Wanderlust and Words

“In Just-spring when the world is mud-luscious the little lame balloonman whistles far and wee and eddieandbill come running from marbles and piracies and it’s spring when the world is puddle-wonderful” – e e cummings   A Taste of Spring  What food symbolizes spring for you? For me, it’s probably fresh, locally-grown spinach (and rhubarb). By winter’s end, I’ve had my fill of root vegetables (I do try to eat local) and am longing for greens. But in other parts of the world, spring may be something else entirely – mangoes in Mexico City , kumquats in Greece , or fresh goat cheese in Provence (Oh, yes, please!). And each of these foods has a history and a story to tell that surely influences its flavour.  Another early spring crop is radishes, but they’ve never been one of my favorites. I’m planning to try the roasted radish lemony chickpea pasta in this set of 12 unusual radish recipes , but I’m not so sure about the cinnamon ice cream topped with radishes.  Creativi...

Local News  I love getting freebies! It was so much fun to find a free sample included in my online Saskatoon Farmers’ Market delivery . Thank you Mossbank Farms for the sprouts. They were excellent and I ordered more this week. I’m delighted to see more and more vendors signing up to deliver their products online. Both Grandora Gardens and Simpkins Market Garden , two of my favorite vendors, are now online as well as in-person at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market location on Koyl Avenue. Saskatoon is so fortunate to have a year-round farmers’ market!  Tasty Habits is getting ready for Christmas with boxes of chocolates as well as bars. Sign up for their email newsletter to get a free chocolate bar and a one-time only 10% discount. It’s really good to know that the cocoa beans they are using come “directly from farmers participating in the Cocoa Horizons program.” By purchasing Tasty Habit products, “you are participating in training, financial incentives and community empower...

Local News The Night Oven Bakery  now has apple cinnamon flax bread on Sundays. I highly recommend it fresh from their oven with a good smear of  Kitako Lake Honey , seriously the best honey I’ve ever eaten. Other Night Oven options include cinnamon raisin sourdough on Mondays and granola sourdough on Wednesdays. Not forgetting the olive bread on Fridays - one of my favorites. Fruit & Biscuits  Over the past 4 years, Pablo Salvatierra has visited 15 countries and tasted nearly 300 different kinds of fruit . Salvatierra, who used to buy all his produce from the supermarket, has gained a new appreciation for the superior taste of homegrown fruit and fair commerce.  Britons love biscuits (aka cookies) – and so do I! But their history surprised me . Did you know that medieval Muslims invented the fig roll as a health food? Digestive biscuits were invented to relieve an “epidemic” of flatulence among Victorian gentlemen. In the 1920s, there was a biscuit for every occ...

Local News The Saskatoon Farmers' Market Co-operative on Koyl Avenue had strawberries from Raina's Organics this week - yum! Ayden Kitchen & Bar is holding a 4-course dinner with cider pairings from Crossmount Cider on Sept. 15. Call 306-954-2590 for a reservation. I've posted a list of nature and environmental programs for Saskatchewan kids from pre-school to grade 12 on EcoFriendly Sask . In the Kitchen “Sourdough is this one space where we all agree, as a society, that microbes are helping us do wonderful things .” Here’s an article outlining the science behind sourdough bread: from how it works to tips on the caring and feeding of your starter (how much water, type of flour). A chef takes cooking lessons for kids online and teaches them to make dinner, which presents some unusual challenges : “Chef Pascal," she says, "can you please slow down? My cat got out and I need to go grab him." How many cookbooks do you own and how do you us...

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  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...

Local News  Jenn Sharp and Richard Marjan are launching their book , Flat Out Delicious: Your Definitive Guide to Saskatchewan’s Food Artisans online from 7-8 pm , May 5 . If you live in Swift Current, be sure to take advantage of Foodcraft by Sarah ’s online market. Last week she was offering scones and a tea-time gift basket. Her Mother's Day specials will be posted next Monday with orders by Thursday and pick up or delivery on Saturday. Petroka Orchards was under 7 feet of water this weekend . The fruit trees could be damaged if they’re flooded for more than 24 hours. If you purchased tulips from Kaleidoscope Vegetable Gardens this past week, you will sympathize with 5 young people in Skagit, Washington, who purchased a tulip farm in 2019 – only to be hit by the Covid lockdown . With creativity and determination, they’re making the best of a bad situation. Food for Thought  The knowledge of our grandparents: cooking sauerkraut with Ilania . Five food-focused...

Local News   Jenn Sharp’s book, Flat Out Delicious: Your Definitive Guide to Saskatchewan’s Food Artisans , is now available from Touchwood Editions , McNally Robinson Booksellers , and Amazon . Jenn discusses the book and her interest in food in an interview with Touchwood Editions . Steep Hill Food Co-op has posted photos of all their shelves on Facebook , making it so much easier to order by phone or email. Be sure to include your phone and member numbers. Orders can be picked up at the store. Sparrow Coffee has started offering a pickup service with everything from coffee beans and lattes to soups, salads, and cinnamon buns from 10 am-3 pm , Wednesday to Friday . City Perks Coffeehouse hopes to initiate curbside pickup as well in the next couple of weeks. I picked up pies from Trent at Scratch Provisions this week and was delighted to have so many vegetarian options, among them Mushroom with Wild Rice & Toasted Walnut, Egyptian Lentil with Roasted Brussel ...

Local Happenings  The Saskatoon Farmers’ Market Co-operative has moved into its new home at 2600 Koyl Avenue (#11 bus or free parking). Look at all that space – no more overcrowded aisles or limitations on how many vendors can move inside on cold days! Library of Things has made free cloth bags for market customers to use. Help yourself! Be sure to take a look at the murals. They are the work of a regular market customer and were carefully moved out of the old building and into the new one. Five years ago Hal Jadetske, Red Barn Dairy , bought an organic farm, built a pasteurization/processing plant, and purchased some goats. “So, retirement involves milking the goats twice a day every day and processing the milk and then off to the farmers market which I have been a part of for the last 2 ½ years. The Saskatoon Farmers Market is a wonderfully diverse group of people who all have a passion and dedication to what they bring to the market every week and along with th...

  Local Happenings  The Saskatoon Heritage Society’s annual luncheon is at 12 pm, Mar. 15 , at the Sheraton Cavalier. The guest speaker, Elizabeth A. Scott, curator at the Western Development Museum, will share stories of life in Saskatchewan told through the clothes we wore. Sparrow Coffee Shop, the sister to City Perks, is starting to be open. Like them on Facebook to find out when you can drop by. I’m looking forward to browsing the book collection later in the spring. Two Saskatoon coffee shops are on the list of the 50 best coffee shops in Canada – City Perks and Collective Coffee. 33 1/3 Coffee Roasters in Regina also makes the list. A new company with Saskatoon links aims to replace plastic with natural materials that will quickly decompose in backyard compost. Cogomelo’s “products are made from mycelium-based composites, where we use a substrate – in our case, agricultural waste – that is partially replaced as the fungal biomass grows and consumes it.” T...

Local Happenings Core Neighbourhood Youth Co-op is hosting their second annual Snowdrift Fundraiser on Feb. 2 . Tickets must be purchased by Jan. 25 . There will be 3 floors of fantastic food and desserts made by some of Saskatoon’s amazing chefs along with roasted marshmallows and hot chocolate. Slow Food Saskatoon is sponsoring a workshop on regenerative agriculture on Feb. 7 . Check out Shannon Parton’s beautiful macarons on Instagram . They’re available at CUT Steakhouse as well as for birthdays and other events. Jenn Sharp (Flat Out Food) and John Cote/Barb Stefanyshyn-Cote (Black Fox Farm and Distillery) are finalists for Western Living magazine’s Foodies of the Year . Congratulations! They’re talking about the University of Saskatchewan’s dwarf cherry breeding program from Hungary to Montana. Have any of you tried Field Fox Gardens and Cookery ’s ready-made meals? The website says they’re intended to be as healthy, local, and organic as possible. A lot of the di...

Local Happenings  A Blaine Lake couple loved sour cherries and Saskatoon berries so much that they started a business, Cherry & Berry Delight , to share their taste for locally grown fruit. I’ve been told that the Sour Cherry and Saskatoon Berry Pastry Filling is particularly good. They deliver for free in Saskatoon. Enjoy perogies and cabbage rolls in support of Station 20 West on Jan. 25 . The Saskatchewan Environmental Society is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2020 with a series of fundraising events to ensure their ongoing sustainability. First up is a series of musical events : Jan. 14 – Appetizers & Music by Jay Semko Feb. 25 – Dinner & Music by Jay & Jo Mar. 24 – Dinner & Music by Eileen Laverty Apr. 21 – Dinner & Music by Rick Fines Cheesy mushroom appetizer from Hearth Food for Thought  I am absolutely delighted that Hearth restaurant has been noted as one of Canada’s top restaurants . I think they make great foo...

There are lots of public markets in the United Kingdom but far fewer farmers’ markets and they are usually only held once a month. So I was delighted that my one Saturday in the Lincoln area was the date for the Lincoln Farmers’ Market . Warning! Lots of pictures to provide possible inspiration for Saskatoon Farmers’ Market vendors. You can’t beat the Market’s location between Lincoln Castle and Cathedral! It’s a small market and there was only one farmer selling vegetables, but there were all sorts of other interesting items. There were two stands selling Lincolnshire and other British cheeses. One was also selling fresh unpasteurized milk from the cows on their farm. Autumn Harvest was selling mushrooms – fresh, dried, powdered, in soup, in risotto mixes, and more. They were also selling enormous pine cones from a tree on their land so you could harvest your own pine nuts. There were fresh and dried apples from the 130-year-old, organically-mana...

Local Happenings  Bulk Basket , Saskatoon’s “local, sustainable, package-free grocer,” is moving to 401 20th Street West in Riversdale. They buy Saskatchewan products whenever possible and provide a discount to those who need it most. Boffins at Innovation Place will close its doors on November 15 . It’s disappointing as it’s a beautiful space with a lovely outdoor patio and a great location beside the pond/garden. “ Second Chance Food Saskatoon is an ad-hoc committee dedicated to reducing food waste in Saskatoon. Comprised of members from various local food security, poverty, and waste reduction focused agencies, Second Chance Food seeks to advocate for and enable mechanisms that increase donation of surplus food, and encourage a more sustainable food system in our city.” I chatted with Coralee Abbott and Daryl Grunau about City Perks ’ new venture last week. Sparrow will have slightly more seating than City Perks. But the big plus is a full-size commercial kitchen w...