Flavourful Saskatoon, April 8, 2019

Local Happenings 
The Saskatoon Food Bank is in urgent need of baby food and baby formula. If you choose to donate in person, powdered Similac is the preferred option.

Check out the new vendors at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market. Treasure House Bakery is selling traditional Mexican pastries on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Bannock Heart is offering bannock on a stick.

I am incredibly fortunate to be enjoying a wide range of fresh fruit and vegetables that aren’t yet available in Saskatchewan – there were locally grown shelling peas at the market today as well as delicious strawberries. But Saskatoon isn’t completely left behind as its greenhouse growers are all hard at work. Grandora Gardens is selling cucumbers and hopes to have grape tomatoes for Easter, while Kaleidoscope Vegetable Gardens transplanted their spinach a couple of weeks ago and the radish seeds went in the ground this past week. Floating Gardens has heated greenhouses so they already have beet greens and cucumbers and their tomatoes have started to change colour.

Gud Eats sells a small but interesting collection of vegan food, including some excellent vegan cheeses. They now have an aged Petit Cam from Happy Heart made from cashews. Happy Heart is based in Ottawa and uses compostable, recycled packaging.

Food for Thought
It’s easy to forget how much hard work and expertise goes in to growing our food. Our Farm posted an account of what’s involved with growing cauliflowers – I was impressed and will take the time to savour the next cauliflower I eat.

“Growing cauliflower here is not an easy task. Constant vigilance and care are taken every step of the growing cycle to have a wonderful end product. Our season is too short to direct seed in the field. We need to start the sprouting of seeds in mid-April to have Brassica plants a reasonable size to place into the soil once we are past the danger of frost sometime in May. Cauliflower is a member of the Brassica family and here in Saskatchewan we have to protect them from pests right from sprouting to harvest. . . . We protect the plants in a couple of ways: We have a 100% bug proof sprouting room and nursery greenhouse. When we plant them out in the field, we immediately cover them with a fabric row cover that is specially designed to keep pests out but to let in most of the sunshine and rain. . . . On top of all this effort, cauliflower are space hogs in the field. We space them at one plant ever two feet and each plant will only produce one head of cauliflower! Once the head is harvested, the plant is done. It will not regrow a second head.”

 A reader was disappointed that I included an item last week about wine tastings at the Co-op since the employees are on strike. I had mixed feelings about posting that item. On the one hand, it was poor timing given that the workers are on strike. On the other hand, the Co-op is one of the few places in Saskatoon with a good selection of quality wine. In addition, the Portuguese wine tasting was being organized by Doug Reichel, who is the only locally-based wine distributor in Saskatchewan. I know he struggles at times to compete with the larger companies and I strongly support local. We don’t always have clear-cut choices; we just do our best to cope with ambiguity.

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 nature/environmental initiatives and events. 

You can follow Wanderlust and Words on Facebook, Twitter, or by email (top right corner).