100 Mile Peasant Food

It's finally getting to be snuggly comfort food season! Last night we had homemade perogies and borscht made with island grown ingredients. Pretty much everything except for the flour in the perogy wrapper came from a local farm or my own garden.

The perogies are a great way to use local potatoes. I prefer to use the starchy potatoes like russets for perogies. I also used local cheeses, local smoked bacon and parsley from my garden in the perogies. I made a huge batch of perogies a few weeks ago and threw them into the freezer. So much yummier and better for you than factory made perogies.














Here's Kevin enjoying his platter of perogies. I know, he's in the living room but the dining room is way too cold and drafty to enjoy these comforting morsels.
The borscht was made with local onions, beets and cabbage from local farms, locally smoked pork ribs and hot peppers from my garden. It pretty much follows my Fast & Dirty Borscht Recipe.
Have a great week!

Product of Canada not so Canadian

Harry Burton from Apple Luscious Organic Orchard on Saltspring Island sent me a link to this news story from CBC Marketplace about how goods labeled "Product of Canada" are often filled with ingredients from China, or New Zealand or Mexico.
This is upsetting for those wanting to buy Canadian in an effort to support the domestic economy, limit the carbon footprint of our consumer habits and/or because they are wary of the quality of goods from places like China. In case, you've been living under a rock, China has skyrocketed to the top of the recall heap for health hazards concerning food and toy products.
The "Product of Canada" label legally means that 51% of the production costs were spent in Canada. Production of what it doesn't specify. In fact, if the 51% of the production costs were spent on the packaging, running the factory, wages, transportation, 100% of the contents could still legally come from imported foods from who knows where and they can still label it as "Product of Canada".
BTW, what the heck is butteroil-sugar blend??? Whatever it is, it's probably in your 'Product of Canada' corporate ice cream. And yeah, it's not actually made in Canada. Neither is most of the rest of the ingredients of your 'Product of Canada' ice cream. Nor is that "Wild Pacific Salmon" in your frozen fish dinner. In fact, as long as the final step of processing is done on Canadian soil, fish products can be labeled as "Product of Canada". Which means they can simply throw on a sauce onto your frozen fish in a Canadian factory and call it a "Product of Canada"A scary situation considering that many fish in Asia (the main fish source) are on high alert for diseases, contamination and other health concerns.
Just another indication that Canadian Food Inspection Agency isn't making health, food security and the public good a priority. It is the CFIA who designates these labels and decides the regulations behind them. Maybe instead of bending over and taking it from corporations, they ought to actually try protecting the Canadian public, health and enviroment.

Check out the video of this episode of CBC Marketplace. Definite food for thought.
The article also provides some tips of what to look for in labels that will trigger red flags that the the actual food contents are from abroad.

Buy real food from local farmers. Chances are that's the only way nowadays you can actually get Canadian food.

30 Mile Bread!!!!!

I got this fabulous piece of grainy news today in my e-mail from Jonathan at True Grain Bakery:

In celebration of last weeks amazing 'Bread & Wheat' festival in Victoria, we baked our first batches of bread from the Red Fife wheat test plot that Tom Henry grew at Lamb's Leap Farm in Metchosin this past summer (exactly 52 km from Cowichan Bay), to great success.

For as long as the limited harvest lasts, we will be baking a batch of '30 Mile' 100% Whole Wheat Bread on Fridays and have it available Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings - $5 for a 720g loaf. (You might want to call ahead to reserve your loaf 746-7664). Please spread the word to other folks interested in local food production, and lets keep this exciting initiative growing!

Cheers,
Jonathan

Yippee!
True Grain is in Cowichan Bay Village and you can't miss it. Just let your carb-hungry belly lead you there. I sent an email to Jonathan about purchasing any of the locally grown flour from him. I'll relay the answer to you all.
Thank you Tom Henry for taking a chance and planting a test plot. Let's hope that this is a sign of yummy and local things to come.