April: Home Gardening

Slow Foodies are locovores. This does not mean that they are “loco” (though it doesn’t mean they aren’t either!); it refers to the emphasis that the Slow Food Movement puts on eating locally grown food. While we in Pelham are fortunate in having an abundance of local food producers, from farm gate and fruit stand sellers to the Pelham Market, there is nothing more local than a backyard garden.

This is the time of year to consider turning some of that useless grass in the backyard into a beautiful, useful, nutritious, and delicious vegetable garden. Have you ever stopped to consider how much time (not to mention gasoline and oil) we waste cutting grass in the name of a green carpet that has no use other than to look like everyone else’s green carpet? It’s estimated that between 30 and 60 percent of urban freshwater use goes into watering lawns, and the cost of keeping North American lawns beautiful is well over $25 billion annually. Converting even a little of your lawn to garden is not only satisfying and productive, it’s downright environmentally responsible!

Late April is a good time to plan your garden, decide what plants you’d like to grow, and choose a plot of land. In early May, you can turn the soil over, breaking up the turf as you go, and then turn it over again and rake it out before planting around the Victoria Day weekend. This is the traditional planting time in southern Canada, as it usually ensures that the last frost of the winter is behind us and the tender young plants have a good shot at growing up.

Avid gardeners will have already begun raising their tomatoes and peppers and herbs from seed in a cold frame or home greenhouse, so on the 24th of May they can transplant their seedlings into the prepared soil. For most of us, this is advanced gardening, and we are much more likely to bypass the seed stage in favour of buying seedlings from a grower just before putting them in the ground. Several growers have seedlings for sale at the Pelham Market, and they are always happy to give suggestions for planting and nurturing the young plants. Other vegetables like lettuce and carrots and beans and peas are grown right from seed, and the seeds, in infinite varieties can be purchased from garden centres or specialists like Tree and Twig (see below).

If you’re like me, an impediment to home gardening is a combination of laziness and travel. I’m not home for stretches of time during the summer months, and when I am around, I’m more likely to want to go fishing or cycling or hiking or… just about anything than plucking weeds out of the garden. As a result, I have become a big believer in biodegradable mulch. This stuff comes in long rolls of post-consumer recycled paper, and can be laid out between the rows of plants or used to cover the whole garden before holes are punched in it where the seedlings are planted. The mulch prevents weed growth, holds water in the soil, and attracts solar heat… all of which make your plants thrive. OK, it isn’t as pretty as well maintained, weed-free soil, raked and hoed to perfection, but it makes home gardening a do-able proposition for folks like me.

Here are few resources for home gardening information:
www.treeandtwig.ca This is the website of Tree and Twig in Wellandport… an absolutely fabulous resource for organically grown seedlings, including many heirloom varieties. Make note: Tree and Twig has its annual seedling sale on May 22and 23.

www.canadiangardening.com This is the website of Canadian Gardening Magazine and has dozens of articles for everyone from the rank beginner to the semi-pro, geared to conditions in Canada.

www.vegetablegardeners.com This is the site for beginning gardeners. It contains all the information and advice you need for getting started.

March: Breakfast

Is breakfast really the most important meal of the day, as folk lore (and probably your mother) would have it? For those of us who find eating breakfast a chore and would just as soon skip the meal entirely except for a couple of cups of coffee, the answer is depressing. Yup. Studies clearly show that eating breakfast has a multitude of benefits… more than either of the other two main meals of the day.
Several studies of school children have made it clear that for children and adolescents especially, a healthy breakfast is a huge factor in the ability to concentrate, problem solve, and perform tasks requiring hand-eye co-ordination. Additionally, breakfast provides increased strength and endurance for physical tasks.

There is also clear evidence that a healthy breakfast is an important factor in weight loss. Those who skip breakfast calories more than make up the caloric intake later in the day, either by eating high sugar snacks (like doughnuts or candy bars) to keep them going during the morning, or by having a larger lunch. The National Weight Control Registry reveals that of people who lost 30 pounds or more and kept it off for a year, more than 80 per cent regularly eat breakfast.

There’s an important factor here: not just any breakfast will produce the beneficial results. We’re talking about a nutritional breakfast, one high in lean protein and fibre. No doughnuts, no high-sugar processed cereal, no white bread with jam. Many nutritionists say that the best way to get a good shot of lean protein in the morning is to eat an egg with pea meal (Canadian) bacon, while fibre can be added with whole grain cereal or bread. How you cook your egg and bacon also has an effect: a McDonald’s Sausage McMuffin with Egg, for example, gives you 51 per cent of all the saturated fat you should have in an entire day, 86 per cent of the cholesterol, and 39 per cent of the salt! Boiled or poached eggs are best, but any preparation that uses a minimum of fat and salt will provide the protein you want without the nasty stuff.

So, according to nutritionists, an ideal breakfast might be two boiled eggs, a slice of Canadian bacon, whole wheat toast, and an orange. But what about those of us who find breakfast a) a chore to undertake first thing in the morning, and b) more than we care to put in our stomachs before heading off to work or school? While it isn’t perfect, a thoughtfully concocted Smoothie will supply many of the benefits of the ideal breakfast without the hassle or bulk.

My recipe for a breakfast Smoothie is infinitely variable, and there are lots of good recipes out there (try www.breakfastrecipesbymom.net for example). But I’ve been enjoying this morning drink for years, and find it (along with two cups of strong coffee) both gives me a good start to the day and keeps me from snacking until lunch. Far from being a chore to drink, it tastes like a fruit milkshake.

Breakfast Smoothie
Put 1 to 1 ½ cups of orange, pineapple, or other juice in a blender. With the blender running, add ½ cup of yogurt, ½ frozen banana, ¾ cup frozen fruit (strawberries, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries are favorites), ¼ cup of whey protein (available at health food and other stores), and ½ cup of granola or other whole grain cereal. When all the ingredients are dissolved and the shake has a smooth consistency, it’s ready to drink. Hint: While the blender is running, make sure you have the lid on and add the frozen stuff through the feed tube, or you’ll redecorate your kitchen.

February: Jerusalem Artichokes

The Jerusalem Artichoke is the ugly step sister in the world of root vegetables. Even the lowly parsnip is more appealing-looking, and maybe this accounts for its almost complete anonymity. No one seems to know what it is or what to do with it. And yet, here is an indigenous vegetable, native to our area, that is easily grown in any garden, and quite tasty if prepared with imagination.

First, let’s dispense with the myths. The Jerusalem Artichoke is neither an artichoke nor from the Holy Land. It is a member of the sunflower family, and its stems and flowers are very much like small sunflowers. There are several theories about the “Jerusalem” part; the one I like is that it’s a corruption of the Italian for sunflower: “girasole.” Samuel de Champlain, the early explorer of much of eastern Canada, sent samples back to France and said they tasted like artichokes, so maybe we have him to thank for the mistaken “artichoke” part of the name. Current practice is to call the plant “Sunchoke” in order to get away from the Jerusalem/sunflower misnomer, and one promoter tried to popularize the name “Canadian potato” without any success.

It is the root or tuber that is cultivated, and it grows vigorously. If left alone, it will quickly spread and take over your whole garden. The root is gnarly and irregular in shape, usually around 10 cm long, and light brown. Sunchokes (let’s call them that from now on) are not too common in grocery stores, unfortunately, but from time to time they will appear in the produce section. The tuber is rich in fructose because, like other members of its family, it produces inulin rather than starch and is used in the production of sugar, thanks to its high crop yields and ease of cultivation.

Unfortunately, the Sunchoke has a strike against it as a table vegetable: many people don’t digest inulin very well, and this leads to a… um… indelicate after-effect. In the words of Gerard’s Herbal (1661) quoting planter John Goodyer, “which way soever they be dressed and eaten, they stir and cause a filthy loathsome stinking wind within the body, thereby causing the belly to be pained and tormented, and are a meat more fit for swine than men." OK, this is over the top, but there is no question that in some people, the Sunchoke has the same effect that beans are famous for. Enough said on that subject.

Sunchokes can be eaten raw or cooked, but require a delicate hand in cooking; they cook much faster than potatoes and can become mushy quite quickly. Steaming is a better option than boiling. Raw, they may be chopped or shredded and used in salads as a tasty and unusual addition. Young, freshly harvested ones are best for this purpose, as they are more tender and have a finer texture. Like potatoes and apples, Sunchokes will darken with exposure to air, so once they are cut, mixing them with a little lemon juice will keep them from discolouring.

Most often, Sunchokes are used as an interesting alternative to potatoes or parsnips in virtually any recipe. There are many recipes for Sunchoke and leek soup, Sunchoke and potato gratin, and Sunchoke chowder. I have put them in the roasting pan to bake alongside roast beef, and they absorb some of the beef dripping flavour… a very nice side dish served whole on the plate with sweet potatoes. Just don’t overcook them: about half the time that potatoes would take is enough to make the Sunchokes firm but tender.

The Pelham Slow Food Convivium has its own page on the Slow Food Canada website, where events and activities are announced and reviewed www.slowfood.ca .

To contact Renée Girard, the leader of the Pelham Convivium regarding membership, activities, or other information, write to prima_renee@hotmail.com .

Slow Food Pelham's January Meeting

Slow Food Pelham's meetings are gastronomic events in themselves. This month, Renee specified that our pot-luck theme would be Scandanavian food... a decision that was not met with universal enthusiasm, but which turned out to be inspired. The Slow Foodies seated communally around Renee and Daniel's long table in front of the fireplace were treated to pickled herring with red cabbage, home made gravlox with capers, potato and vegetable casserole, fried Scanadavian-style bread cheese, boiled potatoes with various sauces... and for dessert, licorice pudding, whipped cream-stuffed buns, and fruit soup. Not a Swedish meatball in sight.

We'll soon be posting all the recipes from our pot-luck dinners on the Pelham Convivium section of the Slow Foods Canada website.

This was a planning meeting, so various projects were put forward and these will form the framework of our upcoming year.

• a Slow Food cycling tour around Pelham and neighbouring regions. This will be in the form of a map-brochure which will outline routes that will take cyclists past local food producers, from cheese shops to market gardens to organic growers to bakeries. Once this has been completed, we will discuss having a one-day cycling event.
• a Slow Food oriented dinner at the Keefer Mansion in Thorold
• a repeat of last year's Cassoulet evening... this time to be held at Alvento Winery in Vineland
• an arranged tour of Upper Canada Cheese
• a repeat of the tour of Clos Jordanne
• visits to local farms and gardens such as Vivek's greens, and Mr. Knight's exemplary garden in Ridgeville
• a "foraging" evening featuring wild plants, vegetables, and mushrooms, along with game... in conjunction with a talk by Adam Shoalts who writes the natural world column for The Voice of Pelham
• a presence at the Pelham Market, perhaps in the form of comparison tastings of local and imported produce
• and the annual Featherstone Winery lamb roast in early September

January: Cooking Under Pressure: Slow Food… Fast

The term “Slow Food” is often misunderstood. As I’ve noted in this column in the past, when I first heard of the organization I assumed it was devoted to taking a long time to cook savoury meals. Instead, the term was coined in reaction to everything that “fast food” represents, from poor quality ingredients of unknown origin to hastily gobbled meals served in plastic environments. “Slow food” can actually be cooked quite quickly, so long as the ingredients are of high quality and locally produced, and the meal is consumed in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere. A stir-fry, for example, can and should be very quickly cooked from the highest quality ingredients.

However, it is often the case that “slow food” is, indeed, the product of cooking techniques that take time. I think of slow-cooked stews and pot roasts, pasta sauces and soups, chili, pulled pork, and tagine. The slow cooker is an ideal technique for these dishes and provides an excellent method for busy cooks to produce slow-simmered meals easily and conveniently. Another, and in many ways superior, method of cooking these hearty “winter” meals is the pressure cooker.

Apparently, interest in the pressure cooker is reviving in Canada. Very popular in the post-war years, the device suffered from poor manufacturing standards and difficult to use technology and fell into disfavour in the 1960’s after widely publicized kitchen disasters involving exploding pot roasts and kitchens redecorated with pressure-applied soup. In Europe and Asia, pressure cookers never disappeared, and it is manufacturers from those parts of the world that are now supplying the high-tech, safe, foolproof pressure cookers now on the market here.

Why use a pressure cooker? There are four reasons to consider cooking under pressure: speed, nutrition, flavour, and economy.

Pressure cooked meals take about one third as long as the same meal cooked conventionally. In other words, you can produce a delicious pot roast that has all the attributes of a long-simmered, carefully tended meal in less than an hour. And it will have retained more of the nutrients, taste better, and cost less to make than the stove-top or oven version.

Because the meal is cooked in a sealed environment, nothing is boiled off or allowed to escape. Vegetables retain virtually all of their nutrients (and their vivid colour) in contrast with boiling or even steaming which leach the nutrients out of the food. Furthermore, pressure cooking requires no fat or oil. And the taste of the original food is retained the same way that nutrients are. The only way to get food that tastes better or has more nutritional value is to eat it raw.

As for economy, pressure cooking uses less energy because it takes less time and is cooked at lower heat than any other method. It also allows the use of cheaper, tougher cuts of meat, since the pressure process tenderizes as it cooks. A demonstration of the first pressure cooker in the 17th century for King Charles II of England and The Royal Society reduced “ the bones of beef, the best for clearness and good relish, and the most delicious that I had ever seen, or tasted” according to one of the guests.

So what’s the down side? Darned if I know. I’ve used a pressure cooker for about 40 years, moving from one of the old “rocker top” models to a high-tech, double-valved, gleaming, Italian job that is as functional as it is impressive-looking. Here’s one of my favorite recipes, adapted from The New Pressure Cooker Cookbook by Pat Dailey.

Capitol Bean Soup
(reputed to be the soup served in the Senate dining room on Capitol Hill in Washington)

½ lb Great Northern beans, soaked overnight and drained
4 Cups water
1 large smoked ham hock or smoked turkey thigh
1 small onion minced
1 stalk of celery minced
2 Bay leaves
Combine all the ingredients in the pressure cooker and bring up to full pressure. Reduce heat to maintain 15 lb. pressure and cook for 25 minutes. Release the pressure and remove the Bay leaves and hock. With the back of a spoon, mash some of the beans to thicken the soup and add the shredded meat from the hock along with salt and pepper to taste.

Pelham Slow Food Celebrates Terre Madre Day

Terra Madre Day, December 10, was observed in the most convivial and delicious style by the membership of Pelham Slow Food at Pan Cafe in St. Catharines. Proprietor (and Slow Food member) Alex presented a menu of locally sourced foods (menu below) and credited the producers in her introduction to each course. Guests were encouraged to bring their own wine, and a nice variety of local Niagara wines appeared, including Inniskillin, 13th Street, Organized Crime, Creekside, and Vineland Estates.

Alex also offered a toast to Mother Earth that eloquently summarized the need for consciousness-raising organizations such as Slow Food, and events such as Terra Madre Day. Twenty-seven glasses were raised to those sentiments.

The Pelham Convivium joined 108 other convivia around the globe in honouring Mother Earth on this designated day, and a picture of the group will join pictures from all the other convivia on the Slow Food Website to mark this first Terra Madre Day.

The Menu for Pelham Slow Food's Terra Madre Dinner at Pan Cafe

Appetizer: local goat’s cheese, bread (de la Terre bakery), figs (St. Lawrence Market)

Soup: butternut squash (St. Catharines market) with roasted garlic (Vivek)

Main Course: roasted duck legs (Lakeland Farms) with red cabbage and mashed potatoes with celeriac (Vivek)

Salad: Vivek’s Greens with a maple vinaigrette (White Meadows Farms)

Dessert: Cheesecake with apple compote (Beamer's Orchards)

espresso/cappucino

December 2009: A Tradition of Christmas Feasting

With Christmas just around the corner, many of us are already preparing for the feast which inevitably accompanies the celebration. Like Thanksgiving, Christmas dinner is an ideal Slow Food meal (not that we’d want to feast like that every day!) It is traditionally cooked at home, usually made up of ingredients that are mostly local, and consumed in a convivial atmosphere with family and friends.

Although our North American Christmas traditions are well established, they aren’t really that old…nor are they shared by much of the rest of the world. In fact, even in the Christian tradition, feasting at Christmas was not part of the celebration of Christ’s birth until about 800 years after the Nativity. Even the date of the Nativity was not set in the Christian calendar until more than 350 years after it happened, with January, March, April, and May at different times being recognized as the month of Jesus’ birth. It seems certain that the December 25th date was settled on for its association with the rebirth of the sun at the winter solstice. The date had been in use by many religions previously to recognize the sun’s victory over winter darkness.

However, once Christians settled on a date and decided it should be marked by feasting, they got to work with enthusiasm. Kings Charlemagne, Edmund, and William the Conqueror were crowned on Christmas amid huge celebrations and lavish meals, and Richard II marked Christmas in 1377 with a feast that featured 28 roast oxen and 300 sheep! In reaction to the excesses of Christmas feasting, the Puritans banned Christmas during their tenure in power in 17th Century England, and the Puritans who arrived on the Mayflower continued to outlaw the celebration of Christmas in the Boston area between 1659 and 1681. In fact, the United States has frequently been ambivalent about Christmas, and stopped celebrating it for years after the Revolutionary War, depicting it as an “English” celebration!

It really wasn’t until the 19th century that Christmas as we know it began to take shape in North America. And, largely through the influence of television, the North American Christmas has become the pervasive style in much of the world. I was startled to see Christmas displays in Athens shop windows that featured mounds of cotton-batten snow and icicle-dripping pine trees. Pictures from tropical Brazil show the same geographically impossible conformity to the North American ideal.

However, many nations have feasting celebrations that have very little in common with ours, except that Christmas is an opportunity for friends and family to sit down together, enjoy each other’s company, and take part in the tradition of the Christmas feast. In Australia, Christmas is right at mid summer, so the feast might be shrimp, steak, and chicken cooked on the barbecue at the beach. In Norway, as in many other countries, the feast is held on Christmas Eve, and Norwegians might enjoy cod, haddock, and lutefisk for their family meal. Similarly, the Portuguese traditional Christmas feast is salted dry codfish with boiled potatoes, eaten at midnight on Christmas Eve. In Jamaica, it’s rice, peas, chicken, ox tail and curried goat, while Czechs enjoy fish soup, eggs, and carp.

Whatever the tradition, whatever the ingredients, whenever it’s served, the Christmas meal is another opportunity to see the ideals of the Slow Food Movement in action. Enjoy yours at home with family and friends!