Flavourful Saskatoon, March 9, 2015


Saskatoon Food Bank’s Garden Patch 
In 2014, the Saskatoon Food Bank’s Garden Patch grew over 30 varieties of vegetables and produced 17,000 pounds of produce. Volunteer now to form a team and adopt a plot to plant, weed and harvest in the summer.


Backyard Garden Sharing
If you’ve got a garden you can’t use or are itching to turn the soil but don’t have a space, contact Jared Regier, coordinator of CHEP’s Backyard Garden Sharing Program.

Espresso & Lavender 
Riversdale Delicatessen has an excellent selection of cheese. There are at least six kinds of Pecorino, but the cheese that caught my fancy was the Espresso & Lavender. It’s a subtle flavour (you don't have to like coffee!) and I really enjoyed it. Not cheap but worth it.


Vending Machine Beans
Affordable food was hard to come by in some of the poorer neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Santiago, Chile, until a small company started distributing vending machines full of bulk staples, such as rice, beans, lentils and sugar in small neighbourhood stores. The company splits the profits with the store owners.


Raddest Vegetarian Chef in the US
Amanda Cohen is the first vegetarian chef in 17 years to earn two stars from The New York Times, the first vegetarian chef to compete on Iron Chef, and she operates one of the few Michelin-recommended vegetarian restaurants in the country. She’s eliminated tipping and advocates for a more equitable system where women chefs make as much as male chefs.

Fairtrade or Fairly Traded? 
Fairtrade certification and labelling has played an important role in educating consumers about the working conditions of food producers. But it has its limitations. Producers are expected to belong to cooperatives and the focus is on a minimum price as opposed to a premium price for a top-quality product.

They're back! There were hot cross buns at Earth Bound Bakery on Saturday. 
P.S. There will be soda bread at The Night Oven Bakery on St. Patrick's Day. Happy holiday specials!

Flavourful Saskatoon is a weekly Monday feature. I also post regular profiles of culinary entrepreneurs, new restaurants and new food products. 

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