Sweet Spring - Maple Walnut Salad

Maple Walnut Salad

In the right season, this salad can be made almost entirely with local ingredients. See the sources below.

2 apples

7 cm chunk (3 in) English cucumber

1/2 head butter lettuce

2 tbsp finely chopped red onion

3 tbsp dried cherries

3 tbsp chopped walnuts

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp milk

2 tsp apple cidre vinegar

Dash salt

Peel, seed and chop the apple. Chop the cucumber to the same size as the apple. Chop the lettuce into ribbons. Mix the vegetables with the onion, dried cherries and walnuts. Make the dressing by stirring together the mayonnaise, maple syrup, milk, vinegar and salt. Toss the dressing with the salad just before serving.

Sources
Apples: There are several apple orchards around the province, such as the Petrofka Bridge Orchard north of Saskatoon. Of course, they won't have apples until August.
Cucumber and Lettuce: Currently available at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market.
Red Onion: Also at the Farmers' Market later in the summer and, I'm sure, many other markets around the province.
Dried Cherries: I received these dried cherries from a friend. They are not yet commercially available, but may be soon. Check with the Saskatchewan Fruit Growers Association. Or, try drying them yourselves in cherry season (August).
Walnuts: Not local!
Mayo: If you're a good cook, make your own mayonnaise with local eggs and canola oil.
Maple Syrup: Two sources for Saskatchewan maple syrup, both at Kamsack:
Gerry at Leprechaun Taps: 306-542-4220
Allen at Assiniboine River Taps: 306-590-8333
Milk: Dairyland brand in the grocery store.
Apple Cidre Vinegar: A new product from Petrofka Bridge Orchard, also for sale at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market.
Salt: Buy Sifto salt, which is mined in Saskatchewan near Unity.

Food coloumn recipes and sources

My food column in today's newspaper contains some menu ideas for Local Foods Day on Sat., August 28. Here are the sources and recipes for those suggestions:

Bratwurst and other sausages: There are plenty of amazing butchers in Saskatchewan, so there's no need to buy sausages made anywhere else. What I love about our butchers is that so many of them incorporate a particular sausage-making tradition, from a particular part of the world, so you'll find unique items at each one. In the past year or so, I've bought sausages at:

Emco Meats in Saskatoon (East European), Maggie's Deli in Saskatoon (Polish), Pulvermacher Butcher in Bruno (German), Smokehaus in Martensville (Mennonite) and West Bridgeford Meats of Tugaske. I particularly like the breakfast sausages at the Smokehaus.

Potato Salad - Saskatchewan has a thriving potato industry, so always choose one grown close to home. Many of the potatoes sold in grocery stores are Saskatchewan potatoes, though not labelled as such.

The same goes for Eggs. Many major brand name eggs are laid in Saskatchewan.

Corn on the cob, homemade pickles and many other fresh and preserved vegetables - If you don't grow (and make) these in your family, you can always rely on the families at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market and the Community Farmers' Market (located at St. James' Church).

Cherry Ice Cream - Prairie Sun Orchard at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market.

Egg Salad Sandwiches - See my note about eggs above.

As for Bread, pick some up at a local bakery.

Fish - I buy fish at Fono's Fish at the Saskatoon Farmers' Market. It's caught north in Dore Lake.

As for Chicken, I usually buy direct from the farm such as Pine View Farms (available at Souleio Foods in Saskatoon) and most recently, from Cool Springs Ranch.

Recipes - These are my recipes, or some of my favourites recipes found on-line:
Chickpea and Apple Salad Chickpeas that are "product of Canada" were most likely grown in Sask.
Fish Cakes Catch your own or buy from Fono's at the Farmers' Market.
Wild Rice Salad I buy wild rice in bulk, but it's also available at the Sask Made Marketplace on 8th. St.
Red Salad All the "reds" are available at the farmers' market.
Lentil Cucumber Salad Be sure to buy Canadian lentils, because they are grown in Saskatchewan.
Apple Crisp Lots of local apples this time of year -- I like using crab apples.
Oatmeal Zucchini Cookies I buy local oats in big bags from Mum's on 20th St.

Newspaper column - MUSHROOM GOUGERE

This column appeared in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix on 21 June 2010.

I’m a big fan of eggs. What other food is just as welcome at breakfast, lunch or dinner, as an appetizer, main course or dessert? In my quest to eat all things local, I buy eggs at the farmers’ market. But it’s nice to know that between markets, locally-laid eggs are as close as the grocery store. Many of the major brands in eggs—from the Co-op to Costso—are provided by Star Egg of Saskatoon, a family business that has grown into an egg empire.

Star Egg processes a million eggs a day, give or take, collected from more than 50 farms around the province, supplying 85 percent of Saskatchewan’s egg market according to Dana Haynes, whose grandfather started the company almost 80 years ago.

Yet only 35 percent of those million eggs stay in the province; the rest supply grocery stores from Manitoba to British Columbia to the North West Territories. “Of course, the Saskatchewan market isn’t as big as some other markets, but we’re proud of where we come from,” says Haynes.

Her grandfather Walter Harman started the Harman egg company in the 1930s on his farm near Prince Albert after he was laid off from his job in a local factory. In the 1960s, his son Bert Harman joined the company and expanded by purchasing Star Egg in Saskatoon and, two years ago, moving into a new facility on Quebec Ave.

Haynes has fond memories of gathering eggs with her grandfather on the farm: “Grandpa was very jovial, but he worked hard, too. If we dropped an egg, he’d say, ‘That’s 10 cents off your wage.’ We learned that an egg is a valuable asset and you don’t want to be breaking them.”

Star Egg is almost fully automated, but even the machines are gentle. The eggs flow in a steady stream through the cleaning and inspection booth, roll over the weigh scales, glide down the conveyor belts to a row of soft round brushes that place the eggs within reach of the automated “clam shells” which gently pick them up and set them into their awaiting cartons.

Egg consumption in Canada has dropped from about 23 dozen per person per year in the 1960s to about 14.5 dozen today (including processed eggs), and is rising slowly thanks in part to a range of new custom egg products. These include liquid, powdered and separated eggs—you can even buy pre-packaged hard boiled eggs—and eggs with special qualities such as free-run, organic, vegetarian and omega-3. Star Egg markets its specialty eggs under the label GoldEgg.

“I think it’s important to listen to the public and try to provide different options, because everyone’s purchasing choices are based on how they feel or what they believe. We always want to be cognizant of that,” says Haynes. “At the end of the day, an egg is an egg. It’s an affordable, quality source of protein.” And each egg is one in a million!

Mushroom and Chive Puffs (otherwise known in French as gougere)

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp coarse salt

1 cup flour

3 eggs, room temperature

1 cup aged cheddar cheese

1/4 cup powdered dried mushrooms

1 tbsp chopped fresh chives

Note: I used dried chanterelle mushrooms picked last fall in Saskatchewan and powdered in a spice grinder.

Heat oven to 400F. Heat the milk, water and butter in a saucepan on medium low until it starts to boil. Add the flour all at once and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the flour forms a ball that is no longer sticky and a dry film forms on the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat.

Using a handheld mixer (or place the dough in a mixing bowl) beat lightly for two minutes to release some heat. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing each one fully into the dough before adding the next. The dough will be smooth and waxy, thick enough to scoop with a spoon.

Incorporate the cheese, mushroom powder and chives. Using a teaspoon, scoop the dough into balls and place them on a baking sheet lined with a silicone pad or parchment paper. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat, open the door and leave puffs in the oven for 10 minutes. Makes about 24 puffs.

Newspaper Column - "Cultivate" at the Market

This column appeared in today's Star Phoenix.

Three student chefs from Cultivate, the new “pop up” restaurant at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market, with their mentor (l-r) Jerimiah Bezaire, Erica Krumpitz, Chef Moe Mathieu and Kyla Hurst.



It was an evening of fine dining—carrot coconut soup, roast hip of beef with horseradish and potatoes, fresh foccacia bread and, for dessert, cheesecake smothered in cherry sauce. The food was delicious, the service was friendly and the setting was, well, strangely familiar.

I am a regular patron of the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning, when the place is bustling and my sack is heavy with fresh local food. But this was my first visit to the market after hours, when the vendors were serving food rather than selling it.

In an effort to showcase their products and bring more people to the market, some of the vendors have decided to serve Sunday dinner now and then. The next date isn’t set yet, but will be advertised on the farmers’ market website.

While many of us know the market as a great place to buy locally-produced food, it’s also becoming known a great place to eat locally produced food.

Several food stalls are now open daily from Tuesday to Saturday. The Riverbend Plantation Market Café serves fresh baking and light lunches, as well as products made with saskatoon berries from the Riverbend orchard.

Giuseppi’s has a loyal fan base for its generous slices of quiche, sausage rolls and barbeque beef on a bun. The Garlic Guru serves soups, sandwiches and, yes, garlic cookies. And for those who don’t have time to sit and eat at the market, there’s Sous Chef, which sells prepared take-away foods such as savoury strudel, lasagne and salads.

Next month, a new restaurant will pop up at the market—literally. Called a “pop up” restaurant, it will materialize at the market four days a week, and disappear as soon as dinner is done. It’s an experiment conceived by Chef Moe Mathieu, who is well respected for his dedication to local foods at his restaurant The Willow on Wascana in Regina and now teaches culinary skills at SIAST in Saskatoon.

The restaurant is called Cultivate and the theme is Canadian cuisine—classic comfort food elevated to the level of fine dining—entirely prepared and served by a group of culinary students on their summer break. “When young chefs work in a kitchen, they do a lot of chopping and prepping, but they don’t get a lot of opportunity to cook,” says Mathieu. “Now they’re going to learn to run a restaurant, from cooking to paying the bills.”

As if to prove the truth of it, he invited my husband and me to a “pop up” restaurant for just us two, where three of his students practiced preparing some of the dishes that will appear on the menu of Cultivate.

The meal began with a bite-sized appetizer of chickpeas and couscous. Then a thick Both Coast Chowder made with east coast lobster, west coast prawns and Saskatchewan vegetables in between.

Next, a tortiere with a twist—not the traditional meat pie so popular among French Canadians, but slow braised duck served under a crisp of pastry glazed with maple syrup, along with beet chutney and vanilla flavoured carrots. Yumm.

That was followed by a Canadian not-yet-classic: Coffee and Donut Spare Ribs in a sauce made (that's a timbit in the picture) with coffee and donuts from Tim Horton’s. The sweet spare ribs were balanced with a slightly spicy scoop of mustard mashed potatoes. As if we still had room for dessert, the students served a slice of maple syrup pie with a dab of sour cream.

Mathieu says Cultivate is a not-for-profit restaurant; the students are unpaid and the proceeds will be put back into the culinary venture. The restaurant will “pop up” for three hours on Tues., Wed., Fri. and Sat. evenings from June 18 to August 20 at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market.

Newspaper Column - Prairie Feast

This column appeared in today's Star Phoenix
The chives are up, the robins are singing and it’s a good time to launch a book. Particularly a book that was inspired by such a day as this. It was mid April 2005 when I snipped some chives from my garden, sprinkled them on a hot German potato salad and launched into a year of eating from the bounty of Saskatchewan.That adventure provided the inspiration for my new book, coming out in early May, Prairie Feast: A Writer’s Journey Home for Dinner.

It’s a collection of humorous stories, each one based on a local food adventure, such as a trip to the Bruno Cherry Festival, an excursion to pick mushrooms near La Ronge and the misadventure of learning to make pickles with my mom. Along the way, I learned a few things about myself, my community and my attachment to the prairie landscape in which I call home.

Back in 2005 when I embarked on a year of eating locally, words such as locavore, food miles and the 100-mile diet were not yet in the popular lexicon, and I had a hard time explaining to some folks why on earth I would choose to favour foods produced in Saskatchewan. I was motivated by a strong desire to reconnect with the flavours of my childhood – the fresh farm eggs, big roast chickens, yearly excursions for saskatoon berries and those venerable prairie traditions of canning and fall (or is that fowl?) suppers.

I was also inspired to learn more about food and agriculture in Saskatchewan. As a former country girl, I knew that our farmers are producing more food, and different types of food, than the pioneers ever thought possible. Yet, much of it is shipped out of the province to processors and markets in other parts of Canada and the world. I wanted to tap into those established sources and find new sources of unique prairie foods, and I wanted to learn how people in other parts of the world were cooking the foods that we provide.

I also wanted to connect with those farmers and gardeners who don’t give two hoots about export markets – the smaller, sustainable operations that cater to the local market and to customers just like me. I had also been reading about the connection between greenhouse gas emissions and the distance that food travels. The fact is, eating is one of the least environmentally friendly things we do because of the huge requirement for fossil fuels, from the fertilizers to the tractors to the refrigerated trucks.

As the farmer-poet Wendell Berry wrote: “How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used.”

Officially, my year of eating locally is long over, but the lifestyle isn’t. Why give up a good thing? I’ve connected with local farmers, built supply lines with friends, learned to preserve the summer’s bounty and rediscovered the fresh wonderful taste of food that is unprocessed, raised in a natural environment and picked at the peak of perfection.

That’s the sentiment of Prairie Feast. It taps into our universal desire to find ourselves, our community and our history through the food we eat, and to rediscover the roots of a daily ritual that nourishes us body, mind and soul. Please join me, and the publisher Coteau Books, as we launch Prairie Feast with a couple of events in Saskatoon:

Sat., May 8, Souleio Bistro, an evening of food and wine, 265 3rd Ave. S., 979-8102

Wed., May 19, McNally Robinson, a local dinner in the Prairie Ink Bistro, 3180 8th St. East, 955-3599

I will also be signing books at the Saskatoon Farmers’ Market on Sat,, May 15, and Wed., June 30. Details of all events can be found on my book blog: PrairieFeast.blogspot.com. Events are planned for Regina, Calgary and Toronto, as well as communities around the province (including my hometown of Craik), so please pass this on to anyone you know with a soft spot for prairie food and culture.

I’d like to say a special thank you to the Star Phoenix for allowing me to write this column, Home for Dinner, for the past five years, from which I drew the inspiration and encouragement to write Prairie Feast.