May Crops in the Community Garden

With all the heat, we've already had three salads out of the community garden, but the herbs (above) are still rooting themselves.

There are eight different varieties of heirloom tomatoes; my mom's garden nearby has eleven.

Here's our fecund salad bed, with lots of dill (upper left), chive volunteers and some happy-looking Swiss chard, plus tons of my fave, arugula.

And finally, the peas, sunflowers and a rather lovely clump of kale. Except for some of the herbs, most of the garden was started from seed, so it's very satisfying already.

Campaign to Save Small Abattoirs in Ontario

Here's an important side note on my trip to Stratford last Saturday that arises from a question I asked pig farmer Fred de Martines, who raises the wonderful walnut-fed wild boars, and whose son raises the Tamworth and Berkshire pigs that so many food lovers around town rave about.

The photo shows one of his Iron Age pigs, a cross between wild boar and Tamworth. When I look at the expressive and intelligent face of that animal, it confirms my feeling that any thinking person has only two choices: either to eat a vegetarian diet or to endeavor to cherish every ounce of meat as a precious gift to be eaten sparingly and treated with care at every stage. So raising the animal with kindness while he's alive, using safe food handling techniques after he's been butchered, being willing to pay more for pastured meat and being careful not to waste any are all part of the same continuum.

This cheerful porker gets a chance to run around in the sun, root in the mud and eat non-GMO grains grown a stone's throw away using sustainable agricultural methods, unlike many "factory-farmed" pigs. When the time comes to be eaten, de Martines explained, he (she?) will be trucked to the single remaining abattoir in Perth County. Upon arrival, this pig and fellow porcine travelers will be nervous and tense, and that will make their meat tough. They're allowed to relax overnight, and in the morning they'll be among the first through the slaughterhouse, which is about as good an end as a food pig can hope for.

Like many farmers, de Martines is worried that small local abattoirs – already a rare commodity – are about to disappear entirely. He points out that in a small meat processing plant, smaller machines are used, so it's possible to dismantle them entirely every night for cleaning. Therefore, he believes, the chances of contamination by listeriosis or similar bacteria is much smaller than in a big processing facility where you simply can't get inside the machinery to clean it properly.

If this is something you're interested in, you can find out more about the National Farmers Union campaign to save small, locally owned and operated abattoirs in Oxford and Perth countries. If you feel as convinced it as I do, you can print out a letter to Ontario's Minister for Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Carol Mitchell. I will be sending one.

Culinary Tour of Stratford

Yesterday the Stratford Tourism Alliance hosted a group of web writers who are interested in food (an excursion arranged through the omnipresent Suresh Doss of Spotlight Toronto) in a day spent exploring the considerable culinary attractions of Stratford and the surrounding rural area. It was a full, exhilarating, exhausting, delightful day for us, and for me in particular it offered a lot of food for thought. I've just finished reading Margaret Webb's Apples to Oysters and am well into Lorraine Johnsons's City Farmer, so ideas about the possibilities and challenges of local and sustainable food production are really on my mind. Here are some things that stood out for me.

We had a chance to tour the vegetable farm of Antony John, AKA The Manic Organic (pictured). The proprietor of the cheekily named Soiled Reputation spoke passionately about the continuity of life and land, from fungi in the soil to bird life, crops, "weeds", pets, farm animals and human staff. "If this was a wine region, this would be Bordeaux," he said proudly. "The myth that there's not enough land to feed everyone organically is a big fat lie." That's one of his lively chickens pictured above.

At Fred de Martines' Perth Pork Products, we saw how a small operation can raise pastured animals in a mixed landscape of fields and treed areas, growing non-GMO crops to feed them, breeding without artificial insemination and using the lake of resulting pig manure to fertilize crops. You can see from his operation how smaller-scale production is easier on the land than a huge pig factory would be.

However, de Martines and his sons can only do all this because they specialize in wild boar (pictured at left), as well as Berkshire and Tamworth pigs, which are considered premium meat that costs quite a bit more at the butcher. Chefs love it, and I must say that Berkshire pork fat is unlike any other animal fat I know for its silky and appealing texture. However, Perth Pork Products depends for its survival on clientele who are able and willing to spend more for this lovingly raised meat. "The only reasons we're still on the farm is because of the Berks and the Tams," de Martines says. "Otherwise, we'd have sold the farm."

Perth County and the Stratford area offer numerous ways for people to find out about local food.

• The Perth County Welcome Centre and Artisan Marketplace (2146 Line 34 at Highway 7 & 8) has lots of information to help plan spontaneous, self-guided, culinary explorations.
• Until the end of June, 15 Stratford restaurants are offering three-course prix-fixe dinners (lunch for $15 to $30 and dinner for $30 to $45) in a program called Spring Delicious.
• For the first time this year, the annual culinary celebration known as Savour Stratford (September 18 to 26) will merge with the Stratford Garlic Festival (September 18) to create a full week of food-related special events in the area.
• There's also a series of six culinary packages that include cheesmaking at Monforte Dairy (where you'd see the pictured sheep sculpture), candymaking at Chocolate Barr's Candies, cooking at Stratford Chef School, foraging at Soiled Reputation, tea tasting at Tea Leaves Tea Tasting Bar or gluten-free baking at Humble Roots Bakery. I had a chance to try the foraging, the candymaking andf the tea tasting, so I can confidently declare that they're all a good combination of fun and information.

At the end of City Farmer, Lorraine Johnson proposes ten "adventures in possibility", or ways of involving yourself more in the process of your own food production. "Shake hands with a farmer," she suggests. "Talk with them about why they farm and what they grow and how they manage. Ask them how you can support what they do. (Hint: buy their food)". Toronto residents, unlike many urbanites, have lots of opportunity to do this, and a visit to Stratford is one of them. So if you visit the Stratford area, bring a cooler to bring food home. And if you don't have one, you can get one at the Best Little Pork Shoppe.

Heritage Tomatoes for the Organic Vegetable Garden

It's an exciting time for the tomato seedlings. Like contestants in some TV reality show, they've passed a number of hurdles. First, they germinated in their little seeding trays. Then, they survived the potential ravages of mold, and were not among the candidates that were literally weeded out because they grew too close together or too close to the edge of the tray.

Later, they survived being transplanted into larger pots and being transported from my mom's place, which has sunnier windows, to mine. Now they're almost finished the period of hardening off, which means being gradually introduced to the outdoors, and on Friday I'll be planting them in my little plot.

Despite my attempts at restraint, I've started more than 10 kinds of heritage tomatoes for a plot that can take maybe five plants (seven if I really overcrowd them). I'm excited about the Amish Paste Tomatoes, the ovoid Red Pear, the Green Zebra (very sweet, with a pretty yellow/green stripe).

Then there's the red-and-yellow Tigerella, yellow Blondkopfchen cherry tomatoes, the ominously named Harbinger and the already-tall Tennessee, not to mention black tomatoes, white tomatoes, the Isis Candy Tomato, the Maylor Roth Orange Brandywine and the Amana Orange... without even bringing up the mystery plants from last year's seeds that never got labelled! Luckily, my mom has room for at least another six to eight plants, and we're giving away seedlings to friends, relations and other members of the community garden.

(Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not longing for even more: the sunny insouciance of Banana Legs; the deep grooves and ridges of Zapotec, with its ancient Mexican lineage...)


What you see here represents less than half the crop.

Besides tomatoes, I'm also growing a nice selection of herbs, plus peas and beans, peppers and eggplants, leaf lettuce, beets, carrots, kale and chard. This is our first year in the plot, so I've gone for diversity. When we see what we have luck with, we'll plan a little more strategically for next year. And despite all the hurdles already overcome, it's a long way from the 24th of May to harvest time. More news later, no doubt!

Recipes for Rhubarb-Apricot Conserve and Candied Ginger #tigresscanjam

The May edition of Tigress' Can Jam called for either rhubarb or asparagus. Browsing through various rhubarb recipes, I noticed that a lot of them use candied ginger. So I decided to make my own candied ginger first, then come up with a rhubarb-ginger recipe. I was pretty pleased with both results.


PRESERVED GINGER

Preserved ginger can be added to baking or preserves, or dipped in chocolate. The syrup can be reserved in the fridge for mixing drinks, or to drizzle over desserts.

• 2 pounds of fresh ginger root (2 very large roots)


• Water for softening ginger


• 6 cups of water for syrup


• 6 cups of sugar


• ½ tsp salt


• Sugar for coating

1. Peel the ginger and slice it into rounds or thin 2-inch sticks. (Thinner slices will be more like candy; thicker slices will have more bite.)


2. In a non-reactive pot, cover the ginger with water and bring it to the boiling point, then turn the heat down and let it simmer for 10 minutes. (For fierier, chewier ginger, proceed to the next step. For sweeter, softer ginger, drain, cover, boil and simmer once or twice more.)


3. Drain the ginger and, in a non-reactive pot, combine ginger, water, sugar and salt. Stir well to let the sugar dissolve completely, and then bring to a full rolling boil.


4. Boil, stirring more or less constantly, until the mixture has reduced by half and the liquid has a frothy appearance like gently beaten egg whites. It should measure 225 degrees Fahrenheit at this point. Be careful not to let it boil over or burn.


5. Strain the ginger and toss it in sugar. Allow it to dry for a couple of days before storing in an airtight container.

RHUBARB-APRICOT CONSERVE

This sweet, very orange-flavoured conserve is gorgeous with roast pork. Makes about 4½ cups.

• 4 cups of diced rhubarb


• Zest and juice of 2 oranges


• 12 dried apricots, chopped very fine


• 3 cups of sugar


• 3 tablespoons of lemon juice


• ½ cup of walnuts, chopped


• ¼ cup of candied ginger, chopped into small cubes


• 2 tablespoons of orange liqueur

1. Sterilize jars.


2. Meanwhile, in a non-reactive pot, combine the rhubarb, orange juice and zest, apricots, sugar, lemon juice, walnuts and ginger. Stir together and allow to macerate for at least 20 minutes.


3. Bring up to a boil and cook at a rolling boil, stirring frequently, until it reaches the setting point.


4. Turn the heat off, add the orange liqueur and allow the mixture to rest for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.


5. Ladle into sterilized jars and process for 10 minutes at a rolling boil.

Many thanks to Niamh Malcolm, who took the pictures of the rhubarb conserve. The inferior ginger photos are mine.

Recipe for Rhubarb Squares

There's only one recipe from childhood that Jonathan the courier-chef has ever really talked about with nostalgic longing, and that's his mom's rhubarb squares. Part of the reason he loved them was that (as I understand it), he got to help pick the rhubarb. I've never been bold enough to try making them until today. Here's the recipe, simple but fabulous, courtesy of Jonathan's mom Irene, who's no mean cook.


RHUBARB SQUARES


For the filling:

• 3 cups of rhubarb, washed and diced
• ½ cup of sugar
• 3 tablespoons of cornstarch
• water

For the dough:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1 cup of rolled oats
• ¾ cup of brown sugar
• ½ cup of melted butter or margarine
• ½ teaspoon of baking soda
• ½ teaspoon of cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon of salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9" x 9" square pan.
2. Combine rhubarb and sugar in a pot with just enough water to keep them from burning before the rhubarb starts to liquefy.
3. Cook until the rhubarb is soft, then combine cornstarch with enough cold water to make a paste and gradually mix it into the rhubarb mixture to thicken it. Allow the mixture to simmer while preparing the dough.
4. Combine all the other ingredients in a bowl.
5. When they are well blended, press half into the greased 9" x 9" square pan.
6. Top with rhubarb filling.
7. Spread the other half of the dough over the top.
8. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Tip: You can cook up a double batch of filling (6 cups of diced rhubarb to a cup of sugar) and freeze it. Later, as strawberries and blackberries come into season, you can add them into the recipe.

250 Home Preserving Favorites and The Complete Root Cellar Book

With the farmer's markets reopening, it's time to start cooking with fresh local food and storing it away for next winter. Here are a couple of new books to get you in the mood: one about jams and jellies and the other about root cellars.

I've run into jam-maker extraordinaire Yvonne Tremblay at the Culinary Historians of Ontario's annual marmalade celebration, where she's impressed judges with her fruit preserves (and, last February, took a prize for her jam-topped linzertorte).

Among her claims to fame, she's a frequent winner at the Royal Winter Fair preserving competitions, and has even received their Grand Champion Jam and Jelly Maker award, which requires excelling in about ten different categories, from humble strawberry jam to wine jelly.

A prolific recipe developer, she has just followed up her previous books Prizewinning Preserves and Thyme in the Kitchen with an impressive collection entitled 250 Home Preserving Favorites, From Jams and Jellies to Marmalades and Chutneys (Robert Rose, 2010). To say that it's almost as big as the Bernardin home canning bible will already have experienced jam-makers in awe. And it's a worthy addition to the Canadian preserving library, along with Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard's Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving (formerly titled Put a Lid on It).

Besides the 250 recipes (which are all for sweet preserves, by the way – no pickles), Tremblay offers a really useful and complete guide for the novice canner, with some general cooking tips ("How to Peel a Prickly Pear") and a couple of things I don't recall seeing elsewhere, like a comprehensive conversion chart for the quantities, weight and volume of fruit. (For example, how many apples in a cup? A pound?)

Although she does use a few ingredients that I probably won't ever put into my own preserves (like bananas and cocoa), there are lots of truly mouthwatering recipes in there that I'm dying to try. Including that linzertorte.

In a similar vein, Steve Maxwell and Jennifer MacKenzie's The Complete Fruit Cellar Book: Building Plans, Uses and 100 Recipes (Robert Rose, 2010) offers an eye-opening look at the possibilities for storing food even in small homes and apartments.

For the lucky occupant of a big rural lot, the authors offer technical instructions for actually constructing an in-ground root cellar, complete with dauntingly detailed-looking explanations of "footing forms" and electrical wiring tips. For the less handy, there are also plans for burying food in a less ostentatious, pit-style cellar – even in a dirt-floor basement!

More realizable by someone like me are intriguing plans for versatile wooden bins and shelving, and an explanation of how to store food in layers of sand in a trash can. There are intriguing projects, like overwintering plants, "shocking" onions (forcing them into dormancy so they won't keep growing in storage) and forcing rhubarb. This last one sounds especially attractive to me after just having paid $15 for a smallish bunch of local rhubarb.

The end of the book is given over to recipes that use stored foods, including lots of hearty soups from root vegetables, and also foods to be put up by various methods, like sauerkraut, salted citrus fruits, pickles, chutneys, fruit butters and the legendary rumtopf, which I have long known about and hope to attempt in this lifetime. It essentially consists of equal quantities of sugar, rum and various fruits as each comes into season, nestled in a crock to steep into sweet rummy goodness. Well, maybe this is the year...

City Farmer Book Launch

On Wednesday, May 26 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Lorraine Johnson launches her new book, City Farmer: Adventures in Urban Food Growing. Apart from being a prolific author and a lovely person (with a great collection of earrings!), Lorraine is deeply knowledgeable about native plant species and is herself a keen grower of various types of food in the city.

The book covers rooftop, backyard and guerilla vegetable gardening, urban fruit harvesting and gardening with kids, and offers lots of practical tips for anyone who wants to get growing themselves. The launch will be held at The Stop's Green Barn #4 (601 Christie at St. Clair), and admission is free.