CANORA – In King George V Park on Canora’s Main Street stands a small, non-descript, humble building; its exterior weathered, windows boarded, and doors locked, with only a faded sign to suggest its identity. Hidden from view by street-facing structures, few residents today are even aware of its existence. However, for nearly 60 years, it has housed a sturdy, working historical monument to the Doukhobor pioneers of the town.
A centennial project
The year was 1967 and Canada was celebrating its 100th birthday. Along with the rest of the country, the Town of Canora and its citizens eagerly responded by organizing a series of community-focused Centennial events and projects, including parades, balls, teas, banquets, festivals, ceremonies and the construction of monuments. A Centennial Committee and a Pioneer and Citizenship Committee were formed to plan, co-ordinate, and support the festivities.
Like other local groups, the Canora Doukhobor Society enthusiastically took part in the Centennial events and incorporated the Centennial theme into its own organizational activities. In January, it took part in an Interfaith religious service, and in April it participated in the ‘Century of Fashion and International Tea’, its members modelling traditional Doukhobor clothing and serving their ethnic baking.
In June the Society sponsored a Russian Choir Festival with 1,200 people in attendance at the Canora Memorial Stadium. Mayor Walter Mysak welcomed the gathering on behalf of the town, then Jennie Ortynsky on behalf of the Canora Centennial Committee passed the Centennial torch to Nick N. Kalmakoff, festival chairman and town alderman. Eleven choirs performed at the event from Canora, Blaine Lake, Saskatoon, Watson, Kylemore, Verigin, Kamsack and Pelly, along with two junior choirs and a special Centennial choir. Traditional Russian dishes were served to the gathering, with event proceeds donated to the Canora Centennial Fund.
Later that month, under Kalmakoff’s chairmanship, the Society embarked on another Centennial project, the construction of a pech’ (печь) – a type of bake oven used for centuries in Russia and brought to the Canadian Prairies in 1899 by Doukhobor immigrants. More than just a monument, it would be a living piece of history that would continue to serve a purpose similar to the original ones, while providing insights into pioneer life.
The bake oven
Construction of the bake oven was a truly community effort. The Town of Canora reserved a parcel of land at the southwest corner of King George V Park for its location. Local Doukhobors contributed lumber, brick, cement, and funds for its erection. Additional support was provided by the Canora Centennial Committee. Doukhobor elders Stanley J. Petroff and Nick J. Chernoff volunteered their labour to build the oven and its building.
Built on a concrete foundation, the oven stood on a raised concrete slab platform. The oven itself was constructed of Doukhobor-manufactured brick salvaged from pioneer-era buildings. It had a 14-brick-high square front extending to a semi-cylindrical domed interior with vertical chimney. It was housed in a wood frame, one-story structure with white-washed exterior, north-facing booth window and door, and gable roof. A sign inscribed “Russian Pioneer Bake Oven” was installed over the door. A concrete slab at the foot of the door inscribed “June 18, 1967” marked the date of its completion.
The pech’ was designed to capture and retain the heat produced from the burning of wood fuel, warming the bricks from which it is constructed, while channeling the smoke produced by combustion up the chimney. The heat then radiated within the oven chamber at a steady, consistent temperature over a long period of time.
Baking process
With the new oven completed, the traditional process used by Canora Doukhobor Society members to bake bread in it was as follows:
In the early morning, a group of four or so men loaded the pech’ with cordwood (pre-split and stacked) and fired it, as it took up to one-and-a-half hours to heat the oven from cold. At the same time as the oven was heating, a group of eight or so women assembled in the kitchen of the Doukhobor Prayer Home at 726 Main Street to prepare the first batch of dough.
The bread dough recipe was simple. To 24 pounds of flour, 1½ gallons of water, 4 ¾ tablespoons of sugar, 3 ½ tablespoons of salt, one cup of oil, and three tablespoons of vinegar were added. Separately, in a ¼ gallon of warm water was added ½ a cup of yeast and three tablespoons of sugar, then covered. When the yeast mix was ready, it was added to the flour and mixed in.
Hand-mixing the dough was strenuous work. The mixture was left to rise, then hand-kneaded again and left to rise a second time before it was separated into lumps that were shaped into final loaf form, placed in tin bread pans, and left to rise a third time. The entire process took up to an hour-and-a-half or more.
Once the first batch of bread dough loaves rose to the appropriate height, they were shuttled 500 feet across Main Street to the bake oven, its wood now reduced to a crackling and blazing mass of coals. By tradition, the pech’ was checked by throwing a few fingerfuls of flour inside; if they immediately turned a golden brown, the coals were then carefully set along the sides of the oven and the oven was ready for baking.
Using a long-handled wooden peel, known in Russian as a khlebnaya lopata (хлебная лопата), 35-40 bread dough loaves were placed inside the oven, one at a time. The coals were then brought to the front of the oven while the bread baked at an even heat for 45 minutes to an hour.
Once the loaves of bread were golden brown, they were pulled out using the same wooden peel and placed on shelves along the building interior for cooling. The large loaves (each weighing two to three pounds) were then bagged and removed. The remaining coals in the oven were brought back to the centre of the oven, and more wood was added for the next batch.
This cycle could be repeated as necessary, with the oven re-stoked with wood, and more dough prepared, to produce upwards of 200 loaves in a day.
The bread or khleb (хлеб) baked in this outdoor wood-fired oven acquired a distinctive character with its crusty, golden exterior and light, soft interior; rich and delicious with butter.
First public demonstration
The first public bread-baking demonstration using the oven took place on the Dominion Day weekend, July 1967.
On July 1, after having a Doukhobor float in the town parade, Society members fired the pech’ and re-enacted pioneer bread-baking amid crowds of onlookers, while next door at the Canora Memorial Stadium, a Centennial queen was crowned, a dance was held, and old-time costumes were displayed.
The next day, declared ‘Pioneer Day,’ the Society took part in an Interfaith religious service in the stadium attended by 900 people. The service was followed by a dinner honouring the pioneers of Canora and the RMs of Keys and Good Lake, including numerous Doukhobor settlers. One of the features of the dinner was the bread baked fresh on site by the Society.
Subsequent use
In the years that followed, the oven was used from time to time by the Canora Doukhobor Society to bake large batches of mouth-watering bread.
The pech’ was used for the 70th Jubilee of Doukhobors in Canada held in July 1969, several annual Peter’s Day celebrations in the 1970s and 1980s, and Homecoming and June Daze festivals held by the town in the same period. It also featured in the Doukhobor ethnic pavilion during Canora’s first Multicultural Festival in July 1990, although it was not fired.
What hampered its more frequent use was the lack of on-site water, power and kitchen facilities. Making and panning the dough at the Doukhobor Prayer Home, then slowly and carefully hauling the risen loaves to the oven proved challenging and difficult to manage; particularly as the loaves, once baked, were then often taken back to the Prayer Home.
By 2003, it had been a long time since the pech’ was used. In June of that year, the Canora Doukhobor Society undertook a trial firing to ensure it remained in good working order. The trial proved a success, with only minor repairs to the building exterior required.
A month later, in July 2003, the Society demonstrated bread-baking to crowds of onlookers at the ‘Canora in Bloom’ festival. Bread dough was mixed and panned in Veregin at the National Doukhobor Heritage Village (which had a power bread-mixer), then transported to the oven in Canora. One hundred twenty loaves were baked, sliced and sold for $1 apiece with butter and jam, alongside Russian borsch for $1.25 a bowl. According to former Canora resident Sonia Tarasoff, the booth “sold out in no time” and “could have sold tons more loaves!”
This would prove to be the last time the oven was fired up to bake loaves of tasty Doukhobor bread. Within just over a decade, the Doukhobor Society ceased active operation due to an aging and declining membership, and the Prayer Home was eventually sold in 2016.
Today
Today, the bake oven building stands silent and unused, its exterior showing signs of its age. Inside, however, the wood of the interior beams and sidewalls still looks fresh. The brick oven itself remains structurally solid, without cracks or breaks. It is in a condition that respects the integrity of its original design, materials, and workmanship. With modest cleaning, the pech’ stands ready to be fired again.
But who will fire it? While the Canora Doukhobor Society still technically exists, its few remaining members are in the process of closing out its affairs. Could another Doukhobor organization assume ownership? Could it be sold to a non-Doukhobor group? Should it? Could the Town of Canora play a role, given its original involvement 58 years earlier?
Even if it is no longer used to bake bread, the oven still stands as a symbol of the hardships and self-sufficiency of pioneer life, where families relied on their own resources to produce their daily meals. It also stands as an emblem to the immigrant settlers who brought skills and culinary traditions from the Old World and adapted them to a new land.
It remains possible for the bake oven to be preserved, restored, and even designated as a historical monument, given its specific history, its condition, and its significance to the local community. Its doors could be opened for historical tours and interpretive presentations that bring its history to life. And just maybe, it could be fired once again to produce its famous Doukhobor bread.
Special thanks to Walter Ostoforoff, Lucille Dergousoff, Melvina Dergousoff, Sonia Tarasoff, Linda Osachoff, and Lawrence Kalmakoff for their invaluable information and assistance.
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