Wanderlust and Words

Local News   It’s easy to forget how much work goes into growing and preparing food for sale. And Covid has made things even tougher. One farmer tells me he is spending an extra day to day and a half a week preparing vegetables to sell at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market in order to comply with health authority requirements. Where does he find the extra time in what must already be a jam-packed growing season!  Trent at Scratch Provisions makes great pies with lots of imaginative flavours (e.g. harissa lentils and cauliflower; balsamic pickled beet, ricotta & sunflower seed). My family enjoyed his vegetarian Thanksgiving pies this weekend - lots of holiday spices and the tang of fresh cranberries. In fact, we enjoyed them so much, we're ordering more.  I’m really enjoying the sour leaf cabbage rolls from Kapusta & Kake at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market Cooperative – rich, tangy, lots of flavour. Wally Satzewich says their borscht is the best he’s ever tasted. Th...

The close relationship that develops between the person who grows or makes our food and the person who eats it is at the heart of a farmers’ market. A friend describes the relationship between consumers and farmers’ market vendors as a partnership. “We’re co-producers,” she says.  Lockdown and the Covid pandemic have made all of us more aware of how important food is. As a result, farmers’ markets have grown in popularity. Sales increased between 10 and 30% in Melbourne , Australia, despite the lack of tourists and browsers. Instead, the focus was on local people coming to do their weekly shop. Similar trends have been noticed by Saskatoon Farmers’ Market Co-operative (SFMC) farmers and producers. If we want a secure food supply, we need to support our local farmers and producers. And the best way to do that is through a farmers’ market, a self-supporting group of farmers and producers who share a similar interest in working with their hands, providing their community with food, a...

Local News  Explore a slice of local history with an online slideshow of Saskatoon’s bygone bakeries sponsored by the Saskatoon Public Library’s Local History Room at 4 pm , Oct. 1 .  The Local Kitchen is once more offering public cooking classes. Make pasta and sauces on Oct. 1 and French comfort food on Oct. 14 .  Oh, what a treat! Stuffed squash and sticky toffee pudding with a whipped cream topping. Absolutely delicious and absolutely no work thanks to Hearth Provisions. Hearth Restaurant sells a selection of heat-and-eat dishes. They change every week, but it’s a great way to have a special supper from the comfort of your own home. You can also order from their take-out menu. Or you can eat in the restaurant – Sunday night is lasagna night.  9 Mile Legacy Brewing has won gold for its angus stout . The company is the only Saskatchewan microbrewery to win a gold medal for two years in a row.  Here and Elsewhere  Japanese curry sounds like a very dif...

Local News Celebrate Mexican Independence Day on Sept. 16 with tacos from La Taqueria Mexicana (formerly at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market) with beer at 9 Mile Legacy Brewing . Eat in or take out. Covid and Farmers’ Markets Farmers’ markets are flourishing during lockdown in Victoria, Australia : “Market data shows a sales increase of between 10 and 30% since the pandemic began. This is remarkable because now there are fewer tourists and browsers. So now it’s locals coming to the market for their weekly shop." Kate Archdeacon, Victorian Farmers' Markets Association "sees farmers’ markets as critical for the survival of small farmers, many of whom because of size and level of experience cannot meet the requirements of scale and consistency that supermarkets demand. She says farmers’ market suppliers are 'adaptable over time, sometimes one row of vegetables at a time.” Here and Elsewhere California has started authorizing home restaurants: “The newly impl...

Pictured are French tomatoes on sale at a public market in Avignon, France. European tomatoes are bred for flavour. Unfortunately, in North America, “our consumers have been conditioned to demand aesthetic perfection, perfectly shaped fruit and vegetables, without blemishes, and without considering flavor .” Local News  Amy-Jo Ehman provides an overview of Saskatchewan’s ever-evolving food cultur e in Planet S magazine. Covid & Farmers’ Markets  “Did you ever think you’d hear about a farmers’ market speakeasy? That’s what the government in Puerto Rico has forced upon local agriculture and those who wish to support it. While the supermarkets and malls are open, the weekly outdoor market in Old San Juan, where I live, has had to resort to pre-orders via email that are then picked up in a small alleyway. . . . There’s a beauty in how rapidly people came together to keep farmers and small food producers able to sell their wares, though, and it’s heartening to see how ...

Local News  The Western Development Museum’s Boomtown Café is now selling frozen pies, cookie dough, and cinnamon buns for you to enjoy at home. Phone or email to pre-order. “When Amy Jo Ehman looks at family, history, politics and current events, she sees stories that can be told through food .” On the Farm Millet, buckwheat, wheat – giving these precious grains a better future . In the Kitchen  “To chop garlic and ginger is to declare solidarity with ten thousand generations of cooks and shamans and doctors, with the fullness of human history, with the essence of cooking both for sustenance and health . Which is why, I suppose, a mother's kitchen smells so good.” The history of mason jars and canning – from John Landis Mason’s patent for screw-top lids in 1858 until the present: “You see these moments in American history; whether it's World War II or the counterculture or the pandemic, canning always comes back .” 5 edible plants to pick and eat : ox-eye dai...

The Black Lives Matter protests reminded me that I read a very limited number of books by writers of colour. So I went looking for some mysteries that would help address this gap. Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke is about Darren Mathews, a Texas Ranger who tries to determine who had committed two recent murders in a small community in East Texas. It’s a messy, complicated situation as Darren himself explains: “Michael’s and Missy’s murders were race crimes, yes, but that was mainly because of the ways race defined so much about Lark, Texas, especially in terms of love, unexpected, and the family ties it created.” The mystery itself is totally absorbing, but so is the glimpse of life in Texas if you are African American. It’s home, but it’s also a very dangerous place to live. I expected the main character in A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee to be Indian like the author, but of course that wasn’t be possible as the book is based in colonial India in 1919. Instead, a disillus...