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Corn smut
I’d heard of corn smut, but never experienced it. Just knew it was bad. Now I find out it is good! In Mexico, it is a revered delicacy called huitlacoche, cuitlacoche, maize mushroom or Ustilago maydis. You can make it into many dishes including soups, sauces and even ice cream.
Speaking of corn, and Mexican-ish food, Gabe passed along this delightful clip from the The Onion…
http://www.theonion.com/content/themes/common/assets/onn_embed/embedded_player.swf?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theonion.com%2Fcontent%2Ffiles%2Fimages%2FGREEN_MENU_article.jpg&videoid=96591&title=Taco%20Bell’s%20New%20Green%20Menu%20Takes%20No%20Ingredients%20From%20Nature
Taco Bell’s New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients From Nature -
Lots of music in the hot hot sun
Spent the weekend testing the limits of heat endurance and my sunscreen at the Vancouver Island Music Festival in Courtenay.
Steven Page was solo-ing after leaving Barenaked Ladies.
Arlo Guthrie played for us on his birthday and was repaid with cake and our wonderful singing.
Saturday was so hot the most popular venue was the Woodland Stage as it had the only shady seats. But Eric Bibb was hot enough to draw a crowd no matter the temperature.
Del McCoury and his almost all-family band were top notch Saturday nighters.
and Martyn Joseph
at one of the song circles.
The Comox Valley Farmers’ Market is excellent, enviable and right next door to the festival site: an extra treat for Saturday morning. The sour cherries looked good enough to take home,
but somehow the wrong thing to be hauling around all the hot, hot, hot day long.
Sunday morning kicked off – almost as hot as Saturday – with the likes of Jim Byrnes and The Sojourners
and the star of the show, IMHO, the wondrous Eric Bibb
Had we been tall enough, we would truly have hung from the rafters to enjoy this blistering blues workshop, featuring both Bibbs (Eric and his dad Leon), Michael Jerome Browne Band, Jim Byrnes, Luke Guthrie, Sam Hurrie…
Mark Stuart and Stacey Earle gave a farewell (as a duo) performance – both are heading into solo projects.
Yves Lambert et le Bebert Orchestra started the Sunday night set off with some fun.
Some lovely things at the festival: the water wagon was a definite treat, bringing chilled water to the masses in this festival that dared to ban plastic water bottles.
There was also a liquid godsend in the form of the jet tent, where you could get a cooling blast of mist…
And there were artists at work here and there.
The food was pretty good. The Nomad’s Kitchen was as folky as they come
serving platters like this one with grilled salmon
But Woodstock’s smokies were up to their usual magnificent standard; the top seller again was the Gardener’s Revenge (venison) – and very good it was too.
A fabulous treat which sadly sold out before Sunday elevenses: the outstanding caramel nut bar, lovingly crafted by Corfield Coffee Bar in Duncan.
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Manitoba potato farming and a bit more about GMO labelling
I’ve split myself into two blogs – I wanted to see if I could prune some of my more garden-specific thoughts into my Random Garden blog – but then there’s farming which has to do with food and also growing things, so it’s going to be a little difficult to know what to post where for a while here.
I happened upon a story about Manitoba potato farmers that I wanted to share; it’s coverage of a new film that looks interesting:
Food sovereignty and the fate of the family farm are big issues for all of us who eat. I also recommend farmer Jonathan Wright’s ground-up account of what it’s like to try to farm sustainably in Alberta; part one, part two, and part three. And a visit to their farm here.
I read that Whole Foods is now planning to take on non-GMO labelling. Well, I guess had the recession not slowed its growth it might have reached the size of a small country so perhaps it makes sense that this should be where the initiative comes from, if governments won’t do it. Whatever else, it will certainly give the chain an enviable marketing edge in North America.
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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.
