Ice Cream with Local Flavours

My food column in today's Star Phoenix explored the delights of locally-made ice cream with Saskatchewan-grown flavours. Strawberry swirl, raspberry chocolate chunk, cherry fudge, apple pie, saskatoon berry and much more...

I featured four options in Saskatoon:

Prairie Sun Orchard makes ice cream with fruit from its own orchard. It doesn't get more "back to the land" than that! Available at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market and at River Landing. Pictured is Meaghan Reynolds serving me an ice cream cone at the River Landing kiosk.

Homestead Ice Cream on Victoria Ave. has several local flavours on tap, some of them seasonal. Ice cream aficionado Lynn Davey enjoys making ice cream, frozen yogurt and sauces with city-grown fruit delivered by patrons to her back door. Why waste good fruit?

At Jerry's Food Emporium on 8th St., there are several local flavours on the ice cream/gelato menu. Owner Elyse Proulx-Cullen learned to make gelato in Italy. Jerry's flavours are also sold at Saskatoon Co-ops, City Perks Cafe, Casino Regina and the Yellow Fender in Christopher Lake. The sour cherry gelato is yummmm.

Finally, my favourite: sea buckthorn gelato by Northern Vigor Berries. Sea buckthorn is a small orange berry with a tart tropical taste. It's made on contract at Jerry's and sold by Northern Vigor at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market.

Do you know a place to get locally-made ice cream with Saskatchewan-grown flavours? Send a comment and let us know!

Cherry Festival

Spent a lovely day at the Bruno Cherry Festival selling my book and, before returning home, stopping at the Pulvermacher. butcher for their famous cherry smokies.

Newspaper Column - Community Shared Farms

This article appeared today in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.

Keith Neu has a funny way of putting it: “If you want food security, either marry a farmer or pay one to farm for you.” Well, 100 people have opted for the latter. They pay Neu a monthly fee to become “members” of his farm at Hudson Bay.

On a regular basis, Neu delivers the produce of the farm to his 100 customers in Saskatoon and Regina. Depending on the client and the time of year, his food boxes might include eggs, chicken, beef, grains and various vegetables, fresh or frozen.

His operation is called a CSA, which stands for Community Supported Agriculture or Community Shared Agriculture. It’s a nifty scheme whereby his clients pay up front for their food, taking a stake both financially and emotionally in the success of the farm. For the farmer, it means a steadier income when he needs it for buying seed and hiring summer help, plus the benefit of a supportive and dedicated clientele which Neu refers to as his “farm family.”

CSAs are quite popular in urban areas across North America, but they’re just gaining ground around Saskatoon. They’re a great option for those who want to eat locally, but don’t garden themselves and can’t make it to a farmers’ market often enough. The food comes to you. CSAs can take many forms and financial models, but the underlying goal is to create sense of community around a garden or a farm.

“I really like that connection with people who don’t have a lot of agricultural experience,” says Carmen Dyck who, with her husband Keith, runs an orchard CSA at Aberdeen. “Every time I make a delivery it takes twice as long as it should because I spend time talking with everybody. It’s really nice to have people who are interested and supportive of what we do.”

They started their CSA this spring with 21 members who pay $20 up front, then choose a delivery package that suites their needs. The orchard supplies saskatoons, sour cherries, gooseberries, currents and honeyberries, and they’ve planted apples, plums, pears and raspberries for future harvests.

To build a sense of community, they plan to hold special events in a renovated church moved to the orchard, and they include their members in any important decisions for the operation of the CSA.

The other day, I paid a visit to a vegetable CSA on an acreage at Furdale, just outside the city, where we sat on a bench near the garden while the tomatoes ripened and a big bluish rooster pecked in the grass. Susan Chalmers established her CSA this spring with 20 shareholders at $400 each. “The majority are young families who want their children to eat well and to know where their food is coming from,” she says. “They come out to visit the garden and play with the chickens. The demand for that type of experience is only going to grow.”

Her capacity is 20 shares, but she sells excess produce and eggs on the side. Here’s how to contact these CSAs:
* Just Susan’s Garden, Susan Chalmers: (306) 343-7990.
* Etomami Community Organic Farm, Keith Neu: (306) 865-2103; JustBeef.ca.
* Fruition Orchard, Carmen Dyck: (306) 933-9630: FruitionOrchards.blogspot.com.

I have not joined a CSA for a few reasons: I love gardening and going to the farmers’ market, so I’ve got a steady supply of produce, plus I have established sources for a number of other local foods. However, I’m happy to reap the bounty of a CSA, as when Chalmers sends me home with a basket of her tomatillos and a recipe for Salsa Verde. For the recipe, click here. If you know of other local CSAs, please send me a message on by clicking "comments."

Newspaper column - Breakfast

Published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix on 20 July 2009

You’ve all heard the advice: a healthy diet starts with a good breakfast. However, I contend that a healthy diet begins with a good Saskatchewan breakfast. So often when we talk about eating locally, we focus on the big meals—dinner with meat, veggies, salad and dessert. But it’s just as easy and just as fun to start each day with a taste of Saskatchewan.

A few years ago, my husband John and I decided to eat locally for a whole year. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. That year is up, but good habits are hard to break. We still stock our larder with locally-produced foods and breakfast is my favourite meal of the day.

This time of year, you may find me out early in the strawberry patch picking berries for a bowl of yogurt and homemade muesli. When the berries are this fresh and so delicious, breakfast is worth celebrating, so I often serve it in a martini glass. It looks as good as it tastes!

In the winter, I eat my muesli in a bowl with dried apples and cherries (that I dried myself) or with berries such as saskatoons and raspberries that I canned with a light honey syrup. Sometimes in winter, we get a warm start to the day with oatmeal porridge sweetened with honey or maple syrup.

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Whether for porridge or muesli, I always try to buy a bag of oats that specifically states it is a product of Saskatchewan. My homemade muesli includes nuts and seeds (which aren’t necessarily from here), plus locally-grown flax and hemp seeds, mixed with canola oil and honey, then toasted in the oven. (I buy the flax at the Saskatoon Farmer’s Market; the hemp seeds come from The Good Seed farm at Birch Hills.)
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Berry smoothies are also a great breakfast idea. We start with local Dairyland yogurt, add a banana, which isn’t local of course, and top it up with frozen blueberries, cranberries, saskatoons and/or strawberries, all locally picked, plus a dash of ground flax.

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When we have a little extra time, or when company is coming, John heats up the griddle and makes wild blueberry pancakes. If I’m cooking, we might have clafoutis, a terrifically easy breakfast custard from France, where it’s traditionally made with cherries. I use a mix of Saskatchewan berries, including the local sour cherry.

Speaking of traditional, bacon and eggs in our house are always local. We get them at the farmers market, or, if we’re at a local meat shop, we pick up good Saskatchewan-made bacon and breakfast sausages. (Currently, our freezer is stocked with breakfast sausage from the Smokehaus in Martensville.)

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As for toast and jam, it’s easy to be local. I make my own bread or buy it at a bakery such as Christie’s. My mom supplies the jam. While it might be hard to turn every breakfast into a local meal, here are some tips to get started:

1) Buy locally-made bacon and breakfast sausage. We have such good butchers in Saskatchewan, it’s easy to find quality products.
2) Pick extra strawberries, saskatoons and sour cherries this summer (available at u-picks) and freeze enough for a smoothie or clafoutis now and then. Wild blueberries may be found at the farmers market when they’re in season.
3) Reach labels and try to buy basic ingredients, such as eggs, oats, honey and flax, that are products of Saskatchewan.

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Here's the recipe for my homemade muesli. And here's the clafoutis (pronounced cla-foo-tee), which will impress everyone at breakfast time, especially the cook!

Prairie Berry Clafoutis
2 tbsp butter
3 eggs
3 tbsp sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups mixed Saskatchewan berries
(fresh or frozen)
1 tbsp flour

Heat the oven to 350F. In the oven, melt the butter in a cast iron skillet or large pie plate, making sure the butter doesn’t brown.

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Put the eggs, sugar, milk, vanilla and salt into a blender and blend until smooth. With the blades running, gradually add 1 cup of flour and mix well. Remove the buttered pan from the oven and pour in the batter.
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Toss the berries with the remaining tbsp of flour. Scatter the fruit over the top of the batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the centre of the custard is set. Serve warm, perhaps with a sprinkling of icing sugar.

Saskatchewan Food Festivals 2009

Hog Fest, June 26, Englefeld.
The 38th annual event. What else would you expect of a town with a giant pig?Saskatoon Berry Festival, July 4, Mortlach.
The second annual, and it looks like it will be a fantastic event.

Cherry Festival, July 25-26, Bruno.Plus a cherry cheesecake literary event on the 24th.
Rhubarb Festival, August 2 & 3, Marr Residence, Saskatoon
This historic pioneer house celebrates this hardy prairie "fruit".

Wheat Festival, August 7, 8 & 9, Weyburn.
The website still shows last year's event, but you get the picture.

The Great Canadian Mustard Festival, July 25-26, The Willow on Wascana, Regina.Chefs face off in the mustard challenge, and you're the judge! Several restaurants also feature mustard on the menu. The event doesn't seem to have a website, but there's some info on the SaskTourism site.Wild Blueberry Festival, August 21-22, St. Walburg.
The whole town gets involved so there's lots to see and do besides blueberries.
Pumkin Festival, end Sept., Pilger.
Giant pumpkin contest (see photo) and pumpkin lunch.

Chokecherry Festival, Thanksgiving weekend, Lancer
Going on 39 years now. Here're some photos from a past event.

Do you know of other festivals that celebrate Saskatchewan-produced food? Click comment and tell us all about it.