Footnotes to a Conversation, May 3, 2021


Local News 
I plan to try some of the cleaning products produced by Nikihk, a local Indigenous company that got its start distributing household cleaning kits to First Nations communities to prevent the spread of Covid. They have 7 different cleaning products, 6 of which include scents of plants and herbs which are significant in Plains Cree usage. 

The Saskatoon Public Library is offering an archival slideshow on Saskatoon homes from sod houses to boom-time mansions from 4-5 pm, May 6, on Facebook and ongoing on YouTube. 

Food 
I’m going to give tea-flavoured rice a try. Here’s a recipe for green tea rice with loads of green vegetables. 

It’s time to start adding fresh herbs (from Bergamot & Basil?) to your dishes. Here are 17 ways to use mint – from mint pasta to mint julep as well as a spicy herb and noodle salad and a lemon thyme and leek tart. 

Anas Attasi, author of Sumac: Recipes and Stories from Syria, wanted “to show the world a side of Syria they hadn’t seen before. . . . ‘We’re such a generous people, with so much culture and history, but you don’t see that story on television.’” 


Intelligent Travel or Industrial Espionage? 
In the 18th century industrial espionage was viewed as intelligent travel. “This form of industrial espionage wasn’t exactly cloak and dagger. It was common at the time for savants, men, mostly but not exclusively, of science to travel abroad and gather trade secrets. They insisted they weren’t spies but rather just curious about the advancing wonders of the age.” 

Footnotes to a Conversation is a weekly Monday feature covering 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. 

You can follow Wanderlust and Words on Facebook, Twitter, or by email (top centre).


Check out EcoFriendly Sask’s Nature Companion, a free nature app for Canada’s four western provinces

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