Weekend feasting calendar

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

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.

Cedar Farmer's Market field trip

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

Smoking Tuna

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

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

Mountain & Market Jewels

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

Running on fumes

*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.

The garden that ate Tokyo

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

Biodiesel, Berries, Borsht and Bikers

Please excuse the mess. The kitchen is a disaster zone. You might want to keep your shoes on. It’s been crazy around here & the house-elf is down in the Baja for some house-elf conference…

So Thursday, I popped over to MalU for the Climate for Change Fall Fair. Talked to some very cool folks including Daryl from a Biodiesel group down in Duncan. The guy is running his car on veg oil from a freaking Chinese restaurant! I’m loving that J.

Supposedly, as long as you’ve got a diesel engine, you can run on used restaurant oil too. He even told me that the residual by-products are glycerin and soluble potash. Sounds great but what about the smell? I mean, I’ve spent much of my life smelling like bowels of a restaurant and one of the perks of my non-chef life is not having my whole body reek of eau de french fry. No worries, according to Darryl, most used cooking oil burns without a smell, with the exception of oils from fish ‘n chip shops. That was a bit strong, he warned. But you end up being very popular with cats…

Now onto Friday, um…

What the frig happened on Friday?

I started off with a trip over to Gabriola Island on Saturday morning. The morning promised a bright, shiny fall day and I was already peeling off my cardigan by the time I walked onto the 9:30am ferry.

I brought my knitting with me. I’m starting up the X’mas factory early. This year I’m knitting leaf-lace scarves for the gals and fisherman scarves for the guys. Let’s hope my wrists hold up. The 20 min. ferry ride over to Gabriola Island gave me time to squeeze in a few rows. Lately, I haven’t had much time for long knitting sessions with all that’s been happening. My first scarf of this bunch took a whole freaking week! It’s a good thing I’m getting an early start this year.

The timing of the ferry was perfect with the start of the farmer’s market. By the time I wandered up the hill, it was opening up for business. I made my way to the back of the market, to the Good Earth farm stall. The table was heavy with the most beautiful veggies. There were raddichio the size of basketballs. The chard was bright and plump. I picked up a mesh bag of a variety of onions, some green beans and a couple of golden beets that were the size of baseballs. (What’s this weird compulsion to compare food to sports equipment?)

Right next to the farm stall was Slow Rise Bakery. Though they don’t use locally grown grains, they are on the right path with organic grains and artisan baking techniques. I picked up a dark chocolate panini to help fuel the rest of my morning. Didn’t you know, dark chocolate panini is the official breakfast of champions. Good thing since I ran out of the house with my belly tank near empty. The bread was chewy and had a good sour tinge to it. The chocolate was deep and bitter and generously filled the center of the bread. It’s one of those things that I think about baking myself but don’t for fear that I’ll just end up with a burnt tongue and in a sugar coma within 10 seconds after they come out of the oven.

I wandered down to the Auld Alliance Farm stall. There, the lovely Jocelyn, was selling her line of fruit infused vinegars, chutneys and mustards. The vinegars aren’t from a local producer, however the fruit she uses in them are from her own farm. Good enough for me. I am a huge fan of her fruit infused vinegar and she suggested the Pear Balsamic Vinegar this time. I picked up a small bottle and a couple of pounds of grapes from her. The grapes are also from her farm and were picked just the night before. Don’t they look like something out of Bacchus’ playground?

My final stop was Ike, the apple farmer. He was thrilled to hear that I was helping spread the 100 Mile Diet idea. I was thrilled to have farmers like him growing something other than the usual factory farm apples. He had around a dozen different varieties of apples and a few pears varieties today, including heritage varieties and some of my favorite baking varieties. I was doing a little inner-happy dance! Without any consideration for the hike back home, I ended up picking up several pounds of apples for a dollar a pound. Good thing my backpack has a good support system!

After a quick coffee stop, I headed back down to the docks just in time to catch the ferry back to Nanaimo. The hike back home along the seawall was filled with a jumble of ingenious scheming for my apple bounty, heron sightings, a quick snacking stop through a secret blackberry bush for the last of the season’s berries and a not-so-quick knitting stop on the breakwater.

The afternoon was filled with a steady but mellow baking session, berry jamming and other preparations for the SOS Toy Run on Sunday. By the time the flour settled it was nearly 8pm and I hadn’t given much of a thought to dinner. I decided to whip up a pot of borsht. It’s one of my favorite cold weather peasant soups. BTW 'Peasant soup' is a fancy way of saying freaking dirt cheap.

Here’s my Fast & Dirty Borsht recipe

4-5 medium beets – peeled & chopped into bite size chunks

2-3 cups cabbage -shredded (doesn’t really matter what variety, they’re all good in this)

2 red onions- sliced fine

2 tbsp vinegar – either apple cider or balsamic. I used my locally grown apple cider vinegar.

Veggie stock 1-2 litres

Salt & pepper

1 tbsp Fats/oils – I used smoked bacon drippings for an extra layer of flavour and because it’s soooo good. It’s from locally smoked bacon from Quist Farm Meats. You can use whatever you have on hand

Basically, heat up the oil over medium heat. Throw in the red onions and let that caramelize up good and brown. Then simply toss in everything else. Add enough stock so it covers the ingredients plus a couple cups more for extra soupiness. Bring it to a boil then lower it to a simmer for 20-30 mins. Salt and pepper to taste. Voila! Fast and dirty borsht.

We had it with some Black Russian Rye that I baked and Hilary’s blue goat cheese, Sacre Bleu. Mon dieu, that’s my kind of peasant dinner!

Sunday started with a 6am wake-up call. After a couple rounds of snooze alarm bingo, I scrape myself out of bed and got going to the Coombs Rodeo Grounds for the S.O.S. Biker Toy Run. S.O.S. (Society of Organized Services), has been running this Toy Run for 23 years and they do such important work helping out families in need throughout the year.

I big 'HELLO' to everyone at the SOS Biker Run. It was grand meeting you all!

It’s such a fun event for everyone and I got to meet some really interesting folks from all over the Island. I talked to the fella who runs the pink & purple ice-cream truck down at Maffeo-Sutton park. He’s planning on making fresh fruit smoothies and milkshakes using local cranberries and other berries next year. That’s so good to hear!

I gave out samples of locally grown food, encouraged folks to have a 100 Mile Thanksgiving and shared stories and insights with some kindred souls. Food is the constant connector, one of the few things that you can talk about with anyone, anywhere. We all have childhood memories and pivotal food moments that we love to share and that connects us with others. Many folks talked about past family Thanksgivings and the gathering of local bounty. Other shared with me recipes and even harvesting tips. I had a blast!

I made a cranberry-blueberry preserve from all locally grown products. It was a big hit. It’s basically 2 lbs of fresh/frozen cranberries (I got mine from Yellow Point Cranberries), 1 lb fresh/frozen blueberries, ½ cup – ¾ cup dark honey, 1 cup of unsweetened apple juice, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar. Dump the ingredients into a pot, bring it to a boil and let it simmer away for 20-30 until it's thickened up a bit. You can use sugar, preferably organic cane sugar since it imparts a nice caramel taste, instead of the honey. I like it a bit tart as a cranberry sauce or fruit spread. You can up the cider vinegar to 3 tbsp, throw in ¼ tsp hot red chili pepper flakes for a chutney.

At noon, the Toy Run rumbled out of the rodeo grounds. Hundreds of bikers took to the roads in a black leather, roaring snake-like caravan, collecting toys along the way so underprivileged kids will have something cool to unwrap on X’mas morning. I Heart Bikers.

I got home by the early evening and went for a wander down to the beach to soak up the last few rays of the weekend. Later on, Kevin and I had a rerun of last night's peasant meal, shared a bottle of Scrumpy cider from Merridale Cidery while watching Terminator 4. I know I said that I hate watching TV while eating dinner, but it just felt right to be eating real, homey food while watching a movie about technology destroying the world.

Happy Eating!

Jen

Nanaimo 100 Mile Diet Challenge