Welcome to the online journal of Plenty, written by Trevor Walker, the shop owner. Feel free to post comments and engage in discussions.
On Good Food (KCRW), one of my favourite food programs, this week Evan Kleiman interviews Laura Wright. Laura recently wrote a fascinating article about food waste for On Earth, where she is a a Senior Editor. According to the USDA, Americans waste 30 percent of all food produced. Laura reports that that number is probably more like 40 percent. Consumers can reduce food waste by composting, and by encouraging food recovery programs.
A wonderful local program that helps to prevent food from going to waste is the Lifecycles Fruit Tree Project and there are some wonderful composting projects in town including Pedal to Petal (they pick-up Plenty’s compost), Community Composting, and reFUSE. Best yet, learn to create your own fantastic compost at the Greater Victoria Compost Education Centre!
To listen to just the Food Waste segment of Good Food select the yellow start button (below) and then use your mouse to move the progress bar to about 20:40.
On May 5th 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.
We’ve received a fantastic book at Plenty called Homegrown Whole Grains, by Sara Pitzer:
Grow, Harvest & Cook Wheat, Barley, Oats, Rice, Corn & More
NIkki McClure has done the cover of this great backyard, DIY farming book.
Learn to grow, harvest, store, grind, and cook with nine of the most popular whole grains: wheat, corn, barley, millet, oats, rice, rye, spelt, and quinoa.
It’s surprisingly easy, and it takes less space than you might imagine.
For example, with just 1000 square feet, a backyard farmer can grow enough wheat to harvest 50 pounds in a single afternoon — enough for 50 loaves of delicious fresh bread.
Complete growing instructions and recipes are included.
- If you are interested in local grain growing consider joining Island Grains, Vancouver Island’s first grain CSA, and learn how to grow your own grains at the same time.
- Congratulations to Bruce and Leslie for the great Globe & Mail article about their fantastic True Grain Breads and also to the town of Cowichan Bay for being accredited last year as North America’s first Cittaslow town – joining a cultural movement that started in Italy to push back against the fast-lane life.
- The Tyee had a great article on BC’s New Wheat Kings.
- Also, check out Urban Grains, a grain CSA in Agassiz, B.C and the Flour Peddler in Robert’s Creek, BC!
- At the April 7th Table Talk session Dayle from Terralicious will bring in some wonderful ‘no-knead’ breads to sample and we’ll discuss bread making a bit in addition the Menu for the Future articles.
- Yesterday we sold the last of the fantastic Polish Bread Mixers but we’ll be getting more in later this Spring. They work very well and look like a quirky 50’s sculpture.
Hand Bread Mixer made in Poland
Table Talk ✱ First Wednesday ✱ at Plenty epicurean pantry ✱ 7 - 9 pm ✱
On September 1st Share Organics and Plenty will be co-hosting Table Talk. This session will include a viewing of Tableland, http://www.p1-productions.com/tableland.html) followed by a discussion about the initiative for a permanent public market in Victoria. Lee Fuge from Foodroots has been active in the effort to create a public market in town and will be our guest for the discussion. 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 at the store.
Linda Jane 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.
Please join us as we discuss food and sustainability. We will be coming up with topics for sessions in the Fall which may include: a discussion of cookbooks, such as Alice Water’s The Art of Simple Food, and books about food, such as Michael Pollan’s In Defence of Food, and documentaries, and some hands-on workshops at other locations.
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)!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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