little cottage over looking the Lahave River. And probably eat myself to unhealthy proportions but what a way to go.
Hi Rob Mary and I keep in touch regularly. My husband, Kevin and I spent a happy few hours with Mary and Jim at the cottage a couple of summers ago. Mary kindly had lobster, and many other of my favourite foods from the cottage days. She and I went swimming in the river for old times sake. David was at the old cottage so managed to see him, too. Love that place.
You got her, Pontiac! As a valley girl, I can attest to its authenticity. Dead bang on in the recipe.
I’VE NEVER BEEN CALLED PONTIAC BEFORE! (And I really, really like it.)
I made Hodge Podge (my way which happens to be your way , other than the timing)on Thursday last for my future Mother in law from Ontario.She had just arrived for my wedding(this Saturday). She absolutely loved it!
First time this Ontarian in Nova Scotia…at sixty, I wonder why I put if off so long. Anywayzzz…I worked with an East Coast girl who would bring Hodge Podge in for lunch all the time, so I had heard of it. Well, my friend in Canning made it for hubby and me and she gave me the recipe…which BTW, is your recipe to a T! WE LOVED IT! We live in the Niagara region and we can get lots’n’lots of this good stuff down there too. I’m writing this while we are still travelling. I had to google the recipe in our hotel room…and I love your blog as well…
Thank you. I have a VERY old recipe card for hodge podge from my grandmother. She recommends boiling the veggies for about one hour. They really used to do that. I like your version much better but I do recall most of my older NS realitives overboil things.
You’re right, Faye! My grandmothers were notorious over-boilers! I can even remember pots of tea stewing on the stove for hours at a time…
How long would you guys say it is good in the fridge ?
We keep ours in the fridge for a couple of days – it never lasts longer than that!
I grew up in the valley of Nova Scotia and this is one of my favorite summer meals. I always look forward to my parents making it but now I make it myself. This recipe is perfect and I have made it many times this summer. Your measurements are perfect! Thanks again!
Comments on this post are now closed as it was published in June 2012. Happy baking!