Welcome to the online journal of Plenty, written by Trevor Walker, the shop owner. Feel free to post comments and engage in discussions.
Image courtesy NWEI (www.nwei.org)
Table Talk ✱ First Wednesday ✱ at Plenty epicurean pantry ✱ 7 - 9 pm ✱ $24
On March 3rd Terralicious and Plenty will be co-hosting Table Talk. These lively sessions take place in the store on the first Wednesday of each month, from 7 - 9 pm, and are an opportunity to sample wonderful food, share preparation and growing tips, and engage in great discussions about food and sustainability. Please e-mail trevor@epicureanpantry.ca to receive updates as plans develop or sign up for the first six sessions of Table Talk at the store.
Linda Jane recently shared this definition with me: deipnosophist - person skilled in dining and table-talk. It was used in plural as the title of a work by Athenaeus (3rd Century) describing long discussions at a banquet.
We will be starting the Table Talk series with a discussion course from the Canadian Earth Institute (an affiliate of the Northwest Earth Institute in Portland). Please join us as we discuss food and sustainability over six sessions of Menu for the Future.
Join us to:
- Explore food systems and their impacts on culture, society and ecological systems
- Gain insight into agricultural and individual practices that promote personal and ecological well-being
- Consider ways to create and support sustainable food systems
[ READ FULL ENTRY ]
Mountain Ash Preserves Fig & Strawberry Jam is back! I recently received an e-mail from Anne Hutchings to let me know that her students had a batch of the coveted Fig & Strawberry Jam ready. This is one of my favourite jams and many customers have asked us to let them know when it’s back in stock. It tastes fantastic and it is also wonderful because of the educational collaboration that produces it.
Elaine and Max Steiger owned and operated Mountain Ash Farm from 1967 until last Spring. They raised five children on their Powell River farm and over the years raised beef, pork, lamb and chevon (goat), as well as dairy cows and almost every kind of poultry – from chickens to pheasants to emus. They maintained a small store and a market garden to produce as many fruits and vegetables as possible for the preserves produced on the farm. Since last year Elaine’s legacy of amazing preserves has been continued by the students of Brooks Secondary School as part of an ongoing partnership between the Board of Education of School District 47 (Powell River) and the Powell River Educational Services Society (PRESS)!
[ READ FULL ENTRY ]
I was thinking that I'd like to give everyone who reads this blog a gift of some sort and wondered what I could send out to each of you through the ether.
I've decided to share one of my favourite internet destinations: KCRW's Good Food with Evan Kleiman. I wish we had something similar on the CBC (perhaps Don Genova back on the air). Good Food is my favourite podcast (actually it's one of two that I get - the other is Sesame Street's Word on the Street for Anton). Good Food is worth a listen - I always find it inspiring. In the past we've put the podcasts on cd and played them during car trips. I generally play it while doing paperwork for the store - makes me look forward to it. Here is a recent video from them on truffles (or select previous episodes by moving your curser over the left-hand side of the box and selecting the box that pops up):
and a link to last year’s ‘best of’ episode:
The Best of 2009; Pie; Smoked Fish; Vegan Before Six
SAT DEC 26, 2009 Today on the show, the best of Good Food from 2009. Jon Reiner is the man who couldn’t eat. The treatment for his Crohn’s disease forced him to stop drinking or eating anything for several months. Rachael Sheridan of Cube Marketplace on La Brea muses about her love of pie. Good Food listener Mars Berman is living and Poland and continues to be amazed at some of their food customs. She describes the concept of the Polish second breakfast. We take trip to the Lower East Side of New York City and Russ and Daughters’ Appetizing Store. Nikki Federman is a fourth generation Russ and runs the store with her cousin. Novella Carpenter is farming on a dead end street in the middle of the Oakland ghetto. What it means to be vegan before 6 pm. Mark Bittman of the New York Times explains. Amy Stewart reveals the deadly nature of some plants. Scott Gold, the Shameless Carnivore eats the Peruvian delicacy of cuy, or guinea pig. And Laura Avery has a rhubarb margarita at the Santa Monica Farmers Market.
On December 7th world leaders will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). They’ll be negotiating future agreements for countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as our current commitments under the Kyoto Protocol expire in 2012.
—- UPDATE —-
We’re still making and collecting cranes for the 1000 Cranes for Action on Climate Change. We’ll continue to add to the collection in our front window until December 18th when the Copenhagen climate summit concludes. If you contribute cranes that you’d like to collect back please pick them up on December 18th. After that date we will be selling the cranes (many are very remarkable - made from a collection of maps and posters that artist Gillian Gravenor has contributed). The cranes will be sold for $2 each with all proceeds going to the Mustard Seed Food Bank.
—-
Join us at Plenty on Friday, November 27th (Buy Nothing Day) to make 1000 paper cranes symbolizing our desire help heal the planet and begin to reverse the effects of climate change. From 11:30 - 1:30 artist Gillian Gravenor will be helping us to get started on the goal of 1000 paper cranes.
Legend says that anyone who folds one thousand paper cranes will have their heart’s desire come true. Cranes have also become a symbol of healing and peace. Unfortunately, like many species (including our own) cranes are threatened by the effects of climate change.
Copenhagen must be a turning point where we stop fighting the planet that supports us and instead commit to heal the damage we’ve done. We need a climate change treaty that is fair, ambitious, and binding.
If you can’t join us on November 27th (11:30 - 1:30) please make a paper crane and add it to our collection in the front window. We’ll be collecting them until the end of the Copenhagen Conference on December 18th, 2009.
[ READ FULL ENTRY ]
A fundraiser for the Victoria Film Festival is coming up this weekend. The Art of the Cocktail features a great mix of workshops. [ READ FULL ENTRY ]
Farm Folk / City Folk 2010 Calendar
We are thrilled to help Farm Folk / City Folk celebrate BC’s harvest heroes by carrying the 2010 FarmFolk/CityFolk Calendar at Plenty. It features beautiful farm images by Brian Harris, stories about the profiled farms, and 12 seasonal recipes.
For 15 years, FarmFolk/CityFolk has supported community-based sustainable food systems by engaging in public education with farm and city folks. They believe that it is the connection between farm and city, producer and consumer, grower and eater that creates sustainable communities. Their focus includes programs promoting seed security, community farms, and local foods.
Visit FarmFolk/CityFolk Heroes, to view an inspiring 6-minute video homage to 27 sustainable farmers and city growers with photography by Brian Harris and music by Liona Boyd. It includes many images from the 2010 calendar and is a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration of BC’s harvest heroes.
The Ruckle Bean (from thetyee.ca)
The Tyee currently features a wonderful series of articles called ‘Eat Your History‘ about the stories behind foods special to British Columbia.
“You don’t live to be 98 without having a lot in your head,” says Lotus Ruckle from her home in Ganges on Salt Spring Island. We’re talking about the origin of the Ruckle bean, a white kidney variety that has been grown continuously in the province for at least 95 years and may be the only uniquely B.C. bean”…
Click here to read more of this wonderful Tyee ‘Eat Your History’ article by Joanne Will.
Himalayan Pink Salt Deposit
We have a beautiful new salt at Plenty. Christyna Melnyk was travelling in Nepal in 2000 and happened across Himalayan Pink Salt. Christyna is allergic to every other kind of salt, but discovered that she can use this ancient “Salt of Life” from the Himalayas.
What makes it so special? Christyna wanted to know more and with the help of BCIT she determined that Himalayan Pink Salt contains all of the 84 trace minerals found in the human body and, remarkably, in the same proportions.
Himalayan Pink Salt is a mineral-rich luxury salt, hand mined from the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains and imported by Salt of Life into BC.
[ READ FULL ENTRY ]
Peter Bagi, a wonderful local photographer, recently picked-up some items at Plenty and profiled them on his blog:
Here are some reasons why it’s great to go see smaller specialty food retailers. Supermarkets have a whole range of items but not always the stuff that inspires you to try cooking new things or try new flavours. …
Please visit Peter’s blog to read more and have a look at his photography. I hope to feature some of his food-related images in a display at Plenty in the future.
La China Poblana
Some wonderful Mexicana themed photomontage gift cards have been for sale at Plenty for several months now and were featured in an article here a while back. These images by local artist, Bill Blair, were published in Mexico by Gusano de Luz. They incorporate human subjects from the artist’s extensive collection of early-20th-century Mexican real-photo postcards, mixing his own background elements photographed from his travels in Mexico.
Bill’s original pieces - including the ones from the card line - are on exhibit at Ferris‘ upstairs now! The originals are unique, one-of-a-kind silver gelatin prints hand-tinted with transparent photo oils. We are thrilled to carry several items at Plenty from Ferris’ including Sandy’s famous herbal teas, chais, fantabulous brownies and bran bread mix! See Mary-Lou’s comments about the Bran Bread in the A Few of Our Favourite Things post. My love for Ferris’ brownies will likely inspire a future article.
Bill has recently been commissioned to create five original photomontages for Chicago chef Rick Bayless’ new restaurant, Xoco. City Food has published an article about his work and the new restaurant.
