Vert-à-Go

photo: my 2008 Weird James Beard Award winner

When you grow your own food, you inevitably produce some bizarre specimens from time to time. Nature isn’t perfect–no matter what those bins of clone-like supermarket produce or air-brushed food magazine photos might lead you to believe. This prejudice against misshapen vegetables is responsible for supermarkets rejecting thousands of tons of perfectly edible food every year, which, if farmers cannot sell elsewhere, is relegated to compost or animal feed, or simply left to rot in the field. It also forces a significant number of farmers to use pesticides for purely cosmetic reasons.

How did we reach a point where so much food is wasted or unnecessarily doused with chemicals simply because someone decides it doesn’t look pretty enough to eat? I believe that a vicious circle has been created between consumers, who refuse to buy blemished produce, and supermarkets, which respond to and then further feed that choice by only stocking cosmetically uniform produce. Generations of people have become so removed from the food production chain that they no longer understand that vegetables come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, that they are grown in fields exposed to insects and the elements, and that the best-tasting fruits and vegetables are often the funniest-loooking ones. Because they’ve never grown their own food and usually have no idea who is growing the food they buy or how they’re doing it, their main instinct in the supermarket is fear*–fear that can only be assauged by seeing the same reassuringly familiar and homogeneous produce every time they walk in.

Thankfully, there is a growing backlash against this produce perfectionism. I also hope that as more people take up gardening, they will develop an emotional investment in their food that will keep them from cavalierly tossing a not-so-perfect specimen. Indeed, I hope that they will embrace them and celebrate them (and, if possible, eat them)!

This year, I’ve given my annual weird vegetable award to the potato above, which is shaped like some kind of…well, I’m not exactly sure, but it’s got an interesting snout, at any rate, and it looks quite jovial. For more amusing examples of Regular Food Gone Horribly Wrong, visit MoFA (Museum of Food Abnormalities). And please comment about or send pictures of your own strange home-grown examples!

* fear of eating food that ‘tastes gross’, fear of eating food that has gone bad, fear of germs and dirt on food, fear of getting sick from food, and the deep-seated fear of acknowledging that food is produced in the real world and isn’t just magicked out of thin air by white-clad fairies.

It can be really difficult to find a good dill pickle. Either they’re too soft, or too salty, or the wrong kind of sour, or they’re just plain from too far away. Over the seven years I lived in England–where, inexplicably, grocery stores don’t carry them and most people have never even heard of them–I kept dreaming of those tall glass pickle jars lining my mom’s cold room.

I still haven’t lost any of my enthusiasm for them and have since introduced two small new pickle fiends into the world, so a jar doesn’t exactly last in our fridge for months at a time. I vowed that 2008 was the year that I was finally going to learn how to make them for myself! In August I picked up a couple of bags of small cucumbers (these are available pre-bagged at various farmers’ markets, although I got mine from Sobey’s, who had brought them in from Sovereign Colony near Rosetown). I didn’t have any canning experience, though, so I took them down to the farm to get some long-overdue instruction from my mom. We used her mother’s old recipe–and, I believe, some of Grandma’s old jars too!

Please note that this recipe assumes a familiarity with good canning practices (sterilising jars and following proper sealing procedures).

Olive’s garlic dills

Wash cucumbers. Pack into sterilised jars with garlic and dill. For each quart of cucumbers use:

• 3 cloves garlic
• fresh dill (4 good-sized stems of both leaves and flowers)
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1Tbsp pickling salt

Bring the brine to a boil, pour into jars and seal immediately (no boiling water bath required). Takes six weeks to pickle.

These pickles will last for at least a year (if you haven’t already eaten them all by then), but we have eaten from older jars with no problem at all. I was surprised at how easy it was to do. I did the second batch back at home using snap lids. One lid hadn’t snapped down like the others by the following morning (until I pushed on it), so I stuck that jar in the fridge for its 6-week pickling phase and will use it first, just in case.

And if you don’t feel like waiting until November for your pickles, or you just don’t feel like canning right now? Here’s a great recipe for refrigerator pickles that can tide you over.

In March, Station 20 West Community Enterprise Centre lost committed provincial funding of $8 million for its unique community health and social services centre. The Saskatchewan Party government’s decision sparked outrage and, since then, thousands of people from across the city have joined the Station 20 West campaign. Although construction plans have now had to be scaled back to reduce costs, the centre will still house important services that will improve the lives of those living in Saskatoon’s core neighbourhood and help revitalise the area.

Here is the latest Station 20 West update:

• The revised plan calls for a smaller two-storey building of 19,000 square feet. The estimated cost to shell in the building is $2.6 million. The food store will be responsible for its own fit-ups and the other tenants will be asked to bring their own improvements.
• The revised centre will continue to be home to a locally-owned grocery store, and a number of important health and social agencies focused on improving the lives of individuals and families in the core neighborhoods.
• Services available through Station 20 West will provide improved access to nutrition education, healthy food, youth leadership programming, outreach education and employment, and small business development services.
• The organization will take a $600,000 mortgage, and has so far received donations totaling $325,000. Station 20 West still needs to raise $1.675 million and intends to have all of the money raised by December 31, 2008. The target to start construction is the fall of 2008.

You can make a donation to the Station 20 West campaign here. And if you’re looking for a fun way to support the campaign, why not come out to McClure United Church’s Station 20 West fundraiser on Friday 26 September?

The evening will include:

• a presentation on Station 20 West
• exciting entertainment
• delicious dessert!

When: Friday 26 September 2008, 7pm-10pm

Where: McClure United Church Auditorium, 4125 Taylor Street, Saskatoon (Google map)

Cost: Adult $12, Family $30, Students $7

You can get your tickets from:

• McClure United Church office (373-1753)
• McClure Place office (955-7677)
• Joan Bell (955-2080)
• Aurelia Grimes (477-3039)
• Quint office (978-4041)

On Saturday 4 October, the Saskatchewan Environmental Society will present the 3rd annual Sustainable Gourmet–a fundraising dinner featuring locally grown or made gourmet food, highlighting sustainability in the dining room.

All of the primary ingredients for the meal will be grown or made locally. The main chefs will be Marty and Tiffany Peters from Fresh Bistro, with specialty dishes provided by Wild Serendipity Foods, PickNic’s Restaurant and Fine Pastries, Park Café and Diner, and Flatlanders Farms. Service will be provided by Outter Limits staff. Little Penguin wines and Saskatoon’s own Paddock Wood beer will be available for purchase.

Join community green leaders–Affinity Credit Union, Confederation Inn and Fresh Bistro–and the rest of the generous sponsors and donors in support of this very tasty event. Guest speaker Amy Jo Ehman will share her thoughts about food and the journey it doesn’t have to take.

Cost: $65 (includes a tax receipt for $30)

When: Saturday 4 October 2008 at 6:30pm

Where: Confederation Inn (3330 Fairlight Drive)

Call the SES office at 665-1915 for your tickets!