Footnotes to a Conversation
I began writing about food that was good, clean, fair – and local – in 2010 when I visited Victoria, BC, and was so impressed by the Island’s emphasis on local food. I wanted to explore what was happening in that area in Saskatoon and began interviewing and writing about Saskatoon food businesses and entrepreneurs. The first issue of Flavourful Saskatoon was published 10 years ago on February 17, 2011. That’s a long time and I’m ready to expand my scope. I’ll always care passionately about supporting local farmers and food businesses, but I want to share with you some of my other interests.
I’m a writer and an introvert so please consider these weekly postings as my conversation with you. They’ll cover an assortment of topics from art and books to food and travel. I hope you will enjoy it, but I also appreciate that I have changed my focus and some of you will no longer be interested – and that’s okay. And don’t worry – as you’ll see from today’s post, there will still be lots of food-related stories!
Books
I’ve just finished a series of 3 mysteries by Suzie Steiner and highly recommend them. The plot is well developed, but it’s in the character development that Steiner really shines. Manon is a Cambridgeshire police officer with a messy home and a messy family. Davy wants to get married – maybe – and he wonders if he’ll ever step out of Manon’s shadow at work. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be a migrant farm worker, be sure to read Remain Silent. It paints a horrifying picture of modern-day slavery that allows the rest of us to eat cheap food.
On a similar theme, here’s a photo essay illustrating the life of João Rafeira, an itinerant farm worker in Portugal who divides his year between sheep shearing, cork harvesting, wine making, olive picking, and tree pruning.
Ethics
Ashley Rodriguez discusses what it takes to create an ethical, responsive business and discusses one coffee shop that got it right: “Standard Pour was conceived after another prominent coffee shop in the area closed, and Shanelle and Darlene used the opportunity to create a responsive business, one which felt both true to themselves and which honored the needs of the neighborhood it was part of. . . . They pored over decisions, and ensured that every choice they made was reflective of their principles. They valued partnering with local suppliers, so they hired area bakers. They valued quality products, so they exhaustively tasted and vetted coffee and tea samples. They valued working with Black-owned businesses, so they sought them out. They wanted to have a good answer for every question. ‘Why are we doing this? Because it’s reflective of our value system.’ ‘Why is this person here? Because they’re part of our community’.”
Art & Architecture
Generous architecture: “The built environment can include or exclude. It can be beautiful or ugly, inviting or foreboding. A building or a space can project power and ego, or it can project welcome and belonging. We need more of the welcoming kind, a generous architecture for a world beyond endless private accumulation as the end goal of a good life.”
“A magnificently decorated 12th-century Islamic bathhouse, replete with dazzling geometric motifs and skylights in the form of eight-pointed stars, has emerged, a little improbably, from the walls and vaulted ceilings of a popular tapas bar in the heart of the southern Spanish city of Seville.”
I may start playing with Lego! Check out the 3D Starry Night set which so perfectly imitates the painting by Vincent Van Gogh. And, for those of you with green thumbs, you can also build a bonsai cherry tree.
Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature with an assortment of topics that I’ve come across in the preceding week – books, art, travel, food, and whatever else strikes my fancy. If you share my love of nature, I suggest you also read EcoFriendly Sask that I publish in collaboration with my brother, Andrew.
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