Archive for February 2014

Most Canadians are proud to be Canadian. There are a hundred reasons why, but I think integrity is a big one.

When I first did an online search for some farms or farmer's markets where I could shop for winter retreat food supplies, I learned about Reid's Potato Farm. The farm itself has been a family farm since 1845, but the truly exciting discovery was the self-serve "Farm Market" located right on their property.

I'm not using the term "self-serve" because you shop by yourself; I mean, the market is entirely unmanned. You pick your goods, write it down in the notebook, tally it up with the little purple calculator, and open up the till all by your honest self.

I love that they trust their customers, and I love that no one has ruined it for everyone else. I doubt this honour system would succeed in many other countries.

Although it was the dead of the winter, the market offered a decent variety of produce from neighbouring farms. I picked up a bag of carrots (I admit I was enticed by the handwritten note that read "our carrots are dirty but they taste delicious!"), a bag of Fuji apples, apple cider, a dozen eggs, a jar of elderberry and peach jam, and a frozen strawberry rhubarb pie. All were fantastic. Especially the dirty carrots.

It is also worth noting that I was equally impressed by their website. They really took the time to create a simple, informative, and professional website that is so well written. All too often I find business websites that are too flashy, littered with grammar issues, or non-existent. They have taken the time to not only advertise their farm, but to voice their commitment to environmentally conscious farming.

It's little gems like this farm market that really make rural Ontario so loveable. If you happen to be in the area, stop by anytime. No, seriously: anytime. With a self-serve system, their hours are 24-7!





Photos courtesy of bluetuque.blogspot.ca

The retreat is a mere 4 days away! It's not too late to take my last spot!

It's crunch time for the menu planning and keeping in theme with the winter comfort food, I decided that a puff pastry something-er-other would be perfect.

I've got a couple vegetarians this weekend and one of my favourite vegetarian comfort foods is a flaky, hearty, pot pie. It's easily adaptable for the meat eaters, and equally comforting when filled to the brim with winter vegetables.

Ever since the puff pastry episode of The Great British Bake Off, I've wanted to try Paul Hollywood's recipe to try and make puff pastry from scratch. If you have never heard of the show, or who this Paul character is that I speak of, you are missing out!

The method for making the puff pastry seems straight forward. Make the dough, flatten some butter in the middle, fold and flatten, fold and flatten, fold and flatten. Paul does a great video demo of how to do this, and he stresses how important it is to make sure you rechill the dough and butter between each fold and flatten.

With all the "chill for an hour" or "chill overnight" the whole process does take a little while. I took a few shortcuts (of course) and was really so impressed with the outcome. My trial pot pies were mostly delicious with such a superbly flaky and crispy crust. I did learn that you need to roll a piece of pastry significantly larger than the size of the dish to allow for lots of shrinking, but I'm feeling good about our Friday night dinner to start the retreat off on the right foot!

For the pot pie filling, I mostly followed Ina Garten's recipe for Vegetable Pot Pie: a delicious mix of your usual suspects (carrots, potatoes, onions) plus butternut squash and fennel.

Happy Family Day to all my Canadian readers!