Photos, farmers, food porn and more!

My only observation of the Solstice on Thursday was to look out the window and say, "When's it going to LOOK like summer?" SO here are a few celebratory items to compensate for that oversight.


This is a photo I've been meaning to share for a while now - from back in May when Mark and I went hiking in Hemlock Ravine. The magic of this little nook, clearly inhabited by faeries, took my breath away. Mark was sensitive enough not to laugh at my delight.


two delicious events to check out:


"Musicians for Farmers" is the brainchild of a member of FAC who is also a local musician. It's happening next Thursday and proceeds go to Heliotrust, a wonderful organization run by the lovely Jen Scott. It's mandate is, quite simply, to keep traditional farming wisdom, heritage food varieties and small, local farms alive. For more details, please visit the website or better yet, come to the concert! There will be delish, local, organic food (included in the $10 cover price)and live music.


I'm also thrilled to be finally fulfilling my dream of learning to build a yurt! Selene and Alex at Little Foot Yurts are bringing their yurt-building workshop to Halifax in order to accommodate those of us who are without transportation of the car-like persuasion. Adam gracefully endured much teasing from his colleagues to get the weekend off work so that he could attend with me. I am one lucky girl.


And now for the much-anticipated food porn, I present to you my crowning achievement in the risotto category:


The recipe is from The Complete Vegan and the risotto is more Asian- than Italian-style. It's made with asparagus and oyster mushrooms, both readily available at the Halifax Farmer's Market. The red pepper was imported - I just had to make the splurge. This risotto was absolutely delightful - the flavours blended well, and the mushrooms were so tender they would practically melt on your tongue. *sigh*

And my fresh-fruit dilemma is finally solved. Just take a look at these beauties:



That's right, the year's first strawberries. Sooo luscious. I have other things to talk about here, but they'll have to wait because I need to go stuff my belly...

Straight from the Muppet's mouth

Seymour Green's new blog

Love in my tummy, vol. 2

Have you heard of The 100-Mile Diet? These two people spent a year eating only food that was grown, caught or produced within a 100-mile radius of their home. In an era where tomatoes from Mexico and apples from New Zealand are the norm in our grocery stores and refrigerators, that's a really remarkable thing - but please don't be scared off by the idea of it. Eating locally is getting trendier by the day, and the beauty of it (aside from the joy of really fresh, healthy food and the experience of living within nature's rhythms) is that "local" is open to interpretation. It might be 100 miles, it might be your community, it might be your backyard. Or, it could be bigger. I personally consider food to be at least relatively local if it was grown within the Atlantic provinces, although I try to opt for things grown closer to home when possible. I don't compare myself unfavourably to the 100-milers because most of my 100-mile radius is ocean and I'm not ready to go back to eating fish. And, after about a year of striving to eat primarily Maritime-grown food from the farmers' market, I've found that that these boundaries offer a stunning variety of flavours and textures. That's why I've started the Love in My Tummy segments: to celebrate local foods and the many glorious things one can do with them.

So, we're used to the usual four-seasons-in-a-year thing. But the truth is, there are seasons within seasons. Strawberries and blueberries both grow during the summer, for example, but not at the same time. Get my drift? Similarly, in the spring you start with the winter hangover - the last of the coarse, starchy produce like potatoes, onions and apples, plus a taste of the season's first hardy greens. Then you get to where we are now, surrounded by a smorgasbord of tender green foods that clean the winter out of your body and get you ready for the warm days of summer. These include asparagus, fiddleheads, green onions and beet greens. They're heaven if you've been living on a local diet all winter, but there is a slight conundrum: where's the fruit? Apples, which have been my default sweet food since October, have all but disappeared from the market. Rhubarb performs a solo as THE fruit of the season, and while I adore rhubarb I'm not about to start chewing on a raw stalk of it after dinner (but I won't judge you if you do). Fortunately, thanks to the wonders of modern refrigeration I was able to combine some free 'barb from my Mom's garden with last summer's frozen strawberries into a luscious strawberry-rhubarb crumble.



My photography leaves something to be desired but I am proud to say that my desserts do not.

If you have any local food recipes to share or if you have any special requests for LIMT reviews, please post! I love to hear from you all.

P.S. For more local-food porn, check out Slow Food Nova Scotia or the EAC's Food Action Committee - the latter website is slightly out of date at the moment but is soon to be updated by moi.