Wanderlust and Words

Local News  Dad’s Organic Market is now selling products from Victoria, BC’s The Very Good Butchers . I enjoy their products whenever I’m in Victoria and am glad they’re now available in Saskatoon. The next time you’re at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market on Koyl Avenue , be sure to head for the rear of the hall near the exit. Tasty Habits sells rich, flavourful, addictive chocolate! I highly recommend the milk chocolate with nuts, but you can also choose dark chocolate and various other flavours. The chocolate bars are made by Rania Khiralla, a participant in the Saskatoon Open Door Society’s Women’s Business Hub , a program to help entrepreneurial immigrant women get their businesses off the ground. I also recommend the individual cheesecakes from Donna's Delectable Mini-Cheesecakes , also at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market. The Black Forest cheesecake is a personal favorite. Gluten-free versions are also available. Enjoy a picnic in the Bessborough Gardens every Fr...

Local News  Did you know you can find the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market Co-operative in Stonebridge on Wednesday afternoons throughout the summer? They’re in the lot adjacent to the Spiffy Car Wash at 600 Melville Street from 3-7 pm . Kevin Wesaquate remembers picking Saskatoon berries with his family as a positive experience, creating kinship and family bonds. He wanted to give today’s kids the same experience and worked with volunteers to plant over 440 saskatoon berry bushes in Victoria Park . An additional 250 bushes were planted last year. Kevin is a spoken word poet. He imagines a world where “we trade in protein bars for pemmican where we could pick wild berries in our communities. Where diabetes doesn’t exist thanks to the medicine keepers and paleo diets, a place where our children could run free of gangs and crime, a place where young men let their hair out like warriors of the past in suits and ties, where beadwork is valuable and honored over gold and diamond...

Local News  The Food Centre is hosting a free teleconference on finding your place in the marketplace by knowing your product and your customer from 1-2:30 pm , Apr. 14 . Kaleidoscope Vegetable Gardens is offering weekly deliveries of fresh vegetables on a month-by-month basis. The May box is expected to include spinach, radishes, green onions, Hakurei turnips, beet greens, beets, and pea shoots. Selection will vary from week to week and may be affected by weather. Almost half the delivery boxes are already spoken for, so put in your order now . The Night Oven Bakery has hot cross buns on their online order form . Plus flour, coffee, pains au chocolat, croissants – yum! My sister in law and I ordered takeout from Chef de Partie Catering this past week. We can highly recommend the lentil terrine served on a bed of sweet potato mash, the kale slaw (lots of red and green pepper slices for crunch and dried cranberries for sweetness), the dill pickle pasta salad, the m...

  Fair Trade Valentine’s Day Bash, Feb. 22  Enjoy fair trade wine, luscious desserts, and music at the Saskatchewan Council for International Co-operation’s Valentine’s Day Bash from 8-11 pm , Feb. 22. Portuguese Wine Tasting, Feb. 22  Join Doug Reichel Wine Marketing to taste 5 Portuguese wines at 7 pm , Feb. 22, at Metro Liquor. Evening of Jazz, Mar. 2 Join Living Sky Wildlife Rehabilitation for dinner and live jazz music at the Greenbryre Golf Club on Mar. 2. The Story of the Roxy, Mar. 10  Join the Saskatoon Heritage Society on Mar. 10 for their annual luncheon and silent auction . Randy Pshebylo will discuss the history and development of Riversdale’s “theatrical jewel” – the Roxy Theatre. Tickets can be purchased through e-transfer to saskatoonheritagetreasurer@gmail.com (please include your name, email, and no. of tickets in the message box) or by calling Peggy Sergeant at (306) 652-9801. Seedy Saturday/Sunday & Other Green Thumb Activ...

Christmas Night Market, Dec. 7  Get a head start on your Christmas shopping while listening to the music and enjoying samples from the kitchen by Chef Jenni on Dec. 7 at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Christmas Night Market . Family Games Night @Nosh, Dec. 8  Nosh Eatery & Tap will be hosting an evening of family and friends board games from 5-8 pm on Dec. 8, Broadway’s annual late-night shop event. Specials will include kids’ meals for $6 and hot chocolate and apple cider for $2. Garlic x 3 Meadowlark Farm will be selling sliced, minced, and powdered slow-dried garlic products  using organically grown heirloom garlic from their garden. Gluten-Free Tourtière The Griffin Takeaway will be offering a number of holiday season specials , including frozen gluten-free tourtière to take home and bake. Pea Pops If you like snacking on Three Farmers’ Roasted Chickpeas, try their Pea Pops – roasted green peas flavoured with ranch, dill pickle, or sriracha . Rutabaga ...

Fair Trade: What’s In It For Me, May 19  Enjoy a glass of fair trade wine and tasty local food while listening to presentations from Sean McHugh (Canadian Fair Trade Network), George Fouffas (Consumer Services, U of S), and SCIC's Ethical Eats project at 7 pm , May 19, at The Stand. Saskatoon Seed Library, May 25  The Saskatoon Seed Library will be hosting a planting day at 7 pm , May 25, at the Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre’s Garden Patch. Learn How to Grow Herbs, May 26 Dutch Growers Saskatoon is offering a workshop on how to grow herbs on May 26. Earth Bound Ice Cream Earth Bound Bakery is now serving organic ice cream and organic dairy-free sorbet. Cookies and Buns I really enjoyed Night Oven Bakery ’s Khorasan (kamut) cookie with chopped pecans and apricots topped with a large dollop of housemade blood orange jam. It’s very light, not too sweet, and feels so healthy while also being totally delicious. For something a little more decadent,...

I admire clever advertising, whether it’s wine labels or restaurant signs. These ones in Shrewsbury for Stop Café, the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery’s restaurant , are funny and clever. It’s inexpensive advertising, and it works. Plus, I had a really excellent lunch with superior service. I asked if I could have a small bowl of soup alongside my quiche. Not only did they accommodate my request, but they didn’t charge me for the soup, which came with a bun and butter. On the other hand, the Loopy Shrew’s signage drew me in the door, but I didn’t stay. The server had to be reminded that she should take my order, and they’d run out of the advertised soup of the day and an alternate wouldn’t be available for another hour. And this was at 12:30 pm – why didn’t they realize they would run out and start a new batch sooner? The final sign is for my sister in law who was a Saskatoon police officer for 25 years. In this case, however, Cop refers to the location, whi...

Only 9 days until I leave for 7 weeks in England! Night Market, Dec. 4  The Saskatoon Farmers’ Market will be bustling with activity on Dec. 4 from 4:30-8 pm . Chef Jenni will be cooking in the kitchen and Amy Jo Ehman will be selling copies of her new book, Out of Old Saskatchewan Kitchens . Vikram Vij, Feb. 26  Vikram Vij – chef, producer, and the newest dragon on The Dragon’s Den – will be the guest speaker at the Raj Manek Banquet on Feb. 26. You can buy Vij’s curries at Dad’s Organic Market on 8th Street. Vegetable Fermentation Seminar, Feb. 27 The Saskatchewan Food Centre will be offering a Fermentation of Vegetables Seminar on Feb. 27. It will cover spontaneous fermentation, accelerated lactic fermentation and commercial franchise. Lots of treats available at Churchill's British Imports Locally-Grown Mustard  Marc Loiselle, Loiselle Organic Family Farm , is supplying ground yellow mustard seed to several Saskatoon customers, including Cong...

“I don’t design clothes, I design dreams.” Ralph Lauren  Mountain Mercato Specialty Food Market in Canmore, Alberta, is an absolutely fabulous store. I wandered up and down the aisles, intrigued by all the different products. But as I looked, I began to wonder. Was I excited about the products – or their packaging? Is olive oil in a fancy pottery container or box more interesting than olive oil in a glass bottle? Is bottled water more desirable in a fancy container? Do I want to taste these biscuits, or just admire the butterflies and flowers? I definitely covet these Italian tins more than I want to munch on the biscuits. Is salt in a blue pottery container from Ibiza more flavourful than ordinary table salt? Will maple syrup taste better when it's poured from a wine bottle? I would have loved to purchase a jar of ice cream. It looked homemade rather than the product of a factory production line. Of course, they made sure I thought that way...