Maggie's Farm

In the Canadian West, the equivalent was a carrot pudding - more veg (carrots and potatoes) and fewer fruits - but steamed for several hours and then served with a lemon sauce and rum-spiked hard sauce (really just icing). Gather a steamed pudding was common to many of the ethnic groups who pioneered on the prairies in the late 1800's and early 1900's.

"Stir up Sunday" comes from the Collect for the Sunday next before Advent in the Anglican (Episcopalian) liturgy: "Stir up, we beseech the, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people;..." At a time when people did not have calendars on every wall, it was the church which kept track of the various days of the year. Given a plum pudding tasted better with age, this collect was a reminder to housewives that they'd better get that pudding made soonest.