Wanderlust and Words

Christmas Shopping Goes Local LocalSask has made it easy for us to shop locally this Christmas. Their online catalogue includes everything from children's toys to alpaca socks and gourmet food baskets. And it's all local! Two Gun Quiche House My sister in law, Shelley, had lunch at Two Gun Quiche House on 20th Street last week and gave it a good review. None of the sandwiches were vegetarian, but she thought they sounded good. And at least 4 of the 8 to 10 quiche options were vegetarian, and there was a chick pea salad that sounded interesting. Shelley says that the spinach feta quiche was excellent, and the vegetarian carrot-ginger soup was awesome with a little crème fraîche drizzled on top. They were serving loose leaf teas (including vanilla earl grey) – a sign, according to Shelley (and I agree), of better quality. The restaurant is bright and colourful, and there’s lots of room between the tables so it didn’t feel crowded. Two Gun Quiche House will be expandi...

Wild Cuisine Catering, Nov. 20   Wild Cuisine Catering opens for breakfast and lunch at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market on November 20. The menu is fairly meaty with a boar sausage sandwich and a maple bourbon barbecue burger, but there are also soups and pizzas that will include some vegetarian options. Be sure to support this new, local business. Wine Tasting, Nov. 30  Souleio’s wine tasting on November 30 features three wines: Kuyen , a biodynamic wine from Chile; Mitolo Jester Vermentino from Australia; and T erra d'Orro Zinfandel Port from California. The musical accompaniment will be from Percussion Syndicate. Mediterranean Breeze Be sure to visit Mediterranean Breeze, one of the newest vendors at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market. I’m particularly enjoying their spinach rolls, but they have a variety of other options as well, including a Persian Salad. Paddockwood’s Sour Red  I had supper at The Woods Alehouse last week. I tried Sour Red , one of Pad...

Images of starving children are heartbreaking. Their immediate need is food, but that’s a very short-term solution as Dan West, an Indiana farmer, realized as he ladled out powdered milk for Spanish Civil War refugees. If he could give hungry people a cow, rather than just milk, they could feed themselves. Heifer International was formed in 1944, and West and his neighbours began distributing cows throughout Europe following World War II. Heifer International’s scope has expanded enormously over the past 65 years. “Livestock is just a tool for community development,” Gord Enns, Executive Director for Heifer International Canada , explains. “You can’t just come in with solutions. The challenge is to build social, economic and environmental sustainability.” Nowadays, the tools are changing. Instead of a cow, it may be a bike trailer for a young woman starting up an urban farm in Toronto or an internship program to help young people who want to take up farming. But Heifer’s goal re...

Telling Our Story: Helping Non-Profit Organizations to Get Their Message Across  Penny McKinlay, Communications Consultant  9 am – 3 pm, Wednesday, November 28, 2012  Room 403, Galleria Building, Innovation Place, Saskatoon  Advocacy organizations want to touch the hearts and change the behaviours of their public. That’s not easy, but effective communications can help you to get your message across. I am offering Telling Our Story , a hands-on, interactive workshop, to assist the staff and volunteers of advocacy organizations to share their message. Small group discussions and activities will help you learn new skills and integrate them into your professional life. The workshop is based on my study and practise of storytelling, effective writing, content design, and change management. Similar workshops for the League of Educational Administrators, Directors and Superintendents of Saskatchewan (LEADS) have been very well received. “The workshop...

Souleio Christmas Open House, Nov. 22 Souleio is holding a pre-Christmas open house on November 22 from 5-8 pm . There will be samples, complimentary canapés, demos and gift wrapping. They promise to have plenty of holiday candies, chocolates and gift ideas. Gluten-Free Food Fair, Nov. 25 The menu for the Gluten-Free Food Fair from 5-7 pm on November 25 at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market looks delicious – everything from lentil-stuffed mushrooms to quinoa and roasted beet salad, spicy polenta bites, chocolate bean cake and pina colada cream pie. Sample plates are $2 each. Gluten-free beer or wine will be available for $5. Simon’s Sticky Toffee Pudding Christmas, Nov. 29 Chef Simon Reynolds will be hosting an open house from 3-8 pm on November 29. You can taste or purchase his sticky toffee puddings. Summer jams, hot pepper jelly, mango chutney and gift certificates for cooking classes will also be available for purchase. Wild Serendipity Foods Wild Serendipity Foods has a...

On a very snowy Saskatchewan day, it's been such a pleasure to review my Baja flower photographs. Enjoy!  

Although Canada’s wine industry continues to grow in both numbers and quality, it’s poorly represented in our government-operated liquor stores, such as SLGA. Twenty years ago, British Columbia was experiencing a similar problem. There were more and more wineries starting up in the Okanagan, but it was hard for them to compete for space in the liquor stores. The BC Wine Institute lobbied the government and was able to obtain licences for individual business people to operate VQA wine stores. VQA wines are made from 100% BC grapes, so you know that you are supporting local agriculture. There are approximately 20 VQA wine stores in British Columbia – the majority are located in Vancouver, but there are three or four on Vancouver Island as well as in the Okanagan. And there is one in Nelson, BC. That was where I went to sample local wines while I was in BC this summer. A real honest agricultural product  Several local people told me that they never shopped at BC Wineguys , Nel...

Carrot Tasting  Ask a group of university students if they know what a carrot tastes like, and you'll get some pretty funny looks. But once they taste 4 different carrots (purple, white, light orange and spherical), it's a different story - because they're all different. My thanks to Dan Clapson and Tom Brown of Start From Scratch , a university cooking program, for inviting me to attend one of their classes and talk about Slow Food Saskatoon . And my thanks to Wally Satzewich, Wally’s Urban Market Garden , for growing a rainbow of carrots. The Prairie Pantry The Saskatoon Farmers’ Market has a new tenant. The Prairie Pantry, an offshoot of Riverbend Plantation , offers gourmet Canadian and international products. A few of the items really caught my eye, and I’ll be going back to make some purchases. First of all, I’m itching to try Loriva Toasted Sesame Oil . Then there are Milsean’s chocolate and toffee marvels – they are SOOOO good – and they’re mad...