Canadian Thanksgiving with a 'Soupçon' of Caribbean Cuisine

Written by: Eric Nixon

It’s become a Thanksgiving-table tradition at Malivoire.  Near the end of harvest, as succeeding weeks bring ever-cooler workdays to Niagara’s vineyards, six of our team-members start thinking of home.  Home is Jamaica, where joyous reunions with families and old friends are waiting.  But before they go, an old recipe must go from page to pot.

Every spring, our staff is bolstered by the arrival of six vineyard specialists from Jamaica: Adam, Barrington (or “Barry”), Mahlon, Michael, Vencot and Vivian (better known as “Rice”; it’s a diet thing).  They’re veterans; three have more than twenty years’ experience, and three have more than fifteen.  They bring ages-old farm wisdom from back home to our vineyards, to fix winter-worn trellises, to plant, prune, tie and finally, to harvest.  In the evening they call their families, and they send earnings home, often to help daughters and sons through school.

Pictured above: left- right: Adam,  Mahlon,  Vivian 'Rice',  Barry,  Michael, & Vencot 

Then of course, there’s the pot.

A great, stainless-steel one.  Each fall, Martin celebrates the new harvest by hosting a Thanksgiving dinner for his winery’s staff.  It’s here the Jamaicans bid farewell-to-Canada with their own culinary contribution (any Malivoire employee reading this is already salivating!), a steaming, savoury potful of authentic, Jamaican Pumpkin Soup, made as only they know how, adding Caribbean Islands warmth to a traditional Canadian Thanksgiving dinner.

We’d like to share their secret with you, but it is a secret, even from us.  We only get to eat it, and then wave good-bye as its custodians pack their recipe back to Jamaica again, till next spring.