Thursday 29 August 2013
I fell in love with making ice creams way back on one of my first trips to Canada. My father-in-law who is usually the inspiration for most of the ice creams on this blog, has a really old Donvier that he pulled out one year, and made an absolute smashing lime sorbet. Can you say hooked? Well, yeah. Hooked.
Ever since then, one of my dreams on moving back to Canada has been to get my very own ice cream machine... and no sooner did I land in Edmonton, than I got myself my very own ice cream machine. And once I had it, I don't think I've ever bought ice cream again. Because, and you have to trust me on this one, there is nothing quite like homemade ice cream. Especially as a summer's hurrah!
Tuesday 20 August 2013
'It all started with an eighty nine year old professor leaning on his shovel' - Maryanne.
Heroes are very personal, when it comes to me. I have heroes, people I would go 'squeeeee' and faint if I met them, but they're not necessarily people I like to talk or write about... I am a little bit funny like that. I think even my husband would struggle to name a person who he considered my 'hero', both in the food world or otherwise, simply because I find it hard to articulate what it is about a person that I like and admire. Its easy enough to spout out names with the hopes that one or two 'click' but this was not what the challenge was all about for me. So, to be honest, I did think about maybe not taking part this time around. What changed my mind was that I had already missed one posting, as things were a bit manic in my world, and I didn't want to miss another one. Plus, as it is, I was already going to be late with this post too.
Once I took away the personal aspect of this topic, though, something did strike me. Who were the people, Canadian and otherwise, that I admired most when it comes to food, both the eating of and growing of it? Well, other than my mom and grandfather, who are kind of, not Canadian?
Well, those people who grow food. Not specifically farmers, though they are pretty admirable, but all those ordinary people who grow food in their back gardens. Not to blog, tweet or talk about it, but just for the sheer joy of watching things grow and sharing the bounties of harvest.
Well, I know people like that. And one of my favourite persons is the lovely Maryanne, who plants her own 'guerilla garden' as she likes to call it. This is community gardening, but not like we know it. This is just gardening, planting food for the fun of it, and for the pleasure that it brings.
I asked Maryanne how she got started with her 'guerilla garden', and she talked about how she had always wanted a garden while living in a condo. Amidst all this, she said she used to get together with a group, who worked in an set of offices, behind which was a patch of grass and hedges. The professor, in particular, kept mentioning how well tomatoes would do just up there, against the brickwork of the building. But, despite thinking about starting a garden there, she didn't particularly relish beginning the process. And then, fate took a turn, whereby part of the lawn was dug up for replacing pipes. Once that happened, the aforementioned eighty nine year old professor took it upon himself to hurry the process along, digging a giant trench for the tomatoes, and the rest, she says, is history. She recounts a funny story about the first garden year, where they decided to plant potatoes in straw bales... 'mouse heaven' says Maryanne. 'What were we thinking?' she recalls ruefully... thankfully, the lesson was learned, and there were no more mouse condos.
I found out about the garden from my husband, Kay, when we first moved to Edmonton and were living in a condo in Garneau. Kay lent a hand in getting the garden in shape one year, and we spent many days and evenings, just hanging about, sitting around a firepit and eating fresh, local produce that was all grown in the garden. It inspired a sense of camaraderie, that did a lot to ease my way into a new city and make new friends.
The garden has been going along for a few years now. Maryanne points to a pair of scissors on a small table by the water hose. That pair of scissors is left there, so if anyone stumbles on the garden they are more than welcome to take a piece of it home... fancy some fresh, organic lettuce? Or some beans? Broccoli? Well, its all there to share. Its part of the magic of guerrilla gardening. Its what makes my food heroes special.
I am certainly not a gardener. That would be my husband, Kay, and my little girl Adz. As Adz poetically put it, 'dad is the grower, mum is the cooker'... gotcha in one. So I admire people that garden for the fun of it. They are my heroes.
To celebrate home grown produce, I decided to share a simple recipe, but one that completely and utterly depends on the freshest produce. One of Kay's colleagues recently brought back Padrón pepper seeds, and Kay grew them in pots on the deck. We were lucky enough to get a whole bunch of peppers, and as we were told, all we did was douse them in some fresh olive oil, and grill them until the skins blistered. We then ate them, dunked in a titch of crystal, flaked sea salt, and all I can say is, this is what summer is all about. Sweet, salty heat, utterly moreish... so much so that Kay has now been told that there better be a lot more of these delicious little guys grown next summer.
Apparently eating Padrón peppers has been likened to playing roulette. While the majority of the peppers are mild, with a light heat to them, 20% tend to be super hot. The only way to tell? Eat them. Now that sounds like my kind of roulette :)
Wednesday 14 August 2013
GIVEAWAY WINNERS:
A huge thank you to all of you for commenting and entering my giveaway. Congratulations to the winners. If you have won, I will be in touch to confirm details and addresses. If you haven't won, keep an eye on this website as I have a couple more awesome giveaways coming up very soon.
The US Ball Canning Prize Package: Congratulations Maggie Drake. I will arrange for your canning pack to be sent to you as soon as I get your mailing address.
In Edmonton: Congratulations Su. You win the Ball Canning Discovery Set, the Ball Blue Book of Canning and a vegetable pack from my garden (watch out!).
The Rest of Canada and The World: Congratulations, Kim Anne, Stephanie Scott and Jaime. Please email me your mailing addresses at michellepatriciapeters@gmail.com.
Thanks again for your lovely comments and entries.
When our two-raised-beds-and-a-few-neighbours'-garden(s) produce, it all goes a bit wild. There are times when I am so glad that I get August off, because I would have no idea how on earth I would be able to preserve and can all of the produce that keeps coming at me. This year, the bounty included carrots, beets, more zucchini than I can handle, a boat load of Evans cherries from the neighbours' garden, peas, beans, chard, arugula, lettuce... and I still have the potatoes to come.
Thursday 1 August 2013
Woohoo, I am on vacation! Finally, after a long season, we packed up our bags and headed over to the in-laws place. This time around, we decided that dad needed to experience some true Canadian culture, so we ended up camping a few nights, one in Jasper, where we managed to get eaten alive by those pesky mosquitoes... but at the same time, had a fabulously relaxing time at the hot springs. My dad, who's never been recreational camping before kept flipping constantly between being amused and amazed at everything that people brought to camp with them. It rained pretty consistently, and even though it was slightly cold and miserable, it was still a brilliant experience for dad. We were also lucky enough to spot a wolf (eating something I don't want to mention) which was pretty rare and of course, elk were everywhere.
The next night at Beaumont was much better, in terms of weather, and the sunset over Fraser Lake was pretty spectacular, as you will see for yourself! We had a pretty good evening, pushing on to the in-laws the next day. So yayyyy, on vacation now, with not much to than relax and enjoy everything in this beautiful Northern BC town.
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