Garden Update: late-November

It's late November, and the temperature in Toronto has already dipped below the freezing point. The daylight hours are getting noticeably shorter each week. The wind and rain has been angry and unforgiving. Yet still, surprisingly, plants are still thriving on my balcony.

Chives, lamb's lettuce, arugula, peas and swiss chard are among the survivors. An herb pot of dill, thyme and coriander is looking very healthy and strong. A neglected container of nasturtium appears as it would in the summer. Even a mint plant, lover of sun and heat, is alive... though its leaves are slowly yellowing.

Sensing that the killer cold weather will arrive any day, I decided to cut down and eat everything that's left growing, while I still can. Looking at the leafless plant stumps makes me feel a little sad.

Coriander and pea shoots turn into a hearty noodle soup, thyme into cheese sandwiches, and the arugula goes well with tomato sauce and pasta. But the winner of this late harvest bunch are these seeded savoury mini-scones, a recipe from an old LCBO magazine I find squirreled away in my apartment. I adapted the recipe to make it gluten-free (replacing the wheat flour with a mix of brown rice and tapioca flour) and egg-free (by omission). Substituting the spinach for chard leaves, chives for green onions, and adding chopped dill proves successful.

Warm weather seems a long way off, but a few months on the local/winter diet of potatoes, carrots and apples will make next spring's plantings that much sweeter.

Canadian Nom

I haven't had a butter tart for years. On a whim, I bought one at a farmer's market a few weeks ago, and POW!, the butter tart bender began. Since then, I have frequented many-a-butter-tart-shops, including The Bus Kitchen, Coffee Time, Treats, and Hannah's Kitchen. I've eaten raisin butter tarts, coconut butter tarts, but I seem to choose pecan butter tarts most often.

Fast forward to a different day. On a whim, I purchased a bag of Monforte's goat cheese curds at a Saturday market. Normally I buy them on Thursday, and eat them one-by-one while working at my desk in the office. But now I had them at home, and when I suggest eating them one-by-one, M shakes his head. A great idea starts to take shape... and POW! "No", he says. "We will make poutine."

Fast forward again to this morning. Daylight Savings Time blesses us with one extra hour, and we use the time to make two uniquely Canadian foods: poutine and butter tarts. Take that, Canada's Food Guide. Today is a day of eating brown-coloured, greasy carbohydrates.









The russet potatoes are boiled, and cut into fry shapes. While olive oil is heated up in a skillet, the mushrooms, onions and garlic are chopped up and cooked into a mushroom gravy. Potatoes are added to the oil, and deep fried until golden brown. The fries are blotted with a paper towel, tossed with salt and pepper, and arranged on a plate. Room-temperature cheese curds are added, and the hot gravy is poured on top. We both grab a fork each, and two heaping plates of vegetarian poutine are demolished in less time it takes to watch one episode of South Park.

While M succumbs to a food-induced coma, I get to work on the pecan butter tarts. The pastry is modified to a gluten-free version, using brown rice flour and tapioca starch. I opt for a corn syrup free filling, and substitute any shortening for mo' butter. These are BUTTER tarts, dagnabbit... though I am slightly put-off by the sheer volume of butter needed for this recipe. I also wonder what ingredients some of those cafes use, when a butter tart costs only a buck.









The tarts come out of the oven, golden hot and still bubbling. Unfortunately, the gluten-free flour blend I used didn't have enough gusto, and the pastry crumbles apart before I can even pop them out of the tin. Yet still, om nom nom.

CSA and the Agriculture Support Collective: Remembering the Times

October 28th was our last Plan B CSA box delivery date. Actually, Oct 14th was the official end date for the summer share, but because it came on so suddenly and unexpectedly, I ordered one fall share to soften the blow.

The program went smashingly. Many people were interested in participating, but for 5 of us, our curiosity and appetite took us further, and we formed an Agricultural Support collective and signed up for CSA summer share program. It took a few weeks to figure out the delivery system, having some complications due to the fact that we live in an apartment building that does not have a live person on-site to receive shipments. But with some cooperation and coordination, we all made it work. In the end, we received a summertime's worth of fresh, local, organic fruits and vegetables; the ingredients for an endless number of great meals and memories.

My final CSA box contained tomatoes, red onions, broccoli, boston lettuce, arugula, shiitake mushrooms, apples, shanghai bok choy, leeks and butternut squash.

This transformed into:

Kimchi noodle soup with steamed bok choy
Arugula, tomato and shiitake mushrooms with pasta
Boston lettuce and avocado salad with lime dressing
Tomato and cheese sandwiches
Broccoli, leek and smoked cheddar cheese penne casserole
Vegan, gluten-free apple pancakes
Leek and butternut squash soup (photographed with freshly crocheted red baby booties, *ahemshamelessselfpromotion*)

Thank you, Plan B and Agricultural Support Collective, for making this happen!