When it comes to eating in the summertime, no one does it better than the folks in the South of France. From Languedoc across Provence, the Mediterranean French are blessed with an abundance of spectacular vegetables, fruits, meats, fish, and wine that makes their markets a food-lover’s orgy. Every small village has a farmers’ market with mountains of colourful produce on display, from enormous tubs of olives to mountains of tomatoes, from bins of garlic bulbs to ice-lined counters of fresh fish. Mediterranean cookbooks are full of delicious ways to prepare this bounty, and most feature seductive pictures of a rustic old table beneath a spreading tree, covered with a brightly patterned cloth, and loaded with fresh vegetables, chilled wine, and crusty baguettes. It looks too good to be true.
But it isn’t. On our first visit to the South of France, Valerie and I were invited to a family gathering at a villa overlooking the Mediterranean in the tiny Provencal village of Les Lecques. The scene could have been clipped from any of the gorgeous photographs featured in the pages of glossy cookbooks. All the vegetables you can think of were piled on plates and bowls along with hard-boiled eggs, grilled fish, shrimp, and bowls of a creamy mayonnaise for dipping. But this wasn’t your mother’s mayonnaise or anything from a jar; this was pungent, garlicky “aioli,” the famous sauce that gives its name to the entire meal. The feast consisted of grazing on the bountiful vegetables, fish, and eggs … every mouthful laden with gobs of aioli… and all washed down with pitchers of chilled local rosé. Unforgettable.
In Southern Ontario, we can duplicate this feast in August and September with our own bounty, which, while not as long-lasting as the produce of the Mediterranean, is every bit as good in the relatively short harvest period.
Among the vegetables to put on the table, include green onions, sliced carrots, cucumbers, peppers, and celery, radishes, fennel, cauliflower, broccoli rosettes, cherry tomatoes, cooked beets, fingerling potatoes and green beans. A grilled white fish (Lake Erie perch would be especially good), grilled shrimp, and hard-boiled eggs round out the food… which serves mostly as a vehicle for the aioli, which should be served lavishly.
Aioli
8 to 10 garlic cloves
2 egg yolks
1 ½ Cups good olive oil
About 2 Tbsp of lemon juice
Drop the garlic into a food processor at high speed and when it’s chopped, add the egg yolks and lemon juice. You can add a few green garlic stalks to make the aioli a nice pale green. Then drizzle the oil through the feed tube in a very thin stream until the mayonnaise emulsifies. Season with salt and lemon juice. (Mayonnaise will not emulsify in stormy weather, especially if there is lightning. If yours isn’t thickening, you can add commercial mayonnaise. Refrigerating the aioli will also help thicken it.)
Serves four… and make sure everyone likes garlic, because anyone in the vicinity who hasn’t had some aioli will be… um, uncomfortable.
This meal cries out for a chilled bottle of the superb Niagara rosé that is on offer at many our local wineries. I haven’t tried them all, but can recommend Featherstone, Calamus, Henry of Pelham, John Howard Cellars, and 13th Street. Cheers!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
August: Success!
The Slow Food Movement is now almost 25 years old. It was founded in Italy back in 1986 when MacDonald’s was planning to open an outlet near the historic and beautiful Spanish Steps in Rome. From the beginning it was a reaction against everything that “fast food” represents: unhealthy food from unknown sources, unhealthily prepared, and eaten in plastic, uncomfortable environments. With this as its guiding principle, the movement has developed many goals and objectives over the years, including
• Encouraging local and traditional food products, along with the culinary traditions and recipes that accompany them
• Encouraging family farms and small-scale production and processing while educating consumers about the dangers of monoculture, agribusiness, and factory farms
• Preserving traditional and heirloom varieties through seed banks
• Promoting organic, sustainable, and holistic farming
• Encouraging consumers to shop at local markets and to buy ethically
• Encouraging people to eat in convivial, comfortable surroundings with friends and family… while warning of the dangers of a “fast food” lifestyle.
In this column for the past couple of years, I have tried to bring some of these principles and goals to Pelham readers at the local level, reflecting the philosophy of the local chapter or “convivium” of the Slow Food Movement. Slow Food Pelham is a very active and enthusiastic group of folks (not all of them from Pelham) who love food, value wholesome food products, honour local growers and producers, and enjoy sharing the bounty of Niagara with like-minded enthusiasts. Our activities range from the annual Featherstone Lamb Roast (coming up soon) to buying food-related books for the Pelham Library, from convivial meals featuring local produce at Pelham restaurants, to educational tours of growers, producers, wineries, and facilities.
Now comes proof that our efforts to promote the ideals of Slow Food have succeeded!
Brandspark, a Canadian market and brand strategy outfit, went out and surveyed some 400 chefs from across the country to find out what they see as the current trends in Canadian eating habits. The results, as posted in The Toronto Star, reveal that the top ten current Canadian menu trends are
1. Locally sourced food
2. Sustainability
3. Organic products
4. Artisanal cheeses
5. Simplicity/back to basics
6. Nutritional/healthy cuisine
7. Free range poultry and pork
8. Small plates/tapas/dim sum
9. Bite size mini desserts
10. Exotic super-fruits (such as acai, goji berry, mangosteen)
Of course, I can’t say that this column (and accompanying blog: www.pelhamslowfood.blogspot.com ) has been entirely responsible for the amazing shift that has taken place in the eating preferences and attitudes of Canadians over the past couple of years… but the first seven out of ten menu trends are recurring and constant themes of SnailSpace!
To learn more about the Slow Food Movement, go to www.slowfood.com and for information about the many Canadian chapters, see www.slowfood.ca , and while you’re there, check out Slow Food Pelham’s space, which includes upcoming events, news, recipes, and reports on past events. If you’d like to join Slow Food Pelham or get more information about our activities, write to Renée Girard at prima_renee@hotmail.com
• Encouraging local and traditional food products, along with the culinary traditions and recipes that accompany them
• Encouraging family farms and small-scale production and processing while educating consumers about the dangers of monoculture, agribusiness, and factory farms
• Preserving traditional and heirloom varieties through seed banks
• Promoting organic, sustainable, and holistic farming
• Encouraging consumers to shop at local markets and to buy ethically
• Encouraging people to eat in convivial, comfortable surroundings with friends and family… while warning of the dangers of a “fast food” lifestyle.
In this column for the past couple of years, I have tried to bring some of these principles and goals to Pelham readers at the local level, reflecting the philosophy of the local chapter or “convivium” of the Slow Food Movement. Slow Food Pelham is a very active and enthusiastic group of folks (not all of them from Pelham) who love food, value wholesome food products, honour local growers and producers, and enjoy sharing the bounty of Niagara with like-minded enthusiasts. Our activities range from the annual Featherstone Lamb Roast (coming up soon) to buying food-related books for the Pelham Library, from convivial meals featuring local produce at Pelham restaurants, to educational tours of growers, producers, wineries, and facilities.
Now comes proof that our efforts to promote the ideals of Slow Food have succeeded!
Brandspark, a Canadian market and brand strategy outfit, went out and surveyed some 400 chefs from across the country to find out what they see as the current trends in Canadian eating habits. The results, as posted in The Toronto Star, reveal that the top ten current Canadian menu trends are
1. Locally sourced food
2. Sustainability
3. Organic products
4. Artisanal cheeses
5. Simplicity/back to basics
6. Nutritional/healthy cuisine
7. Free range poultry and pork
8. Small plates/tapas/dim sum
9. Bite size mini desserts
10. Exotic super-fruits (such as acai, goji berry, mangosteen)
Of course, I can’t say that this column (and accompanying blog: www.pelhamslowfood.blogspot.com ) has been entirely responsible for the amazing shift that has taken place in the eating preferences and attitudes of Canadians over the past couple of years… but the first seven out of ten menu trends are recurring and constant themes of SnailSpace!
To learn more about the Slow Food Movement, go to www.slowfood.com and for information about the many Canadian chapters, see www.slowfood.ca , and while you’re there, check out Slow Food Pelham’s space, which includes upcoming events, news, recipes, and reports on past events. If you’d like to join Slow Food Pelham or get more information about our activities, write to Renée Girard at prima_renee@hotmail.com
Thursday, July 8, 2010
July: Newfoundland fare: berry, berry good
If any population can be said to have embraced the principles of Slow Food unconsciously, naturally, without paying dues, having meetings, or publishing columns or blogs, it’s the Newfoundlanders. People from The Rock are natural locovores, not just making do with what the unfriendly climate and poor soil can provide, but relishing it and making the rest of us envious for their enthusiasm and joy in consuming it. They are among the most convivial people on earth, and family meals are an ingrained tradition rather than a weekend special event; add a few guests, and the meal becomes a celebration.
A quick look through a Newfoundland cookbook reveals example after example of local food that people from a more privileged climate might never consider, but that Newfoundlanders have turned into an island gourmet delight. Cod, for example, is a delicious fish, and dipped in flour and fried in pork fat, it becomes a delicacy. But the Newfoundlanders, out of necessity, not only use every bit of meat on the fish, but turn those less gentile bits into celebrated treats: cod tongues, cod cheeks, and “britches” (cod roe) are sought-after gourmet items in Newfoundland restaurants.
Make flour, water, and salt into a hard slab and you have a dish that most of the world would find unpalatable; but give it to a Newfoundlander, and he’ll cook it in the same pork fat as his cod, add “scrunchions” (crisp bits of cooked pork back) and serve you a delicious meal of “cod and brewis”. Moose meat is a staple, thanks to the overabundance of moose on the island, and it turns up in roasts and stews, sausages, and even burgers. Bake apples or cloud berries are the local fruit, and there are so many savoury recipes for the preparation of these sweet berries (see below) that Newfoundlanders would never notice the lack of strawberries from Argentina or raspberries from California. Add “lassy mogs” (molasses cookies) and “jam jams” (cookies filled with jam) to the dessert tray, and why would you long for imported fare?
An aside: There’s a story that when the Queen Mother visited Newfoundland in 1967, she was taken to see the Purity Food plant where jam jams are produced. As she walked the production line, she paused and asked one of the workers, “And what are we making here?” To which the Newfoundlander replied, “Five-fifty an hour, Ma’am, five-fifty and hour.”
My most recent visit to Newfoundland and Labrador was last summer when Valerie and I
had the fly-fishing trip of a lifetime to a remote fly-in camp in the interior of Labrador (“remote” doesn’t do it justice!) The camp cook provided amazing meals, including all breads and desserts from scratch, with a natural flair and expertise usually found in only the very best urban restaurants. Shawn is in the process of assembling his amazing repertoire into a cookbook, so I don’t think he’ll mind if I provide here his version of berry pie… the best I’ve ever eaten (including, I am sad to admit, my own). Bake apples are Shawn’s favorite, but in their absence, any berries will do.
Crust
½ C butter
1 C all purpose flour
1 tsp icing sugar
Roll out and place in pie dish. Bake at 350 degrees until light brown, using a fork to prick holes in the bottom during the first ten minutes.
(I find this crust difficult to work with. Use lots of flour and patience… the result is worth it.)
Filling
Mash ½ C berries and add ¼ C sugar. Bring to a boil. Add enough corn starch mixed in water to make the berry mixture very thick and heavy. Cool 5 minutes. Fold enough fresh whole berries into the mixture to fill the shell. Let set until firm in the fridge and top with whipped cream if desired.
A quick look through a Newfoundland cookbook reveals example after example of local food that people from a more privileged climate might never consider, but that Newfoundlanders have turned into an island gourmet delight. Cod, for example, is a delicious fish, and dipped in flour and fried in pork fat, it becomes a delicacy. But the Newfoundlanders, out of necessity, not only use every bit of meat on the fish, but turn those less gentile bits into celebrated treats: cod tongues, cod cheeks, and “britches” (cod roe) are sought-after gourmet items in Newfoundland restaurants.
Make flour, water, and salt into a hard slab and you have a dish that most of the world would find unpalatable; but give it to a Newfoundlander, and he’ll cook it in the same pork fat as his cod, add “scrunchions” (crisp bits of cooked pork back) and serve you a delicious meal of “cod and brewis”. Moose meat is a staple, thanks to the overabundance of moose on the island, and it turns up in roasts and stews, sausages, and even burgers. Bake apples or cloud berries are the local fruit, and there are so many savoury recipes for the preparation of these sweet berries (see below) that Newfoundlanders would never notice the lack of strawberries from Argentina or raspberries from California. Add “lassy mogs” (molasses cookies) and “jam jams” (cookies filled with jam) to the dessert tray, and why would you long for imported fare?
An aside: There’s a story that when the Queen Mother visited Newfoundland in 1967, she was taken to see the Purity Food plant where jam jams are produced. As she walked the production line, she paused and asked one of the workers, “And what are we making here?” To which the Newfoundlander replied, “Five-fifty an hour, Ma’am, five-fifty and hour.”
My most recent visit to Newfoundland and Labrador was last summer when Valerie and I
had the fly-fishing trip of a lifetime to a remote fly-in camp in the interior of Labrador (“remote” doesn’t do it justice!) The camp cook provided amazing meals, including all breads and desserts from scratch, with a natural flair and expertise usually found in only the very best urban restaurants. Shawn is in the process of assembling his amazing repertoire into a cookbook, so I don’t think he’ll mind if I provide here his version of berry pie… the best I’ve ever eaten (including, I am sad to admit, my own). Bake apples are Shawn’s favorite, but in their absence, any berries will do.Crust
½ C butter
1 C all purpose flour
1 tsp icing sugar
Roll out and place in pie dish. Bake at 350 degrees until light brown, using a fork to prick holes in the bottom during the first ten minutes.
(I find this crust difficult to work with. Use lots of flour and patience… the result is worth it.)
Filling
Mash ½ C berries and add ¼ C sugar. Bring to a boil. Add enough corn starch mixed in water to make the berry mixture very thick and heavy. Cool 5 minutes. Fold enough fresh whole berries into the mixture to fill the shell. Let set until firm in the fridge and top with whipped cream if desired.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Blessed Are the Cheesemakers
Charles de Gaulle, in a moment of frustration, once said “How can anyone govern a nation that has 246 different kinds of cheese?” We in Canada don’t have this particular problem, and maybe we are the more governable because of it. However, while we may not have 246 different kinds of cheese being produced here, we certainly enjoy cheese from around the world, and do produce a fair amount of our own… mostly in Québec, but with significant and increasing production in Ontario, Alberta, and elsewhere.
Here in Niagara, we are fortunate to have Upper Canada Cheese in Jordan Station, where cheese is produced from one specific herd of Guernsey cattle, rendering cheese that is distinctive in flavour, colour, and fat content. Their Niagara Gold is a delicious semi-soft cheese with buttery, nutty flavours that develop more pungency as the cheese ages. Comfort Cream (named for the Guernsey herd at Comfort Farm) is a soft, camembert style cheese with a creamy interior. Recently added Guernsey Girl is a Scandinavian bread-style cheese that doesn’t melt when heated, so it can be fried or grilled with delicious results. Upper Canada Cheese is also now making fresh cheese curd every Friday, so those who love the mild flavours of this product can enjoy it as a squeaky snack or melt it onto their poutine.
Another local treasure for cheese-lovers is Chez Fromage Etc. in downtown Fenwick, right beside the hardware store and across from Da Vinci’s Italian eatery (worth a visit in itself). Natalie Kita brings in a mind-boggling assortment of cheeses, mostly from Québec artisanal producers, but with a fair sampling of cheese from other Canadian producers as well as a fine international selection. The word is out, and some days you may have to wait awhile to make your selection as customers are driving in to Fenwick from as far away as Hamilton to buy cheese from Natalie, but one of the charms of the place is that she never hurries anyone, and takes great delight in suggesting (and providing a taste of) her current favorite or something she thinks the customer will enjoy.
Smaller selections of special cheeses can be found in other stores around Pelham and further afield in Niagara. For example, I was delighted to see that Lorenzo’s Fine Foods on Haist Street is carrying a few carefully chosen varieties, including Sir Laurier and the absolutely decadent Sauvagine from Québec… a creamy cheese that Natalie introduced me to awhile ago, and I find irresistible.
Making cheese is an art in the same order as making beer or wine, and requires the same dedication to ingredients, preparation, cleanliness, and process. If you would like to learn to make your own cheese, or just see what is involved in cheese making, Niagara Falls is home to a small enterprise that is dedicated to revealing the secrets of home cheese production. Doreen and Peter Sullivan lead day-long classes limited to eight participants through the steps in making two cheeses, a camembert-style and a Roquefort-style blue, which the students get to take home with them to finish, age, and enjoy. Peter is a former teacher in the hospitality field at Niagara College, and has been featured in these pages before as the master-cook on some of my fly-fishing trips (he’s a pretty good fly fisherman, too). Doreen is also a former teacher and dental hygienist, and their classes come very highly recommended. For more information, have a look at www.makingcheeseathome.ca or call Peter or Doreen at 905 354 8873.
Here in Niagara, we are fortunate to have Upper Canada Cheese in Jordan Station, where cheese is produced from one specific herd of Guernsey cattle, rendering cheese that is distinctive in flavour, colour, and fat content. Their Niagara Gold is a delicious semi-soft cheese with buttery, nutty flavours that develop more pungency as the cheese ages. Comfort Cream (named for the Guernsey herd at Comfort Farm) is a soft, camembert style cheese with a creamy interior. Recently added Guernsey Girl is a Scandinavian bread-style cheese that doesn’t melt when heated, so it can be fried or grilled with delicious results. Upper Canada Cheese is also now making fresh cheese curd every Friday, so those who love the mild flavours of this product can enjoy it as a squeaky snack or melt it onto their poutine.
Another local treasure for cheese-lovers is Chez Fromage Etc. in downtown Fenwick, right beside the hardware store and across from Da Vinci’s Italian eatery (worth a visit in itself). Natalie Kita brings in a mind-boggling assortment of cheeses, mostly from Québec artisanal producers, but with a fair sampling of cheese from other Canadian producers as well as a fine international selection. The word is out, and some days you may have to wait awhile to make your selection as customers are driving in to Fenwick from as far away as Hamilton to buy cheese from Natalie, but one of the charms of the place is that she never hurries anyone, and takes great delight in suggesting (and providing a taste of) her current favorite or something she thinks the customer will enjoy.
Smaller selections of special cheeses can be found in other stores around Pelham and further afield in Niagara. For example, I was delighted to see that Lorenzo’s Fine Foods on Haist Street is carrying a few carefully chosen varieties, including Sir Laurier and the absolutely decadent Sauvagine from Québec… a creamy cheese that Natalie introduced me to awhile ago, and I find irresistible.
Making cheese is an art in the same order as making beer or wine, and requires the same dedication to ingredients, preparation, cleanliness, and process. If you would like to learn to make your own cheese, or just see what is involved in cheese making, Niagara Falls is home to a small enterprise that is dedicated to revealing the secrets of home cheese production. Doreen and Peter Sullivan lead day-long classes limited to eight participants through the steps in making two cheeses, a camembert-style and a Roquefort-style blue, which the students get to take home with them to finish, age, and enjoy. Peter is a former teacher in the hospitality field at Niagara College, and has been featured in these pages before as the master-cook on some of my fly-fishing trips (he’s a pretty good fly fisherman, too). Doreen is also a former teacher and dental hygienist, and their classes come very highly recommended. For more information, have a look at www.makingcheeseathome.ca or call Peter or Doreen at 905 354 8873.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
The Bread Recipe
For about 30 years I've tried to bake bread that approximates the chewy, crusty, full-flavoured breads I gobble up in Europe. I have tried different recipes and techniques, and often have limited success with an acceptable baguette or loaf... but too often the bread I produce is in the shape of a boule or baguette, but still tastes like ordinary white bread.
Then, recently I have discovered a recipe that is not only dead simple and seemingly unfailable, but consistently produces a loaf that is everything I want... and others seem to agree. At a recent meeing of the Pelham Slow Food Convivium, Reinholt raved that it tasted like the breads of his childhood in Germany... high praise indeed! Others have said it reminds them of an Italian loaf, and others that it has the texture and taste of a French country bread (not to be confused with the delicate and fine-textured French baguette... this is coarser, though there is a taste similarity).
Anyway, it's so easy and foolproof you can try it for yourself and see if it meets your requirements. Note: this recipe does take time... about 24 hours, so you do have to plan ahead!
The recipe is adapted from Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery as reprinted in the New York Times in November, 2006.
No-Knead Bread
3 Cups all-purpose or bread flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast (I have found that regular yeast also works)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 5/8 Cups water
1. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and add the water, stirring until blended. The dough is sticky and messy... but it's supposed to be. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for about 15 to 20 hours.
2. The dough is ready when it is bubbly on the surface. Flour a work surface and pour out the dough onto it. Flour the top and fold it over on itself a few times, then cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes.
3. Flour the dough again so it doesn't stick to your fingers as you shape it into a ball. Put the dough seam-side down on a floured surface, cover with floured tea towel and let it rise for about two hours. By then it should have doubled in size.
4. Put a heavy, lidded pot or casserole dish in the oven and set the temperature to 450. (I use a cast iron le Creusset pot and find it perfect, but any heavy enamel, cast iron or ceramic pot should work.) When the dough is ready and the oven is up to temperature, plop the dough into the hot pot. It is still soft and... well, doughy... so you can shake the pot to even it out before covering it with the lid and putting it in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake another 15 minutes or so, until the surface is dark brown. Cool on a rack.
Then, recently I have discovered a recipe that is not only dead simple and seemingly unfailable, but consistently produces a loaf that is everything I want... and others seem to agree. At a recent meeing of the Pelham Slow Food Convivium, Reinholt raved that it tasted like the breads of his childhood in Germany... high praise indeed! Others have said it reminds them of an Italian loaf, and others that it has the texture and taste of a French country bread (not to be confused with the delicate and fine-textured French baguette... this is coarser, though there is a taste similarity).
Anyway, it's so easy and foolproof you can try it for yourself and see if it meets your requirements. Note: this recipe does take time... about 24 hours, so you do have to plan ahead!
The recipe is adapted from Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery as reprinted in the New York Times in November, 2006.
No-Knead Bread
3 Cups all-purpose or bread flour
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast (I have found that regular yeast also works)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 5/8 Cups water
1. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and add the water, stirring until blended. The dough is sticky and messy... but it's supposed to be. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for about 15 to 20 hours.
2. The dough is ready when it is bubbly on the surface. Flour a work surface and pour out the dough onto it. Flour the top and fold it over on itself a few times, then cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for 15 minutes.
3. Flour the dough again so it doesn't stick to your fingers as you shape it into a ball. Put the dough seam-side down on a floured surface, cover with floured tea towel and let it rise for about two hours. By then it should have doubled in size.
4. Put a heavy, lidded pot or casserole dish in the oven and set the temperature to 450. (I use a cast iron le Creusset pot and find it perfect, but any heavy enamel, cast iron or ceramic pot should work.) When the dough is ready and the oven is up to temperature, plop the dough into the hot pot. It is still soft and... well, doughy... so you can shake the pot to even it out before covering it with the lid and putting it in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake another 15 minutes or so, until the surface is dark brown. Cool on a rack.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
May: Niagara’s Farmers’ Markets
As any vacationer who has traveled in Europe will tell you, one of the highlights of any trip is a visit to the colourful, bustling markets that once or twice a week transform every town and village into a food festival. The idea of getting fresh food directly from the producer and creating meals around what is available or particularly appealing at the market is the very essence of Slow Food. Here in Niagara, we are lucky to have a variety of markets to visit, and lots of local producers who are eager to supply us with fresh, nutritious, delicious ingredients for family meals. While our markets don’t take over the centres of towns, and our market days are not quite the festive social occasions that European markets are and have been for hundreds of years, the Niagara markets do provide us with excellent local produce, a chance to meet and chat with the producers, and a social occasion for the community to get together in an informal celebration of good food.
Pelham Market: Our local Thursday afternoon market right beside the Town Hall in Fonthill features produce from greens to bread, from delicious snacks and full meals to fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, and root crops… much of it organic. Add the evening concert in the adjacent pavilion, and you have An Event.
Welland Market: The biggest market in the region, Welland’s Saturday morning market features more than 65 vendors in and around two permanent buildings. Look for excellent meat and bakery selections along with the mounds of produce, flowers, cheese, herbs, and even local handicrafts. Don’t miss the elephant ears!
St. Catharines Market: A part of downtown St. Catharines since the mid 1800’s the St. Catharines Market puts about 40 vendors under an attractive glass and steel structure in the heart of the city. While it’s open Tuesday and Thursday, Saturday is when the place hums.
Smithville Market: Right in the heart of Niagara’s cash crop farming country, Smithville attracts a wide variety of producers to its market in the Convenience St. parking lot on Saturday mornings.
Grimsby Market: A very lively market that features 25 fulltime vendors and a community tent for local clubs and not-for-profit organizations, the Grimsby Market provides another Thursday evening option for shoppers. Look for cooking demonstrations by local chefs using ingredients right from the market on the Thursdays before a long weekend.
Brock University: Friday noontime, Brock is the place to be for an expanding market, intended to provide fresh, local food options for the students… but everyone is welcome. It’s in the Jubilee Courtyard behind Inniskillin Hall.
Port Colborne Market: Right at City Hall on Friday mornings, the Port Colborne Market is a lively outdoor collection of vendors who bring a wide variety of products to market, including baked goods, meats, and cheese, along with fresh local vegetables and fruit.
Niagara on the Lake Market: Held on Wednesday evening and Saturday morning, this small but growing market is actually between the Old Town and Virgil across from Jackson Triggs winery on Niagara Stone Road.
By shopping for our food at these markets, we can not only put fresh, nutritious food on our tables, but support local farmers and producers who add so much to the rural environment and character of our region; Regional Councilor, Brian Baty, pointed out in a recent column that if each resident of Niagara spent $10 on local groceries, we’d collectively pump $226 million into the local economy. And, the more people who shop for local goods at farmers’ markets, the louder the cry to supermarkets and those restaurants who haven’t yet got the message: “Give us locally produced, fresh, tasty, nutritious, good food!”
Pelham Market: Our local Thursday afternoon market right beside the Town Hall in Fonthill features produce from greens to bread, from delicious snacks and full meals to fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs, and root crops… much of it organic. Add the evening concert in the adjacent pavilion, and you have An Event.
Welland Market: The biggest market in the region, Welland’s Saturday morning market features more than 65 vendors in and around two permanent buildings. Look for excellent meat and bakery selections along with the mounds of produce, flowers, cheese, herbs, and even local handicrafts. Don’t miss the elephant ears!
St. Catharines Market: A part of downtown St. Catharines since the mid 1800’s the St. Catharines Market puts about 40 vendors under an attractive glass and steel structure in the heart of the city. While it’s open Tuesday and Thursday, Saturday is when the place hums.
Smithville Market: Right in the heart of Niagara’s cash crop farming country, Smithville attracts a wide variety of producers to its market in the Convenience St. parking lot on Saturday mornings.
Grimsby Market: A very lively market that features 25 fulltime vendors and a community tent for local clubs and not-for-profit organizations, the Grimsby Market provides another Thursday evening option for shoppers. Look for cooking demonstrations by local chefs using ingredients right from the market on the Thursdays before a long weekend.
Brock University: Friday noontime, Brock is the place to be for an expanding market, intended to provide fresh, local food options for the students… but everyone is welcome. It’s in the Jubilee Courtyard behind Inniskillin Hall.
Port Colborne Market: Right at City Hall on Friday mornings, the Port Colborne Market is a lively outdoor collection of vendors who bring a wide variety of products to market, including baked goods, meats, and cheese, along with fresh local vegetables and fruit.
Niagara on the Lake Market: Held on Wednesday evening and Saturday morning, this small but growing market is actually between the Old Town and Virgil across from Jackson Triggs winery on Niagara Stone Road.
By shopping for our food at these markets, we can not only put fresh, nutritious food on our tables, but support local farmers and producers who add so much to the rural environment and character of our region; Regional Councilor, Brian Baty, pointed out in a recent column that if each resident of Niagara spent $10 on local groceries, we’d collectively pump $226 million into the local economy. And, the more people who shop for local goods at farmers’ markets, the louder the cry to supermarkets and those restaurants who haven’t yet got the message: “Give us locally produced, fresh, tasty, nutritious, good food!”
Sunday, April 4, 2010
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.
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.
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