Wanderlust and Words

Local News The Saskatoon Horticultural Society’s annual garden tour has gone online. A different garden will be featured on their website every day from July 27 to August 7 . Several of the videos will focus on food security and growing produce locally. Videos are free to watch and if you catch the secret password in all 12, you can enter a draw to win a prize. Count me in! Kashmere Restaurant  is offering individually packaged lunches, either soup and naan or curry bowls, seasoned to your personal preferences. Never fear! Desserts are also available. Travel Daydreams It was hard to accept that I wouldn’t be travelling to BC this summer, but I am finding some compensatory options, such as ordering BC wine online. I’m currently enjoying the wine from Stag’s Hollow and Okanagan Crush Pad . Next up will be 6 different wines from Mt. Boucherie . Mt. Boucherie is in transition to organic, while Stag’s Hollow farms sustainably, taking into account energy, water, and pest m...

Local News  You can enjoy cider and yoga on Wednesdays from 7-8 pm from now until the middle of September at the Crossmount Cider Company. Farmers’ Markets A first-year farmer says farmers' markets can be key for beginning farmers . “That farmers’ market already is doing a lot of the marketing for you, [and] already has a customer base that is coming regularly. So it’s a lot easier.” Podcasts Food Tank lists quotes from 15 recent podcasts/articles that highlight the challenges of building a sustainable, equitable food system . They range from How can we understand and prepare for the connections between COVID-19 and diet health? to What is the importance of middle-man food processors in supporting local farm-based food systems? In a recent episode of Telus Talks , the host sits down with two restaurant owners to talk through the challenges they’ve faced with nation-wide shutdowns and gradual re-openings. The Economics of Food In a recent interview with In Dige...

Sometimes I stumble across a book that fills me with delight. The Lost Words , with quirky poems by Robert Macfarlane and illustrations by Jackie Morris, is one of them. Robert Macfarlane was concerned that words were disappearing from the vocabulary of children. Words about nature – acorn, bluebell, kingfisher, otter, raven . . . . And so he wrote what he describes as spells for conjuring back these lost words. One of my favorite spells is for the magpie: " M agpie Manifesto:  A rgue Every Toss!  G ossip, Bicker, Yak and Snicker All Day Long!  P ick a Fight in an Empty Room!  I nterrupt, Interject, Intercept, Intervene!  E very Magpie for Every Magpie against       Every Other Walking Flying Swimming       Creeping Creature on the Earth! *       *Except eagles, for they are too scary…" And the illustrations – well, they are magical! Jackie Morris has such a sure touch and an...

Local News  Dad’s Organic Market is now selling products from Victoria, BC’s The Very Good Butchers . I enjoy their products whenever I’m in Victoria and am glad they’re now available in Saskatoon. The next time you’re at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market on Koyl Avenue , be sure to head for the rear of the hall near the exit. Tasty Habits sells rich, flavourful, addictive chocolate! I highly recommend the milk chocolate with nuts, but you can also choose dark chocolate and various other flavours. The chocolate bars are made by Rania Khiralla, a participant in the Saskatoon Open Door Society’s Women’s Business Hub , a program to help entrepreneurial immigrant women get their businesses off the ground. I also recommend the individual cheesecakes from Donna's Delectable Mini-Cheesecakes , also at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market. The Black Forest cheesecake is a personal favorite. Gluten-free versions are also available. Enjoy a picnic in the Bessborough Gardens every Fr...

“Never to get lost is not to live, not to know how to get lost brings you to destruction.”   Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost   I walk every day. I walk to run errands, to explore, to simply feel the breeze on my skin and the sun on my face. And I walk even more when I’m travelling to get the feel of a new place and a sense of its culture, history, and mood. So I couldn’t resist a book entitled Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London by Lauren Elkin. The book begins by pointing out how difficult it has been and still is for women to simply wander around a city. There is danger. There are expectations that a women’s place is in the home. Fortunately, there are women throughout the years who have resisted societal norms. George Sand delights in the freedom she gains by cross-dressing: “With those little iron-shod heels, I was solid on the pavement. I flew from one end of Paris to the other. . . . I came home at...

Local News  Did you know you can find the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market Co-operative in Stonebridge on Wednesday afternoons throughout the summer? They’re in the lot adjacent to the Spiffy Car Wash at 600 Melville Street from 3-7 pm . Kevin Wesaquate remembers picking Saskatoon berries with his family as a positive experience, creating kinship and family bonds. He wanted to give today’s kids the same experience and worked with volunteers to plant over 440 saskatoon berry bushes in Victoria Park . An additional 250 bushes were planted last year. Kevin is a spoken word poet. He imagines a world where “we trade in protein bars for pemmican where we could pick wild berries in our communities. Where diabetes doesn’t exist thanks to the medicine keepers and paleo diets, a place where our children could run free of gangs and crime, a place where young men let their hair out like warriors of the past in suits and ties, where beadwork is valuable and honored over gold and diamond...