by Jodi ~ August 28, 2010
Dried lavender on Baba Jenny’s sugar spoon
She gave me a knife but I needed a machete.
Recently, after a Sunday supper, Michael’s grandmother sent me into her garden to harvest some fresh herbs to bring home and cook with during the week ahead. I cut chives as long as my forearm and pinched off some green, glossy Genovese basil leaves as wide as lily pads. Finally, I waded into her mint patch, grown up as wild and thick and lush as a jungle, and wrestled a crop of sprigs by sawing away diligently at their dense, woody stems. On the streetcar ride home the scent of bright, clean, green mint drifted upwards from my perfumed hands.
Continue reading …
by Jodi ~ August 25, 2010
Crepuscular rays over Lake St. John
Crepuscular rays streak from the sky and foil the water’s surface like silver leaf.
How could I not revisit sky watch for this moment, captured over the August long weekend at the cottage? Magnificent.
by Jodi ~ August 23, 2010
Webb Farm arugula
First it was sorrel, and now it’s arugula — a greens theme seems to be developing around here. Perhaps it’s because summer is winding down and the market stalls will soon be laden with long-storage squashes and root vegetables instead of delicate, ethereal, and perishable summer bounty. Or perhaps it’s because I really am just obsessed with greens. Either way, arugula is one of my favourites, and an earlier version of this tribute to the peppery leaf appeared just over a year ago at Beer and Butter Tarts. Since then that site has morphed from a contributed blog on Canada’s food and drink scene to a Canadian food and drink blog aggregator, where the feeds of bloggers are collected daily. It’s one-stop shopping for finding folks writing about food and drink from coast to coast to coast. Have a visit and, better yet, if you write a food- or drink-themed blog — join!
* * * * * * *
“I suspect I spend more on peppery, horseradishy rocket than I do on shoes,” writes Jill Dupleix by way of introduction to the Beans and Wilted Rocket recipe in her cookbook Totally Simple Food.
Jill is my kind of girl.
I’ve always eaten my leafy greens. Not once did I turn up my nose at spinach as a child, and my repertoire of favourites has only steadily expanded since to include the likes of sorrel, beet tops, chard, cress, collards, and kale. Of late my taste has veered towards the bolder greens, and I delight in their explosive effect on the palate — the bitter tang of dandelions, the spicy heat of mustard greens, the acidic bite of rapini. But perhaps most wonderful of all is arugula (also known as rocket), with its sharp pungency that leaves a lingering tingle on the tongue. On a recent market visit, with visions of arugula salad dancing in my head, I stopped at the greens stall to stock up and noted signs tacked above separate piles: “Wild Arugula” and, simply, “Arugula.” Curious, I bought a bunch of each and headed home to taste-test and do a bit of research.
Continue reading …
