Flavourful Saskatoon, February 15, 2021
Local News
The first episode of Jenn Sharp’s Flat Out Food docuseries launches on Feb. 24 on Citytv.
In the Garden
A California teenager has helped install seed libraries in all 50 states.
In the Grocery Store
Alicia Kennedy explains why she only eats natural peanut butter. The addition of palm oil or hydrogenated vegetable oil in standard peanut butter is convenient because it prevents separation and extends shelf life, but it is environmentally unsustainable: “What we take from the planet and don’t give back has consequences, even when we’re talking about something as seemingly trivial, as seemingly classed, as peanut butter. These small choices, these differences of a dollar or two, are meaningful.”
I’m a huge fan of beans as a cheap, sustainable source of protein, so I’m delighted to discover Slow Beans, a group of Slow Food bean farmers who are dedicated to safeguarding legumes as an agricultural priority and increasing their consumption.
The History & Politics of Wine & Beer
Archaeologists have unearthed what could be the oldest known beer factory in Egypt. And it really was a factory: “Eight huge units – each is 20 metres (about 65ft) long and 2.5 metres (about 8ft) wide. Each unit includes about 40 pottery basins in two rows, which were used to heat a mixture of grains and water to produce beer.”
The Phoenicians were making wine in Lebanon as early as the 7th century BC. A new generation of winemakers is establishing new winemaking traditions with native grapes, wild yeasts, and biodynamic processes. They face formidable challenges with a corrupt government, economic turmoil, and 300,000 people homeless due to the explosion in Beirut’s port, but that doesn’t stop them. “It’s important to revive viniculture here . . . . If you have a deep story like Lebanon, it’s important to retrieve and find your future into your own past.”
Georgia, like Lebanon, has a long history of winemaking, but being part of the Soviet bloc changed everything. Vineyards were nationalized and grapes were grown for volume not quality: “It was essentially sweet plonk.” Indigenous grapes only survived thanks to small family vineyards. A Russian embargo on Georgian wine in 2006 revived the industry as it turned to foreign markets and discovered that Western consumers preferred drier wines, more suited to classic Georgian wine.
The Politics of Food
It bothers me that so many people must rely on the Saskatoon Food Bank and Learning Centre which in turns relies on corporate sponsors for a large share of its capacity. To my mind, those large corporations are a large part of the problem so how can they also be the solution? I thought that ensuring excess food doesn’t go to waste was a better solution, but is it? It allows the large supermarket chains to maintain their current wasteful practices. There’s a more in-depth discussion of community, charity, and corporations in last week’s edition of Vittles.
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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