Flavourful Saskatoon, July 24, 2017

bicycle flower planter
Bassano del Grappa, Italy - http://sustainableadventure.blogspot.ca/2016/10/bassano-del-grappa-italy.html

Saskatchewan Lacks Organic Regulations
Saskatchewan doesn’t have provincial organic regulations so growers can claim to be organic even if they’re not certified. “I think it’s unfortunate,” Dennis Skoworodko, a certified organic farmer and owner of Our Farm outside of Saskatoon said. “I think protecting the organic label and the integrity of organics is really important.”

All Aboard the Prairie Lily!
Did you know that you could sail aboard the Prairie Lily paddlewheeler while enjoying cocktails, wine, or scotch? Dawn Wreford, Co-op Wine Spirit Beer’s Sommelier and Procurement Manager, who has been holidaying in Italy, will share some of her favorite Italian wines on August 9. July 29 is Cocktails and Sunset, while Aug. 23 is a Scotch tasting.

Güd Eats
The vegetarian Güd Eats food truck hopes to be up and running this week.

Saskatoon: A History in Words and Pictures
Amy Jo Ehman’s latest book is not about food. Instead, Saskatoon: A History in Words and Pictures, focuses on Saskatoon’s history, answering questions Amy Jo had about the city, including why it grew up into a city when so many others didn’t.


Howling Bluff Winery Goes Solar
Howling Bluff Estate Wines is “dedicated to becoming a fully sustainable and earth friendly winery. . . . Howling Bluff uses neither pesticides or chemical fungicides. It uses drip irrigation, not overhead irrigation. It mulches its prunings, putting them back into the vineyard or shipping them to Penticton’s composting plant.” They have started installing solar panels and aim to be a Net Zero winery within the next 5 years.

Supermarket of the Future
Take a look at these trend-setting supermarkets – classy bulk bin options and technology-driven stores with sensor-activated panels providing origin and nutrition information as well as monitors with videos providing cooking suggestions.

Networking Yields Rewards for Women Grape Growers
A study of the champagne industry shows that women grape growers, although they are a small minority facing significant discrimination from male growers, have stronger networks and profit from them.

Award-winning Spanish Wine
 I had the privilege several years ago of a personal tour of the Parés Baltà winery close to Barcelona. Located in a protected natural area, the vines share the land with beehives, wild boars, and a Romanesque church.



The family has a second vineyard, Gratavinum, near Valencia. “Silvestris [at Gratavinum] . . . has been selected as one of the thirty best natural wines in the world by Decanter. . . . Silvestris was created just as it was thousands of years ago: only spontaneously fermented grape juice by wild yeasts, and without any other ingredients or additives. The blend is 85% carinyena and 15% Syrah.”

Parés Baltà wines are available at Ingredients Artisan Market.

500 Plants in a Brooklyn Apartment
Summer Rayne Oakes lives “in a 1,200-square-foot converted industrial space in Williamsburg, which is filled with 500 plants, including a living wall, an irrigated vertical garden constructed out of mason jars, and, in a closet garden, edible plants ranging from the familiar (herbs, greens) to the exotic (a pineapple plant, curry leaves—the latter of which she raves about).”

Harmony in Food and Farming
“If we continue to deny the ‘profound, ancient, intimate relationship with Nature’, heralded by the age of ‘modernism’, then fragmentation and disharmony will continue. The recent Harmony in Food and Farming conference explored “the ways in which the laws and principles of Harmony are affecting the processes of Nature, in relation to the production of vital, healthy food.”

Vegetarian Scotch Eggs
Tips on how to make the perfect vegetarian scotch eggs.

Flavourful Saskatoon is a weekly Monday feature. I also post articles about food that is good, clean and fair; travel; and books. You may also enjoy EcoFriendly Sask profiling Saskatchewan environmental initiatives and events.

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