Flavourful Saskatoon, May 25, 2020


Local News 
Congratulations to 9 Mile Legacy Brewing who are launching a brewing and canning facility a few blocks from their current location. The current nanobrewery will focus on creativity, collaboration, and innovation. “This will not only give us more brewing capacity but it will help us add jobs, continue to work with local suppliers such as @prairiemalt @makersmalt and @saskatchewanhops and be a second sizeable investment by us in @riversdaledistrict. Plus it will get our beer to more people! . . . Grateful for the thirst everyone has for local, craft beer and excited to keep building the legacy with you!”

Botté Chai Bar is now serving food for pre-order and pickup. It’s an interesting menu with appetizers (dolmeh, pickled vegetables), mains (vegetarian and carnivore), and desserts. Pickup is between 4:30 and 8 pm with 24 hours advance notice.

Food for Thought 
I was somewhat surprised to read that a large international study has found that “eating at least two daily servings of dairy is linked to lower risks of diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as the cluster of factors that heighten cardiovascular disease.”

Will Covid change the way we shop? Which businesses were there when you needed them? Will you pay greater attention to how businesses treat their customers, their employees, and the planet? Will there be more hyperlocal delivery services?

My personal focus has always been on ensuring that everyone has access to good, clean food with fair compensation for farmers and producers. As a result, I’ve been less interested in celebrity chefs. However, I’ve been reminded recently that chefs can play an important role as change-makers or, as Alicia Kennedy says in her May 18 newsletter, “as giver of nourishment, as font of knowledge, as promoter of biodiversity when they have a real connection to their land.”


Ingredients 
One way of fighting disease is by boosting our immune system. Food Tank has prepared a list of 15 Indigenous crops that will boost your immune system and promote biodiversity. Some items will already be familiar – amaranth, mung bean, wild rice – but others are new and worth exploring.

I am really enjoying my new collection of herbs and spices. I added green cardamom (Silk Road Spice Merchants) to a custardy vegetarian rice pudding and was impressed with the delicate, subtle flavour. I hadn’t realized there was green, black, and white cardamom. Amchur (amchoor), dried green mango powder, added a sour, fruity flavour to my carrot soup, balancing out the vegetable’s sweetness. Silk Road Spice Merchants suggest adding it to plain yogurt for a snack.

It’s always fun to find new vegan/vegetarian products when I shop at Dad’s Organic Market. I’m enjoying the light, herby flavour of a cashew/almond spread flavoured with herbs and seeds from Spread’Em Kitchen. It’s pretty too as it’s lightly strewn with rose and calendula petals.

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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