Flavourful Saskatoon, April 6, 2020


Local News 
The Food Centre is hosting a free teleconference on finding your place in the marketplace by knowing your product and your customer from 1-2:30 pm, Apr. 14.

Kaleidoscope Vegetable Gardens is offering weekly deliveries of fresh vegetables on a month-by-month basis. The May box is expected to include spinach, radishes, green onions, Hakurei turnips, beet greens, beets, and pea shoots. Selection will vary from week to week and may be affected by weather. Almost half the delivery boxes are already spoken for, so put in your order now.


The Night Oven Bakery has hot cross buns on their online order form. Plus flour, coffee, pains au chocolat, croissants – yum!

My sister in law and I ordered takeout from Chef de Partie Catering this past week. We can highly recommend the lentil terrine served on a bed of sweet potato mash, the kale slaw (lots of red and green pepper slices for crunch and dried cranberries for sweetness), the dill pickle pasta salad, the macarons, and the chocolate cake in a jar from Délice. They also offer packs of food from local food producers and farmers.


Broadway District has compiled a list showing which of its merchants are open, offering takeout, online shopping, etc.

Kudos to the organizations that are providing and delivering free food to those in need. The demand will be huge with so many people out of work. As always, the first place to turn is the Saskatoon Food Bank & Learning Centre. The Saskatoon chapter of Food Not Bombs is delivering food to those in need and so is the Saskatoon Sikh community.

Food for Thought 
How well does our food system work in times of crisis? Why is it impossible to buy toilet paper or yeast? Is it people panic buying or is it a just-in-time food delivery system that needs fixing? When you spot someone picking up more than one of a food item, should you judge them harshly or appreciate that they are shopping for friends and neighbours? Why do we rush to supermarkets rather than small independent stores?

There will be less flowers and more vegetables in Victoria this summer. “Victoria's city council passed a motion Thursday to grow more food plant seedlings in the city's greenhouses, in order to increase food security for residents with low incomes, or who've lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The baby plants would then be delivered to residents in need, who would continue to grow them.”

“The best-case scenario, says Dankbar, is that buying fresh-from-the-farm food online will be ‘a trend that’s accelerated because of the virus.’ If that happens, she’s optimistic that it could give local foods a permanent space in the larger online shopping arena.”

Just for Fun 
Test your knowledge of international cuisine with this online quiz.


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. 

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