Wanderlust and Words

Local News  Broadway residents (and other organic vegetable lovers) will be pleased to hear that Our Farm will be back in its usual spot on Broadway and 8th Street (parking lot of St. Joseph’s Church) starting Saturday , July 3 , and right through until Oct. 3 . Pick up local, organic vegetables and other products from 8 am to noon. You can also shop online starting July 2 . I’m looking forward to finding out how the store works as sometimes they run out of something I really wanted. (This week's photos were  taken at past Our Farm markets and do not reflect current social distancing requirements that Our Farm plans to implement.) SaskOrganics is offering a webinar on fostering biodiversity on farms from 9:30-10:30 am , July 10 . The Local Kitchen is offering youth cooking classes this summer for ages 8-12 and 11-14. The Prairie Lily riverboat is back in action. Join them for a white wine tasting from 7-8:30 pm , July 8 . City Perks and Sparrow are slowly ope...

Local News   Congratulations to Beth Rogers and Thayne Robstad for Hearth being named one of Canada’s top 100 restaurants . Wonderful recognition for a wonderful restaurant – definitely where I head for a special meal.  Living Sky Café has added a mini grocery to their restaurant on 3rd Avenue. Good news for people who live in the downtown area and have been without a local grocery store since 2004.  Food for Thought  I read a [long] article about the future of BC as a world wine centre . What it boils down to is marketing – and I find that extremely discouraging. “The problem with British Columbia is not its wine—today, just about anyone is capable of producing the good stuff. . . . a large part of what makes a region is how that wine is positioned, for locals and for tourists.”  Restaurants and food writers strive for authenticity. And yet, how do we define authentic ? Anthony Heard’s halloumi-style cheese is not the halloumi you get in a supermarket or a del...

“I don’t want you just to sit down at the table.  I don’t want you just to eat, and be content.  I want you to walk out into the fields  where the water is shining, and the rice has risen.  I want you to stand there, far from the white tablecloth. I want you to fill your hands with the mud, like a blessing.  (Rice, Mary Oliver)  Rice – very few of us don’t have rice in our cupboards. In fact, it’s the primary food source for half the world’s population. But where and when was it first domesticated?  How is it grown and cooked? I decided to do some research.  History  Recent evidence indicates that rice (oryza sativa) has been grown for thousands of years across a wide band of land from northern India to southern China. Short-grained (japonica) rice appears to have originated in China, whereas long-grained rice, which is genetically distinct, originated in India. Researchers believe that short-grained rice spread from China to India where f...

Local News  kwayeskastasowin wahkohtowin: A 2050 Food System Vision for Treaty Four Territory is a semi-finalist for the Food System Vision Prize.  Don’t miss the Khorasan (kamut) sesame flax sourdough from The Night Oven Bakery (Mondays only). It’s so good!  So is the lemonade made from real lemons at the Prairie Ink Restaurant .  Products & Ingredients  (Yikes! This is not part of my weekly purchases.) Sales of Kraft macaroni and cheese were up by 27% in April over last year. “Chicago cheese salesman James L. Kraft was awarded the first patent for processed cheese in 1916.” His first big customer was the US Army that bought 6 million pounds of processed cheese in World War I. Kraft macaroni and cheese debuted in 1937 and sales are still strong at over 7 million boxes a week .  I hadn’t realized there were so many kinds of soy sauce . This article outlines the different varieties as well as when and how to use them.  An Edmonton student is apply...

Local News  The Saskatoon Farmers’ Market Co-operative is extending its hours and its operations. Starting June 14, they will be open on Sundays from 10 am-3 pm in addition to the Saturday markets. Sundays will also be the pick-up and delivery day for their newly reopened virtual market , which will be open for orders on Tuesdays at noon. Empathy in Diversity  This has been a week of protest and outrage and the food world is certainly not exempt from ignoring and stigmatizing large segments of our population. Here are a few articles that stimulated my thinking around food and race. The pandemic has shown us the shortcomings of our food system and a glimpse of the “invisible” people who supply us with food. “ The people who risk their lives to feed us deserve better . . . . Recognizing our shared humanity is the first step. . . . Empathy, Mittal says, must be expressed across a continuum. ‘Starting within families, as we discover new foods and cook from scratch, a...

Local News  Purple wheat , used by Saskatoon producers in bread and vodka, has its origins in the Ethiopian highlands. Ingredients & Dishes  Unity in diversity: “Ethiopian injera is sourdough, Indian dosa is sourdough, Sri Lankan hoppers are sourdough, Sudanese kisra is sourdough. Technically speaking, any fermented bread made between roughly 3,700 BC and the invention of commercial yeast in the 1800s could be considered sourdough, too.” And you don’t need to be a man – or a techie – to make great sourdough , without an instruction manual. From an Aztec remedy for intestinal parasites to today’s home gardens – scarlet runner beans have traditionally been grown by small-scale farmers and gardeners. This has helped to maintain local seed diversity and preserve higher genetic diversity . Food for Thought “ Small to medium scale farms are the cornerstone of local food systems. If farmers’ markets disappear, these farmers lose market access and economic stability...