Pickling Green Tomatoes and Beets at The STOP Community Food Centre

I'll be writing about this session for the National Post next weekend, but for now just let me say that I spent an idyllic trilingual (English-Italian-Spanish) aftenoon covering a community pickling session at The Stop Community Food Centre under the direction of Chef Chris Brown (formerly of Perigee) with co-chef Scott MacNeil and the frighteningly competent volunteer team of Lucy, Maria, Opal and Silvia, who kept unveiling side dishes from home or just whipped up out of nowhere: eggplant aglio olio; lemon cake; beet salad.

It was a remarkably joyous time, and, I realized, the first time I've ever worked on canning food with anyone who already knew how to do it. The food, which I believe was donated by the New Farm in Creemore, was just lovely: deep purple Bull's Blood beets plus at least three other kinds: one that was white inside (Blankoma?); one that was yellow (Golden Beets, I think), and Chiogga, which are beautiful with their concentric white-and-red rings. There were also fresh green tomatoes, as per the photo.

Here*, Chef Brown presides over a row of green-tomato jars ready for processing, which will later be used to nourish the 200-or-so folks that The Stop feeds at numerous meals every week. What could be better?

By the way, as I've reported elsewhere, ambitious home cooks can challenge themselves once a month by signing on for about $100 a head to join Chef Brown's kitchen crew to prepare a 40-person local feast at his Food for Change fundraising dinners on behalf of The Stop.

*When I got home with my camera, I realized that every image had elements that were severely blurry. I think this is because – although the session seemed tremendously relaxed and happy – in fact everyone was in nonstop motion all afternoon. Real cooking.