Saskatchewan author and chef dee Hobsbawn-Smith offers a retrospective on the potato’s cultural journey from the Americas to Europe and back, and a recipe for butter-basted baby potatoes with rosemary.
Tag Archives First We Eat
Putting down roots, part 2: Potatoes
First We Eat: It didn’t take long for the versatile potato to become a staple in Europe, especially in Ireland
Putting down roots, part 1: Beets
First We Eat: Taking us back to lands left behind, beets today are the closest we get to eating a mouthful of minerals
Densely textured, richly coloured and earthy even in their seed form, beets are reminiscent of dirt for Saskatchewan writer dee Hobsbawn-Smith.
Great recipes rely on timely fall resource management
First We Eat: Your garden’s yield may need storage all at once if autumn arrives on short notice
dee Hobsbawn-Smith recounts an early-September rush to get frost-sensitive Prairie produce out of the garden, into the kitchen and processed for storage.
Cherries, part 2: Strudel
First We Eat: Prairie gardeners have until about the end of October to get sour cherry plants into the ground
Sour cherry shrubs, with proper care, can thrive in the challenging climate of Canada’s Prairies and produce fruit for delicacies such as strudel, as shown in the recipe here.
It’s chicken day
First We Eat: If it’s from a good farmer, a whole direct-sale bird is worth that extra bit of cost
This issue’s recipe: honey lemon chicken. Chicken Day means getting whole processed birds from a local farmer, getting them home in coolers, cutting each up for bagging and freezing, then stripping the carcasses for stock and pet food.
Summer brings a cherry jubilee
First We Eat: Direct off the tree or baked into desserts, the fruit is rich in both flavour and nutrients
Seeing this year’s fresh Okanagan cherries being unpacked at the local farmers’ market, in the wake of a disastrous 2024 growing season in that region of British Columbia, was a magical moment.
Stock can be the stock answer for a healthy diet in recovery
First We Eat: These simple combinations of ingredients come bearing highly nutritional benefits
Stock is the foundation of many restorative dishes. In folk medicine that recognizes the healing value of food, this is old news.
Plan for leftovers
First We Eat: Preparing ingredients to do double duty is just good sense
The act of eating occurs repeatedly on life’s continuum, and marshalling your ingredients to do double duty is just good sense.
Tools and techniques, part 4: Handmade
Inanimate objects have a time and place — but the hands are a cook’s first tools
My hands knead and stretch and shape, fold and pleat. They evaluate texture and assess degree of doneness. In the kitchen, my hands are my first tools.
Tools and techniques, part 3: Between a rock and a hard place
First We Eat: Pounding ingredients with a pestle encourages a calm approach to cooking
My mom tells me my counters are too cluttered. “Why don’t you put some of that stuff away?” she asks me repeatedly. Much of the counter space in my old farmhouse kitchen is occupied by electric tools designed to grind foods or to alter their shape: a food processor, blender and coffee mill stand shoulder […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
