I picked a few wild saskatoon berries on my walk. I wandered for over an hour and came home with about a cupful in total.
Saskatoons are native plants of North America and are known by many different names including prairie berry, serviceberry, shadbush, juneberry and, in past centuries, pigeon berry.
In the 1970s farmers began to grow saskatoon berries commercially and I was surprised the first time I saw saskatoon jelly in the jam section at the grocery store. There was some drama when Canadian producers began selling their products in Europe. Headlines stated: Saskatoons Banned in Europe as a Novel Food . Apparently the EU regulators needed to officially prove that these berries were safe for human consumption before the products could be legally sold in Europe.
Saskatoon berries are high in anti-oxidants which have some action in preventing, aging, cancer and heart disease. The Saskatoon Berry Institutehas a detailed nutritional breakdown. The berries were traditionally used to make pemmicanwhich was an important survival food for both aboriginal people in North America and early settlers. This dried fruit product enabled them to have the nutrition of berries available throughout the winter.
I didn’t have enough berries for a pie, so I decided to use them for a coffee cake. I made a plain coffee cake and added the saskatoons as a topping.
Saskatoon Coffee Cake
1/2 cup butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup sour cream
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tbsp. brown sugar
1 cup saskatoon berries (or more)
Cream butter. Add 1 cup sugar, gradually, creaming well. Add eggs one at a time, beating until light after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Stir baking soda into sour cream. Sift together flour, salt and baking powder. Add sour cream and flour mixtures alternately to the creamed mixture, beating well. Spoon batter into an 8-inch square pan. Mix brown sugar with saskatoon berries and spread on top. Bake at 350° F for 45 minutes.
Wild rice is a truly indigenous Canadian food that has been growing in the boreal forest for centuries. Wild rice is not the same plant we commonly refer to as rice. Wild rice in Canada is Zizania palutris, an aquatic water grass that grows in the lakes of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. It has become commercialized and is now also grown on aquatic farms in California as well as harvested from Canada’s natural lakes.
Wild rice contains twice as much protein as brown rice. It is low in calories and high in fibre with a more chewy texture than rice. One cup of cooked wild rice contains only 165 calories and 6.5 grams of protein. It is high in vitamins and minerals. Wild rice does not contain gluten. Personally I would find it difficult to eat a whole cup of wild rice. It’s so dense.
Wild rice is often sold in grocery stores mixed with regular rice. This is a bad idea because wild rice requires a much longer cooking time and more water than regular rice. I now realize that I’ve fed quite a few people uncooked wild rice. No harm in that, but under cooked rice is likely to give you a little fibre and no nutrients. Instructions for cooking wild rice recommend three to four cups water for each cup of wild rice and a cooking time of thirty to sixty minutes. I have had success with using three cups water and cooking for forty five minutes. If in doubt err on the side of extra water and extra cooking time.
Uncooked Wild Rice
Fully Cooked Wild Rice
Once cooked the wild rice pops open, a little like popcorn. If it looks like the grain, it’s not cooked. One cup of raw wild rice turns to about three cups cooked.
It’s easy to freeze the cooked wild rice in small portions and then mix it with rice or other grains into any recipe.
I wish I had learned this years ago. I would have been able to enjoy fresh flowers in my home so much more.
The spring planter containing a primrose, tulips, crocuses, daffodils and hyacinth has been blooming in my living room for weeks, instead of lasting the usual few days. All that is necessary for this magic is some room in the refrigerator. My apartment is very warm cold temperature spring flowers, like tulips, expire very quickly. The solution is to put them in the refrigerator every night, and when away from home during the day. If I keep them on the table only when I am awake at home to enjoy them the life span of the flowers extends by an incredible amount of time. A vase of cut flowers also lasts much longer.
It feels like a waste to buy flowers that expire while I am at work. The refrigerator keeps them fresh till I get home. All flowers can be enjoyed for many more days. A controlled test found that just using the refrigerator kept flowers fresh longer than any other trick.
The honey was chemical free, locally produced by bees collecting nectar from willow, poplar, dandelions, white clover and sunflower. It was given to me as a gift from Larch Grove Farm.
My daughter brought a special Canadian gin, Ungava. It is brilliant yellow and infused with six Arctic botanicals that give it the unusual, unique flavour.
THE RECIPE: Prohibition Cocktail: The Bee’s Knees
1 Tbsp honey 1 Tbsp hot water
1 tsp lemon juice 1 1/2 oz (40 ml) gin
Make honey syrup by combining honey and hot water. Whisk until honey is dissolved and allow to cool. Shake honey syrup and remaining ingredients over cracked ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with thin slice of lemon. Makes one cocktail.
I made four times the recipe for Christmas and it didn’t seem like nearly enough for only the two of us drinking them. Multiply quantities as necessary
Tourtiere was never a tradition in my family, but I am happy to adopt this dish from Quebec and make it part of our Canadian Christmas. This recipe comes from The Harrowsmith Cook Book Vol. 1. It was submitted to the cookbook by Nicole Chartrand, from Alymer, Quebec.
Lard pastry for double-crust 9-inch pie 1/2 tsp. savory
1 lb. lean ground pork pinch of ground cloves
1 medium onion, chopped 1/4 cup boiling water
salt and pepper
Mix meat and onion and spices in a saucepan. Add boiling water. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. Skim off any fat.
Roll out half the pastry and line a 9-inch pie plate. Place filling in pie plate and cover with the remaining pastry. Prick with a fork. Bake at 375°F for 30 minutes or until golden. Serves 4-6.
The original recipe says to serve with homemade ketchup or chili sauce. I prefer to serve it with mashed potatoes and lots of gravy.
Breakfast can be super simple and exotic at the same time.
On a particular winter morning I was craving French toast, the simple version of bread dipped in eggs and fried in butter. There is a bag of black currents in the freezer that we picked in summer, so long ago I don’t remember where. I cooked the black currents with just a little local honey to sweeten.
This breakfast was more satisfying than expensive restaurant fare.
I planted four varieties of tomatoes. The Celebrityvariety produced both the biggest tomatoes and the largest quantity. Some of the tomatoes were four inches across. The plant grew so tall and heavy the tomato cage couldn’t hold it up and tomatoes were still touching the ground. The one Celebrity plant produced more tomatoes than the other three varieties combined. I can’t adequately compare the taste of varieties since they were picked green and mixed together in the bin to ripen.
Tomato Harvest
Almost all the tomatoes ripened well after they were picked, even the small ones. The first thing you notice when growing a garden is that vegetables aren’t perfect like the ones in the store. Remember, we’re not growing vegetables for magazine pages, we’re growing them for taste and nutrition. They are not models of perfection.
A few tomatoes had the lovely purple tint when they ripened.
I’m going to guess these were the Heirloom Cherokee Purple tomatoes. The plant only grew about a foot tall and produced maybe two or three good sized tomatoes. Perhaps it is not suited to our northern climate. The tomatoes had a delicate, rich taste and I will definitely try to grow them again.
My favourite use for fresh tomatoes is chopped up with onions and herbs and served over pasta. Fresh and lightly sautéed, instead of boiled down into a sauce.
Fresh garden tomatoes with ravioli from the Italian Centre. Delizioso!
Made with parsley and mint, this salad is similar to a tabbouleh. The quinoa base makes it gluten free and the blueberries add more summer freshness.
2 cups cooked quinoa**, cooled
½ cup chopped fresh parsley
½ cup chopped fresh mint
¼ diced chives or green onion
2 cups fresh blueberries
**To cook quinoa: rinse ½ cup quinoa and add to 1 cup of boiling water. Bring to boil, cover and cook on low heat 15-20 minutes until water is absorbed.
Dressing:
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon orange zest
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
Combine ingredients and leave at room temperature for an hour before serving.
So much chickweed growing in my garden! So much information on the internet! I knew chickweed was edible and when I looked up information on it’s nutritional content, I found more than I expected. Apparently it has a myriad of medicinal effects as well and is sold as a herbal remedy. I decided to put the excess chickweed to use.
I gathered a big zip lock bag full of chickweed from my garden and sorted out any dry bits and washed it. Washed a jelly jar and rinsed it with boiling water to make sure it’s sterile. Chopped the chickweed and filled the jar to about half inch from the top. Filled the jar with Everclear covering all the plant material.
Instructions recommend using a consumable alcohol as close to 100 proof as you can find. The stronger the alcohol, the less likely any contaminant can grow. Everclear is listed as 190 Proof and consists of 95% alcohol. Everclear is available for sale in Alberta but depending on where you live it may be unavailable or illegal.
The chemicals and nutrients in the plant are drawn into the alcohol. Remember this tincture is consumed a few drops at a time, not even a teaspoonful.
The mixture is now left to steep for six weeks and then will be strained and bottled.
This is chickweed from my garden. With recent rains, it has been growing faster than my vegetables. Surprisingly it is also tastier than some vegetables. Like we’ve done with dandelions, for years we have been throwing this plant in the garbage along with it’s great taste and vitamins. Chickweed contains calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, selenium, silica, sodium, phosphorus potassium and zinc, It also contains some Vitamin A, some B vitamins and a little vitamin C. It tastes like a fresher, crisper version of watercress.
A super fresh dish to serve on a hot day is a salad of watermelon with chopped chickweed. So good!
Chickweed can be added as an extra to green to most salads, to smoothies and to stir fries. They are a delicate plant and don’t stand up well to much heat, so add just shortly before serving if putting them into a cooked dish.
Chickweed has been used for its medicinal properties in herbal medicine. It can be used in tinctures and creams.
