Flavourful Saskatoon, December 2, 2013

Toffee Porter, Dec. 6
Prairie Sun Brewery is launching their Toffee Porter on December 6 between 11 and 6. Lunch will be served from 11-2 and supper from 5-8 (catered by Garlic Guru). Shoeless Joes will be performing at 8 pm. I really like the rich flavour of porter, so I’m hoping to attend.

In the 1700s, porter was aged for up to a year, so brewers needed very large vats. “One of these vats, owned by Richard Meux's brewery, erupted back in 1814 releasing 320,000 gallons of Porter which demolished part of the brewery, a line of small homes and killed eight people in the wave of beer.” (What The Hell Is A Porter?, Beer Advocate)

Prairie Pie Company 
I picked up a piece of savoury squash, purple onion and goat cheese pie (walnuts and raisins too!) from the Prairie Pie Company at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market. I understand that Mary Uzelman will be offering special seasonal pies and baked oatmeal on a regular basis. And, if you haven’t tried Mary’s individual lentil pies, do. They’re so good. She makes wonderful pastry.

Bulk Cheese Warehouse
Cathy Engel, who does the ordering for Bulk Cheese Warehouse, tells me that all the shelves should be fully stocked by this coming Friday. Bulk Cheese always has a full array of cheese for the Christmas season, so I’m looking forward to visiting and picking up a few extra treats.

Floating Gardens
So, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that Floating Gardens is determined to grow as organically as possible and not use any chemical pesticides.

The bad news is that their tomatoes aren’t very healthy, so after Christmas they are going to have to completely empty and thoroughly clean that section of the greenhouse, which will mean no tomatoes, cucumbers or eggplants for a while. Enjoy those fresh vegetables while you can!

Labelling Local Food 
Good Food Junction has teamed up with Localize and will be labelling all the Saskatchewan and Canada-made food on their shelves.

Organic Fair
Check out this VEGAN milk chocolate bar from Organic Fair. It's made with dried coconut, coconut oil and coconut sugar. Organic Fair is a Vancouver Island company and the only certified organic bean to bar chocolate maker in Western Canada.

What is that? 
Have you ever looked at a food label and wondered what the heck some (or all!) of the ingredients were. Apparently, there is very little real milk in “modified milk ingredients.” “If you’re lucky, the modified milk ingredient in your ice cream is simply powdered milk. More likely it’s casein (factory-extracted milk proteins), or whey proteins, or a butter oil compound, which is comprised of 49% butter-oil and 51% sugar.” (Factory Goop, Adventures in Local Food)

Winter Vegetables 
What a delight to find a thoughtful, loving ode to winter vegetables. This one is for the writers in the crowd who appreciate carefully crafted words:

“The vegetables of summer are easy to love, as it is easy to find young men and women beautiful, to promise commitment before it has been tested, to be happy beneath a cloudless sky. I’m still not sure it’s natural to prefer what’s difficult and unwieldy, to feel affection warts-and-all. But the world is older and slower and more patient than we ever will be. These vegetables keep, and have helped every generation before ours survive long winters. They are part of the great practice of not having what we want, but wanting what we have, and after years of trying – of trying and trying – my husband and I have both come to love, even crave, beets and butternut squash, the hard vegetables of fall. We appreciate their complexity. We find them very good.” (Katrina Vandenberg, Orion magazine)

Flavourful Saskatoon is a weekly Monday feature. I also post regular profiles of culinary entrepreneurs, new restaurants and new food products.

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