I finally made it to another Farmers' Market, this one being the last of 2011.  I had a informative chat with Dean at Food Roots Distributors Co-op www.foodroots.ca  It is always interesting to hear about what farmers and others who share my passion on local food are doing. I'm impressed the community is really making an effort to work towards the island being a 95% local food producing community.

I also learnt about Italian desserts from Claudio at Il Forno di Claudio, the hazelnut desserts were delicious and I loved the hazelnut flour taste.  I also learnt about Italian breads.  I passed on having a treat but certainly will visit Claudio again.  Thank you Claudio for the samples and the chat.

I wandered around the market and everything looked wonderful.  I wish I'd had more money to spend as I really wanted to try every booth.  Especially El Guapo Chorizo Grill which was making sausage chipatta buns with the most delicious smelling chorizo.  The hunger pangs kicked in.  I passed on this too as I was saving my hunger for B-Red Bakery where I had a Gibassier - orange and fennel brioche which was a flavour explosion.  The question is where to find B-Red Bakery goodies, well you have to Facebook like them and then they will tell you.  For a start though, try 2% Jazz Coffee 2621 Douglas and soon to be in the Hudson or Caffe Fantastico on King http://caffefantastico.com/contact.php

To complete my food journey today, I tried Organic Fair's dark chocolate bars for the holiday season. Would have bought a few of these for stockings stuffers but never know who enjoys dark chocolate in my family.  Not John for one.  Although he might have gone for the candy cane bar which had a very minty flavour. http://www.organicfair.com/default.asp  Next time we are up island kayaking or day tripping we have been told to phone ahead and drop in to see the farm.

Next market day is January 7th and I will be heading downtown again, by bus with my bags to partake of 2012's first market day.  I might even drag John along for an island food adventure. http://victoriapublicmarket.com 

White Food

We've all heard the mantra to stay away from white foods.  Those over processed carbs that make up the white pasta, white flour, white rice group.  I've heard about incorporating the rainbow into one's diet to ensure one is eating a variety of fruits and vegetables. The rainbow would be yellow, orange, purple, red and green.  The rainbow excludes white, which got me thinking about what fruits and vegetables would fall into the white colour category.  For fun I started a list and this is what I ended up with:


Cauliflower
White Asparagus
White Beans
Endive
Garlic
Ginger
Jerusalem artichokes
Jicama
Mushrooms
White nectarines
Onions
Parsnips
White Peaches
Asian Pears
Shallots
Turnips
White corn
Potatoes

Now to research and make a list of black, brown and other colours not included in the rainbow. 

Chia Seeds

Remember the Chia pet? If you do those little seeds are back and are the latest in superfoods. People are adding them to their morning oatmeal, smoothies and salads. As a superfood, Chia seeds are used for suppressing the appetite, weight loss, leveling blood sugar and aiding in digestive regularity. I was provided with the Chia Pudding recipe from Lynn at Health Essentials the new health food store at the corner of Tillicum and Gorge Road http://www.healthessential.ca/   I've made the pudding twice, yummy, filling and a great mid-morning snack that will keep you full and not craving sugar filled snacks.

Chia Pudding

3/4 cups chia seeds
2 cups unsweetened vanilla or chocolate almond, hemp, rice or soy milk. (I used unsweetened unflavoured coconut milk)
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

Mix all ingredients together and let set for 5 minutes or longer.  Wait until it starts to gel.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Goes great with strawberries.

What the World Eats, Part I

Amazing photographs of what one week of food world wide looks like for a family. Take a good look at the food in these photos. Note how little some people have for one week and how much others have. Note the amount of junk food in some of the photographs and how this same food is missing in others.

A very interesting project.

What the World Eats, Part I

Five ways to avoid GMOs in your food | Chatelaine.com

Another article on the way we posion ourselves and how to avoid doing it. North America is behind Europe again on the GMO issue and maintaining healthy food crops. Sadly we in North America are exposed to GMO crops. Luckily we have a means of avoiding GMO crops and to stop buying foods that contain GMO crops. Learn about what you eat. Here's a start from Chatelain magazine on avoiding GMOs in your food.


Five ways to avoid GMOs in your food Chatelaine.com

Clean Food

A couple of times this spring I've been helping out at the Rainbow Kitchen, a local church hall where lunches are prepared and served. The volunteers sit down and eat with the people who have lined up to have a good, hot meal for a modest donation or for free. Helping here is a good chance to put to use the food preparation skills I picked up over the years, cooking at home and working in a couple of restaurants.

One of the big issues at the Rainbow Kitchen is cleanliness around food, of course. The people volunteering in the kitchen understand very well about clean food. And it helps that most of the volunteers took the Food Safety course this winter and now have their certificates. Cleanliness around food is part of the practical application of science in daily life.

There are other ways to volunteer at the Rainbow Kitchen besides helping to cook food or wash dishes. One of the volunteers, Fred, was up on a ladder outside, cleaning the gutters. He was glad to have the strength to do such work! He was also proud of being able to do dirty work. Fred said that he could handle bad smells because he used to work on a fishing boat. "I used to kill 700 or 800 fish a day, and clean them. Me and the other deckhands would go ten days without changing our pants," he said. By the time the hold was full of frozen fish, their clothes were stiff with blood and fish slime. "When we got to shore, people would turn and stare at us. I guess they could still smell us," he told me, "even after we showered and changed our clothes."

What Fred said made something understandable for me. Being clean, especially around food, is something we learn about with the practical application of science and experience. It's not just "book learning!"

The scientific method isn't just a skill to use in a lab, measuring the exact amount of germs and filth on a person's skin or hair or clothing. Formal experiments can test a theory and prove that germs and dirty things make people sick. But less formal experiments can also be done, so that people learn at home and can be taught in practical courses like the Food Safety program. Using scientific knowledge in our ordinary lives is how people learn practical ways to keep our food clean, and to wash to be clean. This practical learning sure helped Fred realize that one quick shower wasn't enough to make him clean after ten days on a fishing boat!

The Big One

This is it. 2,438 pages. 18 kilos. Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking  is the new bible of cooking. Nathan Myhrvold, formerly chief technology officer at Microsoft, has written the book (well, books. It is a 6 volume set) on modern cooking and cooking techniques, including sous-vide and recipes requiring the use of test tubes and liquid nitrogen. No pastry or desserts though--those may come in a second set.
The Guardian reports that the price in Britain is 395 pounds, but here in Canada, Chapters/Indigo is offering it for a mere $656.50--less if you're a member.