Crave

Bowen Road Farmers Market

2008-05-20T08:17:00.005-07:00

Hope you're all having a great spring! I just wanted to pass on the exciting news that the Bowen Road Farmer's Market begins this Wednesday. Have a great time everybody and congratulations to all the organizers!
Here's an email I got from Dirk the grandmaster farmer about the market:

The Bowen Road Farmers' Market

Beginning THIS Wednesday, May 21st, 2008

4:00 PM to 7:00 PM each week until Thanksgiving

Location: Mid Island Co-op Parking Lot on Bowen Road at Labieaux Road

Get it fresh from your local farmer! Get it freshly picked! Produce, meat, seafood & plants are all at the Bowen Road Farmer's Market along with a tasteful sprinkling of local arts and crafts.

A new farmer's market in central Nanaimo to give you a fabulous selection of local farm produce, seafood, meats, baking, preserves and nursery plants. Come taste the joy which local producers put into their offerings. Juried, local arts and crafts will also round out this primarily farmer's market.

This is Nanaimo's food-oriented market promoting the 100 mile diet and connecting the people of our community with the farmers in our region who grow and raise the food we eat, as well as small-scale food processors and unique artisans. Farmers markets throughout Canada find that true "farmers" markets flourish when the focus on food is 80%, and artisans 20% and that is what this market adheres to.

In 1960, Vancouver Island grew, raised and produced 60% of the food we consumed. Today, it has dropped to less than 6%... and that includes meat and dairy! This means 94% of our food is imported…. leaving us vulnerable to a myriad of outside factors affecting our food security and sustainability.

Farmers' Markets make it possible for farmers to make a living wage and offer our community members wholesome, nutritious food that keeps families healthy. Markets also create a sense of connection and foster community, allowing our children to learn where their food comes from.

Dirk Becker's summary: “…farmers = food = farmers showcase = farmers market = consumers = community = public lobby = socio- political, environmental, agri-"cultural" change!!”

Edge of the world

2008-05-02T12:26:00.003-07:00

Igloo Church, Inuvik, NWT

So I've done my road trip and have decided to set up our home in Inuvik, NTW, pretty much the edge of the world.

It's been an amazing few weeks as I've been madly falling in love with this incredible part of the world.

Right now it's a balmy -7C and snowing. For this winter-starved kid, that's just fine.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of discoveries and meetings. Our first week here coincided with the Governor General's visit to this area. So being me, I basically crashed every event she attended and did my best to make ourselves known to the community.

I even got a chance to travel the ice highway to Tuktoyaktuk and Aklavik. It was gorgeous landscape and thrilling to be driving on a frozen river surrounded by seemingly never-ending plains of ice and snow.

(Catching a rare spring sunset)
I'm still adjusting to the 20 hours of sunshine. My circadian rhythms are out of whack so we always feel like I either sleep too much or not enough. I always seem to be a meal behind schedule. Most days we don't eat lunch until 4 or 5pm. Dinner has often been a midnight feast.

Here I am at the trapper cabin that was my home for the first week here. It's part of the Arctic Chalet B&B Resort. Judi and Olaf we run this place have been the most wonderful hosts. They run dog mushing tours from here and have a number of cabins on the property just on the outskirts of town.

The cabin was just big enough for a small bed, table and a oil heater. No running water but it did have electricity and wifi. Cozy until I needed to go to the washroom :P
Along with all the amazing scenery, I've also been enjoying some local foods.
I was invited to the Gwich'in Wellness Camp grand opening where I got a chance to feast on local caribou, wild goose, moose and arctic char.
At a local grocery store, I also found ground musk oxen from Banks Island. Right now it's the only available local meat at the stores so it's become my main meat source. It also happens to be the most affordable meat.
It's not as gamey as I expected it but still very rich and meaty.
The Dempster Highway is closing up for a month so food prices are expected to skyrocket until the ferries open up for the river crossings. I've filled my cupboards and fridge with food. Though I'm not eating as much locally sourced food as I usually do, I am looking forward to growing produce at the community greenhouse, going fishing, trapping and gathering wild foods.

Have a great May!

Sustainable Seafood

2008-03-25T07:32:00.003-07:00

I received this note in my comment box in response to the yummy crab entry last summer. We need to do our part in helping maintain a sustainable seafood industry.

Hello, I am the fisherman that supplies Andrew's (Evening Cove) crabs.
I am a small footprint local harvester and marketer. More and more of us are realizing for seemingly obvious reasons that this is the trend for primary food production. I harvest within 30 km and sell from Nanaimo to Campbell River. Well, DFO without any science, policy or vision is threatening to basically eliminate commercial crabbing from Victoria to Campbell River from March 15- Sept. 15. This is the viable portion of the year; the crab are abundant, the local market is in full swing and the weather is safe for the small boats that can do this viably without a lot of fuel.
I am looking for public support for sustainable seafood harvesting in our communities before it is all gone and we look back at how stupid we were. I have my dock customers and Thriftys Foods as well as the David Suzuki Foundation any many others coming onboard to help. If you like to help me encourage DFO to support responsible seafood harvesting please call Kim at:
(250)618-0128.
Cheers!

Falling in love in Bozeman

2008-03-19T07:00:00.008-07:00

After Devil's Tower, we headed up to Bozeman, Montana and proceed to fall madly in love with this town's land and people.
It's gorgeous valley ringed with great mountains and filled with the nicest people.

It also has some great ice!
This is a gorgeous weep of ice in the Hyalite Canyon, the central hub of ice-climbing in Southern Montana.
Beyond the incredible climbing, this town is so 100 Mile Diet friendly.
A few blocks from our motel was their Community Food Co-op, a delicious treasure!
They not only have a great selection of fresh, local produce, they also had a great hot and cold deli, a bakery and a coffee shop. The prices are comparable, if not lower than grocery store prices.
They proudly advertise the local farms that source their products and the employees are knowledgeable and passionate about food but not at the expense of the enviroment,
Our motel didn't have a fridge or any cooking devices so I picked up a small kettle/hot pot. Every day, we'd make a trip down to the Co-op and pick up our food for that day.

For dinners, I picked up a bunch of local winter veggies, organic kamut salad, some asian roasted chicken and marinated tofu from the deli and bring it all back to the motel for some on the road cooking.
The kettle/hot pot allows me a range of heat from simmer to boil for an extended period of time, making it perfect for soups, steaming veggies, boiling noodles and even eggs. Together, we lived off of $10 a day for groceries, including some really yummy vegan chocolate cake:)

Ta-dah! Dinner a la motel room.

And to top it off, they make a really nice baguette with local, organic flour! Yippee!!

We also discovered this great Mexican restaurant called La Tinga that makes their own corn tortillas, salsas and the best chicken and green salsa taco I have ever had. On our last day there, we went the La Tinga and proceed to pretty much eat through the whole menu.
Here's their breakfast tortilla. This helped fuel those brisk, ice-climbing days.
We loved it all so much that I picked up a dozen tortillas and a couple containers of salsa for the road.
Thanks Bozeman for such a wonderful week! We'll be back soon!

On the road

2008-03-11T07:23:00.012-07:00

For the last couple of weeks I've been in the Rockies feeding my soul.
(Lake Louise, Alberta).

I've been romping on some ice...

Hanging out with the locals...

We started out in Waterton Lakes outside of Lethbridge. There the ice was gorgeous. The village around the lakes was mostly closed for the winter except for a few lodges.

The K ilmorey Lodge was opened and they have some yummy local foods and even sell their own Saskatoon Berry jam that they gather from the park and make right on premises!

We then went north up the Lake Louise on the next leg of our Rockies adventure. Since we were staying at the hostel and the last time I checked, there wasn't much for local farming in the Rockies , I had packed a huge cooler bag of veggies and fruit from home. It's a great way to minimize my food footprint and keep my costs down.
On our way to Lake Louise, I also found out that Calgary has a year-round farmer's market. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to explore and we weren't there on the right day. Oh well, maybe next time.
After Lake Louise, we headed down to Wyoming for Devil's Tower. This climb has been on our and most other climber's list of climbs we most want to do. It's a powerful and beautiful place.
As we traveled through Montana and into Wyoming, all I saw were huge grasslands peppered with cows grazing happily, roaming free and being cows. I even saw the odd herd of buffalo. I couldn't wait to get a taste of the region's meat.
Most of the businesses and campgrounds around Devil's Tower is closed this time of year. Fortunately for us, the folks as Tower View Restaurant and Campgrounds were opened. The new owners, the Cages, just bought the place last September and are planning to expand the campground, RV park and even cabins. They are a few minutes outside the park and were happy to rent us a car camping spot for a few nights. That was a huge help since the nearest winter campground was over 20 miles away. They also have free wifi. I've been working online during this road trip so have internet access has been a determining factor about where we stay. So far we haven't had too much trouble finding at least a library or a coffee shop with wifi. We've even found gas stations and laundromats with it!
Linda, Larry, Patty and Billy Cage are the warmest and nicest folks and made our stay in Devils Tower that much more special.
To top it off, they make a mean buffalo burger!

Do you see those chips? Those were made right on the premises and are the best chips I've ever had.
This is good, honest home-cooking with no frills, bells or whistle, just good food. Linda does all the baking from scratch. We enjoyed homemade muffins and pies and huge breakfasts. They're getting ready for their first season at Devil's Tower and I hope them all the best.
The folks at Tower View were the epitome of great hospitality and we're looking forward to visiting them again.

Hiding out in the mountains

2008-02-28T08:27:00.002-08:00

I've been hiding out in the mountains for these past few weeks. These last number of years, a battle has raged behind the scenes that has prevent me and my beloved from pursuing our true journey. That battle has come to an end finally and we are free to continue our path. The mountains have been calling us and finally we are able to call back.

But on the 100 mile diet front:
- Start planning your gardens for the year. Seedy Sundays/Saturdays are near. Keep an eye open for them in the local papers.
- Prepare your soil for your new plantings.

I received this reminder from Dirk Becker of Compassion Farms regarding the new Farmers Market at the Bowen Road location.!!!!!:

hello again folks

just a friendly reminder!

this fri feb 29th at 7pm is the Bowen Road Farmers Market Inaugural planning meeting

we are:

forming a farmers market society

creating a board of 7 directors

and we are asking for input into the creation of the constitution and for the rules and guidelines of the market

please come early (before 7) to allow time to socialize

those of you who have not indicated you are coming

please let us know now so we bring enough coffee, wine, cheese, etc.

also please send this invitation to anyone else that you would like to see at your market

In October we had a very successful Farmers Showcase that attracted more than 3,000 people! We were able to showcase products from local producers and gauge the public's interest for a Farmers Market in central Nanaimo.

The Mid-Island Co-op is happy to host our new Farmers Market at the Bowen Road location.

The Bowen Road Farmers Market will commence after Mother's Day, on Wednesday May 21rst from 4 - 7pm.

This gives farmers more time since many of them will already be doing two markets in Cedar, Duncan, Qualicum, etc.

It also gives us a few more days for it to be warmer and for there to be more produce.

A group of dedicated people are in the process of creating an official association and we would like to invite you to the inaugural meeting on Friday, February 29th at 7pm to kick off your new market. We want and need your input!

Please let us know either way whether you are able to attend (especially in consideration of refreshments).

Please let us know how many weeks of the market you would like to sign up for.

Please send us your input if you cannot attend.

At the meeting, we will all vote in a board of directors, ratify the constitution and establish market rules.

some of the items we have considered so far :

- market times? 4 to 7 pm

- successful markets generally have 80% farmers and value added, the remainder being 20% artisans (make it, bake it, grow it)

- no dumping (low prices) or "distress sales" (such as having an extra 100 cabbages and selling them too cheaply)

- end of the year surplus monies from fees can go towards a project that supports agriculture, like the purchase of land for community gardens or McSeeds

Fees:

memberships $20 per year

weekly fees: (prepaid)

12 weeks $12 per week

24 weeks $10 per week

drop in:

members $15 non members $20

Date: The inaugural meeting is Friday, February 29th

Time: 7pm

Location: Bowen park (not Beban) in the clubhouse at the end of the bowling green.

To confirm your participation in this meeting, the market, give input or for more information, please respond to this email or call

390- 5199

We look forward to your participation in this inaugural meeting of your farmers market!

Yours in service,

Dirk Becker

I'll be back in a few weeks with stories and pictures and tales of my 100 mile diet on the road.

Cheers,
Jen

R.I.P. Sir Edmund Hillary

2008-01-11T09:22:00.000-08:00

Good night, sweet hero.
You're on belay,
Climb on.

Finding comfort in a winter storm

2008-01-05T18:17:00.000-08:00

The whole west coast is getting a big old wallop of winter, complete with a bit of shake, rattle and rolling up in the Haida Gwaii. So my wonderful DH and I hunkered down and enjoyed a warm, cozy romantic, lazy Saturday.
We started the day with a big plate of Danish pancakes, known otherwise as crepes. My wonderful DH insists that the only way to eat them is rolled up with raspberry jam. Luckily we had some of that in the house. It was even locally made. Yippee!

I spent most of the day knitting up a Healing Shawl for a cousin who's recovering from a car accident and daydreaming about all the projects for this coming year.
For my wonderful DH, I have a pair of Gaston Socks, a Bog Jacket and a Tree of Gondor sweater to do. For myself, I'm brainstorming a few ideas for my Tolkien Yarn project.
I've also had my heart set on knitting a corset. It's been on the back burner for years but I think it's time.
Annie Modesitt's gorgeous knitted corset.

I've sewed and constructed a number of corsets for myself and friends in the past. My fascination with corsets started about 15 years ago when I and a bunch of a guerilla feminist friends took part of an installation that looked at the politicization of the female body. I made a papier-mâché corset using strips of paper that had my rants and raves and general soapboxing about women's bodies. My entry was probably the most tame of all the installations. Well, from a well-meaning, albeit neophytish criticism of fashion, media and society's unrealistic expectations of women and their bodies, I took the corset the other direction. I began celebrating it.
Well, actually, more precisely, I started celebrating women's body of curves and reclaimed the corset as a symbol of a woman's tool to self-definition of her body and her life. You have to remember, this was during the whole Grunge era and everyone including me was dressed like a lumberjack. To peel away all that frumpy, cloaking fabric and to re-introduce myself to my silhouette was quite refreshing.
Corsets don't have to mean constriction and conformity. They can be a tool for a woman (and men) to underline and redefine themselves. They can be a way for a women to say " I want to accentuate all the things that make me who I am." Corsets can be made with paper, flowers, feathers, metal, wood, fabric, leather, latex, bark or anything else you can get your hands on. You tie all that together with my love for historical clothing and you have quite a fun hobby:).
Well, if anything, at least a corset does wonders for your posture.
For a bit more information on corset building, check out this general overview.

*****
Back to dinner...
To help keep us warm during this weekend storm, I decided to make up a lamb curry with some lamb shanks from Heritage Horizon organic farm that I had in the freezer. In fact, most of the lamb is still in the freezer. It's amazing how much meat can come from one small lamb.
(some of our lamb order)

This is one those all day cooking affairs but it's mostly hands-off since most of the cooking time is letting the curry simmer and do it's magic. The recipe and summary of the curry is at end of this entry. Obviously, the curry paste itself can be used with wide range of meats, seafoods and veggies. It's a great sauce to make up and freeze for another time. You can also use the curry sauce, uncooked as a form of meat marinate/rub.
For the curry, I decided to make a curry paste based on a chermoula. Here's my chermoula, one red onion, 1 large bunch of cilantro, a couple of black hot peppers, 2 thumbs of ginger, a head of garlic. All except for the ginger were either from local farms or from my garden.

I then took the handblender to it made it a chunky sort of paste. You can also do this in the food processor.

To this I added my curry powder and threw it all into my wok with some veggie oil. I cooked up until it started taking on some colour and the whole house smelled like Little India.

Then I added about 4 cups of my tomato sauce. You can use chopped tomatoes, either frozen or canned. I used a homemade tomato sauce from my freezer stash that didn't have any seasoning, just veggies (red and golden tomatoes, carrots, mushrooms, red peppers.)

My sauce came out more yellow due to the fact that most of my tomatoes were golden tomatoes from my garden. If you use red tomatoes or canned tomatoes, your sauce will end up red, of course. I tossed the curry sauce into a crockpot and let it simmer on high for about an hour and half. This will develop and bring together all the flavours.
Then I browned some gorgeous lamb shanks in some veggie oil on medium high heat. Be careful not the crowd the meat in the pan or else you'll up steaming it instead of browning it.
Then I dump the shanks into the crockpot and cover them with the curry sauce and let it simmer away for a few hours. The aromas will now start permeating through the walls and will waft through the neighbourhood.
DH considers having to smell this wonderful curry cooking away all day as a form of torture:) All evening, he kept asking when dinner was going to be done, groaning that he was so hungry and it was smelling so good. Ah well, it's about time his Id learns some patience :P

Once the meat is all cooked and tender, I simply pull the meat off the bone and cut it into bitesize chunks. I keep the bones in the curry for it continue releasing it's flavours. Here's the finished product:

It was sooooo good. I don't think we said a single word to each other while eating. It was that good. The best thing....leftovers!

Not so Fast but still Dirty Lamb Curry

Curry Paste:
1 medium red onion
1 large bunch of cilantro
2 thumbs of ginger, peeled and minced
1 head of garlic, peeled and minced
chili peppers (you can use whatever heat bombs. I used 3 small black hot peppers which are about the same heat as 3 thai red chilis for a bit of heat kick)
3-4 tablespoons of curry powder (I used a homemade curry powder but you can use store bought)

3-4 cups of chopped tomatoes (fresh, canned, frozen)
4 lamb shanks
3 tablespoons of veg oil or butter
salt & pepper to taste

1- Chop and combine all the ingredients of the curry paste except for the curry powder. Blend with a hand blender or food processor until it makes a chunky paste. Add curry powder.
2- Heat up a tablespoon of oil over medium heat in a wok or large pan/skillet. Toss the curry paste into the pan and cook for 5-7 minutes or until it takes on a bit of colour and the onions have softened.
3- Add the tomatoes. Stir and bring the sauce to a boil
4- Either continue simmering in the pot on the stove over low heat for an hour or transfer to a crockpot and continue cooking on high for an hour or more.
5- An hour later, heat up 2 tablespoons of oil over high heat in a skillet/frying pan. Add lamb shanks and let them sit and sear for 4 minutes on each side. Don't move the meat around when searing, just leave it alone!
6- When the lamb has been browned on all sides, add to the sauce.
7-Continue cooking until the meat starts falling off the bone, about 2 hours later.
8- Pull meat off the bone and cut into bite size pieces.
9- Serve with chopped cilantro, mint, yogurt and your favorite chutney!

Happy Eating!

Happy 100 Mile New Year

2007-12-30T15:38:00.000-08:00

Hope you all are recovering from the big feast. We certainly ate our fill.
I brought over a cranberry-apple-walnut-hazelnut cake made with island grown fruit, nuts, eggs, milk, butter and flour.

Unlike all the nightmares X'mas family dinners that I hear about, these family feasts are wonderfully soap opera-free. Pretty freaky, eh?

If your still looking for some local bubbly to start off the new year, my in-laws started off their X'mas feast with a bottle of Zanatta's Brut which was quite lovely and festive and all locally grown!
DH's idea of sweeping me off my feet.

So to everybody, have a great new year's. Be careful and party safe. I wish you all a new year filled joy and look forward to sharing my next year of great adventure, great food and great love with you all!

Happy eating!
Jen

Slow cooker medicine

2007-12-18T13:01:00.000-08:00

I've piled up all my vacation time to the end of the year. Daydreams of wonderful winter climbing adventures dancing through my head as I worked, counting down the days until my winter vacation came closer and closer. I poured over climbing guide books and fell asleep with the "Freedom of the Hills".
On the first day of vacation, last Monday, I got sick. Stupid, snot-filled head, coughing up a lung and spleen, achy-breaky, why does the universe hate me sort of sick. Bleh!!
After a hazy week of coughing and body aches, I'm coughing up the last of the residual lung sludge and my wonderful dear husband is now nursing the beginning the of the same stupid cold! ACK!!!!!!!
Hopefully he'll race through this cold faster than I did. He's a veteran of colds and is very experienced in having them. I, on the other hand, am one of those freaks that rarely ever gets sick. In fact, I spent the first two days of my cold in shock, wondering, where the heck did all this mucus come from and why, oh why, is it being stockpiled in my head?

And to add insult to injury, I didn't feel like eating all week! Double ACK!!!! Everything tasted like gamy cardboard and so I've been living off of toast and mandarin oranges.

This morning, I finally felt the beginning twinges of an appetite start to regain strength in me. I made chicken soup. Actually chicken and garlic slow cooker soup. I consider it part aromatherapy, part mother medicine.
Of course, I used local chicken and veggies. In the crock pot went a pair of skinless chicken breasts from the Shady Mile Farm Mart, a couple of Saanich onions, a couple of carrots from Gary Argyle's farm, and from my garden a whole head of garlic and 2 fistfuls of parsley, and a bit of diluted chicken stock. Here's how it's looking so far...

Don't bother peeling the garlic, keep it in the skin. You can remove the papery skin though. The garlic stew and braises into a lovely, sweet aromatic soft pate of heaven that can be squished onto bread when it's done.

Hope you all are doing well as we slip and slide into that holiday season. Remember to get your local turkeys from Shady Mile farm mart and Piper's Meats. For all those that are opening their homes for holiday parties, consider asking your guests to bring non-perishable foods for the Food Bank or gently used outer clothing, socks and toques for the shelters instead of a hostess gift. Or for $60 you can sponsor a local family to receive a monthly Good Food Box of fresh veggies and fruit for 6 months. For more information, contact Crystal Petersen at Nanaimo Foodshare at 250-753-9393.

Take care, be careful , don't drink and drive and watch out for elves!

Happy Holidays!

Jen

100 Mile Diet in the news

2007-12-09T09:01:00.000-08:00

I'm in Victoria with DH for the weekend. It's 8am and snowing so I cuddled up with a cup of coffee and the Times Colonist which is carrying a front page story plus a whole section on the 100 Mile Diet!!! Get this, I'm mentioned as a source of info for the diet!

I learned that B.C. Hothouse veggies are grown in Mexico in the winter!?! YIKES! Again, a reminder that beyond the 'Product of Canada' label is often imported food. You don't need to eat cucumbers 365 days in the year. There's sprouts, there's kale, there's locally grown salad greens, there's jerusalem artichokes and more winter squashes than you can shake a stick at.

Many of the articles look at the challenges that local farmers and 100MD followers face. Though I really am thrilled that the paper is looking at the merits of a 100 mile diet at this time of the year, there's an underlying sense of pessimism. The headline "The Island Diet" is followed with "Buying only locally grown food sounds like a good idea, but it's hard than it looks." Yes, I concur that farmers and 100 MD followers face challenges in this present food system and that there isn't enough food production to feed the island. I don't think that any of the local food advocates expect everybody to switch over to eating only locally grown foods overnight. I certainly don't. It's not reasonable to expect the average person to eat only locally grown foods. But just because you can't do everything, don't do nothing. Do something.

I've always advocated a gradual move to a more locally based diet. Start with the obvious and easiest local food choices. Right now, there's still lots of local kale, chard, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, various winter squash, onions, apples, cranberries for fresh produce. There's local dairy, meat and eggs, as well. Buy what you can locally. Continue to look for more local options. When you know better, do better

Ask your grocer for local options. Do the same at the restaurants. This is an important step. They might not have local option today but if enough people voice themselves, maybe they'll have it next time. Part of being on the 100 MD is being plugged into your food culture and being pro-active. It requires you to take some time, energy and thought into doing your part to help facilitate a sustainable local agriculture that supports both the consumer and the producer. Food is a long-term issue, we have to stop treating it as a short-term option.

Have your orange and eat it too! The 100MD for me isn't about zealously excluding everything that isn't locally grown from my plate. There are many products that can't be locally grown at the moment. Choose options that are going to provide benefits and a livelihood for a farmer elsewhere. Choose direct fair trade for coffee, sugar and chocolate. Perhaps reconsider how much of these items you really need on a regular basis. Some things I buy them as treats and not as a regular part of my core diet. I buy one box of mandarin oranges as part of my holiday treat. I relish the bright, citrus punch of aroma as I peel the thin skin away. I take my time enjoying each sweet and juicy section with a big grin and I let the good memories of the holiday seasons past fill my mind.

This leads me to talking about pleasure. I can talk until the 100 mile diet cows come home about why we should be supporting a local diet. In the end, it's really all about pleasure of good real food and the sastisfaction of having an authentic and deep relationship with the food that I put into my body. Take pleasure in a freshly picked local apple and let it's juices run down your chin!

Thank you the Times Colonist for your look at the Island Diet. I hope this discussion will evolve beyond the debate of whether or not we can do the 100 mile diet here on Vancouver Island and start providing information and meaningful dialogue about a deep-rooted local food system.

For more on 100 Mile Diet strategies, check out my blog entry on "Making 100 Mile Diet Work for You"
Also please check out the Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet Challenge website for more info on where you can get your locally grown food.

Oh yeah, remember to reserve your locally grown turkey for Christmas. Piper's Meats in Nanaimo is taking orders. Here in Victoria is the Village Butcher who brings in a wide selection of locally raised critters. Beyond turkey, there's also other local critters and local produce and drink for your 100 mile diet holiday feast.

Cheers!
Jen

One last pot of soup

2007-12-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

James Barber passed away quietly last week in his home in the Cowichan Valley. He left a pot of soup simmering on the stove. I wonder what sort of soup...

Good night James. Thanks for all the years of keeping it real in the kitchen for all these years.

So it did this all weekend:

Snow! Snow! Snow!!!!! Supposedly that's what it looked like across the whole country. Now it's raining and apparently, it's never going to stop raining.

Ironically all the snow prevent DH and I from getting up to the mountains for a much needed snow play. Oh well, instead we stayed in and drank lots of mulled Merridale cider and hot buttered rum.

For dinner, I cracked open a spaghetti squash from my garden.

It's amazing how much more colour and flavor my garden grown squash had over those pale yellow spaghetti squashes. The flesh was a deep saffron yellow. I toss it with some pesto made with my own basil and garlic and island grown hazelnuts and cheese. Along side the squash, I also roasted up a pan of local sausages to see us through the weekend.
With it I served a homemade plum-rhubarb chutney.

For Sunday's dinner, I took some of leftover sausages, some local turnip, carrot, mushrooms and green cabbage and made a Fast & Dirty soup. I think James would have approved.
You'd think with a weekend at home that I would be whipping up a storm in the kitchen. Normally I would. But instead I spent the time working on some charity knitting. Here's one of the EZ inspired baby jacket that I'm donating as shown by my wonderful DH. It's not quite his size :P
Have a great week!

Jen

100 Mile Peasant Food

2007-11-20T09:09:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-02T10:04:00.000-07:00

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!!!!!

2007-11-01T17:59:00.001-07:00

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.

Happy Waste A Pumpkin Day!

2007-10-31T14:17:00.000-07:00

I love the Halloween for the dressing up and make believe and the all around ghoulishness of it all. However, I hate the fact that folks are buying food for decoration and are only going to add to the landfill tomorrow. The cool pumpkin carving exhibit that came to town last week aside, most jack o' lanterns are a waste of a perfectly good vegetable. So at least, compost your decapitated pumpkin head when you're done.

Call me a Hallowe'em Scrooge but I'd rather that those pumpkins be grown and bought as pie pumpkins or stew pumpkins or casserole pumpkins or ice cream pumpkins (yes, there is such a thing.)
I'm not the only one. Iowa believes that pumpkins that are going to be used as decoration and not as food ought to taxed as such.

Am I the only noticing that Halloween has gotten bit huge with the affluenza bug?
I mean, it's one thing to string up some fake cobweb, paper skeletons and hang a few ghostly bedsheets from the tree. They're now selling robotic zombies, inflatable pumpkins the size of a Goodyear blimp and full-on coffins for the front yard. If you want to go all out, there are ways to green up your Halloween.

You wanna hear something really scary? There's a recall for fake teeth.
Of course, they wait until Hallowe'en to put out the recall for these lead laced teeth that have been sold all year long. Three guesses where these fake Hallowe'en teeth were made.

You wanna see something cool and scary, check out the Meatrix.
It's an awesome bit of animation about corporate factory meat farms.

Happy Hallow's Eve Everyone.

Jen

Farmers Showcase a Success!

2007-10-23T14:52:00.001-07:00

The Farmers Showcase last Saturday has officially been declared an all out, no holds barred success! I was there with my 100 Mile Diet song 'n dance and by the end I was close to voiceless and my feet were giddy with joy and elation!

Hello to everyone that I met and chatted with!

Not even the rain could keep the hoards away as you can tell from these photos. The pics are courtesy of Dirk from Compassion Farms, who also happens to be one of the co-ringleaders of this awesome event. I wasn't able to get away from my table until the last hour or so of the event to take photos.

The public was hungry for local food and information about local food sources. Unlike previous fall events where I would get people telling me that they "can't do a 100 mile diet during the fall and winter because there's nothing to eat here," which is so completely defeated and passive. Instead, folks were asking, 'So where can I get my produce this fall and winter to continue my 100 mile diet." A totally awesome active and constructive approach. Yippee!!

I ran out of information, local food maps and other literature within a few hours and believe me, I was stocked up to the eyeballs. I kept hearing people tell me that they were so happy to have a farmer's market and several asked if this event was going to happen again next week. Unfortunately, no but that just might change in the near future.
To give you an idea how successful it was, Arata, the rock star baker from Flour, Water & Salt sold all 150 loaves of bread in a little over 20 minutes! He wasn't the only one that sold out. Many vendors sold out and more products brought in, only to sell out again! A casual survey showed that most vendors did 3 to 10 times more business that day than at any other farmer's market. A huge sign that Nanaimo needs a REAL farmer's market for the locals.

There's a buzz that a regular weekly farmer's market will be happening next spring. Until then, check out the Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet Challenge website for where you can find locally grown produces and go support local agriculture!

Nanaimo Farmers Showcase

2007-10-19T08:54:00.001-07:00

Just a reminder that Saturday is the 2007 Farmers Showcase in Nanaimo. It's being held at the Co-op parking lot at 2517 Bowen Road from 10am to 4pm. This is the mother of all farmer's markets. There will be over 40 local food vendors, music and face painting for the kids. Come meet the hardworking folks who grow your food.

As a prelude to tomorrow's event, Foodlink Nanaimo is hosting a 'Supporting Local Agriculture' Networking Forum for those concerned and interested in local food issues. It's at the Christ Community Church at 2221 Bowen Road. The event starts at 6:30pm. This is a free event.

I look forward to seeing you all at both events!

Vampire proof your garden

2007-10-15T11:06:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth sent in this comment/question on my BBQ Green Tomato Chutney entry :
Hey, neighbor- Just found you looking for green tomato chutney (I can't face that old file folder of paper recipes!)- yours sounds great. I have a question, though- I have a mess (a gallon?) of small green tomatoes, from bigger-than-cherry-but-not-quite-plum-tomatoes. Can you give me an approximate weight/volume of tomatoes in the recipe? I'm not all about measurements but I'm having a hard time visualizing full-size tomatoes out of this pile I have. Thanks, from Seattle.
My recipe called for 3-4 medium sized tomatoes and that is about 1 1/2 lbs or 750grams. Chutney is one of those of things that are evolved as it's made. You toss the ingredients in and then take a little taste. Toss in a bit more of this, a touch more of that until it suits your palate. I do make big batches of chutney for canning but I often will make small batches for just one or two meals. It makes for a fresher and brighter tasting chutney.

If you still have green tomatoes leftover, you can ripen them indoors. I've just brought all of my tomato plants into my dining room to let them ripen. You can simply take vines/branches and hang them for vine ripened tomatoes . Or you can take the tomato off the vine and put them in a cardboard box in a single layer and cover them with some newspaper and let them ripen somewhere cool.

I hope that helps!
*******

I hope everyone is enjoying a yummy 100 mile diet fall season. I've been delighting in this season's buffet. We've been swooning a sea of fall and winter delights!
For garlic lovers, it's garlic planting season again. I've planted garlic in a wide range of soil conditions and they don't seem to need much work after the initial planting making them a great garden item for beginner green thumbs. It will keep vampires out of your garden though it won't do anything to keep them from showing up at your front door and begging for junk food at the end of this month.
If some gaunt, serpent tongued Qing dynasty official comes hopping down them street, hold your breath, it's a Jiang Shi. Blame it on the monobrowed taoist priest and his bumbling assistants for this ghoulish happening. Fortunately, if you just block the threshold of your doorway, the undead qi sucking beggar can't get inside your house. This is why doorways in traditional chinese houses have ankle busting 6 inch high thresholds.

Anyways, here's a great tutorial for garlic planting from Boundary Garlic Farm.
I got my garlic from Ken at Gabriola Gourmet Garlic Farm at a local farmer's market. If you haven't had a chance to get your garlic yet or are looking for more locally grown goodies, you're in luck!
The 2007 Farmer's Showcase is this coming Saturday (Oct. 20) from 10am to 4pm at the Mid-Island Co-Op on Bowen Road. There will be a wide range of farm products and vendors. I'll also be manning a table and doing my 100 mile diet song n' dance. Foodlink Nanaimo is also hosting a networking forum “Supporting Local Agriculture” on Friday, October 19^th at 6:30 pm at Christ Community Church. For those in the Mid-Island region interested in finding ways to support and sustain a viable local agriculture, this is the place to be!

Countdown to 100 Mile Thanksgiving

2007-10-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

This week, BC Almanac on CBC radio is doing a series on the food we eat. If you've missed them, they're archived on the website.

It's the yummy light at the end of this soggy grey week: Thanksgiving!
For those are still looking for a locally raised turkey, Piper's Meats and the Shady Mile Farm Mart are still taking orders for island grown turkeys. If turkeys aren't your thing, Piper's also has local lamb, rabbit, chicken and beef, as well as turkey roasts.

For your veggies and side dishes, head down to the Nanaimo Farmer's Market on Friday. There'll be everything from fresh cranberries to local winter squash.

For more 100 Mile Thanksgiving idea, check out the 100 Mile Diet Nanaimo site and the 100 Mile Diet.

I'm going to be heading over to Gabriola Island with friends for the Thanksgiving Weekend Studio and Gallery tour.
I had a great time on it last year and it's delightful way to celebrate the creative bounty of our community.

******
It's been a busy week with Harvest Moon festival, Thanksgiving and other harvest events. Here's some highlights:
Last Friday I went to the Cowichan Valley Culinary and Wine festival on behalf of 100 Mile Diet. I set up my usual local produce laden table and information to share with folks.
Here's a photo of everyone setting up before the big night. I didn't have a chance to talk any more photos after this because once they opened up the doors to the public it was non-stop shmoozing for this puppy.
I talked to folks for 5 hours straight! In order to lure folks over, I handed out samples of organic baguette from Flour, Water & Salt smeared with fresh cheese from Hilary's Cheese and my own plum jalapeno jam made with Cherry Point Coastal White Wine.

I also handed our samples of currant tomatoes from my garden.
These were a huge hit! I had chefs and farmers interested in them and I managed to plant the seeds for a local currant tomato crop for next year.

The evening was fabulous and I got to meet many of the local chefs and producers. I am thrilled to report that several restaurants and inns in the region are now on making island grown foods priority on their shopping list. This establishments include Jasmine's, Quamichan Inn, Merridale Cidery, The Secret Garden B&B, Beaver House Fudge, and of course, my favorite, The Equinox Cafe & Cafe.
It was wonderful to meet with so many chefs and restauranteurs who were excited about local foods. Let's hope that enthusiasm finds it's way up the highway and inspires more of Nanaimo's chefs who are up to the challenge of celebrating local foods and reconnecting with their ingredients and the farmers that grow them. When I say 'local', I mean island grown, not mainland hothouse factory farmed grown.

Saturday I wandered down to the Community Garden's Harvest festival.

There they had apple tastings, freshly squeezed apple juice for sale and locally grown yummies for sale. At the tasting table, I found these luscious lovelies:

Aren't those gorgeous?

My weekend ended with lunch at 100 mile diet-friendly Mermaid's Mug with my lovely in-laws who were passing through town on their way to the west cost. No only get to enjoy a hot bowl of delicious, hearty 100 mile chili but Michelle, mistress of Mermaid's Mug, unleashed her inner torch singer and serenaded us. BTW, Mermaid's Mug has restarted their Sunday Night movies (7-9pm). Grab your honey for a secret movie date. The popcorn is free!

******

Thanks to Nanaimo New Bulletin for the front page story on the new meat rules. Though I wish more media attention was paid to it earlier, I'm glad at least the public is being made aware of the absurd and unnecessary meat regulation changes that came in place on Sept. 30. Sept.30 is also the last day of the 2 week Eat BC campaign. Though the Eat BC campaign is a great idea (though a bit short), I have some reservations about it especially after a look at their sponsors. Do you really think Sysco really wants to support local farmers???

Most meat farmers are struggling as it is and though the Liberal government has promised to help , no farmer I've heard from has received any financial support to help them deal with the required upgrades.

I must stress this, no meat or poultry raised on the island has been in question for health problems. No case of mad cow or avian flu has been found here. The size of the island farms do no make them vulnerable to these issues. It is the overcrowded corporate farms that have conditions that make them susceptible to these diseases.

Ironically this comes at the same time as another corporate farm meat recall in the US. This single recall has affected 21.7 million pounds of beef so far. 21.7 million freaking pounds of beef, which is second largest recall of beef. Wasn't Bush tooting his bull horn that his administration has eliminated E. coli O157:H7 from the meat industry? Our neighbouring consumers to the south have even a harder time figuring out if their corporate beef has gone bad because stores gas the beef with carbon monoxide to keep it from turning grey.

That said, I heard from a little birdie that the BC government is willing to give the farmers 6 months to bring their farms up to code. Maybe by then they'll come to their senses. A girl can dream can't she??

Happy Eating!
Jen

Apples, apples, more apples and beets

2007-09-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

If you haven't already reserved your local turkey for Thanksgiving, there's still time. Shady Mile, Piper's Meats and various poultry vendors at farmer's markets are still taking orders. A local bird and fixings is the only way to celebrate a holiday that commemorates the local bounty.
(Local apple and peach crisp)
I was blessed with an generous invitation to join some friends for a weekend excursion to Saltspring Island. With a string of farms to visit and sunshine to soak in, it was a much needed break from this roller coaster schedule.

We visited a number of sheep farms to buy up raw fleece and rovings for our 100 mile fibre projects. I managed to talk them into visiting Apple Luscious Organic farm who are the the hosts of the tastings next week for the Apple Fest.

Harry and Deb were gracious guides and showed us around their orchards and rose gardens with much passion and knowledge. They will be hosting tasting of hundred of apples on their farm on Sept. 30. There's also a number of other events and farms that are participating in their glorious celebration of my favorite fruit!
Here's some photos of our orchard tour.

Harry & Deb of Apple Luscious Organic Farm.

One for the road.

It was so amazing to see such an incredible variety of apples. They're still adding more varieties to their orchard. Apples for baking, apples for eating out of hand, apples for jelly, apples for sauce, there were apples for any and every thinkable use.

I've been eating apples non-stop since getting home Sunday. Along with the apple & peach crisp I made above with apples from the Apple Luscious farm and peaches from the farmer's market, I'm also dehydrating a batch for trail mix.
For breakfast, I had a simple but sublime meal of apples, cantaloupe and Moonstruck's ash ripened camembert. The cantaloupe and cheese were bought the Saltspring Farmer's market.

This is the only cantaloupe I bought all year and man, it's worth the wait. Perfectly ripe and juicy. The flavour was so much more intense than I'm used to and has a great bouquet of fruity, floral yumminess.

Since I had the oven on for the apple crisp, I also threw in a bunch of beets in a pan to roast. Simply wash the beets, cut them into halves or quarters if they're bigger than golf balls. Pop them into pan and cover with some foil. Let them roast at 350F until they're fork tender.

As you can see, I had red and golden beets. Look like jewels ;)

With my roasted beets, I made a borscht with red cabbage and red onions that I bought at the Nanaimo Farmer's Market.
Here's my Fast & Dirty Borscht recipe that I posted last year.

I'm going to eat apples all day and listen to my newly downloaded Ani Difranco album. I've been waiting since 2006 for iTunes to get it since I've made a deal with myself that I would not buy any new CD's due to the amount of material, packaging and transportation that is involved the that. It doesn't make any sense since there're options like iTunes where I can get the same music without all the plastic, wrappings and fuel consumption.
So my $$ iTunes habit is helping save the environment ;)

100 Mile Diet Table for One

2007-09-19T11:37:00.000-07:00

(my Roma tomatoes)
DH has been away working as a kayak jedi on the west coast for the last few weeks. I've been dining solo and relishing the local bounty that marks this glorious season.

Cooking has been kept fast & dirty. Partly because it's just me eating but mostly because I wanted to spend any spare moment I could squeeze out of my schedule to finish my Fire and Ice sweater!
For more photos and knitting jabbering about the final chapter of Fire & Ice , check out my knitting blog.

Back to our normal programming...
Here's a sampling of what I've been enjoying in my feast for one.
It's prime tomato picking time. I've got all my tomato plants squatting in my dining room and makeshift solarium. They're all warm and cozy and ripening up nicely.
My currant tomatoes came up as sweet as candy this year. Great for snacking and salads.

All my tomatoes were either from locally raised seeds or seedlings. Most are heirloom varieties. They're all so flavorful and juicy. It's been so much fun discovering all the nuances in flavor and texture of them.

Open-faced tomato and cheese sandwich made with local organic olive bread from Slow Rise Bakery in Island, local cheese and, of course, my tomatoes.

A few minutes under the broiler and it was comfort food heaven!

Bowl of summer. What I happened to have on hand.

With the summer's bounty and a can of organic black beans, a glass of Cherry Point Coastal white wine and a herbs from the my garden I made a summer veggie chowder

For lunch: Some local organic greens from my produce box, a gorgeously ripe barlett pear, local beet, Hilary's Belle Anne cheese, smoked proscuitto from Nanoose Sausage House.

A little of slicing and dicing and we have a Vancouver Island Chef's Salad. I also added some leftover roasted turkey breast, locally raised, of course. For a dressing, I made a blueberry basil dressing (recipe below)

Last, but not least, dessert. Here's a nectarine and homemade berry jam oat bar.

I popped over the Gabriola Island's farmer's market with my little green cart. It's a good thing I brought the cart because I picked up 10lbs of apples from Berry Point orchard vendor. Good thing I had my green cart. It would have been murder on my back to carry all that home. Berry Point grows a crazy awesome assortment of apples. They're the only ones that I know of that carry both of my favorite baking apples, Belle de Boskoop and Bramely Seedlings. Berry Point apples can sometimes be found at QF stores for a limited time. Their Paula Reds are one of my favorite sweet apples.
With my apple bounty I made a simple, rustic crisp. They're fairly tart but also have quite of bit natural sweetness. For a huge crisp, I only added a couple spoonfuls of honey to heighten the sweetness.

Fast & Dirty Blueberry Basil Dressing
1 part homemade local blueberry (or mixed berry) jam
1 part pesto (I used my own local homemade)
1 part basalmic or red wine vinegar
2 parts EVOO

Mix ingredients well. I just throw everything in a jar, close the lid tightly and shake vigorously.

BTW, Yellow Point Cranberries is having their Happy Turkey Night tonight. They are offering a sampling of unique cranberry dishes and the money is going to raise money for Ladysmith Secondary School. Give them a call to reserve your ticket.

Happy eating!

Making 100 Mile diet work for you

2007-09-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

The week began with another round of food recalls, feature the ever-popular corporate lettuce. There's been a recall of Dole's bagged lettuce salad because of fears of E. coli contamination. You can tell me that you pick up corporate bagged salads at the grocery store because they are more convenient than going to the farmer's market for mixed greens. I don't know, I find bloody diarrhea pretty inconvenient.

There has been a recall of Flying Swallow brand Tender Bamboo Shoots because they contain sulphites which have not listed on the ingredients. This is a serious concern for those that have allergies to sulphites. Quite frankly, I hate canned bamboo shoots. I don't know why anyone would want waterlogged wood chips in their stir fry. Throw in some fresh julienned local turnips, parsnips, fennel or sunchokes if you want something crunchy and sweet.

****
Last week, a Crave reader posted this comment:
" I have been reading your blog for awhile now and I love it. I am also interested in a 100 mile diet, but one thing does bother me. I am curious about your thoughts on this. From reading your posts it sounds as though you do a lot of driving here, there and everywhere to obtain local food. If everyone who currently shops at a large grocery store were to suddenly start driving all over would that not sort of defeat the purpose of a 100 mile diet? Wouldn't it be nice if we could all have access to locally grown food in a central location?"

Colleen, thanks for posting some food for thought. I appreciate that you're concerned with the impact of your consumer habits. I've pondered your comment through the weekend and here's some of my ramblings.
Well, first off, let's take your concern about the amount driving involved with a 100 mile diet for us here and put it on another angle. What would happen if everyone else in the world started shopping at big box stores that brought produce from all over the globe? What would happen if the rest of the planet started consuming our SUV diet?
The reality is that our SUV diet (whatever you want, whenever you want it for as cheap as you can possibly get it) and global corporate food system is not the norm for the rest of the world's population. Most of the world is still eating pretty local. Unfortunately, that is changing. There are pressures to impose global markets onto countries that want to protect their own agricultural industries. Some countries are even forced to take on a flood of cheap American produce under trade deals and as a condition of so-called debt initiatives, despite the fact that these countries are capable of growing these produce themselves. North American diet and the obese bag of health problems that comes with it is being transported all over the world.
There are now a number of recent studies looking at the impact of the SUV diet. Many of the hidden costs of an SUV diet are finally coming to light. There was a recent study done by the Texas Department of Transportation that looked at the impact of transporting goods. One of their findings was that "each heavy goods vehicle (like an 18 wheeler) causes the same amount of wear and tear on roads as 9,600 cars."
Guess who's paying for all that road work.

The 100 mile diet is more than just eating foods that are grown around you. It's about a shift in food culture and mindset. It's about being more mindful and aware of the food that we eat, where it comes from, who grew it, how it was grown and how it gets here. It's about being reconnected with food and appreciating the work and energy that it takes to get it to our plates. It's about not only change in eating but consumer habits. I agree with your concerns. A 100 mile diet that is carried out with SUV diet thinking is going to leave a significant footprint (but still I think smaller than a globally sourced SUV diet.)

Yes, at first glance, it looks like I'm driving from Duncan to Campbell River in order to stock my kitchen. The reality is that my food shopping habits are quite different now that I'm on the 100 mile diet. Here's some things I do to make 100 mile diet shopping work for me and keep my driving to a minimum:

1- Subscribe to a CSA produce box program - Throughout the summer, I pick up my organic produce box from Nanoose Edibles at the Nanaimo Sausage House (3081 Ross Road). While I'm there, I usually pick up my local eggs and cheese. The Nanaimo Sausage House also has a huge basket of Nanoose Edibles produce to sell for those that weren't able to sign up for the program. The produce arrives on Wednesday.
The box is usually all the veggies we need for the week. I will pick up a few odds and ends at the farmer's market if needed.

2- Buy in bulk from local farms - I buy much in bulk, from my berries to meat. In the beginning of the season, I went off a few times to get large batches of strawberries and blueberries from farms in the south end of Nanaimo. I didn't make special trips to just go out for berries. I was either at that end of town anyways or made an afternoon or morning of it with trips also to other farms, the farmer's market and Hazelwood herb farms to pick up other items. Often, I kidnapped a couple of friends to come out with me so they could also get their berry stash. All I needed were a couple of trips and now my freezer is filled with strawberries and blueberries and my pantry is full of wonderful low-sugar fruit jam to last me all until next berry season.
My meats are from a variety of local sources and often bought in bulk for the freezer. I only have one small 5 cubic foot freezer but there's a high rotation of meats in and out throughout the year. Right now, I'm finishing off the last of my beef and pork that I bought up last spring and am waiting for a shipment of local lamb and bison Most of my meat is bought straight from the farmer. It's more affordable to buy in bulk and directly from the farmer. I also bought a couple of whole halibuts and had them cut up into steaks and shoved those into the freezer too.
There are some that are going to balk at the idea of frozen meats. If they're packed properly and in a good freezer they're fine. I find frozen properly raised local meat far superior to fresh factory farmed meat and they also offer cuts and parts that I can't get from the grocery store.
Piper's Meats sells a selection of fresh local meats from beef to rabbits. Farmer's markets are another great source for local meats and eggs and often those farmers are more than happy work out a large order with you

3- Consolidate your food trips - As mentioned above, plan to pick up stuff from a bunch of different farms in an area or swing by when you happen to be in the neighbourhood. For example, if you happen to be in the north end of town, instead of turning to the big box store for produce, turn the other way up Aulds Road and swing by Compassion Farms on Fernmar Road and fill your trunk with greens and winter squashes.
Say you're over at Westwood Lake or Mt. Benson for bike ride or trail run, head down to Westwood Orchard for some great local apples. If it happens to be a Saturday, head down to Gary Argyle's farm at 2403 Maxey Road off of E.Wellington Road. Head back into the city via E. Wellington and instead of going to the big-box store for your meats, swoop over to Piper's Meats on Bowen Road for some local flesh. Maybe just swing by the Shady Mile Farm Mart to pick up some local meats and produce.

4- Form a buying club - This is an extension of the buy in bulk idea. Team up with a couple of friends and buy up a lamb, side of beef, half a pig or shipment of island bison straight from the farmer. Buying local meat in this manner is more affordable and provides you with a freezer filled with a variety of meats. Often the farmers are more than happy to rendevous with you as they make other deliveries to get your order to you. At most it's one trip to the farm and then you and your friends have your flesh for the season, if not the year.
The buying club can evolve into the hub of your food community. I've talked to some who say that's it's like having a team of personal shoppers out there for you. Individual members can pick up enough for everyone else in the club in their trips out the farm. They trade information and recipes, get together for canning sessions, have potlucks and weekly cooking sessions, create a support group and resource bank for each other.

5- Carpool - Shove everyone into the car on Sunday morning and head over to the Cedar Farmer's Market. Offer friends and co-workers who don't have cars a ride. They'll really appreciate it!

6- Don't drive - Walk, bike or roller blade to the Nanaimo Farmer's Market on Friday. I have a green folding cart that I bring with me that saves my back from further damage. This past weekend, I walked down to the ferry to go to Gabriola Island for their farmer's market and fall fair. The market is about a 10 minute walk from the terminal and there were plenty of local farmers selling their produce. It's a great alternative to those who can't make it to the Friday market at Nanaimo's downtown.

7- Grow your own food. Right now it's the beginning of winter veggie garden. We're in the perfect climate for it and there's no bugs or weeds to deal with. My winter veggie garden keeps me pretty happy with beets, winter greens (kale, gai lan, bok choy, spinach, brussel sprouts) and lettuce. I'm also planning to plant another round of garlic. All the seeds and seedlings are from local growers so it's really a 100 mile garden!

There's a listing of local farmers, food vendors, farm markets and farmer's markets on the 100 Mile Diet Nanaimo site.

It comes down to you tinkering and evolving your 100 mile diet consumer habits so it works for you and and the environment. Some things may work better for you than others. Hopefully these ideas will provide a starting point for folks are unsure about how to move towards a more local food-based diet.

Colleen, to answer your final question, there is a farmer's showcase on October 20th. This event is bringing together 50 vendors (almost all of them farmers and food producers) from this area to showcase and sell their local food delights to folks like you. I will also be there on my soapbox ranting and raving to anyone who wants to listen. Hopefully, this won't be a one time event but a catalyst for more local foods venues.

I think as consumers, we just have to get enough of us buying local foods and to pressure our grocery stores to start bringing in more real local (meaning , island grown for us) products. If they don't, we need to stand by our guns and put our money where our mouth is. We need to push grocery stores, restaurants institutions and government towards domestic fair trade with our farmers.

I actually don't want local foods in only one centralized location. I want island grown foods everywhere! I want to see it on all the grocery stores. I want to see more farmer's markets. I would love to see a Nanaimo farmer's market that serves the locals and local farmer's needs, not just for the cruise ship tourists. I want to see island grown foods on restaurant menus and highlighted proudly as such. I want to see island grown foods in our school systems, in hospitals and made available to lower income people. I want to see a thriving local agriculture and food community that is being encouraged and supported by the people in a sincere and mindful manner.

I also want my own herd of alpacas but that's another story...

Have a great week and happy eating!

Weekend feasting calendar

2007-09-14T07:24:00.000-07:00

It's that time again! Vancouver Island's Feast of Fields !
Duncan's Keating Farm is hosting this year's local food extravaganza with 80 restaurants, microbreweries, wineries, cheesemakers and other producers showing off why Vancouver Island is the best place to eat.

Here are a couple other dates to put on your bounty feasting calendar:
Sept 19th is Happy Turkey Day at Yellow Point Cranberries. The event runs from 6pm to 8pm and for $10 you can sample an array of cranberry delights. Give them a call at 250-245-5283 to reserve your ticket.

Today, Nanaimo's Farmer Market is running from 10am to 2pm again down beside the Bastion in downtown Nanaimo.

Can't make it to the market on Friday? On Saturday, why not hop onto the ferry to Gabriola Island farmer's market? No need to bring the car, the market is just a convenient 5 minute walk up the hill from the ferry terminal. The market runs 10 to noon. The ferry leaves five minutes before the hour.

Gary Argyle's farm is also open for farm gate sales on Saturday morning and afternoon. He's at 2403 Maxey Road off of E.Wellington Road.

On Sunday, the Cedar Farmer's Market is running from 10am to 2pm at the Old Crow and Gate Pub in Cedar. Pile a bunch of 100 miler friends into a car and head down there for one of the best little farmer's markets around!

While your in the south end of town, Dudink's Gardens is still offering a range of veggies and fruit from their farm. They're located at 2219 Gomerich Rd and are opened throughout the week.

There's an overwhelming variety of produce available at these farmer's markets. Everything from salad greens to winter squash to local fruit, cheeses and meats.

Have a great weekend!

Jen

100 Mile Diet Nanaimo

High centered on hump day

2007-09-12T13:40:00.000-07:00

For the last couple of weeks, I've been riding on a non-stop wave of summer's bounty and local food events. Now I'm perched on Wednesday, with a dayplanner spilling over with events, appointments and meetings, and I've barely had time to digest last week. There's still a huge load of canning to do and I'm contemplating a Mid-Autumn moon festival 100 mile feast. But all I want to do is sit on my porch and eat my tomatoes. I'm high centered on hump day!

Here are some highlights from this last week:

Last Thursday, I spoke at Duncan's Chamber of Commerce 100 Mile Diet Breakfast, hosted by the Equinox Cafe. Sean and Jessica at the Equinox Cafe have been local farm supporters from the very beginning. Their menu boasts produce, meats, cheeses, wine and other goodies from Cowichan Valley farms. I can't remember much of my talk. It was far too early and the coffee didn't kick in until I got home. I do remember that there was very good local bacon to be had ;)
That night, I had some friends over for dinner. I made a cioppino with local halibut, tomatoes from my garden and veggies from the produce box, and a glassful of Cherry Point's Coastal White. Cioppino is a traditional fish stew. I'll let the Italians, Portuguese and San Fransiscoans fight over who's tradition it is. Fishermen made this stew as their daily meal with their daily catch. It's recipe is written by whatever you happen to have on hand. It's about as easy-peasy as you can get. Saute a bunch of veggies in olive oil, dump in chopped tomatoes, chunks of fish or shellfish, wine/stock/broth, cover and let simmer for 10 minutes. Sprinkle a bunch of herbs from the garden and you've got yourself a meal!
I've had to move my dining room table into the already cramped kitchen. My friends are too polite to say anything about the new eating arrangement.

I've had to relocate the dining table because my dining room area has been turned into a tomato refugee camp.

Friday. Well, something happened on Friday but I can't remember what.

Saturday was filled to the rim. My friend Dave and I headed over to the Errington Farmer's Market to pick up some fleece from a local sheep farmer, Elaine at Weaver's Rose Cottage.

All the fleece, roving and yarns at her stall were all from her own sheep. I picked up a few pounds of washed Romney wool at $8 a pound. What a deal! She also runs natural dyeing workshops. Elaine can be reached at (250) 248-1270 or just pop by the Errington's farmer's market. She's at stall 10.

The market is fabulous. Just what a farmer's market ought to be, a market that serves the community, not a tourist trap filled with trinket stalls . It's tucked in the local park and had wooden covered stalls and it a real friendly vibe. Part social hub, part local market, part community stage, it was a great place to spend a Saturday morning. There was a range of local produce from plums, to melons, greens and squashes. There was local seafood vendor and prepared foods and a few arts and craft stalls but the focus definitely was on local produce.

Afterwards, we headed over to Coombs market in search of more veggies and fruit for canning. They have island produce sold in cases. I also found one of my favorite foods, chantrelles. At $9/lb, I managed to find some wiggle room in my food budget to get a small bagful.
The less you do to chantrelles, the better. They have a mild, woodsy-nutty flavour that begs nothing but a saute in butter.

Here's one of my favorite things to do with these forest treasure: chantrelle and scrambled egg. Saute a bunch of chopped chantrelles in a couple plugs of butter for a few minutes. Add beaten eggs and scramble them up over medium heat. I like them soft and just a breath shy of runny. I topped the mushrooms and eggs with a few thin slices of Hilary's Belle Anne cheese. Steamed green beans rounded off the dish. So simple. So good. For heavens sake, don't skimp on the butter. If you're going to use factory farmed eggs you might as well throw the chantrelles into the trash. Better yet, pass 'em over to me, you obviously don't deserve chantrelles ;P

Saturday afternoon was spent navigating the pockmarked asphalt serpentine otherwise known as the Pacific Rim Highway as I ran off to the west coast to spend some time with DH, who has returned to his job as kayak jedi for the waning days of the season. Beachcombing black bears, burping sea lions, jumping salmon and hubcap sized sea stars made cameo appearances on our romantic-comedy-action adventure weekend.

On Tuesday, I returned to my 100 Mile Diet soapbox with an appearance on CHLY's Changes program. I ranted too much, forgot to mention a bunch of stuff that I had wanted to mention but otherwise, I think I did alright.

The folks at Changes had put a challenge out to all the restaurants to take on the 100 Mile Diet. Victoria boasts a growing list of restaurants that focus on local foods and Cowichan Valley has a 3 or 4 restaurants of the same goal, with one on a 20 mile diet (Yippee!). The last time I walked into one of the Nanaimo's finer restaurant's that boast they are making a local food a priority, I found out that their lamb was coming from Australia :(

Well, I'm proud to say that one Nanaimo establishment has stepped up to the 100 Mile Diet challenge and boy, they're doing it in style!
The Mermaid's Mug on Wesley Street has taken on the challenge. I popped over there yesterday to see how they were doing. They're bringing in local fruits and veggies from just down the road. They're using island meats and cheese. Their coffee is from a local roaster and is direct fair trade (of course). Michelle, the owner, has already squirrelled away a ton of local fruit for smoothies and is looking to can tomatoes to see them through the winter. There's also talk of building her own vegetable garden in the yard behind the restaurant. Music to my ears.

Finally, somebody who isn't just paying lip service! I'm just thrilled that I can finally go out to eat in Nanaimo and still be able to stay on my 100 mile diet.

PSA: Local farm help needed

2007-08-31T22:48:00.000-07:00

Due to worker shortages and the new school term, Nanoose Edibles is in need of volunteers to help with the picking and putting together produce boxes this coming week.

If you're able lend a helping hand on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, please give them a call at (250) 468-2332 or email them at neorg@telus.net.

Thanks and have a great Labour Day weekend everybody!

Cedar Farmer's Market field trip

2007-08-28T13:13:00.000-07:00

I kidnapped a friend and went off to the Cedar Farmer's Market on Sunday morning. The sky had managed to hold off looming clouds at bay for a few hours in the morning and we enjoyed a grand morning of local goodies. I love the Cedar Farmer's Market, largely because it's had what farmer's markets ought to have. Namely, farmers :P
At this time of year, the summer's bounty is spilling over and the market offers the best of the season. From a wide range of local veggies, fruits, meats, cheese and other local products, this 100 mile diet belly is enjoying island eating and living.
Here's some of the highlights of our day at the market.
George and Betty Benson from Cedar Valley Poultry. They're on their way to being certified organic! Their chickens, I mean, not them personally. Could you imagine the hoops and red tape and inspections you'd have to go through to be a certified organic human? More urine tests than the Tour de France!

This is Arata Tanaka, bread baker genius behind Flour, Water, Salt. He's the reason why I don't bake bread during the farmer's market season. He bakes his wonderful artisan bread the way it ought to be, in an outdoor wood fire brick oven at Merridale Cidery in the Cowichan Valley. If you want to get your hands on the best baguette on the island, get there early!

There was a lovely lady seling wild mushrooms including fresh yellow and white chantrelles, fresh lobster mushrooms and a variety of dried mushrooms, all foraged from local secret forest spots.

There's George again (he gets around). This time he's with Dirk Becker from Compassion Farms. Dirk offers an incredible range of fresh produce and rain barrels. He's crazy and passionate, apparently much needed ingredients for making a farmer in this day in age.

Here's some food porn shots of Dirk's produce:

At the market I also met Afton Halloran, a UBC Agriculture student. She's 1 of 2 students from Canada that have been invited to a student's conference in Tokyo. She will be presenting a paper on the 100 mile diet! Way to represent, girl!

The rest of the day was a hodgepodge of errands and events that simply found me. By late afternoon, I had managed to commit myself to whipping up large dinner party that evening. Well, it started out as a BBQ but then the sky was making some nasty threats. With a fridge full of veggies and little else, I wandered a few blocks down to Evening Cove Oysters processing plant at 1360 Stewart. They just opened up a storefront for the public and I figured this would be a great oppurtunity to see what local seaflesh they had.
They offer oysters, clams and crabs. All still in the shell and fresher than anything I've seen anywhere on this island. All their sea critters are harvested from local waters. With constant stream of fresh critters going through their plant, their storefront is always supplied with fresh goods. A neccesary element when looking for seafood.
I picked up a huge crab, which they humanely killed and cleaned for me. Within an couple of hours, it was on the table in the form of Stir-fried Crab in Black Bean Sauce.
So good. Easy peasy too!

I also made up a new batch of curry. Here it is being toasted, before grinding.

I used the curry with a mix of vegetables I got from the farmer's market, my garden and my Nanoose Edibles produce box.

Dig in everybody!

Happy Eating!
Jen

Seafood & Salad Week -Updated

2007-08-24T14:45:00.000-07:00

Holy golden plums Batman! It's Friday again!

All of a sudden I had an overstuffed social calendar. Speaking of overstuffed, look what I did to a salmon last weekend:

I picked up 4 lb salmon from the local fish store. Wild, local salmon, of course. Pretty much any type of salmon works well for this dish. I cleaned and plopped it onto a bed of thinly sliced onions and lemons. Other bedding can include dill, fennel and/or fennel fronds.

I stuffed its cavity with herbs (oregano, basil, thyme, parsley, lemon verbana) from my garden. Tarragon, sage, rosemary are other herbs that can be stuffed into the salmon belly too. Thinly sliced onions and lemons were also packed into there.

With a sharp knife, I sliced 3 slashes into the side and stuffed the cuts with sliced garlic from my garden, and more herbs.
A few pinches of salt and pepper also went into the cavity and slashes.

I covered the whole pan with tin foil and threw it into a 400F oven for 40 minutes and out came this:

We had a few friends over that evening and we barely made a dent into the salmon. We've been slowly picking away at it all week long. It's been great in salads, with quick stir fries, or simply topping a piece of baguette and a couple slices of cucumber.
The following night, we continued our seafood theme and had ourselves some Saltspring Island mussels in white wine sauce:

This is one of my favorite seafood dishes. It's also one of the easiest dishes to make. I can have it ready on the table in under 15 minutes.

Here's my Fast & Dirty Mussels in White Wine Sauce recipe:
2 lbs local fresh mussels (really, don't even bother with with frozen imports)
Olive oil
1 small onion or 2 shallots - diced
2 cloves of garlic minced
1/4 teaspoon sambal oelek or similar hot sauce
1 cup good white wine (I used Cherry Point's Ortega)

Options: Other veggies like brocolli, corn, green beans, carrots, potatoes. I usually just dump in leftover already cooked veggies. This time I threw in some corn, potatoes, green beans and fresh tomatoes that I had from the previous night's dinner. If you're using raw veggies, blanch them first if needed. There is only a short cooking time for this dish.

1- Clean and debeard the mussels. Pick out any mussels that won't close tightly.
2- In a big wide bottom pot, heat up a couple of glugs of olive oil over medium high heat.
3- Saute the onions and garlic until the onions are just translucent. Don't let the garlic brown.
4- Toss in the sambal oelek
5-Toss in the mussels and white wine sauce. Close the lid.
6- Let the mussels cook for 7-8 minutes or until they've opened.
7- If you're using leftover veggies, add them at the 5 minute mark so they'll have a chance to heat up.
8- Discard any mussels that haven't opened up.
9- Enjoy!

If you think they cook up fast, they get eaten almost as fast too!
These mussels shells get cleaned and tossed into the garden. They work partly as a mulch and ground cover. Over time, they also break down and feed the soil.

Then the following night, our friends Pete and Nat came prancing into town and we all headed out to the Longwood Pub for burgers and beer.
Longwood runs it's own brewery. They have wide selection of beers from light lagers to stouts. I found the stouts a bit too sweet for my taste but the IPA was a winner.
Also, for 100 mile diet minded eaters, according to the menu, the Longwood burger uses Vancouver Island beef. I didn't ask if anything else was 100 mile diet worthy. I was too busy drinking beer :P

The next night, we drove out to Port Alberni for Nat's going away potluck party. Little Miss Superstar is off to get work on her Masters degree in Superstarness in Sweden. I miss her already :(
It was grand to see all our old Port Alberni friends again.

For the potluck, I made a grilled veggie pasta salad. It's nothing more than a bunch of local veggies grilled on the BBQ tossed with some pasta and tossed in a lemon pesto dressing.

When I say lemon pesto dressing, I mean simply 2 parts pesto and 1 part freshly squeezed lemon juice mixed well. I used homemade pesto (recipe at bottom of entry) made with basil from my garden.

I used zucchinis, mushrooms, peppers, onions, tomatoes and garlic all from either with weekly CSA produce box, farmers market or from my own garden.

For Nat the Superstar, I made a Chocolate Cake with Blueberry Filling made with locally milled flour, local eggs, butter and blueberries.

The going away potluck was hosted by the fabulous friends, Chris and Shar, at the Fat Salmon Backpackers hostel in Port Alberni.

Then Wednesday, my wonderful in-laws came by for an overnight visit. Armed with a bagful of goodies from True Grain bakery and Hilary's cheese shop, the proceeded to completely spoil us rotten by taking DH and I out for dinner at The Wesley Street Cafe.
My in-laws and I enjoyed some lovely local halibut that was prepared perfectly and DH is still swooning over their duck confit perogies which came with his free ranged chicken breast. They do make an effort to bring in local veggies and other items. However, I was a tad disappointed to hear that their lamb is from Australia. Oh, pooh!

Oh a brighter 100 Mile Diet note, I just got an email from the folks at Mermaid's Mug Cafe, a very cool coffee lounge, just down the street from Wesley Street cafe in the Old City Quarter. They've embarked on a 100 mile diet journey and also showcase lots of local musical talent!

Today, I managed to finish the last of the roasted salmon. We had it for lunch as part of a salad roll.
I love salad rolls. They are the perfect way to enjoy fresh greens and they're a great way to use up leftover chicken, pork, fish, prawns, shrimp or other seafood. I don't bother with the noodles, I just use more salad! With a big bag of ready-to-go organic salad greens in our produce box each week, we have plenty of salad.

I serve them with a homemade peanut dipping sauce which is nothing more than a tablespoon of peanut butter and a tablespoon of "Thai it up" sauce (recipe at middle of entry).

So, now I'm going to chill out with a glass of iced mint tea and finish up my socks. Have a great weekend everybody!
ETA: The socks are finished. Check out my the back story and the finished project on my knitting blog.

Cheers!
Jen

What a sick joke!

2007-08-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

You're kidding right? I spent all week, all sunny hot summery week cooped up in my tiny, little living room wonky and puke-drunk from the stomach flu. I spent all week thinking about how I can't wait to get back outside and play in the garden, play on the water, play in the mountains, play anywhere but inside this tiny, little living room. Finally, this morning I wake up feeling pretty swell with a spring in my step and...it rains?!?!?!

Not just rain, but thunder and lightning too? Are you freaking kidding me?

Fine! Then I'll just stay home like a good, little goddess, eat fresh local figs and chocolate and finish knitting up my socks :P

Wonky belly and sock fever

2007-08-15T10:51:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been an very unpredictable summer, to say the least. The weather has been flippant, to say the least. Work has been a deluge of out of the blue deadlines and last minute project changes. My top secret superhero work have been steady all summer long. We've also been running up and down the island and across the water for family stuff from both side of the family and to see friends from Japan.
Wouldn't you know it, just when the weather finally starts looking like summer, I got sick over the weekend. Not just 'meh' sick but puking my guts out for a whole ferry ride stomach flu sick. The fact that the ferries were running late didn't help either. There was a frightening moment when the packed waiting room was queuing up to board the ferry and my wonky belly my I had to decide whether I ought to get in the front of the line and risk puking while waiting in line so as to ensure a seat by the washroom or to stay in the waiting room washroom, hovering over the toilet and wait for all the other passengers to file in before boarding and hope that there was a seat by the washroom. The ferry ride was a blur of stomach flu bleariness. I managed to crawl home by midnight with my throat bruised from dry heaving and flop my queasy body into my bed.
I'm not very good at being sick. I can't stand just sitting on the couch all day waiting to get better. With the stomach flu, there is no other option. I could barely sit up on Monday without my head and belly doing backflips. Yesterday, I managed to get some ginger ale and a few water crackers into me. Today, the backflipping belly has quieted down to a wonky belly but a killer headache has moved in. It feels like someone has plunged an ice axe into my left frontal lobe.

Needless to say, I don't really have an appetite. In fact, I still get a bit queasy watching food commercials, especially fast food commercials. But for the rest of you who still have a healthy appetite, eat up! The summer bounty is rolling in. I hear that blackberries are in full glory out there!

DH has been a perfect darling, bringing me ginger ale, making sympathetic soothing sounds whenever I start whining about my wonky belly and migraine crushed head and making sure that I'm comfortable. I guess I'd better get working on his next sock project.

He finally took the handknit socks I made for him for a test hike. He loves them and can't stop raving about them. He's been asking for a pair of mountaineering socks like the ones that the old school alpinists use to wear. So I figured since the LYS was having a sale, I'd go pick up a couple balls of yarn in manly black and light grey and do up what I figured would be a relatively simple sock for a second pair. When I returned home, he gleefully brought out an old school mountaineering book and point to a picture and said, "These. These are the socks I want! I want Gaston socks"

Here is the picture he showed me:

A close up of the 'Gaston Socks':

My man definitely believes in the adage : Go big or go home :)
So after a spell of me asking, "These?!? You want me to knit you these? Are you sure? You will wear these if I knit them for you? Are you certain? Really? You want these? These are what you've been wanting all this time?"
Obviously, I needed more yarn than I had bought. I returned to the LYS with the book in hand to give the ladies at the yarn store a giggle or two. Believe me, when they say that picture, they had a few giggles at my expense. Oh well, I'm just thrilled that he wants something more exciting than just another ribbed sock. Now I've just gotta draw up that pattern...

Ok. That's it for now. My head is getting woozy again. Hope everyone else is doing better than I am out there. Hope to be back in the swing of things next week.

Take care,
Jen

BBQ Green Tomato Chutney

2007-07-30T08:03:00.000-07:00

In my produce box this week, I received a few green tomatoes. There's tons you can do with green tomatoes. There's green tomato pie, fritters, pickles, relish, baked and of course, fried green tomatoes. I've even made green tomato biscotto, green tomato jam-filled cookies and green tomato crumble last year. One of my favorite is green tomato chutney.

You want to pick mature green tomatoes, not rock hard dark green ones. The mature ones are paler and just on the verge of ripening. I usually just pick some from my grow-op of tomato plants.
The front porch lined with tomato plants.

The back porch filled with tomato plants. What can I say? I love tomatoes!

Mature green tomatoes. Just about to start ripening.

I decided to make a BBQ green tomato chutney. Yep. You heard me. BBQ.

I know it sounds a bit loopy but there is method to my madness.
Firstly, it keeps my time in a stuffy, hot kitchen to a minimum. Secondly, the ingredients will take on a deeper and intense flavor thanks to the grilling. Thirdly, I was firing up the BBQ anyways to make a big batch of locally raised and made sausages. Last, but not least, a BBQ green tomato chutney would go perfectly with BBQ sausages.

I made enough to last a few weeks in the fridge. You could can this chutney but that would mean having to get your kitchen all hot and sweaty with the canning process.

The basic chutney components are veggies and/or fruit, vinegar, spices, sweetener. For the BBQ green tomato chutney, I've grilled all the vegetables before adding it to the rest of the ingredients. You could make a regular chutney and just throw all the raw veggies in with the chutney mixture and cook it down until the veggies are soften.

All the veggies, fruit, honey, even apple cider vinegar were all island grown!

I used golden plums that I picked up at the Cedar Farmer's Market a few weeks back. You could use any sort of plum or soft fruit like peaches or figs. Or you could use dried fruit. Just soak them in some hot water before adding to the rest of the chutney.

Here my Fast & Dirty BBQ Green Tomato Chutney recipe:

3-4 medium sized green tomatoes
2 small yellow onions
3 sweet peppers
4-5 golden plums

1 clove of garlic - minced
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 heaping tablespoon curry powder (whatever you have on hand or your own mixture)
A healthy pinch of each: salt, black pepper, chipolte chili powder, ancho chili powder, cayenne pepper (or whatever you happen to have on hand to give it a fiery kick)
1/3 cup honey (or brown or cane sugar)

Mix the curry, salt, pepper and chilli powders together.

Slice the tomatoes into 1cm thick slices.
Quarter the onions. Leave on the top on so that the quartered onions stay intact. Sprinkle both with the spice mixture.
Core peppers and cut them into 3-4 chunks.
Fire up the BBQ to medium high heat and lay the vegetables in a single layer on the grill. You want to char the pepper skins so have those skin side down.
Grill the tomatoes and onions for 2-3 minutes on each side or until starting to soften.
Grill the peppers until the skin is blackened.
Set all the the veggies aside to cool.

While veggies cool, mix all the other ingredients in a medium sized pot.
Bring to a boil and then simmer for 5 minutes.
While the mixture simmers, chop up the tomatoes into 1 cm chunks, chop of the top ends of the onions and chop that into 1 cm chunks.
Remove the blackened skin off the pepper and chop into 1 cm chunks.
Remove the plum pits and chop into quarters.
Dump veggies and plums into the chutney mixture and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Voila!
Have a yummy week everybody!

Jen

Enjoy the summer bounty and take the 100 Mile Diet Challenge!

Smoking Tuna

2007-07-24T13:14:00.000-07:00

OUCH! What in the world is that blazing, sphere of fire in the sky?

FYI, you shouldn't look directly at that floating inferno, especially after the eons (well that's what it feels like) of grey, damp weather we've been having. Give you corneas a chance to readjust and those nifty darkening devices are also a good idea. You know, sunglasses. I'm sure you have a pair somewhere in the attic.

Over the weekend, my partner in crime and I ran away to the Saltspring Natural Fibre Festival. What a overwhelming experience! For photos and ramblings about that and my latest knitted creation, check out my knitting blog.
The fiber festival was just a hop, skip and jump from Saltspring's Farmer's Market. I love how the market has one arm of vendors for mainly artisans and such and another arm for mainly foodstuff. The market was already bustling when we showed up at around 9am. We found everything from fresh produce to cheese to fish to breads to various preserves and other yummy treats. It made me swoon!
I picked up a few cheeses from the Moonstruck Organic cheese stand, some local tuna sashimi and smoked tuna that was caught off the west coast and bag of baked goodies for nibbling throughout the day.
I was so tempted to pick up a braid of garlic. They're so pretty.

The following day, I popped over to the Cedar Farmer's Market to pick up some odds and ends and to basically because it's my favorite local farmer's market :)

Every week, there are more stalls and a more variety of fruits and vegetables. My produce box from Nanoose Edibles is definitely feeding us well but we go through pretty quickly. Especially since we're huge salad freaks during the summer.
BTW, for winter veggie gardeners, the Community Gardens has a stall at the Cedar and the Nanaimo farmer's market. They're selling a wide range of winter veggie seedlings. I know, summer has barely made an appearance and the last thing you want to do is think about winter but it's worth the effort.

Here's what I picked up at the market:

The rest of the day was a blur. That night when my tummy started growling and DH looked like he was about the pass out from hunger, I grabbed some leftover rice and vegetables and made a quick fried rice. Basic peasant food. Then I cranked up a notch with some yummy smoked tuna that I picked up from the Saltspring market.

The tuna was rich and intensely flavoured. The flesh was so moist and meaty. Definitely something the enjoy in small amounts.
I topped off the veggie fried rice with a couple slices of smoked tuna and called it dinner. The tuna warmed up just enough over the hot rice and practically melted in our mouths.

DH swooning over his dinner.

Happy Eating!

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Survey for another Nanaimo Farmer's Market

2007-07-23T13:51:00.000-07:00

I ran into Dirk Becker of Compassion Farms at the Cedar Farmer's Market and he, along with a group of other farmers, are considering starting a mid-week farmer's market in Nanaimo next spring. He passed on this little survey and feedback sheet for any farmers or local food folk that would be interested. I was thrilled to hear this and I don't think I'm the only one that would appreciate a real farmer's market that would run at a time more convenient for locals who don't have time to run down the downtown farmer's market on Friday morning.

You can send you feedback to Dirk at compassion@telus.net. BTW, Dirk and Compassion Farms is right outside of North Nanaimo on 7560 Fernmar Road, Lantzville.

Here's his email:

Hi Folks

a group of us farmers and supporters are wanting feedback from local farmers concerning 2 things:

1. a farmers market at the bowen rd co-op in central Nanaimo (starting next spring)

possibly a week night so as not to conflict with other farmers markets

especially since many of us already do two different farmers markets!

2. a once a year event showcasing local farmers and their products to make people aware of the alternatives

this could be a mid Saturday event when people are out shopping anyway

end of season

harvest time

(last year at that time i still had 2000 of my 3000lbs of squash to sell etc).

and after the last farmers market

which could also include musicians, 100 mile diet info and many other things to get a big turnout to make it worthwhile for us farmers!

please give us your feedback soon

as we will also be bring this forward to the board of the Mid Island Co-op for support in principle to start,

which naturally can lead to several types of support such as

advertising in the news letter

support from the 24000 member-owners

use of on site bathrooms water and electricity etc.

yours in service

Dirk Becker

Compassion Farm

Deep Dish Blueberry Pie

2007-07-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

I've been busy with my top-secret superhero missions and life has also tossed me a few squirrely balls to boot. And when I'm not dealing with all that, I'm running away from to feed my soul with a bit of this:

Or else I'm over here feeding my soul:

The 'Snout' at Arrowsmith.

Doing silly things like this:

That's me!.

Despite the summer mayhem and general chaos, along with my mini-escapes to feed my soul, I've still managed to keep on my 100 Mile Diet journey. I'm pretty much relying on cooking up a big batch of meat and veggies and mixing and matching those with salad greens to see me through several days. Having a big tupperware of boiled Vancouver Island new potatoes, a couple of loafs of bread from Flour, Water, Salt bakery and a menagerie of pickled vegetables that I canned from last year helps round off any meal.
Our latest BBQ dinner party involved a couple of gorgeous locally raised steaks from Piper's. The meat was marinated and then thrown onto the BBQ with some of the Asian BBQ sauce (nope, still not tired of that one yet) and I added a bunch of veggies from my weekly organic produce box and the farmer's market.

The steak that fed us for 3 days ;)

I sliced the steak thinly and let everyone do what they wanted with it. Some folks made themselves a big salad with the fresh greens, some roasted veggies and a few slices of meat.

I stacked meat and veggies onto a slice of baguette from Flour, Water, Salt, for jaw stretching open-faced sandwich.

The leftover meat was carried over onto other dishes including a Fast and Dirty Beef and Broccoli:
Talk about easy peasy. Since the meat was already cooked, all I had to do was stirfry up some garlic and broccoli from my produce box and throw in some leftover roasted peppers and the meat. A few glugs of soy sauce and dollop of Asian BBQ sauce and dinner was ready in less than 10 minutes.

For one of my lunches, I took some leftover potatoes, roasted veggies, some pickled beets, beet greens, fava beans and made a nice little meal. A splash of balsamic vinegar was all I used to dress it.

Of course, this is also blueberry season and one of my favorite ways to enjoy blueberries is in a fresh blueberry pie. Dudinks Gardens, Blue Harvest farms and other farms have yummy local berries for U-pick or farm gate sales. Please support your local farms! They're having a rough year with the crazy weather and the even crazier government bureaucracy. Here's a list of local farms and farmers markets.

I make a 'deep dish' berry pie because it's all about the berry filling as far as I'm concerned. I use a 9-inch springform pan (the sort you use for cheesecakes) and a filling base that uses nothing more than berries, sugar, a bit of cornstarch and lemon juice. It's worlds better than that powdered crap in the pouch. It's an super no-fuss pie to make and it showcases the fresh goodness of blueberries. If you're not in the mood to make a pie, swing by Grandma's Country Pies on 3018 Ross Road (beside Nanaimo Sausage House).

I don't add any extra sugar to my graham cracker crust since I find that the graham crackers are sweet enough on their own. The cinnamon and ginger help bring out some sweetness too. I also keep the sugar amount pretty low for the filling base since I'd rather enjoy the natural sweetness of the blueberry.

Here's my Fast & Dirty Deep Dish Blueberry Pie:

Crust:
3 cups graham cracker crumbs
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (optional)

Combine ingredients and press firmly and evenly into the base and sides of a 9 or 10 inch springform pan. I press the crumb mixture a good couple inches up the wall of the pan so you have nice deep crust.

Bake in a preheated 350F oven for 15-20 minutes or until the edges are starting the brown.

Let cool on rack while you prepare the filling.

Filling
8 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup sugar
3 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 3 tablespoons of water = slurry
juice of one lemon

Take 1 1/2 cups blueberries, water, sugar and bring to a boil in a large pot, lower the heat and let simmer for a few minutes until the berries are cooked down. You want to use a pot big enough so you can later dump in the rest of the blueberries and have room to mix it. It will save you from dirtying another bowl. I mean, what would you rather do? Eat blueberry pie or do dishes??

Take filling base off the heat and add in the cornstarch slurry. Mix well.

Return the pot to the medium high heat and bring back up to a boil. Stir continuously until the mixture thickens. You want something as thick as ectoplasmic goo but not so thick that your spoon will stand up in it.

Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice.

Add in the rest of the blueberries and fold the base and berries together until the berries are well coated.

Dump filling into the cooked pie shell. Let it cool on rack for 15 minutes and then into the fridge for at least an hour for the filling to finish setting.
Pace around the house, sneak a few blueberries off the top of the pie. Re-arrange the berries to hide the berries that you stole off the pie. Impatiently pace around the house some more.

One good way to make the time go faster is to wander over to the store and get some vanilla ice cream to go with your pie ;)

I'm off to the Saltspring Island Natural Fibre Fest this weekend with my tribe of weaver, spinner and knitters. Have a great weekend. Go visit and farmer's market or a farm. For those that are thinking about putting together a winter veggie garden, the Community Gardens is holding a winter plant sale at 271 Pine Street on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 2pm.

Happy Eating!

Jen

Pickled shoots & a not so secret sauce

2007-07-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

This past week's produce box brought another bag of garlic shoots to me. Since I was still enjoying the ones from my garden and from last week's produce box, I decided to pickle this batch. Since I was going to eat them within a few weeks, I made a refrigerator pickle version to save myself the sweaty hassle of canning a couple of jars. If you're going to store them at room temperature for a while, you may want to can them. Otherwise, store them in the fridge and eat them up soon!

Here's my Fast & Dirty Garlic Shoot Pickle recipe:
Garlic shoots - well washed and cut to fit into jars
General pickling liquid:
1 cup vinegar - at lease 5% acid. I used a locally grown apple cider vinegar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
*spices- whatever your imagination or pantry has to offer.

Mix together pickling liquid and bring to a boil and then down to a simmer for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, arrange shoots in clean mason jars. It's a bit of a game of Tetris but you can fit quite a few shoots in a mason jar.
Pour liquid into jars to cover the shoots. Cover with lid and let stand at room temperature until cooled a bit. Move to refrigerator.
Let it marinate for at least a week before cracking open.

*For spices I used a mix of coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds and szechuan peppercorns in one. For the other I threw in some dill seeds and red pepper flakes. You can add the seeds straight into the liquid and let it cook up with the vinegar or simply pop them into the jar with the shoots. It's up to you.

I've been busy gorging on this summer weather. In the last few weeks, I managed to run away for a paddle in the Discovery Islands off of Victoria and most recently, a nice afternoon of rompy waves in the Winchelsea Island off of Lantzville with a couple of good friends.

With the hot weather, I do my best to spend as little time cooped up in my kitchen. I'd rather 'assemble' dinner than cook it, especially since my kitchen gets blistering hot by late afternoon. Usually I don't start thinking about dinner until it gets cooler and darker. By that time, it's after 9pm and all I want to do is put my feet up or do some spinning or knitting. But I still want good, local eats!

My usual hot weather cooking MO is to cook up a batch of meat and veggies, usually on the BBQ, to see us through the week. I also make up a couple of different dressings that can also do double duty as a marinade or sauce. From there I simply mix and match salads fixings and top it with a bit of meat. Since it's still new potato season, I usually boil up or bbq up a huge batch of potatoes. A loaf or two of breads from one of the local artisan bakers and we're set!

I've had a couple 100 mile diet BBQ dinners these past few week. Besides local meat, there are plenty of local vegetables and even fruit that find their way onto the grill. I have one of those BBQ pizza pans that make grilling vegetables a breeze and save me the hassle of threading them onto skewers. They don't need anything more than a drizzle of oil before being popped onto the pan and over a medium heat. Make sure they're arranged in a single layer or else they won't cook evening. If you want to get fancy, marinate them in a vinaigrette for 20 minutes before cooking or sprinkle on a spice rub.

For my meats, I've concocted a Fast and Dirty BBQ sauce that is reminiscent of chinese BBQ pork and duck. A sweet, soy sauce based recipe that can be used as a BBQ sauce, a marinate or stir dry sauce. It's a nice alternative to pre-made bottle sauces that have ingredients that I can't pronounce. Though, it is still made up of other jarred and bottle ingredients, at least I can pronounce them. I can even spell some of them ;)

For the sweet and spicy base of the sauce, I use homemade red pepper jelly that I made last year with locally grown hot peppers and locally grown apple cider vinegar. It's easy to make and it's a great condiment to have on hand. Or you can pick one up from Golden Maples Farm , who make a huge range of awesome jellies. They can be found at the farmer's markets and various good events. They use their own locally grown produce to make their tasty condiments.

BTW, I find that sometimes the jelly will crystalize but a quick trip through the nukebox fixed that.

Here's my Fast & Dirty Chinese BBQ sauce
2/3 cup red pepper jelly
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 thumb of ginger grated
1 teaspoon sesame seed oil

Mix thoroughly and use as needed.

So far I've used it on chicken in two ways:
Roasted chicken (from Cedar Valley Poultry). I roasted the chicken with a couple spoonfuls of the sauce in the cavity. About 20 minutes before it's done, I brushed the sauce on liberally all over the chicken. I brushed on a second coat once the chicken was done. I had some sauce on the side. It was a zingy version of traditional chinese bbq chicken.

BBQ chicken strips: I marinated a bunch of thinly sliced chicken breasts for 20 minutes then grilled them. I brushed some more sauce on once the chicken was done and served some sauce on the side.

At my last BBQ dinner, I marinated a locally raised flank steak in some of the sauce and then grilled it. Again, I waited until the steak was done before brushing on more sauce:
Chinese bbq steak with locally grown vegetables.

The flank steak was served along with more roasted local veggies, some from my produce box and some from my garden and a huge link of sausage from the Nanaimo Sausage House. It was plenty to feed my dinner guests and the usual unannounced dinner guests (it's hard to not attract hungry bellies when the wind is carrying the smell of yummy food all the way down the street I guess). I still managed to hold onto some leftover meat, greens, blanched snap peas and made a nice salad the next day for lunch. I made a vinaigrette with one part bbq sauce and 1 part rice vinegar.
That dinner ended with a luscious fresh strawberry pie from Grandma's Country Pies, a gem of a pie shop right beside the Nanaimo Sausage House. The strawberries were from Dudink's Gardens. A sweet end to a great 100 mile diet meal!

Last night's meal was leftovers from the flank steak above, with sugar peas and garlic shoots from the garden stir fried with Chinese BBQ sauce and some shrimp noodles. Done in under 10 minutes!

Have a tasty week & happy eating everyone!

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Culinary Christmas

2007-06-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

DH and I finally got to pick up our first Nanoose Edible's produce box yesterday after completing a parade of meetings, errands and work. Our pick-up location was the fabulous Nanaimo Sausage House. They make a wide range of dried and smoked meat products right there on the premises and they also sell local cheeses and eggs. There's also an honest-to-goodness made-from-scratch pie shop adjacent to them! It's a dangerous place for DH and I to go to ;)

With a bag of various sausages and proscuitto and a boxful of organic goodies, we wound down our day and headed back home.

This is what we got in our produce box:

I don't know that they managed to fit all of that into the box!
As I pulled out each of the items, my head spun with all the wonderful things I could do with them.

My evening got eaten up with gardening. I did some weeding and general refereeing between the crops. There is a lack of order in my kitchen garden which is the way I like it but sometimes the plants do get a bit unruly and you have to send them back to their corner for a 'Time Out'. After that threw down a bunch of straw for mulch and repotted some of my herbs that I picked up from Hazelwood Herb Farm. Next thing you know, my belly is rumbling.

With the skies painted in an ambivalent grey, I fired up the BBQ and prepared a mid-week First Produce Box of the Year feast. I boiled up a couple cups of organic whole grain spelt from the Peace River for our starch. For a salad, I chopped up some of the cucumber and threw on some tomatoes I got from the Cedar Farmer's Market. The dressing is nothing more than a couple glugs of olive oil, a glug of red wine vinegar, a handful of finely minced herbs from my garden (mint, parsley, oregano and basil) and a couple of moroccan olives. Salt and pepper to taste.
As the salad marinated in it's herb dressing, I threw a selection of sausages onto the BBQ. I sliced up some of the fennel into 1/4 inch slices and quartered and deseeded the bell peppers. I brushed some olive oil onto them, sprinkled a pinch of salt and freshly ground pepper and threw them onto the BBQ. I grilled everything up over med-high heat.
I made sure that the pepper laid skin side down so I could get that wonderful charring of the skin.

The fennel I grilled for about 3-4 minutes on each side until they start getting tender. I love grilled fennel. It's sweetness is brought out and it retains a bit of it's crunch.

I saved the green fennel stalk & fronds for chicken stock. The wispy fronds are also great stuffed into the cavity of a chicken or fish that's being roasted whole. It imparts a sweet, slightly anise aroma and flavour.
Fennel can be sauteed, braised, blanched, stir-fried or simply raw. It's great in a stew. One of my favorite stews is a pork butt, fennel bulb and butternut squash stew. All the ingredient get thrown into the crockpot with a cup of liquid (crush tomato, chicken stock, white wine, whatever you have on hand) and just let it do its crockpot magic.

It's texture is very much like a large celery with a crisp, clean anise flavour. It's outer leaves can get a bit tough but if you cut them thin and crosswise, they are perfectly fine. For salads, I prefer to removed the bottom core and slice it paper thin. You can use a mandolin if you have one. The fronds can also be used raw in salads.

One of my favorite fennel salads is what I call my "Very Green Salad" It's composed of thinly sliced fennel bulb, cucumber, green apple and young spinach leaves tossed in a parsley pesto dressing. The tart apple, the anise flavoured fennel, clean crunch of cucumber and the green punch of spinach are all pulled in together nicely with with savory dressing.

With the a scoop of the spelt, grilled vegetables and salad, I made a quick lunch for today. Leftovers are great fodder for experimenting with different flavours, textures and their dynamics.

I nuked up the spelt for 30 seconds in the microwave, tossed in the leftover grilled vegetables and salad. All of that got tossed with some greens from the produce box. For a dressing, I made a strawberry vinaigrette. It's a sweet and subtle dressing that can be dressed up in many ways.

Here's my basic Fast & Dirty Strawberry Vinaigrette:
1 cup fresh or frozen ripe strawberries
2 tablespoons of one or a mix of the following vinegars: balsamic, rice, red wine, apple cider or other fruit vinegar.
1 pinch of salt
several good grinds of black pepper
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Throw everything into a blender and blend until smooth. This dressing can be stored in the fridge for a few days.

I use Marley Farm's blueberry vinegar made with locally grown blueberries. I picked it up, along with a Kiwi vinegar from the Northgate Liquor Store in the north end of Nanaimo last summer.

I threw on a couple slices of Nanaimo Sausage House's proscuitto into the salad which provide just the right sort of savory counterpoint to the sweet, tangy dressing. Leftover chicken, ham, turkey or even a handful of chickpeas nicely will turn this salad into a full meal.

This dressing goes very well with spinach, romaine, belgian endive or similar greens. It's also a great dressing for beets & carrots salad. It's slightly tart flavour matches up nicely against raw fennel too! It's sweet enough to be used for a fruit salad. Or drizzle some over BBQ grilled figs or peaches or whatever other fruit that can hold up to the bbq grill.

From this basic dressing you can do the following:
-go asian with rice vinegar as your vinegar and toss in some crushed black sesame seeds
-you can dress it up with poppy seeds
-add fresh herbs like tarragon or mint
-for a bit of an edge, add a teaspoon or two of whole grain mustard & /or minced garlic clove
- add a bit of smokiness with a couple pinches of chipolte powder
-balance the sweetness with a crumbling of blue cheese (my vote is for Hilary's Yoo Hoo blue cheese)

Or whatever else you want to experiment with. I know, initially that pink dressing looks a bit odd and so different from what most folks think of when they think of salad dressing.

Along with dinner last night and lunch today, there was bread from Mon Petit Choux , the new bakery beside the Downtown Library. The bakery is from the same folks that run the Wesley Street Restaurant. They focus on using local ingredients when they can. Though most of their local produce comes from the mainland, they are using some island products like berries from Gabriola Island and pork from Sloping Hills and local wild seafood. They're bread is made with organic flour and their focus is on quality, not mass production of mediocrity.

Happy Eating!

Jen

Join the 100 Mile Diet Challenge!

Summer on a Stick

2007-06-26T12:54:00.001-07:00

Woohoo! The article on the Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet campaign showed up in today's Nanaimo News Bulletin. Thanks Chris for writing it up and helping spread the word.

For those looking for more information about our Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet campaign, check out our website or explore this blog for information on where to buy local foods, recipe ideas and more info about the 100 Mile Diet and local farming issues.

Well, it seems that summer is taking the long way around to get to us. On Sunday, I popped down to the Cedar Farmer's Market at the Old Crow & Gate Pub to grab some veggies to see me through until I get my Nanoose Edibles produce box. ( I can't wait to get my first box for this season tomorrow). I called up some friends to make it a group outing. However, nobody answered their phones :(

However, once I arrived at the market, I ran into those same friends I had called up to join me on my farmer's market outing! We wandered about filling our bags with locally grown goodies and chatting with the vendors. It's such a friendly market and everyone is happy to share information and talk about their products. As we shopped, dark, foreboding clouds rolled in and finally the electric release of lightning and it's subsequent rumbling filled the sky. We quickly finished up our shopping and by the time I drove out of the parking lot the skies opened up.

It continued to storm all afternoon. Over and over again. Well, there went my afternoon plans for a paddle about Nanoose Bay. Instead, I spent the day at my friends' place, checking out their gorgeous garden and helping them process strawberries they had picked at Dudink's Garden before hitting the farmers' market. I though I was hard core. 16 kilograms of strawberries got washed, hulled and either throw into the freezer whole or made into sorbet or jam. That evening, we enjoyed a feast of local bounty, complete with chicken from Cedar Valley Poultry, oysters from Fanny Bay Oysters, green salad from my friends garden, bread from Flour, Water, Salt and cheese from Hilary's Cheese Shop.

I wish I had brought my camera. You're going to have to take my word. I looked and tasted fabulous ;)

Yesterday after work, friends and I popped over the Dudink's Garden to get another batch of strawberries. Again, Dudink's is at 2219 Gomerich Rd (740-0302). Talk about easy pickings!

Here's my berry bounty:
I had about 15 kilograms of strawberries to do something with. After giving them a quick rinse, which is all they really need, I took the ripest ones and turned them into sorbet and popsicles.

Yum! Summer on a stick.

2 scoops of summer, please !

I now have only a mere 12 kilograms of strawberries to contend with. I think I may do a couple more batches of sorbet, dehydrate a batch or 2, freeze some and the rest are going to be gobbled up fresh.
We're huge sorbet and popsicle fans and we consume a heck of a lot of it in this house so I've learned how to make them at home. Much cheaper and healthier than store bought ones. One thing I don't like about commercial products is the amount of added sugar and high fructose corn syrup in them. Since I'm making them from scratch, I can dictate how much or how little added sugar is in them. I can also avoid all the other weird and unpronounceable chemicals and additives in my sweet, cool treats. The best thing is that they're made with locally grown real fruit! Both the fruit sorbet and popsicles have the same basic recipe. The recipe below can be used for berries and other fruits like peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries, apples, grapes, pears, melons...well, you get the idea.

Here's my basic Fast & Dirty Fruit Sorbet/Popsicles:

1 kilogram of fresh fruit - washed, seeded, hulled, peeled or whatever you need to do to it.
1/2 to 1 cup of simple syrup*
juice and zest of 1 lemon or 1 lime or both if you feel like it.
1-2 tablespoons of liquor (optional) - vodka, rum, limoncello, tequila - the booze is mostly to help keep the sorbet from freezing into a solid block. And for a bit of a kick.

*Simple Syrup is nothing more than equal amounts of water & sugar boiled until the sugar is completely dissolved. I usually do enough for a couple of batches of sorbet and keep the extra in a bottle in the fridge.

Simply blend all the ingredients together. If you want big chunks of fruit in your sorbet or popscicle then don't blend it so much. If you want a smoother texture then blend it more. See how that works? ;)

For sorbet: Pour into ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer's instructions.
Without an ice cream maker, you can pour it into a large shallow pan/tupperware container and put it into the freezer. Every 15-20 minutes, stir the mixture and return it to the freezer. Repeat until you get a sorbet.

For popscicles - Pour into popscicle mould. I would also leave out the booze or else the mixture might not freeze solid enough.

You can also freeze the mixture in ice cube trays and use them in a daiquiri, smoothie or any other fruity blender drink. You'll have the fruit and the ice cube in one. This way you'll get a more intense fruity flavour instead of a watered down concoction.
Make sure you use ripe, flavorful fruit. This will involve you having to actually sacrifice a few piece of fruit for a tasting ;)
The amount of simple syrup is dependent on your own tastes. Be careful not to add too much or else you'll lose the intrinstic fruity sweetest and flavour of your fruit.
Now, you could omit the simply syrup completely if your fruit is sweet enough on its own or replace it with unsweetened apple juice, honey or some other sweetener.
Don't be tied down to this recipe. Experiment! Try it with some fresh mint, a mixture of fruit, throw in some local wine or local apple juice for a PG version. Keep in mind that the flavours will be a bit muted by the cold temperature of these treats. If they're not sweet enough or too chunky or too sweet, simply melt down the mixture and add whatever needs to be added and refreeze! It's that easy peasy.

Also, I like to store a few ziploc freezer baggies of strawberry mush in the freezer for last minute dessert sauces or to be used later in a mixed fruit jam. Blended up berries take up much less room than whole strawberries and I'm working with limited freezer real estate.

After getting a backseat full of strawberries, we headed out to Hazelwood Herb Farms. My basil plants have not been liking this cooler weather and I wanted to pick up a few more. Here's what I ended up bringing home:
That place is dangerous for a belly-driven gardener like me. I ended up with a few more mints, some Egyptian onions, a rose bergamot, lemon verbana, oregano, chinese licorce, bay leaf plant, more parsly and cilantro. Oh yeah and a couple of basil plants.

Many of these are fine in containers and are a great garden plants for those that are just beginning to garden or lack space for a large garden. There's nothing better than fresh herbs to liven up a dish. It's just absurd to buy herbs that are wrapped in packaging that weighs more and takes more energy to make than the herbs itself. Don't get me started on all the food miles involved in bringing a sprig of parsley up from Mexico.

To end off today's blog I just wanted to share some lovely surprises I found in my garden:
My bathroom sink garden is blooming!

I see pea pods! I know what we're having for dinner.

Thanks for visiting! For more information about the 100 Mile Diet, check out Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet website.

Take care,

Jen

007 Chicken

2007-06-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

On the 100 Mile Diet front, MSN has posted an article on why you should be eating local foods. Check it out! They also include a slide show/article on where you can find local foods. Very cool.

My fabulous in-laws came up island for a visit yesterday. With them, they brought a brimming bag of local treats including smoked salmon and moose from Uncle Ted, a couple of cheeses from Hilary's cheese shop, spelt flour and a pumpkin seed bread from True Grain and a bottle of Saturna Island wine. Such a mindful and yummy gift. Thanks guys!

This morning I cracked open the bread and a wedge of Hilary's Red Dawn cheese for breakfast, along with some strawberries from Dudink's Gardens. What a great way to begin the day.

It's been another busy week and I don't see it slowing down much. We've been living off of leftovers from our 100 Mile Diet BBQ dinner party from the beginning of the week. For the dinner party, I made a couple slabs of focaccia, hummous, boiled new potatoes, green salad with pesto dressing and a mountain of grilled Vietnamese chicken and chorizo sausages. All of the vegetables and the meat was island grown, gathered from farmer's markets, my backyard garden and local butchers.

From those leftovers, I've been having a range of leftover creations. One favorite is a open-faced Vietnamese chicken on focaccia. Nothing more that splitting open a wedge of focaccia, toasting it up and smearing it with some hummous, topping it with leftover chicken and finishing it off with a couple slices of cucumber and some lettuce. Another version I like is simply toasted focaccio with the same chicken and topped with an asian slaw (napa cabbage, cucumber, bean sprouts, carrots and whatever other crunchy, crisp veggies) tossed with Thai it Up sauce. A mix of strong flavours with crisp, fresh textures. A great way to use up leftovers.

My Vietnamese Chicken recipe is the reward for some very diligent spy work that I and another food-loving friend did several years ago in Vancouver. One typical rainy winter night in Vancouver, my buddy and I ended up at some hole in the wall Vietnamese restaurant on Kingsway. There was only one thing on our minds, pho. We were set on diving into a bowl of big steaming bowl of beef broth, shoveling white slipper noodles into our mouths until the chill left our bones.

As we were waiting for our server, I spied an intriguing dish a neighbouring table was enjoying. A chicken that looked like it had been dyed in a mustard bath with the most delectable aroma, a mix of rich, complex spices and the deep, brown aroma of properly grilled meat.

I asked the server what they were having and she just said, "Chicken."
"But what kinda of chicken, what's in it?" I asked.
She shrugged and replied, "Chicken.Vietnamese chicken"
"Ok. We'll have an order of that and a couple bowls of beef pho"

After that meal, we were hooked on this chicken, dubbing it simply Vietnamese chicken. We returned to this restaurant numerous times, each time asking if we could have the recipe. Each time we were refuse. So we started taking tasting notes, trying to figure out the complex of spices and flavours and then we'd return back home and try to replicate it. Once the server caught us and told us that the cook wouldn't be too pleased if he saw. So we were very careful with our food spying after that. It took us a while but eventually we figured it out, or at least something close enough to please us.

My buddy and I sometimes joked about this dish as, "Spy Chicken", not only because figuring out the recipe was a covert operation but because whenever anyone asked what it was, we'd reply, 'Chicken. Vietnamese Chicken' like we were James Bond introducing himself. I know, we're geeks ;)

Ironically, a month after we figured out the recipe for this chicken, the restaurant shut down. Funny how the universe works.

Anyways, here's my version of Vietnamese Chicken, otherwise known as Spy Chicken.

(that's me grilling up a storm)

Fast & Dirty Spy Chicken

2-3 lbs of free-ranged chicken

Marinade:
4 tablespoons of vegetable oil
4 tablespoons of soy sauce
3 tablespoons of freshly grated ginger
3 tablespoons of minced garlic
1 tablespoon of palm or cane sugar (can use honey or brown sugar instead)

Spice mix:
1 tablespoon of ground tumeric
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon coriander seed
5 star anise pods
1 teaspoon szechuan peppercorns
1 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons of salt crystals

Toast the star anise, fennel and coriander seeds in a dry pan on low heat until you can smell the oils being released.
Toss the toasted spices with the rest of the spice mix and grind it up in a mortar and pestle or in a coffee grinder.
Mix the spices with the rest of the marinade ingredients.
Toss in the chicken and let it marinade in the fridge for at least 6 hours.

For grilling on the BBQ you want the chicken in fairly equal sized pieces. The breasts you can slice into even thin strips and them thread them onto soaked bamboo skewers like a satay. This will allow you to cook the breast meat throughly and quickly without risking a raw center or overcooked and dry edges.

Grill the dark meat, uncovered, over medium heat, turning once, for 10 to 15 minutes or until juices run clear.

Grill the breast meat satays over medium heat for a couple minutes on each side until just cooked.

For roasting, I like to keep the chicken whole and roast it in the oven at 350F until the thigh juices run clear.

BTW, this marinade works great for much any other meat. The spice mix can be used on it's own for an interesting spice rub.

A shout out to my furry buddy.
This is my feline friend, Meep. She's recovering from some de-girling surgery. Hope you're feeling your frisky, cheeky self real soon!

Have a great first weekend of the summer! Go check out a farmers market, go berry picking, go visit a farm, go check out the Community Garden's organic plant sale or harvest some goodies from your backyard garden.

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Someone give Billy Jack a hug

2007-06-21T10:46:00.000-07:00

It's National Hug-a-Tonto Day! (otherwise known as National Aboriginal Day)
Billy Jack, for those that are wondering, is a Native American, Vietnam vet, hippie school saving, racism busting, sharpshooting, White House cleaning, hapkido jedi. Somebody better give him a hug before he goes on another vision quest.

These days of the SUV diet, you can find a clear cases of tasteless styrofoam nuggets dressed in red with little green leafy berets otherwise known as California strawberries all year round. Now, I'm sure that there are some wonderful, juicy, succulent strawberries grown and eaten in California but they don't show up on our store shelves. These erstaz strawberries have been bred not for flavour or texture but for looks and transportability. You might as well throw a couple of silicon boobs into these berries and slap on a hair weave, they're all for show. They've been bred to look pretty despite being picked 2 weeks before they show up on the grocery store shelves and after traveling 1500 kilometers up the coast. I am happy to boycott these botantical forgeries and wait for the local berry season to get my fill. Luckily, we have a some very awesome berry farms in this neck of the woods and it's now berry picking season.

Yesterday, I found myself on the south end of Nanaimo and so figured I'd pop by Dudink's Gardens for some strawberries. Dudink's Gardens is located at 2219 Gomerich Rd. Just follow the TransCanada Hwy to the south tip of Nanaimo. Turn right onto Minefield Rd. (keep your eyes open for the road sign, the exit is right after it). Follow down Minefield as it meanders through the backcountry of Nanaimo, passed fields, over train tracks and finally it will hit Gomerich Rd. Turn left on Gomerich and Dudink's Gardens will be on your right. They're opened from 8am to 5pm every day.

It was a fabulous final day of spring and just as I pulled in, a couple of kids with big berry stained smiles were lugging their buckets of berries out of the fields.

In the shop, I met Nick, who runs the farm with his wife. They've have over 20 years experience in the berry game and their love and experience shows in their produce.
Nick waxed poetic about how much he loved watching folks come in off the fields with their buckets of berries and big smiles and how he looks forward to berry season each year before assigning me a row of strawberries that I could pick from. The row assignment ensures that each pickers gets a good chance of finding a bounty of berries and helps them manage their crop.

Row upon row of juicy, ripe, just waiting to be picked berries.

A treasure of gems under leaf.

That one has my name written all over it. Always pick the berries with their green caps still attached. Once it loses it's cap, the berry begins to degrade.

Within 15 minutes, I managed to pick 2 huge baskets of strawberries and a few that happened to fall into my mouth ;) It's one of life's blessings to pick and eat a ripe strawberry warmed by the afternoon sun. It's the juicy embodiment of not giving a care in the world yumminess. You can't help but smile as you pick. It's part treasure hunt, part sunshine meditation.

When I was there, it was $1.85/lb or about $4 for a kilogram for U-pick berries, a total bargain! Nick says that they'll be bringing in a freezer so there will be frozen berries for sale soon too.

For those that don't want to pick their own, there are baskets and flats of picked berries. Dudink's grow and sell a range of berries from blueberries to gooseberries. They also have seasonal vegetables and nursery plants.

So grab a couple of light containers (ice cream pails work well), throw a bunch of berry pickers in the car and head down for some berry therapy ;)

Foccacia Therapy

2007-06-19T09:01:00.000-07:00

Firstly, the big news...the Nanoose Edibles Produce Box Program begins next week! Yippee! I can't wait. The start date is bit later than usual due to the horrid weather this last winter and spring. The Nanoose Edibles organic farmers have been working hard to get the crops going and finally, the wait it over. This weekly box program is a blessing for local food lovers like me. It's like a culinary Christmas every week. For those that weren't able to sign-up for the box program, the Nanoose Edibles farm is open daily for produce sales. They're at 1960A Stewart Road in Nanoose Bay. Just follow along the 19 to Nanoose Bay, turn right at on Northwest Bay road at the Petro Canada. Turn right again at Steward Road.

I'm planning to visit other local farms and share want I find in the coming months.

Yesterday was a Leftover Monday. Not leftover food but leftover errands, chores, deadlines and bits and pieces of life from last week that didn't get dealt with. So I rolled up my sleeves and got to it. I realized why some of these duties didn't get dealt with last week ;P

By 5pm, I was tired of running from one menial task to another and needed some stress release. Not spinning and knitting stress release but good old dough kneading stress release. I have a BBQ dinner party tonight, so I threw on my baker's cap and made some focaccia to go with all the grilled meat. Why focaccia? Because it not involves therapeutic dough kneading but also the stress erasing pounding to make the herb infused topping.

Here' my Fast & Dirty Focaccia recipe:
3 cups of lukewarm water
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon active dry yeast

7 cups of flour - I used True Grain's Red Fife whole wheat
1 tablespoon salt

In your mixing bowl, stir honey into the water, sprinkle the yeast into the water. Stir until it dissolves and set aside for it to foam and bubble up.

Add 3-4 cups of flour. Mix until smooth. Set aside for 15 minutes.
Add the salt and the rest of the flour. You should have a soft, sticky dough at this point. Pour the dough onto a lightly floured counter and began kneading.
Kneading doesn't mean pounding the life out of the dough. What you're doing is working the gluten in the flour. Well developed gluten will provide the strength in the dough to allow it to rise to its fullest.

With the heel of your palms push out the dough without tearing into the dough. The dough will be soft initially but it will begin resisting the more your work it.

Once it's pushed out, fold it the top half over and turn it around 90 degrees and continue back to kneading it out with the heel of your palm. Usually 20 minutes is enough to work the dough well enough and to start releasing the stress of the day from your body ;) Don't use too much flour on your kneading surface, just enough to prevent the dough from sticking to the counter. If it's not sticking, don't add anymore flour. It's done when it springs back when you poke it.
Dough rises best when it has a smooth, unbroken 'skin' on the top so make sure that the smooth size of the dough ball is facing upwards.

Throw the dough, seam side down, into a bowl that's at least 2-3 times the size of the dough ball. I don't bother oiling up the bowl. I find that the dough comes out relatively easy without it. Cover with a damp cloth and put it aside somewhere draft-free and warm. A sunny corner or inside the oven with the light turned on is fine. Let it rise until it's doubled in size. An hour and a half is the usual time but go by the size of the dough, not by the clock.

Once it's doubled, punch it down and take it out for a few more minutes of kneading. The return for another rising. This rising should take only half of the amount of time of the first rising.
I just dump the dough onto a silpat or parchment paper line cookie sheet and gently press down the dough to form the focaccia. I press it down to a scant inch thick. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for another 30 minutes.

While it's rising, get your focaccia topping ready.

I used herbs from my garden.

In my Thai mortar they go with a couple glugs of olive oil, a spoonful of Gabriola Island minced garlic, a healthy pinch of sea salt and a pinch of black peppercorns.
Then begins the stress erasing pounding. Yippee!! Aim to make a thick chunky paste.
Dimple the dough with your fingers and slather on the herb and oil paste .

Bake in a preheated 450F oven for 20-30 minutes. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing into it. While it was cooling, I sauteed up a half a link of smoked local chorizo sausage from Quist farms and some greens from my garden. I also whipped up a tub of hummus. I'm saving most of that for the BBQ tonight but DH and I shared a small bowl with our dinner.
The focaccia had a nice crust and just enough chew. The topping provided a hit of extra flavour. Topped with the mellow hummous and the smoky chorizo, this was definitely a tasty and soothing end to a Leftover Monday.

Now I have to go and take care of all the things I didn't do yesterday because I was taking care of all the stuff I had to do last week before all my dinner guests show up. Good thing I worked all that stress out of me ;)

Have a great week!

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Mountain & Market Jewels

2007-06-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

Just got back from the Nanaimo Farmer's Market. Despite the soggy weather, it was a great shopping trips complete with a mini reunion with an old friend. Here's what treasures I found:
Free range eggs, chicken, tomatoes, peppers, chard, strawberries, new potatoes and artisan foccacia bread.

Each week, the variety of produce grows. I also saw spinach, beets, rhubarb, garlic chives, canned veggies and jams, veggie seedlings and bedding plants.

Along with locally grown food, I also found another source of locally grown fibre for all my 100 mile spinning and knitting project!

Island Fibre Friends sells locally raised alpaca yarns and fleeces. Their stall offers everything from handknit garments, to yarn to fleece. This small company is run by fleece gurus, Janet MacKenzie and Sylvia Gaunt. They can be found at the Nanaimo Farmer's Market in Fridays, the Qualicum Farmer's Market on Saturdays and the Campbell Rive Pier Street Market on Sundays. Here's more info about these other Vancouver Island farmer's markets.

Yesterday, my wonderful, darling DH came back from his top secret superhero mission with a pocketful of handpicked jewels:

I wonder how many jewels he was storing in his belly:)
So lovely! They're almost too beautiful to eat. Almost....

To celebrate his berry booty, I made a spring version of 100 Mile Diet Poutine with new potatoes. The potatoes were leftovers from a previous dinner. Whenever I make potatoes or rice, I usually make a double or triple batch since it doesn't take any more effort to cook extra and they have a gzillion uses. The cheese curds were from Natural Pastures and the gravy was made with homemade locally raised chicken stock and smoked bacon fat. Yep, I think my heart skipped a beat just writing that last sentence.

A quick ride under the broiler for the cheese curd topped potatoes and a ladle or two or three of the gravy and it was good to go.

To compliment the potatoes, I made a quick slaw with marinated pork and pesto dressing:

The pork was sliced thin and marinated in some local apple cider , a dollop of Gabriola Gourmet minced garlic and wildflower honey from the Jinglepot Apiaries for a few hours.

I stir fried it over high heat until there was no more pink meat and set it aside to cool as I assembled the slaw. When I say 'assembled' I mean chopped up a bunch of local veggies to thin slaw strips and throw on some dressing. I used my pesto dressing. here's the recipe.
Fast & Dirty Pesto Dressing:

3 parts olive oil
3 parts balsamic vinegar (I use Auld Alliance Farm's fig balsamic vinegar)
1 part homemade pesto (recipe at bottom)

Throw into a jar, squeeze bottle, bowl and shake, whip, stir, rattle and roll until it's all mixed up.
Really. That's it. There's a reason why these are called 'Fast & Dirty' recipes.

Have a great weekend!

Jen
Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Calling All Oceanside Farmers

2007-06-14T09:01:00.000-07:00

First some PSAs:
Anna Massara is looking for farmers to join the Farmer's Market at Rocking Horse Pub in Nanoose Bay. The market runs every Sunday from 11am to 3pm. This is the first year of this farmer's market and she's still looking for vendors to join.

For more information, please contact Anna at 250-954-0064.

Nanoose Edibles ( 1960 Stewart Road in Nanoose Bay) has a bumper crop of strawberries already coming up. They're looking for part-time berry pickers to work for 3-4 hours a day for a good wag . Students are welcome and they would encourage youth from the Nanoose Bay area to apply. They will provide the training and they can start right away. For more information, please contact Barbara Ebell at Nanoose Edibles at 250-468-2332.
*****

Last night I was flying solo. DH was away on secret superhero business, a reconnaissance mission in fact. I myself spent much of the evening fending off one deadline after another. Why do they come all at once??!?

I didn't get around to dinner until 9:30pm and all I wanted to do was sit back and knit. Dinner was a simple affair of chinese dumplings and greens. The dumplings were made with locally raised pork and veggies. In the waning light of twilight, I harvested the greens from the garden. The dumplings were harvested from the freezer :p

Cooking was nothing more strenuous than dumping the dumplings into a pot of boiling water for 10 minutes and then adding the greens for a minute of boiling at the end before tossing everything into a bowl. A glug of oyster sauce finished it off.

With a yummy dinner in my belly, I shut down most of my cerebral operations for some no-brainer sock knitting. I managed to get the calf and heel turned before began nodding off. Unfortunately, my no-brainer knitting didn't magically lead to a fruitful bout of sleep knitting. For those that are wondering:
-Magic loop on 2.5 mm Turbos
-Top down with a short row heel
-2x2 ribbing
-some Norwegian sock wool from my stash (bought in my pre-100 mile fiber days)
- 3 needle bind-off
If you didn't understand any of that, consider yourself one of the lucky ones :p

This morning has gotten off to a fabulous start. I began the day with a blissful breakfast of strawberries from my garden which I enjoyed on my front porch looking out to a sunny coast. I'm ignoring all those grumpy grey clouds that are looming behind the house. They can grump all they want. Nothing can put a damper on blissing out on a bowl of ripe, juicy island grown berries.

My tomatoes were also enjoying the sunny morning. Despite the cooler than usual weather, the tomatoes are hanging in there.

Have a fabulous day everyone!

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

One book, two visitors and a sock

2007-06-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

Here's what I'm reading. It's a collection of essays about the present state of food. Not only does it explore the problems and issues but also present some very realistic solutions or at least directions towards a viable solution. Definitely put it on your 'Food for Thought' summer reading list.

I've been busy managing the garden. 'Managing since' I'm not really doing any of the grunt work. I'm just sitting back and directing where the pea pod stalks should lead to and how far the strawberry runners should, well run, before getting redirected back to their patch. But mostly, I've just been enjoying the fresh, yummy bounty that's already popping up in the garden.

I view my garden as a subtle but subversive Pptthhbb blown into the face for agribusiness and food corporations. Many of the plants, like my black edamame (soy bean) and waxed beans were from seeds saved from previous harvests. Others were seedlings traded amongst friends. Some were bought from the local Community Gardens weekend organic plant sale or from Christex nursery who plant and raise their own seedlings. In many cases, the source of the seeds can be traced to back to an actual person that I've had direct and personal contact with. So different that the faceless, anonymous, factory farmed food that shows up the shelves.
It's also a blessing to have friends and family that share in my zeal for local food. My cousin Paul and his lovely wife, Ai , popped by for a visit on their whirlwind Vancouver Island tour. They were excited to see all the fleece I've been dyeing and all that has been happening in the garden. They were amazed at all the wonderful local food that they found along their tour of the island. I think sometimes it takes outsiders to remind us Islanders just how lucky were are to have the cornucopia that is our backyard.

They even came bearing gifts, a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a bottle of Pinot Noir from one of my favorite vineyards, Cherry Point Vineyards. They managed to swing by the vineyard as part of the their visit. This is ripe medium bodied red that both DH and I give raving two thumbs up. It works very well with salmon and can even hold up next to a meaty steak or match up to some summertime grilled veggies.

Dinner was a simple affair with some greens from the garden, stir fried with Gabriola Island minced garlic, local beef sauteed with sweet peppers and pan-fried udon noodles. Unfortunately, Paul & Ai had to run to catch the ferry back to the mainland.

That night, I managed to finish the first of a pair of socks for DH. Basic dark grey ribbed socks. My DH is a pretty easy-peasy guy with a wardrobe dominated by navy blue t-shirts and khakis. So far he's thrilled with the sock. I'm thrilled that he's thrilled but in the back of my selfish knitter brain I'm already dreading a future with a handknit sock addict for a DH. I'm not a sock knitter. I knit them but I don't drool over sock yarn or swoon over heel shaping techniques. That said, I do appreciate the warmth and joy of a handknit sock. I've already warned DH that since it took my over 8 years for me to knit him one sock, he may have to wait another 8 years for its partner :p

Just kidding. I've already thrown the second sock onto the needles in an effort to thwart the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome. Luckily for him, my newly dyed fleece is still drying and I don't have anything else on needles. Hopefully I'll get the second sock done by the end of the week.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Running on fumes

2007-06-08T08:45:00.000-07:00

*yawn*

Excuse me, I'm a tad sleep deprived.
Kripes. I took me 5 tries to get that sentence right.

For some godforsaken reason, I woke up at 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep no matter how many sheep I counted. I eventually rolled out of bed, conceded to the insomnia gods and got my day started at around 5 in the morning.

Actually, I was doing quite well for someone with only a few hours of sleep. Until about 15 minutes ago. It's now a quarter to 9am and I can't stop yawning. ACK! I've got an interview with a reporter from the Nanaimo Bulletin this afternoon and a dinner party tonight. Hopefully I get a power nap somewhere in my there. Who's kidding who, I'm going to be the one nodding off in the corner by 6pm. Yep, that's me, the afterlife of the party.

I did manage to get a bunch of stuff done before I lost all my steam including carding a batch of fleece, cleaning up the kitchen, doodling some more design ideas for my Fire & Ice sweater and some gardening. Guess what I found in the garden....Tah-dah!!!
The first strawberries from my berry patch. They're so sweet and intensely berry-licious.

I'm soon going to be able to have breakfast picnics in the garden again.

Yesterday, we were blessed with short visit and lunch date with our dear friends, Nat and Pete. I finally got a chance to sit Nat down and give her a knitting lesson. She was a total natural at it. Within 10 minutes she was knitting one row after another in perfect and equal tension! I was stunned considering it took me a couple of wonky and curdled scarves before I could got the hang of maintaining consistent tension. I think I've found my newest knitting prodigy!

I whipped up a quick lunch of local new potatoes (yes, they're finally here!) , free range eggs with veggies and a green salad with beets and cucumber in a pesto dressing. All the fresh vegetables, the eggs and the pesto in the dressing were all island grown.

Last night was the Mid-Island Weavers and Spinners' Guild's potluck. I made an asian style slaw salad with greens and veggies from the garden and Nanoose Edibles farm. So simple and yet so many complex flavours. Each bite was a different experience and ranged from the slightly bitter baby gai lan to the surprisingly sweet baby bok choy and the satisfying crunch of all round green goodness.

I guess I'd better go get some work done and hopefully my brain will spruce up a bit before newspaper interview this afternoon. Heaven knows that me on sleep deprived auto-pilot won't be very coherent.

Just a reminder, the Nanaimo Farmer's Market is on today from 10am to 2pm by the Bastion. The Gabriola Farmer's market I've been told is on tomorrow and the Cedar Farmer's market is on Sunday. Here's the details and more farmer's market info.

Good-bye asparagus, Hello strawberries!

2007-06-05T11:23:00.001-07:00

What’s today? Sunday? Tuesday?! How did it get to be Tuesday?

What do you mean it’s already June?

You're kidding me. Excuse me, I've gotta go throw my tomato plants outside.

(first fruits of my tomato plants)

Thank goodness I made a quick stop to the farmer’s market over the weekend. It’s coming to the end of the local asparagus season. I know. It was way too short. If I had blinked once more I would have totally missed it. But look at the bright side, it’s now the beginning of the local strawberry season!
(asparagus, strawberries and golden beets from farmer's market.)

Yippee! You can take your tasteless Cali-styrofoam-a strawberries and stuff it. These local gems are worth the wait. They're deep red and juicy through and through with just enough tang and a whole lot of flavor.

according to the paper, local berry farms are also opening up their gates for the season. Dudink's Gardens has freshly picked strawberries for sale from 1pm to 5pm daily. They're at 2219 Gomerich Road (off of Minetown) at the south end of Nanaimo. Many other local farms are also offering their a spring bounty of goods.

We celebrated another seasonal milestone this past weekend - the first BBQ of the year. Now, technically, there’s no reason why I can’t BBQ throughout the fall and winter around here other than I’m a total whiny wuss when I’m not in the mountains or buckled into a kayak. Well, sometimes even then I can be a whiny wuss too…

Though I have thought about cracking open the BBQ mid-January, especially when we get one of those mild spells, it's still pretty dark and cold after 5pm. It is still winter and I would much rather throw a stew into the crockpot or roast up some veggies and chicken in the oven than stand over a BBQ in my down jacket and toque.

So, I meticulously went through the whole dish soap gas leak testing procedure to make sure I don’t burn down the house. Though it’s a pretty new BBQ and there’s no reason for failure, it’s always a bit unnerving to be testing for gas leaks. That first lighting of the BBQ is always seasoned with a pinch of trepidation for me.

For the first BBQ of the season, I pulled out a couple of lamb chops from the freezer package that I got from Horizon Heritage farms last fall. I’ve been saving these babies for some good old fashion open fire cooking. I also threw on a bunch of sausages, locally raised meat of course, so we’d have enough to see up through a busy weekend.
I also threw a bunch of locally grown veggies onto the BBQ. I got one of those pizza BBQ grill pan thingamabobbidies. It’s basically a round sheet of metal with holes and a handle. It’s perfect for lazy buggers like me that don’t want to bother threading their veggies on a skewer. I simply lay them out in a single layer on the grill pan over medium heat and let the fire do it’s magic.

Both the lamb and the veggies got a simple treatment of olive oil, salt and pepper. I heated the grill on medium high and threw the lamb on for 4-5 minutes each side. Don’t mess with it while it’s cooking. Just leave it alone to do it’s thing. Some leftover spaghetti squash and a dollop of parsley pesto finished off the meal.

The lamb chops were gorgeously rich and meaty. Even DH, who is usually 'meh' about lamb, was smacking his lips and waxing poetic. The little selfish muggle in me was hoping he wouldn't like it so I could have it all to myself :p

On Sunday, we were already sick of the heat and headed up to Mt. Cokely to romp about for the day. It was the perfect day of mountain adventuring and exploring. Red columbine was blooming along the road and the air was alive with bugs. Lots and lots of little biting, carnivorous bugs and we then remembered why we should have worn long sleeved shirts and long pants.
We got home late as usual. Sore and bug tortured, but happy, I was grateful that I had leftover BBQ sausages, veggies and other tasty bits that made for a bowl of leftover bliss in less than 10 minutes

Sauteed asparagus and local boerwurst sausage along with organic spelt, roasted veggies and parsley pesto (yes I love this stuff). Except for the grain which is from the BC mainland, everything was island grown and raised.

BTW, I’ve happy to announce that Nesvog Butcher in Terminal Park Mall along the Island Hwy, is now offering local beef and cheese, along with local free-range eggs and other tasty tidbits.

This coming week (I guess that's now, eh) is another non-stop week. I’ve got a Spinner & Weaver’s Guild potluck (no, I don’t know what I’m making for that yet), a meeting with a reporter from the Bulletin about the 100 mile diet (yippee!), a standing date for some kayaking, a couple of knitting lessons, farm stuff, a dinner party on Friday and a new bushel of 100 mile fleece to card and spin. I'm tired just thinking about it.

Have a great week!

Jen

Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Cracking China (updated)

2007-05-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

In an effort to spit shine her tarnished reputation, China has announced plans to introduce a safety recall system in an attempt to weed out unsafe products being manufactured within the country.

You'd think being one of the largest manufacturers of useless crap, they would have already have a recall system in place ;P

In the continuing saga of the pet food recall, a Diamond Pet Foods has recalled their products in BC for fear of melamime contamination.

This is after Canadian Food Inspection Agency found melamime contamined corn gluten from China last week. Of course, they've only started testing for these contaminants since the recall so who really knows what else is lurking behind the Made in China label.

Oh yeah, and all that cheapo farmed fish you've been eating, it could have been gobbling up melamine-contaminated fishmeal it's whole life. No wonder it has the same bland cardboard aftertaste as factory farmed poultry and pork. They've all be eating out of the same contaminated trough.

Agriculture Minister Pat Bell has confirmed that BC fish farms have beeing using the melamine contaminated feed and that consumers have already been eating the fish but , heck, it's no big deal. They're just going to wait until folks show up with unexplainable kidney failure before they consider putting forth a committee to outline the mandate for a study to consider the possibility that these health problems had any link to eating factory farmed chicken, pigs and fish. Until then, it's all fair game.

Gee, thanks Minister Bell, I feel so comforted. Way to look out for the citizens, Pat. Good job! You deserve a big ole corporate slap on the back!

Um...maybe it's time to reconsider this whole factory farm monstrosity and maybe feed animals real animal food instead of pellets of industrial poo. How's that for an idea?

Update: China isn't the only one falsely spike protein content of their animal feed with melamine. A U.S. manufacturer has admitted to intentionally adding melamine to its fish feed. Its fish feed and livestock feed have been recalled. The products also were shown to contain urea formaldehyde resin. This company is a branch of Canadian company, Tremblec, Inc. and its products were used in Uniscope feed.

And how is Canada responding to all these threats to our food security? It has sent off a team to China to boost trade in agricultural products, amongst other areas. China is already Canada's second largest trading partner. Do we really need any more contaminated food?

Not only is China's pet killing kibbles being recall but their toothpaste too. China's been having a rough couple of months. In an effort to prove that they're sincere in their crackdown, China's former chief food and drug regulator was sentenced to death for accepting bribes and approving drugs that we're safe for human use. Wow, they sure do things differently in China. In North America. government officials that tango with pharmecutical companies and get dangerous products approved by federal agencies through the back door end up Secretary of Defense.

It's all the more reason to do what we can to protect our food sovereignty and local food security. Eat local & real food. Support your local farmers who are working hard to provide safe, healthy and yummy food for this community. For a list of farms and farmer's markets, check out the Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet website. For more information about protecting our local meat supply, check out this article.

ETA: After all that soapboxing, I had to have some wild local salmon. With little time to spare of lunch preparations, I found a lone can of local wild salmon in the cupboards.
I'm not the biggest fan of canned salmon after a childhood of eating fishy pink sawdust but I hadn't tried this local brand before. This is an Vancouver Island cannery's smoked sockeye salmon. The salmon was rich and meaty and wasn't waterlogged like many other brands. It had a smoky, deep flavour and it held up well in the salad.

(salad undressed)
Within a few minutes, I whipped up a quick smoked salmon & asian slaw salad with greens from the garden and other veggies from the farmer's market. I made a parsley pesto vinagrette with the pesto from the other night and a splash of locally grown apple cider vinegar. The dressing was just the right amount of tang and green.

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

The garden that ate Tokyo

2007-05-28T10:50:00.001-07:00

My weekend was wrapped around all things green and growing. Much of my winter garden managed to survive the winter and is growing strong. Not wanting to pull out the wonderful greens, I decided to expand to provide room for my warm weather veggies. I pulled up a good chunk of sod (lawn isn’t good eats), and expanded the garden to accommodate my growing green thumb daydreams.
So far, here's what's in the garden. From the winter garden, the kale, chard, spinach, garlic, gai lan and parsley are going strong. In the beginning of spring, I threw in sugar peas, black edamame (soybeans), orca beans, bok choy and more gai lan seeds. This past weekend, I planted in some eggplant, honeydew, winter squash and herbs seedlings.
I also repotted an army of tomatoes and various herbs (mint, basil, oregano, marjoram, cilantro, thyme and chives) into larger pots. I’m planning to grow them on the porch, off of the kitchen. I opted to grow them in containers partly because some, like mint, are invasive and are better contained. I also like them in pots so I can bring them in once it starts getting too cold. Hardier herbs like rosemary and oregano overwinter just fine outside.

My indoor Eden filled with tomato plants, veggie seedlings herbs and general gardening mayhem.

The tomatoes I prefer to grow in containers and keep them on the porch. Five gallon pots are fine for most varieties. It makes it easier to keep them from getting weird garden cooties and if it does turn out to be a summer of monsoons, I can pull them under the awning so they don’t get too wet. It also leaves me space in the veggie garden for other edible delights.

Having them in pots also allows me the option of bringing them in at the end of summer if it cools down more than usual. I have been able to keep some tomato plants well in to January. With a good warm, sunny location and a bit of care, they kept just kept fruiting!

Bok Choy

Spinach that has survived the winter and has shot back

Ooooo...the promise a many a sweet garden jems

On Saturday, I attended a food/farm forum hosted by local food advocates, Dr. Kathy Gemmel and Jenny MacLeod at Nanoose Place. The place was filled with farmers, members of the NDP, Liberal and Green Party, local press, various organizations, Malaspina University and the public. The event was started off with Nick Versteeg, food documentary filmmaker and co-leader of the Vancouver Island Slow Food Movement and clips from his documentary, “The Edible Schoolyard”, a project that brings farmers, chef and kids together to create a working vegetable garden in local schoolyards. Nick is planning to give a copy of the DVD to every school in BC for free. For more info, check out Nick’s film site, DV Cuisine.

Sunday started off with me shaken wide awake by dawn’s insistent light despite my wanting to sleep in for once. Why, oh why, must my body declare mutiny at such ungodly hours?!? To rub it in, DH was snoring like a hibernating bear, completely oblivious to my wide eyed plight. It took much willpower and compassion to not ‘accidentally’ bump him awake.

Instead I scampered downstairs and shared my morning with my tomato plants and watched as the day cracked open with blustering winds and alternating fistfuls of clouds and blue sky. I puttered a bit in the garden and decided that even MORE sod should be removed. This would allow me to plant even more veggies. However, my sleep deprived body was not able to bring itself to wield a shovel at that moment and I headed back inside for some garden scheming.

In my 100 Mile Diet quest, I’ve opted to not only eat food grown within 100 miles but to also do my best to create a garden from seeds and plants grown within a 100 mile radius. Luckily for us, we live in an area that has a parade of Seedy Saturdays/Sundays in the beginning of spring where local seed grower sell their wonderful and overwhelming array of organic, heirloom and specialty seeds.
We also have a number of local nurseries that grow their own plants from seeds right there on the premises, like the Green Thumb nursery, Christex Nursery (north end of Jinglepot and Monroe Roads). You can reach them at texd@bcsupernet.com . Farmer's markets are another source for locally grown seedlings for flower and food gardens. Another source for locally grown garden plants and veggies is The Community Gardens on 271 Pine Street. They run an organic plant sale every Saturday and Sunday.

It makes more sense to be buying locally grown plants and seeds for many of the same reasons as it does to buy locally grown produce. Locally grown plants are less likely to be stressed unnecessarily. They are not forced to bloom or artificially enhanced to grow faster for mass production. Many plants and seedlings imported in for big box retail stores have been forced to mature at a rate that is unhealthy for the plant. This leaves the plant weak and susceptible to diseases. They’re also not able to deal with the natural stressors. This is the botanical equivalent of forcing an infant straight into puberty in a matter of weeks.

One of the big problems that come from big box stores pushing their garden wares is that they’re pushing plants, flowers and veggie seedlings way too early in the season. This is a big problem especially with the cooler than normal temperatures that we’ve been having for this spring. Plants grown in this climate and allowed the time to grow at a healthy and normal rate are more like to continue growing successfully and bear better fruit. Christex Nursery won’t even release their tomato plants until June 1^st, which is the start date for bringing your tomato plants outside. In fact, with this cooler than average weather, I’ll probably be bringing in the tomatoes at night for the first few weeks until the overnight temperatures get in the double digits.

I popped by the Community Gardens’ organic plant sale Sunday morning. They have a wide array of flowers, veggies, fruit and herb plants. At $2 each, 3 for $5 or 10 for $15, for the 4 inch container plants, they’re one of the best deals in town.

BTW, The Community Gardens is looking for donations of 4 inch seedling containers, plastic bags, cardboard/plastic flats and vertical blinds. You can drop them off at the plant sale.

At the plant sale, I ran into a fellow 100 Miler and we headed off to the Cedar Farmer’s Market (Crow and Gate Pub, 2313 Yellowpoint Rd) for some grocery shopping. The market was bustling with vendors and patrons. This has become one of my favorite farmer’s markets. There was everything from locally grown pepperoni, veggies, plants, cheese, chicken, eggs and veggie seedlings. There’s also locally made pet supplies & treats, artisan bread, jewellery and even a massage booth.

With my newly expanded garden already stuffed to the gills, it took much willpower to not buy more seedlings. But my 100 Miler companions bought up some gorgeous chard seedlings and plants for the flower garden. Between the two of us, we filled up our backpacks with locally grown groceries and headed back home. Here’s a list of the local farmer’s markets that are open now.

After a weekend of working in the garden, I thought it best to celebrate with a good, old roasted chicken Sunday dinner. With a Shady Mile chicken, locally grown spaghetti squash, roasted local turnips and onions, organic wheat berries from the Peach River district and a parsley pesto made with parsley from the garden, we finished the weekend with a long, satisfying locally grown meal.

Dessert was baked rhubarb and cranberries topped with a drizzle of honey, all island grown, of course.

Parsley pesto is a great springtime sauce that goes well with fish and chicken and veggies and, well, pretty much anything that basil pesto goes with. You could also use other greens like arugula or cilantro. Parsley does fine in the garden over winter and I have a healthy crop of parsley to use in this pesto. Just in time since I’m down to my last bit of local basil pesto that I made last summer. To make it more 100 mile diet worthy, I substituted local hazelnuts for pine nuts and local cheese for parma. I keep the harden knobs and wedges of cheese in the freezer for grating or for flavouring into soups.

Here’s my recipe for 100 Mile Diet Pesto:

2 cups of basil, pesto, arugula, cilantro

1 handful of local hazelnuts, shelled and toasted

½ cup grated hardened cheese (I like Natural Pastures Boerenkaas, Amsterdammer and Hilary’s St. Clair)

a couple cloves of garlic

a couple glugs of olive oil.

salt and pepper to taste.

Blend ingredient all together into thick consistency. Great with grilled meats & veggies or tossed with some pasta. I also throw this in with some Marley Farms kiwi vinegar for a great vinegrette for a salad dressing. It's also a instant flavour booster for soups or a sandwich spread. I've even used as a crudite dip.

Have a great week!

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Asparagus Orgy

2007-05-23T11:53:00.001-07:00

For my asparagus loving readers, Slow Food Vancouver Island is hosting an asparagus feast tomorrow in Duncan. Here’s their invite. It looks like it's going to be a yummy celebration!

There’s also a local farm & food forum being hosted by local farm advocates, Jenny Macleod and Dr. Kathryn Gemmell, at Nanoose Place (2925 Northwest Bay Road) on Saturday (May 26th) from 1pm to 3pm. For more info go here (midpage). I’ll be there putting in my locally grown two cents;)

The farmer’s market season is off to a great start. I popped over to the opening of the Cedar Market a few weekends ago and the place was busy right from the get go. Local vegetables, meats, jams & preserves and bedding plants were amongst the locally grown offerings. I picked up a couple of tomato plant ( I couldn't resist) and a huge broiler chicken that DH is still waxing poetic about.

In a previous entry, someone had commented about hothouse veggies and their not-so sustainable growing process. Though I agree that corporate hothouses are petro-hungry machines, there are a few small, local independent farms that are using more sustainable technology to heat their greenhouse. Some have made it a priority to make their operation as self-sustaining and low impact as possible by creating a closed heating systems and other practices. Some of gone out of their way to reuse old building material and glass as construction material. Though they do leave a bigger footprint than local organic field crops, they leave a much smaller footprint than corporate hothouse farms. These small independent farms are growing for the island community, not for export. I figure since they’re growing to feed the community, the community ought to support them back. The farmers selling these veggies are more than happy to talk to you about their operations. I’ve already garnered a number of invitations to their farms to see just how they are run.

I’d rather see folks buy an island grown hothouse cucumber than one from some factory farm from the mainland. Though I would advocate eating these hothouse products less frequently, I still would encourage folks to support the local farmers that are striving for more sustainable practices.

I’ve often been asked about what I do for products like rice, sugar and coffee since those aren’t grown within the 100 mile radius. If I can’t help the local environment and farmers then I look for an option that leaves the smallest footprint and hopefully helps a local independent farmer somewhere else. Direct fair trade sugar and coffee are my choices. I’ve had a lifetime of eating rice so I don’t eat it much anymore. If I want something rice-like I usually opt for whole grains. True Grains bakery sells whole kernel organic kamut and spelt that is grown in the Peace River district. These only need to be soaked for 8 hours or overnight then boiled up like pasta until they’re cooked through. They are chewy and have a wonderful wholesome flavour. Since they are complete whole grains, you’re getting much more nutrients. I often cook up a triple batch and freeze the leftovers in 2 cup portions for future meals. They’re great wherever you would use rice or pasta.

The 100 mile radius is but a tool to a more mindful approach to eating. I certainly don’t expect folks to completely stop eating foods they enjoy just because it isn’t grown within the prescribed 100 mile radius. Considering eating less of these foods less frequently and finding more locally grown options. Do what you can for now and strive to do more. Take it one bite at a time. Many will complain that it seems like so much work to find locally grown products. Once you’ve discovered a new locally grown resource, it’s found and yours to use. Once you know better, do better.

Yes, there is going to be a shift in your shopping habits and schedule. Yes, grocery shopping might not be as convenient in that the farmer’s market and farm gate sales aren’t a one stop shopping blitz that is open to you whenever you want. Yes, it’s going to take some research. See it as a challenge and an adventure!

BTW, I’ve been dyeing and spinning a storm of locally grown yarns. It’s kind of addictive but I’m thrilled that I’m going to be able to clothe myself with locally grown garments AND be able to finally have yarn that suits my greatest colourway fantasies and not have to break the bank. For more, check out my 100 Mile Fiber Fest blog.

Have a great day!

Jen

Nanaimo’s 100 Mile Diet Challenge

What do you get when you cross…(updated)

2007-05-09T11:39:00.000-07:00

...a Bog Jacket with Tubey?

A) Booby Jacket :p

B) Tog Jacket

C) Boog Jacket

Whatever you want to call it, it looks something like this:

After finishing my ‘Broken Brocade’ a couple weeks ago I’ve been letting by brain mellow out with lots and lots of spinning. Between bouts of spinning, I worked on a prototype that would bring together two of my favorite sweater designs, the Bog Jacket from Elizabeth Zimmerman (in Knitting Around) and Tubey from Knitty.com. I love the simplicity and the innovative construction ideas of both. Most of all, I love the lack of seaming :)

The beauty of this sweater is that needs only one simple line of 3 needle bind off to finish it. This sweater served as a no-brainer project that I could do while catching up on my reading and it goes well with red wine :p

Knit one, read one...

It also serves as a prototype for my first big 100 mile fiber project that I’m going to dye, spin and knit. I’ll jabber more about that project at a later date.

For this jacket I used a cotton yarn that used to reside in this skirt:

That’s my Knitting Olympics skirt which was quite lovely but it just didn’t fall the way that I wanted it to. I only wore it a handful of times and I figured it didn’t really want to be a skirt. I wish it would have told me that before I started knitting it into a skirt. Oh well, it’s now happily a jacket.

I took the all-over construction idea of a bog jacket which basically is a rectangle cut up so it forms all the parts of shirt. It’s the basic design of the tops found worn by the famous bog people. Weavers love this design because it is simply matter of weaving up a rectangle and no part of the woven fabric is wasted.
The jacket before it's seamed up . The thumb trick has been removed and replaced with stitch holders.

I also used EZ’s thumb trick to open up the fabric to separate the front of the jacket from the sleeves. She also uses the same technique to form a neckhole. I substituted that neck shaping technique by borrowing the upper torso design construction from Tubey with a few modifications.

In Tubey, the neckline connects near the armhole. I needed the neckline to connect with the front inside edge and to also form a collar of sorts. To do that, I simply M1 by way of yarnovers every other row. I began these increases halfway through the sleeves portion of the rectangle. Once I finished the square, I also added about a dozen rows of short rows to make a semicircle to help make it fit a bit better.

The wavy inner edge is simply a matter of increased and decreases at 10 row intervals with a set of 10 regular rows in between.
My general inspiration for the look of the jacket was the result my ponderings of what a knitter in the Shire would make. Couldn’t you imagine a Hobbit lass sporting this little number?

For function, I needed a little something to throw onto myself when I’m in the garden. The cotton is machine washable and the sleeves are long enough to give me a bit of coverage but short enough to stay out of the way when I’m mucking about.

I’m calling this jacket ‘Fiddlehead’ after the fiddlehead shaped I-cord closure and it’s lovely fern color.

ETA: Thanks everyone for all your lovely comments! The Bog Jacket pattern can be found in Elizabeth Zimmerman's 'Knitting Around' and it's simply called the Bog Jacket. The thumb trick is also in that book and probably in all her other books. It's a nifty trick and I've found it to be a very useful technique for opening up the fabric for armholes, pockets and, of course, thumbs.

There is probably a knitting circle or two floating around Nanaimo. There is this Yahoo group link

Beyond the usual spontaneous and impromptu knitting circles that seem to blossom wherever I go, I belong to the Mid-Island Weavers & Spinners Guild. The members are a treasure of wisdom and inspiration and explore a whole range of textile arts beyond spinning and weaving. When I joined I was only driving a drop spindle and within a few months I was geared up with a second-hand wheel, drum carder, mountains of fleece and tribe of expert spinners that were more than happy to teach me the ropes. We meet once a month except for over the summer. If you're interested, drop a note to Eva Ryan at jbtufnail@bc.sympatico.ca or drop off a note in my comment box.

Enjoy!

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Farmers' market lunch break

2007-05-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

The Nanaimo Farmers' Market has been running for a few weeks now and today I finally managed to pop down for some lunch time grocery shopping. The market runs on Fridays from 10am to 2pm beside the Bastion on Front Street. Amongst all the craft tables you'll find locally raised poultry, meat, eggs, vegetables, fruit and garden seedlings. It's a great way to get your 100 Mile Diet produce.

I wandered down on foot with my backpack and came back with this 100 Mile Diet bounty:

A huge head of red lettuce, an English cucumber and chocolate and white bell peppers! I didn't even know you could get chocolate brown peppers. They're gorgeous and glossy and actually look like they could have come from a chocolatier's veggie patch ;)
The farmer says that they're sweet like the red bell peppers. I can't wait to play with my food!
For a list of Mid-Island Farmers' Markets and other farm-related events click here

Have a great weekend.

Jen

Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Rhubarb Rhapsody

2007-05-03T13:12:00.000-07:00

Rhubarb is popping up all over the island. Check out your local farm market and farmer’s market for this tart and yummy vegetable. Nanaimo’s Foodshare and Community Gardens is also hosting it’s Rhubarb Festival this Saturday. It’s being held at the Foodshare Centre on 271 Pine Street from 10am to 2pm on May 5. There will be fresh local rhubarb and other goodies for sale. Gardening experts will be available to answer your green thumb questions and tours of the community gardens will be given.

I adore rhubarb. I love it in pies, chutneys, jams, cakes, stewed, baked or simply dipped into a bit of sugar. I find that most recipes overwhelm this tangy veggie with way too much sugar in an effort to pummel its tart nature into submission. For shame! It’s charm is its tartness and it’s ability to add some zip into a dessert. Like cranberries, it also goes surprisingly well with some dark chocolate. I definitely have to experiment with a rhubarb chocolate chip sweet roll or muffin soon...

Usually I just chop up a couple pounds of rhubarb, along with a couple green apples and whatever else I have (plums, peaches, cranberries, blueberries), a pinch of cinnamon and couple tablespoons of local wildflower honey. I simply stew it up over low heat with a scant ½ cup of water. The fruit will also release quite a bit of water as well. Cook until the rhubarb is just softened. I usually wait until the end before adding softer fruit like plums and berries.

With my new bounty of rhubarb, I made a Rhubarb Cornmeal Cake. It’s a great fruity cake, perfect for tea time or a nice end to a meal. The recipe is a result of some kitchen experimentation and a craving for rhubarb baked treat.

Looks like the house elf got to the cake before I did ;P

Here’s the recipe:

2 lbs of rhubarb – fresh or frozen – washed and chopped into ½ inch pieces (you could also use other fruits like cranberries, apples, pears, plums, peaches, figs, grapes etc)

½ cup honey (or brown or cane sugar)

Group A - dry ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour ( I used a mix of True Grains bakery’s sifted flour and organic kamut flour)
½ cup polenta or corn meal
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Group B

½ cup butter
¾ cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Group C

1 cup whole milk yogurt

1-Mix fruit and honey together and let sit for about 1 hour to macerate. That’s fancy schmancy talk for suck the juices out of the fruit.
2- Preheat over 350F
3-In a medium sized bowl, combine together Group A (dry) ingredients
4-In a mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar. Once creamed well, add eggs and vanilla = Group B
5-With a spatula or wooden spoon, mix in Group A & C into Group B(butter mixture) alternating between A & C. Combine until it almost just combined. Do NOT overmix
6-Add in macerated fruit and fold in. The batter will look like the dog’s breakfast. Don’t worry, it’ll bake up fine.
7-Pour into a prepared 9-10 inch round pan (I used a 10 inch springform pan) and bake for 40-50 minutes.
8- Check with toothpick for doneness.Let cool on rack and enjoy!

Last night, I had my Spinners’ and Weavers’ Guild meeting and DH had a Guys’ Night In with a friend so we were going to be eating dinner at different times. I whipped up a batch of bison chili in the slow cooker for when the guys surfaced from their video games for a bite and it was piping hot and waiting for me when I got home from my meeting.

At the meeting, I took the opportunity to beg for advice on plying my handspun yarn. I had a roomful of experts that were more than happy to offer their words of wooly wisdom and give me a quick plying tutorial.

With the support and tutelage of my spinning mentors, I managed to finished my first 2-ply 100 mile yarn:

Ain't it sweet? :)

I'm so proud. I have it drying right now. My silly little brain is dizzy with ideas of what I could knit up. For more spinning babble check out my 100 mile fiber blog.

Have a great day!

Jen

100 Mile Diet Nanaimo Challenge

Fox is guarding the henhouse

2007-05-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

So the US has finally released an announcement stating that millions of chicken have been fed tainted pet food.

Of course, they'll also saying that there's 'minimal risk' to humans who have consumed these chickens. One of the contaminants, melamine, causes irritation of eyes, skin and throat. It has been linked to cancer and kidney failure in lab rats.

The other known contaminant that melamine is reacting with, cyanruic acid, is used for swimming pools and hot tub. Yes, an obvious ingredient for making pet food.

A spokesmans from the National Chicken Council is quoted comparing feeding chickens contaminated pet food with baking cupcakes. Obviously, he is taking this very seriously.

Funny, most Americans I know don't look anything like a guinea pig...

Buy local and remember, it's a kidney-shaped pool, not treat your kidneys like a pool. (I know that was kinda lame...)

I hate lawns

2007-05-01T08:44:00.001-07:00

Monday was spent doing all the stuff that I didn't get to over the weekend. The usual patchwork of housework, offering of sacrifices to the garden gods, sending out rays of my sardonic sunshine to this mad, mad world and dogpaddling my way through my email box. I didn't get to all of this over the weekend because I was in a epic battle against my nemesis, or at least one of them, The Lawn.

I hate lawns. Lawns are stupid. Lawns are evidence that we are stupid.

We're renting our abode at the moment but when we do buy our bit of paradise, there won't be a speck of lawn. There may be grass, but no lawn.

The Lawn is North America's arrogant pronouncement that he has conquered and enslaved nature. It's his way of showing that he has tamed the wild and made it bend at his will. It is his totem of civilization.

Of course, NA, has it's head so far up its arse that it has caused an gastrointestinal traffic jam. In other words, North America is the source of its constipation but is too blind to see because no matter how much sunshine you blow up there, it's still pretty dark.

Yep, we da man. We da man so therefore we feed, medicate, groom and water something simply to chop off it's head once a week! I don't get it. You can't eat it. It doesn't look all that remarkable and thanks to all the herbicides that it needs, it's more enviromentally harmful than it is beneficial. All it seems to do is tell the whole world, 'I'm so wealthy that I can afford to blow all my time, money and energy on this absolutely useless symbol of affluence.'

I don't get it but I had to mow the lawn because it was getting at the length that it would start harboring snakes, wasp nests and pygmy tribes. If it got any longer, I would have to hire a crew of migrant workers with machetes to take it down. So Saturday morning I popped a couple of antihistamines (of course I'm highly allergic to grass pollen) and went out to tackle The Lawn.

The grass had gotten so long that the gas mower blade kept jamming up. It was a inane dance that went something like this:
...5,6,7,8... take 14 pulls to start up the mower, the mower farts out puff of black smoke and growls awake, take two steps forward and have it jam up, shake and rattle the jammed grass out the blades, sashay the mower to already cut area (because it wouldn't start in the tall grass), and back to the top...6,7,8

I soon figured out that it wouldn't jam as much if I pulled the lawnmower backwards over the grass but this also left swirls of uncut grass. So I pulled the dang lawnmower twice over each pass of lawn.

GRRRRRRRR

3 hours later, my right arm aching and sore from constantly trying the start the gas guzzling lawn beast and shoulders and back like pulverized jello from pulling the mower over the lawn twice, I crawled in the shower and washed away the grass pollen, sweat, grime and frustration.

I spent the rest of Saturday recovering from my lawn epic with a pot of tea and an healing afternoon of knitting and an restorative evening of spinning, which is why I was still doing weekend chores yesterday :P

Monday was a total weekend leftovers day. I even finished up some spinning that I had started on Saturday:
It's a Targhee wool that I picked up last summer at the Duncan fibre sale. It's colourway is called 'Active Pass' which is what totally sold me. The kayaker in me couldn't resist such a name. I'm thinking of plying it with a solid cream or chocolate brown.

Dinner was also an affair of leftovers. DH and I went to the gym around 7pm. He went to workout and maintain his jedi powers so he can heal up from his shoulder overhaul. I went to burn off all the extra Energizer Bunny energy I had pent up from a day of puttering.

We got home at half past 8, hungry and tired. From this weekend's leftovers I pulled together a gnocchi with chorizo, spaghetti squash, kale and spinach. The greens were from the garden, the rest was bits and pieces residing in the tupperware condo in the back of my fridge. All of it island grown, of course.

In less than ten minutes we had this:

Dessert was the last pieces of a rhubarb, apple and cranberry pie I made over the weekend.
The fruit is all island grown. Spring rhubarb is finally coming up! Yippee! It was a lovely ruby toned ending to our day.

It's a pie version of my Fast & Dirty Baked Fruit from a family of recipes known as the 'Coppolas' . Here's the pithy recipe for that:

Couple of pounds of rhubarb washed and chopped
Couple of green or other pie apples washed and chopped
Couple of cups of cranberry or other berries
Couple of tablespoons of organic cane sugar or local honey
Couple of teaspoons of cornstarch
Couple of pinches of cinnamon and ground ginger

Toss and mix in large corningware container. Throw into a 350F oven for 40-50 minutes. Let cool and enjoy.

I know you're thinking that there's not enough sugar for that much fruit. If it's not sweet enough, I just drizzle a bit of honey or some grated dark chocolate when it's still warm. I personally find most processed foods and store bought desserts way too sweet. I prefer to let the sunshine sweetness of fruit colour the dish.

This baked fruit is awesome for breakfast with a bit of yogurt and and granola. Or as a topping with some fruit sorbet or vanilla icecream or cake. In a pinch, it can be turned into a chutney with a drizzle of cider vinegar and some spices. I've also used it as a surprise filling in muffins.

Happy Eating!
Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Fuzzy balls :p

2007-04-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

Stephanie, there's a cup of tea here for ya :)

Stephanie has brought these vetiver filled fiber balls to my attention and wondered if I had any hints for making them with leftover yarn. Well, yes and no.

Vetiver is an Asian grass mostly used for perfume. It's a major ingredient in many fragrances. The ones one that website look like their wrapped in cotton thread. I don't really know how to make those.

But there is a way to make wool felted balls that look like those. All you need is some fleece or roving, wool yarn leftovers, an old cheapo pantyhose, some warm water and soap.

Take the fleece and pull it into bits. Take a few pieces into your palm and start layering, one fleece layer onto another into a ball of fleece. Throw that into the toe of the pantyhose. Tie a knot so it's secure and does have any room to move about.

Repeat with the rest of the fleece. You'll end up with a pantyhose garland ;)

You can add bits of leftover yarn into the outer layers as a bit of decoration or not. It's up to you.

Toss it into a pillowcase. Tie up the top of the pillowcase. Toss the whole kit and kaboodle into the washing machine with hottest water and shortest cycle.
Then toss it into the dryer. Once dry, cut them out of the pantyhose.

The only thing you have to worry about is make sure you're using feltable fleece and roving. There are some sheeps' wool that don't fleece very well. You can buy dyed and undyed fleece from craft stores, LYS or call up your local sheep farmer.

Also, from what I hear and have read, stick with the cheapo saggy pantyhose. The fancy schmancy ones have something in them that somehow impedes the whole felting process.

You can use felted balls for kitty toys, pincushions, for decoration or make little ones by hand and string them together to make a necklace or bracelet. You can make a kitty toy that will drive everybody crazy by sticking a bell inside a lacerated tennis ball and felting the outside of the ball. Felting can be done in a sink of warm soapy water. Just simply rub and squeeze it until the wool starts felting.

Enjoy!

Would you like some poison with your pork chops?

2007-04-27T12:50:00.001-07:00

Dear Corporate Bigwigs,

When the latest pet food recall was making the airwaves, your so-called experts and corporate mouthpieces went out of their way to assure the public that it toxic chemicals that were killing our pets was not in any danger of getting into the human food supply.

Right. Sure. Whatever you say, Bucko.

Then how come 6,000 hogs in the US are being quarantined after eating the contaminated pet food. How come pigs are being fed cat food to begin with?

More importantly, according to Associated Press, "U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials said that meat from 345 hogs that ate tainted feed has already entered the U.S. food supply".

Now they're saying that the same contaminated pet food has been fed to factory farmed poultry. Yep, they feed dog food to chickens and chickens to humans. That means you're basically eating dog food in the form of factory farmed chicken meat. If you're lucky...

So, Dear Corporate Bigwibs, any more BS you want to feed the public???? What sort of faux food nightmare did you want to serve us for dessert?

Like we need another reason to support local meat producers instead of the corporate factory farms.

BTW, China is still denying that their products had anything to do with all these dead pets even though it just banned melamine, one of the contaminants, from it's food products. Kinda makes you wonder what else is lurking behind that 'Made in China' label.

To all pet owners, there is an expanding list of pet foods that have been recalled that now include dry foods, which up until recently has been deemed free of this contamination. Here's the cat food list and the dog food list.

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Food for thought weekend

2007-04-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

Firstly, thank you so much to everyone for their warm and encouraging response to my Broken Brocade sweater. It's very kind and generous of you all. Gina and Diane, I'm especially tickled by your comments. I do think about submitting patterns but you ought to see the pile of paper scraps with ticks and scribbles that make up my so-called patterns. You'd need a team of accountants, engineers and maybe a therapist to figure that mess out :p

*********

Congratulations to John Bishop of Bishop's restaurant fame in Vancouver for winning Vancouver Magazine's first Green Giant award. John has been at the cutting edge of forging relationships between farmers and restaurants in Vancouver. For those that are interested in some luscious local food porn, check out his new book: Fresh: Seasonal Recipes Made with Local Foods.

In my college days I would scrimp and save, brown bagging lunches and stretching out leftovers so I could splurge once in a while on a meal at one of Vancouver's fine restaurants. I'd rather spend money on eating out once every couple of months and have really amazing food than to go out each week for 'meh' food. Bishops was one of those places that I would save up for. Every once in a while, I'd be able to convince a fellow budding foodiphile to join me but more often than not, I would be dining alone. I would simply saunter through the meal, enjoying every morsel of food, every drop of sauce in my own company. It would be at restaurants of Bishop's caliber where a lone female diner like moi would be given the room and time to enjoy a meal without being made to feel like a pariah. The food would inspire me for weeks of experimenting in the kitchen and learning all I could about cooking and local food.

Looking back, those local and seasonal salad days were an amazing foundation for my 100 mile diet journey :)

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For those in the Capital Region, there's an important food and water event running from today through the weekend. Here's the announcement that I received from the Slow Food movement folks.

If you have an interest in food policy within the CRD, please try to attend the following conference which will take place on Saturday, April 28. In addition to Sinclair Philip’s brief presentation on some positions taken by Slow Food regionally, nationally or internationally, there will be a number of other members from Slow Food Vancouver Island who will be taking part in the discussion.

This is an all day event. The discussion on food and water issues will take place from 11:15 to 1:00 pm. Please come and make your own recommendations. Slow Food would really like to see all those with an interest in influencing CRD and regional municipal policies attend.

COMMON VISION, COMMON ACTION: Shaping Municipal Policy in the CRD
Saturday, April 28, 2007
10am-3pm
University of Victoria
David Strong Building

Featured Speakers:
Sonya Chandler, City of Victoria Councillor
Zeb King, District of Central Saanich Councillor
Jane Sterk, Township of Esquimalt Councillor
Linda Geggie, Lifecycles and CRFAIR
Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Research Institute
Dr. Sinclair Philip, Sooke Harbour House and Slow Food Canada
Jane Worton, Community-Based Researcher

Workshops & Plenary Discussions

Land Use and Transportation
Food Security and Water
Social Policy and Democratic Governance

Join us for this one-day conference to begin developing a common vision for the Capital Regional District, as a framework for common action. Environmental issues like climate change and social issues like homelessness can be tackled by citizens and elected officials. Let's work together!

Bring a bag lunch. Childcare and transit passes available.

Organised by the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG)

Supported by CUPE Island WaterWatch, IslandTransformations.Org, the Council of Canadians, Kairos, Wise DemocracyVictoria, the University of Victoria School of Social Work, and the Values-Based Business Network.

Agenda
10-10:40	Introduction and opening remarks by municipal politicians
10:40-11:10	Plenary discussion
11:10-11:25	Break
11:25-1:00	Workshops – presentations by speakers, then facilitated discussion on issues
1:00-1:30	Lunch/info tables
1:30-2:15	Closing Plenary – 5 minutes each to report back from workshops (speakers only) then plenary
2:15-3:00	Action meetings

Our Daily Bread

A discussion of our industrialised food system to follow this visually stunning and thought provoking film.

Featured Speakers:

April 26th & 27th
Robin Tunnicliffe, Local Organic Farmer
Richard Bocking, Filmmaker, Author, and Agricultural Economist

April 27th only
Abra Brynne, BC Food Systems Network
Derek Masselink, Agricultural Planner & Agroecologist

April 26th and 27th, 7 pm.
Human and Social Development Bldg Room A240, Uvic

Tickets: $5-10 sliding scale. Available at VIPIRG or at the door.

Presented by CRFAIR, VIPIRG, FoodRoots Distributors Co-operative, and Lifecycles

To register or for more informmation on either event, contact VIPIRG at 250.721.8629 or vipirg@vipirg.ca

Peachy day in on the Rusty Coast

2007-04-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was an intensive day of baking and an impromptu knitting lesson and even a wine lesson for me. At the end of the day, I was tired and blissed out on the joys of the day. This was dinner I managed to cobble together:

Island grown free ranged chicken, local onions and BC mushrooms sautéed and deglazed with a glassful of Cherry Point’s Coastal white wine. I finished it the sauce off with a pat or 2 of butter. The veggies are collard greens from Nanoose Edibles and were simple steamed with drizzled with some Marley Farms kiwi vinegar. Talk about 100 Mile Diet heaven!

Usually I would leave the chicken breast in one piece but DH’s left arm is in a sling due to his surgical overhaul. He looks like one part hunky husband and one part gimped T-Rex. LOL! Obviously he can’t use a knife and fork so everything has to be cooked bite-size so he shovel it all into his mouth with one utensil.

I’ve been scheming and dreaming a local wine and cheese tasting evening with my tribe of 100 Milers to celebrate spring and all the wonderful island grown vinos and artisan cheeses. As mentioned before, most island grown wines can be found at independent liquor stores and the gov’t stores do carry 1 or 2 of them. I was poking about a local wine store and struck up a conversation with the clerk, who was an local wine fan. I was informed that many of the vineyards on the mainland are bringing in red wine from as far as Chile to blend into their red wines. YIKES! It’s one of those dark secrets of the wine trade. Not all that Okanogan wine is actually from the Okanogan. Together, the wine clerk and I a bit of research and found that most of the local island wineries are truly locally grown wine. Yippee! Bring on the Bete Noire!

After my mini-wine lesson, I popped by a local yarn store for a mid-afternoon pick me up ;) and ran into my latest knitting apprentice. My apprentice has only been knitting for a month but what a month it has been! From the moment the needles were passed into her hands, it’s been full speed ahead.

Like most knitters, I have the honor of being a doorway to the wide world of knitting for non-knitters. Some just poke their heads in. Others take in a few steps, admire the view and find a nice comfortable spot to chill out or wander along the nicely patterned pathways. Every once in a while, I find someone that wants to explore the backcountry of this whole wide world.

I don’t refer to myself as a knitting teacher but more as a knitting guide. Where would you like to go today? The lovely province of Fair Isle? Perhaps a visit to lacework? How about a little bit of intarsia? It’s a nice day for some cabling.

Everyone learns and travel through this world of knits their own particular way. Some are comfortable and happy following patterns and I’m happy to show them any new techniques that come that way. Some just want to knit scarves and their lucky family and friends will have nice and toasty necks. For some, the quiet, meditative unbroken line of stockinette in the round is a perfect way to relax at the end of the day. I have a couple of knitting apprentices that are happy to experiment on their own terms.

The odd thing I’ve noticed is that despite how good they become, they seem to build a mental block about certain techniques. Some are fine playing around with stitch patterns, experimenting with knit and purl variations but are overwhelmed by the idea of cabling. Others are Aran phenoms but think lace is way beyond their capabilities. Many don’t dare venture beyond the printed page and some can’t fathom the idea of altering a pattern to fit their own bodies. Some (the smart ones) stay far away from doing intarsia.

Take it one stitch at a time, I say. It’s the only way to knit an elephant…or afghan…or…you get the picture.

Once in an indigo moon, I find someone who is eager to learn it all and experiment and be led by imagination and intuition. Such a person is my new apprentice. Who's piping in the ‘Emperor’s Theme’ from Star Wars???

Over a cup of tea taught her how to do short rows, mitering and other shaping techniques. You could almost hear the gears in her head turning as she took this new info and imagined all the spiffy ways to apply it. I can’t wait to see the wonderful knitting that will bloom from this new seed!
Samples of shaping experiments

For the baking part of the day, I made up a small peach galette. It was pretty easy peasy with a homemade pastry dough I found in the freezer and island grown peaches that I had canned from last summer. A sprinkle of island grown hazelnuts and a 30 minute spin in a 350F oven. A really long 30 minutes. Plus another super long 10 minutes to let the darn thing cool down enough so it would only scorch the roof of our mouths but wouldn’t burn it so bad that strips of skin would peel off.

Yes, it was absolutely divine. It’s during these younger months of the year that have me grateful that I spent the time last summer canning and preserving summer and fall’s bounty. Talk about a lesson in delayed gratification :p

The pastry dough is I used is Fast and Dirty pie dough recipe. I used sifted organic flour from True Grains, island butter and a touch of fair trade cane sugar. A bit of cold water and viola, you have a quick pastry dough. It’s a great pastry dough and it keeps for a few days in the fridge or a few months in the freezer. It’s a brilliant thing to have around for those times that you want a little something special or just because it’s so good to eat!

Have a great day!

Jen

Nanaimo's 100 Mile Diet Challenge

Breaking down the Broken Brocade

2007-04-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

WARNING!!! Knitting jabbering ahead. Not only is it knitting jabbering but it's geeky knitting jabbering. Proceed with extreme caution!!!!

I finally finished my Broken Brocade sweater!!!Yippee!!. The last leg of seaming and blocking was a much larger task than I had anticipated but then again, seaming and blocking are always hard for me.

The Broken Brocade sweater is my attempt at being clever. First and foremost, I wanted a lighter sweater for the spring. Of course, I'm not just going to knit a sweater simply for the sake of knitting a sweater. Heavens no. That would be just to logical. If I just wanted a sweater, I could just pop over to Value Village and pick up a sweater, But quite frankly, I don't really need a sweater. I needed an outlet for my fashionista id.

So began the journey now known as the Broken Brocade sweater. The Broken Brocade is my Contradiction Chic twist on historical fashion. It's inspired by Elizabethan styles and, of course, my secret love for brocade. I however don't own a stitch of it for clothing or decorating. When I do get a chance to try on something with brocade, I end up looking, well, stuffy and I feel like Mozart in drag. So that's how Broken Brocade began.

With a simple idea to design and knit a brocade sweater. I plotted out a couple different brocade patterns in the next couple of days. All was well until one night, I was smacked with a bad case of insomnia. My brain just wouldn't shut off and next thing you know, my simply brocade sweater became a sardonic commentary on Elizabethan sumpturary laws.

Somewhere between 3 am and dawn, my sleep hungry brain figured I needed to make a statement about the Elizabethan fashion. Queen Elizabeth I in 1576 decreed a series of laws that stated what colours, fabrics and even embellishments people of different titles and classes were allowed to wear. Similar laws were passed in other times and places. These laws were used as a way to control social behaviour and to reinforce class structures. Breaking these laws could mean facing a steep fine, loss of property or title or even execution. Pretty freaking severe, IMHO. Could you imagine losing your head over a slip of silk?

I have a fascination with clothing and identity and how fashion is used to shape a society in present day society as well as historically. The clothing laws are a fascination, ok, occasional obsession of mine. Nowadays, the idea of being punished for wearing a certain colour or fabric is unimaginable which is what makes these laws so interesting. Supposedly women even pushed their husbands to pursue higher social rankings just so they could wear tinselled satin.
So firstly, I had to design a sweater silhouette that would carry a whift of Elizabethan fashion. The silhouettes of that era were very geometrical with emphasis on a tiny little waist. I mimiced the triangular silhouette with a some shaping and ribbing and a wide, open collar.

One word about the collar, I had initially knitted a off the shoulder collar with a linen stitch border but upon trying the finished torso, I found it a bit too sloppy for what I had intended. Unfortunately, I had knitting the torso from the top down and so instead of painstakingly picking away at stitches, I simply threw in a lifeline and cut off the top band of the collar. I threw it back onto my needles and knitted up a new collar. Actually I knitted up 5 incarnations of collars before I was happy with it. I wanted something that would echo the drama of the collars at that time. I wanted a bit of height to the collar but I didn't want ruffles. I think the final collar carries a nice balance of drama and whimsy. It also echoes the poised and drama of Elizabethan gowns. Ack, so much stuffed into a collar! Oy!

My main tool of subverting Elizabethan sumptuary laws was with material choice and colours. I wanted to bring together royalty, upper and and lower classes into one. Firstly, I chose wool since it was one of the few materials lower class women were allowed to wear. I choose Louet Gems superfine merino wool, a superwash fingerling weight yarn and Lorna Laces sportweight yarn.

For the main colour, I chose the closest I could find to a Tyrian purple. Tyrian purple is a purple-red dye that orginiates from the city of Tyre and is madeby squishing up a bunch of sea snails. However, only one drop of dye comes from each snail, making for a very costly and stinky endevour. The resulting dye was a rich, deep colour that didn't fade, making it the darling of the upper class fashionistas. Queen Elizabeth I made it law that only royalty would be allowed to wear purple.

The secondary colour I chose was white, partly because it would provide a nice background for the purple. However it also was subject to Elizabeth's laws. White was a difficult colour to get and one that suggested that you had servants to do you work for you so you wouldn't get your white's dirty. I brought in a blues, greens and browns into the background to break up the white. These colours were of assigned to a range of class standings below nobility and royalty and are a metaphor for the lower classes breaking through the upper standings. (I'm such a geeky proletariat)

With a lower class material, colours of royalty, upper and lower class all mingling together in one garment, what would Queen Lizzy say?

Anyways, here's my fashion spread for the Broken Brocade sweater. I'm going to get a glass of wine. A really big glass of wine ;)

Victoria, 100 mile style (updated)

2007-04-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

We’re coming to end of our stay in Victoria and getting ready to rickshaw my DH back up the island. This leg of our stay included a mirthful dinner at our friends, P & S. The table was heavy with delectable foods including a wonderful homemade pork pie with Sloping Hills pork, a great selection of local sausages, a local venison risotto, salmon and great company. It was like I had never left home. It’s such a pleasure to dine other 100 milers, like P & G, who appreciate the importance of supporting the local agriculture. Beyond that, these folks respect great food and are wonderful cooks. P even makes his own proscuitto! I think we’re going to be visiting Victoria more often ;)

Also during this last visit, I got a chance to roam about Victoria while DH was cloistered in his video game cocoon. I got to wander for hours poking about down Victoria’s meandering streets and made a few local food discoveries. Just a 20 minute walk from where we were staying is Aubergine, a small grocery store that stocks produce from Saanich and a wide range of local dairy and meats. Even this early in spring, they already had a good selection of fresh vegetables. They’re located on Cadboro Bay Rd and Estevan. In another wandering spree in the Oak Bay neighbourhood, I discovered the Village Butcher, a full-service butcher shop, specializing in free-range, ethically raised products and local meats. They’re located at 2250 Oak Bay Ave, across the street from Ottavio deli and bakery. Speaking of Ottavio , they offer a great range of local cheeses and other local products.

EAT magazine’s recent issue is all about eating green and there’s plenty of info about eating locally. The magazine & its archives are available online once you register. There’s articles about how to make your kitchen more environmentally friendly, a 100 mile menu, the Green Table project and the usual toothsome articles about local good eats and drinks.

I also found a delightful knitting circle, a quiver of new kayaking and climbing friends, a great secret spot for fiddlehead picking and an awesome used bookstore. What a full week! Who would have thought that playing Florence Nightmaregale to my Frankenhusband would be so enterprising?

ETA- Mike, if I told you my secret fiddlehead picking spot, it wouldn't be a secret, eh? Actually, I have no idea how the streets in Victoria work. It's as if someone took a perfectly gridded city, threw in a gigantic civic planning fork into the center and twirled the streets like spaghetti. So all I can really tell you is that the fiddlehead spot is two corkscrew turns off Cadboro Bay Rd, a sharp left to a 5 way stop (yep, you heard me). Take the 3rd prong down to the end of a dead end street, follow a small overgrown footpath down a slope, around the corner to a small wooded area overrun with ferns. Make sure they're from Ostrich ferns and not in an area that would be sprayed with chemicals. Some ferns are poisonous, so be careful you know your ferns. There was a fiddlehead food scare in the 90s.
Or you could just head down to your local farm mart, farmers market or even grocery store and pick some up there. Look for firm green, tightly coiled fiddleheads. They can be blanched and frozen if you manage to get yourself a huge haul.

Have a great day!

Jen