Flavourful Saskatoon, April 14, 2014

Films & Fermentation


I’m looking forward to attending the opening session of the Saskatoon Environmental Film Festival at 7 pm, April 24, at the Frances Morrison Library. Following a screening of the film Growing Cities, Noelle Chorney, Slow Food Saskatoon, will lead a workshop on fermentation. Participants will learn about the fermentation process, its health benefits, and get to taste a few samples as well as taking home a little fermentation project of their own.

At 7:30 pm, April 26, at the Roxy Theatre, you can watch GMO OMG, a look at how the loss of seed diversity and the growth of genetically modified food affects our health.

Saskatoon’s Terra Madre Delegate 
Photo credit: Daybreak Mill
Nicole Davis, Daybreak Mill, will be attending Terra Madre/Salone del Gusto on behalf of Slow Food Saskatoon.

The diversity of food producers and food products from around the world showcased at Terra Madre/Salone del Gusto is truly amazing. I’m thrilled that one of Saskatchewan’s young women farmers and business owners will have an opportunity to participate and share her story.

Daybreak Mill grows, cleans, mills, and processes a wide variety of organic grains, flours, and cereals. Flours are stoneground, resulting in high nutrition retention. Their products are available online as well as at stores such as Dad's Organic Market in Saskatoon.

Local Businesses
Meadowlark Farm near Elbow, SK, grows 20 varieties of heirloom garlic as well as an additional one-quarter acre of market vegetables and herbs. They don’t use chemical fertilizers, herbicides, or pesticides.

Photo credit: Meadowlark Farm

If you live in Regina, you may want to start purchasing sustainable farm products from The Farmers’ Table, a non-profit organization made up of independent family farmers working together to distribute their produce.

Closure of Cereal Research Centre
The federal government is closing the Cereal Research Centre and winding down all public funding for spring wheat breeding to make way for private sector investment. The National Farmers Union believes this will create a massive new revenue stream for large corporations, such as Bayer, Syngenta, Monsanto, and Dow, and will lead to higher seed prices and increased royalty costs for farmers.

Cheap, Organic Food? 
Walmart has partnered with Wild Oats to offer a line of cheap, organic goods. It sounds great, except organic food is more expensive because organic farmers can’t access the subsidies received by conventional farmers. Walmart’s decision may also encourage large-scale organic production, which tends to follow the bare minimum organic standards, depleting the soil, abandoning it, and moving on.

I’ll stick to buying as many products as possible from local farmers with small operations. I believe it’s my best option if I want to eat healthy food and protect the environment.

Quinoa Salad
Megan, the Gluten Free Vegan, a Saskatoon food blogger, posted a recipe for an Apple, Spinach & Dried Cherry Quinoa Salad that looks really tasty.

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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