“Once a week a van came through the town, delivering a full case of wine, picking up the empty case, at every house,” Mom recalls. “The wine was from the Moselle district, famous for its whites. Another van came regularly too, with smoked and cured pork sausages — like salami — never fresh. Cattle were too valuable to be eaten. I remember seeing oxen in the fields, pulling plows. We got frozen chicken — flown in from Canada, probably, because England was still pretty strictly rationed back then — at the PX (the Post Exchange) on the base. But we bought our fruits and vegetables ‘on the economy’ (air force slang for the local shops), at the Friday night street market. It was lit by gaslight, and was very pretty — eggplants and peppers and spuds all in stacks, and bunches of fresh herbs.”

Dad was often away on training exercises in Sardinia, and Mom, who would have three small children by the time they returned to Canada, made friends with the locals. Their landlord made schnapps from the local yellow Mirabelle plums, and Mom would receive a small glass of schnapps each time she went downstairs to pay the rent. She recalls that local women drank it with a sugar cube between their teeth, but the men took it straight up. At the pub she would often see the publican’s son, age 12, holding a glass of wine and smoking, his big dog lounging on the floor at his feet. She remembers one evening at a birthday celebration, a group of workmen in heavy boots occupied the booth across from them in a café, a big pot of soup on their table. When Dad popped the cork from the Alsatian crémant he was opening, the cork flew and landed in their soup. Laughter ensued.

By now you are wondering — why this trail of memories? Memories are what remain of my father, who unexpectedly passed away in October. I served two kinds of soup at his wake, when my husband Dave lifted a glass of schnapps as he offered a toast to Dad’s memory. Dad’s and my joint birthday this month is my first in my life without him. So here’s a toast to fathers everywhere. First we eat, then we pop the cork. I hope the cork lands in your neighbour’s soup pot.

Carrot and Coconut Cream Soup with Anise and Ginger

For a light soup that is driven by its vegetable nature, use water or vegetable stock; chicken stock adds weight and birdlike flavour. Vary it by adding other root vegetables, and after puréeing the finished soup, garnish if desired with chopped roast pork or chicken, or add some shrimp sautéed with garlic and anise seed. Serves 4.

• 1 onion, minced
• 1 tbsp. butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp. grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 tsp. anise seed, cracked
• 1/2 tsp. finely grated orange zest
• 1/4 tsp. cracked fennel seed
• 1/2 tsp. sweet smoked paprika
• large carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
• 4 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• Kosher salt to taste
• 1 tbsp. fish sauce
• 1 c. coconut milk
• 2 tbsp. finely minced fresh cilantro
• 1/2 lime, juice only

Combine the onion and butter in a large heavy pot. Add the garlic, ginger, anise, orange zest, fennel and paprika. Cook over medium-high heat, adding small amounts of water as needed, until tender, about 10 minutes.

Add the carrots and stock, stir well and cook over medium heat, covered, for 30-40 minutes, stirring often, until tender. Purée. Add the salt, fish sauce, coconut milk, cilantro and lime juice. Serve hot.

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The Camden, N.J. company’s Canadian arm announced Wednesday it will close the plant in phases over a period of up to 18 months and move its production to three U.S. facilities.

The Toronto plant, on Birmingham Street in Etobicoke, is the oldest facility in Campbell’s “thermal” plant network, having opened in 1931.

“Due to its size and age, the Toronto plant cannot be retrofit in a way that is competitively viable,” the company said.

The company in 2010 had billed the Toronto plant as using over 42 million lbs. of fresh vegetables per year, including potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, celery and onions, to produce over 182,000 tonnes of soup products.

But “productivity improvements” in the soup and broth business, along with sales volume declines of canned soup in North America, are among the factors leading to “excess capacity” in Campbell’s North American thermal supply chain, the company said Wednesday.

“We are operating in an increasingly challenging environment as our industry’s consumer and retail landscapes continue to change dramatically,” Mark Alexander, president for Campbell’s Americas simple meals and beverages division, said in a release.

“Despite this decision, Canada is important to Campbell,” Campbell Canada president Ana Dominguez said in the same release, after informing employees of the decision at a plant meeting. “We are remaining in Canada and will continue to make important contributions to the food industry in this country.”

About 380 manufacturing-related positions at the plant will be affected, the company said, while “nearly 200” Toronto staff will move to a new head office location in the Greater Toronto Area.

Selection is “underway” for a new site, which will include a new “Food Innovation Centre,” Campbell said. Despite exiting manufacturing in Canada, the company “will continue to make soup and broth recipes tailored to Canadian tastes.”

The Etobicoke plant was the first — and now the last — of Campbell’s major Canadian manufacturing sites. In 2009 the company shut down its frozen soup and ramen noodle operations at Listowel, Ont.; plants at Portage la Prairie, Man. and Chatham, Ont. closed in 1990 and 1993 respectively.

Campbell said Wednesday its decision to stop manufacturing in Toronto is part of a multi-year “cost savings initiative” announced in early 2015. At the end of October last year, it said, the initiative was generating $345 million per year in annual cost savings.

In a filing Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Campbell announced the Toronto plant closure and a move to “optimize” its information technology infrastructure by moving certain applications to a cloud-based platform.

For those two moves, Campbell said it would authorize pre-tax costs of $125 million to $140 million in total, including about $30 million in severance pay and benefits; $65 million in “accelerated depreciation of property, plant and equipment” and $30 million to $45 million in “implementation costs.”

Production from the Toronto plant will move to Campbell facilities at Maxton, North Carolina, about 160 km southeast of Charlotte; Napoleon, Ohio, about 50 km southwest of Toledo; and Paris, Texas, about 140 km northeast of Dallas. — AGCanada.com Network

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What? No mention of books? Of course we read books, but heck, we’d all do that anyway. The joy of book club is the conversations that arise from the pages like the enticing aroma of a baked casserole or a simmering pot of soup. Book club is always a potluck. The book brings us together; food and conversation bind us in spirit and nourish our souls. We eat and we talk.

Food is like that. The word “companion” derives from the Latin for “together with” and “bread.” Food connects us to family and friends. In that, I am luckier than most. As a writer with two books about food — particularly our good Prairie foods — I have enjoyed book clubs as both participant and subject matter. So, as you can imagine, I am looking forward to taking part in the biggest book club yet. A million participants, give or take…

My historic cookbook Out of Old Saskatchewan Kitchens has been chosen for the One Book, One Province project — a sort of uber month-long book club sponsored by libraries throughout Saskatchewan in the month of March. Though I joke about a million (current population hovers around 1.16 million) it is exciting to think that the subject of food will inspire conversation and companionship across such a broad geographic, demographic and cultural tableau.

After all, the one thing all we have in common is the daily desire to eat. But it runs deeper than that. Whether we count ourselves among the first families, the early settlers or more recent newcomers, we share a common bond with a land shaped by food.

The first settlers came to grow wheat. By the 1910s, the Canadian prairie was the breadbasket of the world. The settlers brought their food traditions with them, innovating and adapting their cherished recipes to the ingredients available on the prairie frontier. Those recipes survive as cultural touchstones among families, towns and the community at large.

Food was also used as a “big stick” to clear the land of its Indigenous population so the settlers could freely farm. At their basic intention, the treaties were about food. With the loss of the bison herds and the hunting economy, Aboriginal leaders agreed to settle on designated reserves and take up farming, while the government agreed to provide tools, livestock, seeds, education, medicine and, in the short term, food aid to prevent starvation. The government quickly reneged on those promises and, over time, much reserve land was confiscated and given over to settlers to grow more wheat. This is part of our shared food history. Perhaps by sharing our recipes and our stories, we can bridge misunderstanding and foster companionship through the common bond of good conversation over good food.

In that spirit, here’s an old Métis recipe from my cookbook that still warms many a soup pot today.

Bullet Soup

The curious name of this Métis soup does not relate to hunting but to the French word “boulettes,” meaning little meatballs.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. ground bison or lean beef
• 2 tbsp. grated onion
• 1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 1 tsp. dried herbs such as rosemary and parsley
• Flour for dredging
• 1 diced onion
• 2 c. diced potatoes
• 1 c. diced carrot
• 1 diced turnip
• 1 c. pasta (optional)

How to cook:

• Mix ground meat, grated onion, garlic, salt, pepper and herbs.
• Form into meatballs about the size of a large marble.
• Dredge in flour.
• In a pot, cover meatballs with water and bring to a boil.
• Add vegetables and pasta.
• Simmer until cooked, adding more water as needed to make a rich broth.

Best served with bannock.

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I admit, these may seem like odd resolutions at a time when most people are making more serious pledges for self-improvement such as weight loss, debt reduction and work-life balance. But how long do those resolutions last? By focusing on food, an activity I do anyway three times a day, I start the year confident my resolutions will stick. At least to my ribs.

My first food-related New Year’s resolution came in 2005 when my husband and I pledged to eat almost nothing but locally grown foods for a full year. Ninety-five per cent of our meals began in Saskatchewan and the other five per cent made the most of it. For example, a bit of cinnamon for a bread pudding or some olive oil for an authentic pasta primavera. This was a hard resolution to keep, not because the local bounty is lacking, but because it was hard to find. Back then, there were few if any websites, grocery stores or newspaper columns touting the benefits of eating locally and where to source it. We did all the groundwork ourselves. I bought organic lentils by mail, rode a combine through a field of coriander and learned to identify a chanterelle from a charlatan. I took up canning and put up herbs. I got a chest freezer and filled it with half a steer and a whole pig. I even went duck hunting. The year was so good and so fun I wrote a book about it, Prairie Feast: A Writer’s Journey Home for Dinner. I was on a roll.

My resolution to eat more potatoes was easier to keep. My dad grew enough potatoes to feed a small army so this resolution was also easy on the budget. To kick the year off, I cooked a New Year’s dinner with potatoes in every course: an appetizer of blue potato pakoras followed by a Spanish omelette, tartiflette (a French concoction of potatoes, bacon, cream and cheese) and, for dessert, mashed potato chocolate chip cookies. And a shot of potato vodka, of course.

For the year of eating beans, I planted several varieties in my city garden. This resulted in a colourful if scant few cups of beans. Fortunately, I made up the deficit with locally grown lentils, chickpeas, pintos and fababeans.

For the year of eating berries, I canned, froze, dried, jellied, jammed and steeped in vodka.

Two years ago, my New Year’s resolution was to eat myself out of house and home. To clean out the pantry, empty the canning cupboard and dig to the bottom of the freezer. So I could start all over again.

Which brings me to 2016. This year I have resolved to have more picnics. Winter, spring, summer and fall. And once again, I begin the year with the satisfaction of knowing I cannot fail to meet my goal. All gain and no guilt.

I discovered this old Mennonite recipe during my year of 52 soups. I believe the term “ripe bean” refers to mature dried beans, as opposed to fresh green beans. Feel free to substitute a different bean and make it your own.

Ripe Bean Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 pork hock, smoked or salted
• 2 cups dried white beans
• 10 black peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 star anise
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 tsp. salt
• Sour cream for serving (optional)

How to cook:

1. Put pork hock in a stockpot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer 1 hour.
2. Place peppercorns, bay leaf and star anise in a spice ball or sachet.
3. Add the spices and beans to the pot, cover and simmer 2 hours, topping up with water if needed.
4. Remove pork hock.
5. Add chopped onion and cook until the beans and onion are very soft, another hour.
6. Meanwhile, remove meat from bone, chop and add to the pot.
7. Remove spices.
8. Season with salt as needed (this will depend on the saltiness of the meat).
9. To serve, it is optional to stir a bit of sour cream into each bowl.

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The world’s largest soup maker also said it supports the enactment of federal legislation for a single mandatory labeling standard for foods derived from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and that it supports a national standard for non-GMO claims made on food packaging.

The company, which also makes Pepperidge Farm cookies and Prego pasta sauces, said it would withdraw from all efforts by groups opposing such measures.

Several activist groups have been pressuring food companies to be more transparent about the use of ingredients, especially GMO-derived ones, as questions are being raised on their effects on health and the environment.

Several big companies such as Monsanto, PepsiCo and Kellogg have resisted such calls and have spent millions of dollars to defeat GMO-labeling ballot measures in states such as Oregon, Colorado, Washington and California, saying it would add unnecessary costs.

In 2014, Vermont became the first U.S. state to pass a law requiring food companies to label GMOs on their products, which will come into effect in July.

Campbell said late Thursday that if a federal solution has not been achieved in some time, it was prepared to label all of its U.S. products for the presence of ingredients that were derived from GMOs and would seek guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Campbell said in July it would stop adding monosodium glutamate (MSG) to its condensed soups for children and use non-GM ingredients sourced from U.S. organic farms in its Campbell’s organic soup line for kids.

The company also said it would remove artificial colours and flavours from nearly all of its North American products by July 2018.

— Reporting for Reuters by Siddharth Cavale and Sneha Teresa Johny in Bangalore.

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