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Fresh-washed market
After six weeks of straight sunshine, last Saturday’s rainfall was a pleasure to the gardeners, not so much to those of us being dripped upon at the North Saanich Farm Market, where Slow Food had, for a second year, been invited to set up an information booth.
The experience was eerily similar to last year, since we managed to catch a rainy Saturday then as well. Be that as it may, the market is a small but lively one with a committed following, who simply brought umbrellas along and reaped the local bounty.
Rainy weather makes for a popular coffee concession, and the baking to go with it.
Luscious local fruit at the community table:
The market offers great local music every week (without a sound system on rainy days). This week it was The Sirens.
Information from Sea Change, working for marine conservation.
Every market should have its husbands. This one took care of tent drainage.
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Cutting the mustard
Apparently August 7 is National Mustard Day, at least in Wisconsin. They were already celebrating it in the Napa Valley with a mustard festival earlier this year. You could get in on a six-course mustard dinner which sounded like a hot ticket.
And this is the moment in any mustard conversation when good Canadians quietly ask whether you know that 90% of all mustard seed used in Dijon mustard production in France is imported from Canada?
And if you are interested in the politics of mustard seed oil in India, you can read this piece by the wondrous Vandana Shiva, about another Monsanto dirty trick.
Other things to know about mustard include its use in crop rotation trials in Prince Edward Island, where the potato crops are being ravaged by wireworm. It seems to be of some value there, as brown mustard is high in chemicals called glucosinolates, which when they break down produce isothiocyanates, compounds which are actually toxic to wireworms.
On the darker side of the family, Garlic Mustard is a problem weed that’s invading fields in BC and many other parts of North America, where it was introduced by settlers as a salad green and medicinal herb (it’s said to be helpful internally against bronchitis, asthma and eczema, and externally for minor injuries, slow-healing skin problems, rheumatism and gout).
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The future of fish
A convergence of schools of thought on fish, and some opportunities to make your views known:
Alexandra Morton is inviting Canadians to take action on proposed federal Pacific aquaculture regulations, which have been offer a 60-day public input period (page 1933 of this hefty document). Now is the time to give some thought to how you want to see Canada’s Pacific coast used in future: the deadline is September 12.
Morton’s views on fish farms are well known and always make interesting reading; she delivers again in this article which unpicks the politics of Canadian fish farm regulation for The Tyee.
Also chugging through its 60 day public input is this document on Canadian organic aquaculture standards. Deadline for this one is August 30.
Some good background reading on the question of wild vs farmed fish can be found on Barry Eastabrook’s excellent Politics of the Plate blog, which features a review of Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food, by Paul Greenberg. Discussing the fate of salmon, sea bass, cod, and tuna, and offering thoughtful suggestions for going forward with, the book sounds unmissable.
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In her latest collection, Rhona McAdam navigates the dark places of human movement through the earth and the exquisite intricacies lingering in backyard gardens and farmlands populated by insects and pollinators, all the while returning to the body, to the tune of staccato beats and the newly discovered symmetries within the human heart.
“…A beautiful, filling collection, Larder is a set of poems to read at the change of the seasons, to appreciate alongside a good meal, and to remind yourself of the beauty in everything, even the things you may not appreciate before opening McAdam’s collection….”
Rhona McAdam is a writer, poet, editor, and Registered Holistic Nutritionist with a Master’s in Food Culture from Italy and a deep-rooted passion for ecology and urban agriculture. Her work spans corporate and technical writing to poetry and creative nonfiction, often exploring the vital links between what we eat and how we live. Based in Victoria, BC, and available via Zoom, Rhona is always open to new writing commissions, readings, or workshops on nutrition and the culinary arts.
