Secrets of a Hutterite Kitchen: Unveiling The Rituals Traditions And Food Of The Hutterite Culture

The highly anticipated follow-up to the award-winning national bestseller, I Am Hutterite

In I Am Hutterite, Kirkby took her readers on a fascinating journey inside a Hutterite colony in Manitoba, where she grew up. Known as Canada’s forgotten people, Hutterites live in higher numbers in Canada than anywhere else in the world. Drawing back the curtains on this mysterious and extraordinary way of life, Kirkby enchanted the public with a vivid portrait of her people, rich in detail and memorable characters. Could you go back? was the enduring request from her readers, hungry for more.

Now in Secrets of a Hutterite Kitchen, Kirkby returns to her roots and into the heart of the community and the life she was born into. She traveled from colony to colony for more than two years, working with the women in their kitchens: cooking, baking, plucking ducks, and gossiping. Kirkby reveals intimate details of the community and experiences what her life would have been like if her family hadn’t left the colony when she was a young girl.

Secrets of a Hutterite Kitchen is a candid snapshot of present-day Hutterite life, unraveling the inner workings of this closed society and unveiling the rituals, traditions, and food of her culture through the lens of the community kitchen. Kirkby witnesses the rites of passage from cradle to grave: births, romantic entanglements, marriage ceremonies, sacred holidays, and other celebrations. Through it all, she rediscovers what she has always known—that it is the Hutterite women who are the soul of their community. 

MARY-ANN KIRKBY is an award-winning journalist and the bestselling author of I Am Hutterite: The Fascinating True  Story of a Young Woman’s Journey to Reclaim Her Heritage. Her memoir chronicled her childhood experiences growing up on a Hutterite colony in western Canada and the difficult aftermath of leaving her community to forge a new life in the modern world. I Am Hutterite won the prize for best non-fiction at the 2007 Saskatchewan Book Awards, and is a valued curriculum option in Canadian schools and universities as a means to build bridges and teach tolerance and understanding of other cultures.

Kirkby is a member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, delighting audiences with her honest and humorous accounts of Hutterite life.

She lives in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.