The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7 2013. As we (participants) share our collective stories across the vastness of our Canadian landscape through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity through the cadence of our concerted Canadian voice.

Our twelfth and final task was of the project was to write about a farmer or producer that we knew of that practices “farming sustainably to honour the land and to grow or produce food that may be of a heritage lineage or particularly representative of the terroir of your area”.

My memory immediately went back to the morning that I met Carman and Donna Jackson at High Bluff Stock Farm.

This was my first visit to the area surrounding Inglis, MB.  The setting is rolling and lush.  We passed the scenic Assiniboine River Valley and the Shell River Valley which join at the Shellmouth Dam to form the Lake of the Prairies, en route to the farm that morning.

Carman, Donna and all five of the Jackson daughters are tall, lean, healthy and glowing (but also stylish and well-coiffed)-they are a testament to country living.  When I caught up to them recently, they were on the road for spring break.  Tomina the youngest of the sisters and Donna picked Erin up in Saskatoon where she obtained her Honours Degree with a major in Political Science. Together they toured Lakeland College’s farm and Ag department at Vermilion where Autumn secured her Diploma in Agribusiness. The latter and Fawn, who has her Masters degree from Oklahoma State in International Agriculture, would be met up with in Calgary.  They intended to skype Haylan (a graduate from Dalhousie University in Halifax) and have a wonderful couple of girl days!

When I first met Carman, Donna and Tomina they loved to share the experience of living and working on their diverse, mixed farm.  They share grain farming responsibilities with Donna’s parents and her brother and much of their crop is considered seed grain.  You can discern in a moment that they are well educated and on top of their business and the commitment that the family has made to making the most intelligent decisions for their animals and the environment.  They have created a low stress atmosphere for their prized cattle who are provided the best in nutritious feed, shelter and veterinarian care.

Their beautiful, white coated Charolais herd are obviously well loved and not shy around humans. One of them really wanted to get into a family photo.

Their passion for their animals and the land is so apparent in every thing they believe, say and do.  I am so glad to know them, as they created a 360 impression of a cattle farm family for me.  Thank you Carman and Donna. They are proud cattle ranchers, proud Manitobans and proud Canadians and their commitment to their style of farming and ranching makes me proud too.

Does anyone know why I instantaneously fell in love with their horse?

Kath’s quote: “Farmers are the only indispensable people on the face of the earth.”-Li Zhaoxing

The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7 2013. As we (participants) share our collective stories across the vastness of our Canadian landscape through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity through the cadence of our concerted Canadian voice.

I unfortunately missed out with posting our ninth task of the project which was to write about “a Canadian love affair” with a recipe, food product, wild food, chef, etc. but I have been given permission to get caught up on the assignment now, so here goes.

My Canadian love affair ticks off a number of the criteria – the product is wild rice, specifically the Floating Leaf Brand.  I even love the brand name as I have a pond in my back yard where I grow floating cabbage and hibiscus.  The pond has a little fountain which means that we always have the sound of trickling water in our yard which is especially nice when sitting out back with a glass of wine in the evening.  The floating leaves swim around on the surface of the pond and when they bump into each other they grow babies that are attached by tendrils to their parents.  Once they are large enough, I snip the families apart and by the end of the summer the entire face of the pond is covered with floating leaves.

There are two myths which float around wild rice. Firstly, the plant is not even in the rice family but a grass and secondly, is that most of the aquatic seeds are cultivated and not wild at all.  But in Canada we are blessed with truly wild, wild rice which grows in our clear, freshwater lakes and rivers at my latitude and further to the north.

Three generations of the Ratuski family of Floating Leaf have the experience to harvest the seed at precisely the optimum moment.  There is very little “processing” that occurs thereafter: the seed is simply cleaned and roasted.  There are some instances when the colour of the seed is almost black which creates unusual colour contrasts to a finished plate.

The primary reason why I love wild rice is that although the nutty taste is decadent, it is low in both calories and fat.  In fact, lower in both categories than quinoa which is the golden child of fat and calorie watchers right now.  Wild rice is a complete protein containing all essential amino acids, B vitamins: niacin, riboflavin, thiamine as well as potassium and phosphorous.  This makes wild rice nutritional superior to brown rice and many whole grains.

Our family has many favourite wild rice dishes: cream of mushroom & wild rice soup, broccoli & wild rice and quinoa & rice patties. The Floating Leaf brand has a number of rice blends including basmati, brown and quinoa and we love them all.  We have even sampled their artisan linguine made from wild rice flour, other flours and organic free run eggs. The pasta is thinly rolled out and dried at room temperature and retains the nutty taste of the rice itself.  It holds its own against heavy sauces like our favourite-Italian sausage, grilled zucchini and red peppers.  In summers, we take packets of Floating Leaf’s wild rice pancake mix with us for weekend breakfasts on the deck at the lake.  The mix even includes ground flax which I try to consume once a day to help stabilize my blood pressure.

How often do you find an unprocessed food that adds colour & textural variety to the plate, tastes unusual & distinctive, is low in both fat & calories, is packed with additional nutrition and is truly a local Canadian prairie food?  Floating Leaf Wild Rice-has it all!

Kath’s quote: “To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.” –La Rochefoucauld

Love-that is all.

The day started with a gorgeous sunrise and

early morning guests to watch the Olympic men’s hockey finals on our TV in the spacious living room at Luna d’Miel. I cooked up a batch of Canadian back bacon and eggs to celebrate our team’s victory.  By 9 am the kitchen was all cleaned up and we were ready to start our day.  D had to head into Centro to arrange to have the golf cart looked at, where it had stalled the night previously in the Colonias.  Lucky for us, they compensated for our break down by giving us another day with the cart.

The gang did not all get up to join us for the game/breakfast and since they had access to the cart, they headed to Mango for brunch because they were all hankering for a fix of Polo’s breakfasts before they left the island.

Everyone had the yummy Coconut French Toast

with the exception of J1 who went for the Breakfast Quesadilla.

When you are at Mango, have you ever been drawn towards to beautiful church on the opposite side of the street?  The church attendees had just departed and so I knew that if I went to have a look around, I wouldn’t be disrupting anyone’s worship.

The sanctuary is absolutely exquisite and I very much want to attend a service the next time I am on Isla.

I can only imagine what it would be like to worship here on a regular basis, with the beauty of the sea just behind the altar.

D and I went back to fetch more ribs for lunch from the Rib Man.  This was the busy scene as I waited for D in the golf cart.

We went back and forth a number of times to deliver the kids and all their luggage to the ferry with the  golf cart.

It was very hard to say good-bye to the kids as I was so sad that their time had gone so quickly.  But like the ebb and flow of life, while we bid farewell to some, we said hello to others.  We had a second task to perform at the ferry, as my brother, his wife and the Wee One’s other Grandma were arriving that afternoon!

We had a brief time to while away between ferries so we headed to the Fisherman’s Co-op with J2 and the Wee One to sit in the shade and enjoy a cervesa.  The latter were staying on the island for another five days and moving into the Roca Mar with J2’s Mom.  After we delivered them to their hotel, we made one last trip around the tip of Punta Sur before returning the golf cart.

After wandering around Centro for a bit we decided to see if J2 and the Wee One had settled into their new digs okay, but the room was silent and we didn’t want to disturb the baby if she was sleeping.  We headed towards the marina and Playa Sol to catch the sunset and were drawn into Marina Muelle 7,  a place that we had walked by many times but never stopped.

Even though we love our Sol and vino tinto, these cocktails were calling our names.

I opted for a mojito served in what I call a fishbowl chalice (just the way I like ’em).  I even eat all the smashed up mint.  D gabbed the camera and took this rare photo of me because he said that my drink matched my dress.

We felt very luxurious, sprawled out in beach recliners and watching the sunset with no plans for dinner, no plans for a rendezvous, no plans for anything except savouring the moment.  And just when we thought we had enjoyed the most amazing sunset and it could not possibly get any better….

…it went and did.  So it is, on Isla.

When I am back home and in the city, I sometimes have popcorn for supper.  This is when I have no one at home to cook a nutritious meal for, D is out of town and I am feeling particularly worry free.  A popcorn supper is symbolic for not really needing to give a !@#$ for anybody but me.  D and I were feeling this way on this evening.  We toyed with the idea of going many places for supper and in the end decided to pick up some papas fritas at La Lomita and share them on the walk home.

Lo and behold, Veektoria (the way the Islanders love to pronounce Wee One’s other Grandma’s name), J2 and the Wee One were waiting for an encore of La Lomita’s Garlic Shrimp that J2 had enjoyed so much on our first night on the island.  So we got to have a little visit with them after all, only to find that they had been steps away from us the entire time, enjoying the sunset over mango margaritas at Bally Hoo.

We meandered back to our fabulous little apartment and enjoyed a glass of wine, all alone under a canopy of stars, so different from our northern sky back home.

Kath’s quote: “Second star to the right…and straight on ’til morning.” -Captain James Kirk, Star Trek

Love-that is all.

I was wrong, I thought I hadn’t missed another sunrise but there was nothing on my camera from this particular morning, so I must have.  Today was golf cart day! D researched and negotiated and got the best price for the version that has both seats facing forward and a big box on the back for our extra gear.  Here we are at Punta Sur.  This was where I would watch the sunrise on my first trip to Isla in 2005.

2005

The most beautiful sea colour that I have seen anywhere (in the world!)

2005

Daughter #2 and the Newbie enjoying the vista with us.

Rear view mirror shot.

As we zoomed along Sac Bajo, we had to stop and show the Newbie the floating island.  Before heading back to the casa we nipped into Centro because it was Rib Man day!

After lunch we were off to Chuuk Kay to see a set by Javier and his band with no name.  D had to make two trips and take us in batches.

Our niece “Legs” who was just laxin in the sun.

Our beautiful Daughter #1.  We ordered buckets of Sol to while away the afternoon.

Daughter #2 and the Newbie were engaged just before Christmas.  Don’t they make a gorgeous couple?

It is not hard to see where the Wee One gets her beauty.  Here are J1 and J2.

D and the Wee One (we think she’s going to be a dentist).

And Sister #3 and the Wee One.  Dona was joined by best friends and extended family too.  There were so many of us that we had to stretch over a couple of long tables.  Everyone joined together on the dance floor though, especially to dance the twist with the Wee One -“Shake it up baby, twist and shout!”

D and I wanted to share one of our fav little Colonia spots with the family and since we had the golf cart, decided to head over to Bastos for dinner.  We were surprised that we were the only table there and hope that they are staying busy enough to support their family.

D and I love the bright spin that Basto’s puts on everything.

At our end of the table, Legs and I were waffling between a couple of items so we decided to share the Burger and yummy fries and Garlic Shrimp.  Both dishes were as exceptional as I had remembered from the previous year.

The golf cart sputtered to death on the way home and so traipsing around the island was done for the evening.  The gang was departing the next day, so we assembled on the oceanside patio of the casa where we reflected over cocktails on the highlights of the week.

Kath’s quote: (From National Lampoon’s Family Vacation)

“Clark Griswold: Could I do your back, honey?

Ellen Griswold: I’ve already done my back.

Clark Griswold: Could I do your front?

Ellen Griswold: Go do your own front.”

Love-that is all.

“You should not judge a book by its cover” as the saying goes, but I must confess, I was worried that I had shown up at the wrong place when I arrived at 160 Osborne St. to find that it was the Osborne Village Motor Hotel, a place I had always referred to as “the Zoo”.  I had made arrangements to get caught up with a friend at the Osborne Village Café and had imagined something altogether different.  To be honest, the décor is very modest (nay I say a bit on the shabby side) but I witnessed our server scrubbing the floors and scouring every other surface, near closing time and I can attest that the place is as clean as can be.  Besides, shabby is in, right?

The star of the show is definitely the food and we were not disappointed.  In fact, both of us were equally blown away perhaps because our expectations were low.   This as an error on our part as owner and Chef Leighton Fontaine has extensive restaurant experience and it shows.

There are occasions when diners choose spaghetti squash to obtain a healthier alternative to plain white pasta.  In this case, the spaghetti squash was not merely a stand in but an essential ingredient of the dish as a whole.  All the components including red wine mushrooms, red peppers and avocado, tasted sparkling fresh and each individual strong flavour was not overpowered by the seasoning of the tomato basil sauce.  The dish typically arrives with a topping of mozzarella but my acquaintance tries to go easy on dairy.  She was happy with her decision because she believed that the sensation would have been overwhelmed by gooey cheese.  Her highest compliment was that the dish was reminiscent of meals she had savoured while traveling in Italy-high praise, indeed.

Our server (the Chef’s sister) recommended the Perogies.  The hand-made dough is absolutely tender and when the enormous half circles were stuffed with maple poached bacon, potato, cheddar and dill, they reminded me of decadent gnocchi recipes which I have relished.  The plentiful crescents are topped with butter sautéed onions and sour cream.  Since I typically chose 0% BF sour cream, I declined and was so glad by my own determination as the delicate tastes would have been masked by rich cream.  Instead, my decadent treat was to enjoy a side of Winkler farmer sausage.  There is also a vegetarian version of the perogies available stuffed with celery root, potato, parsley, mozzarella and roasted parsnip. 

I may chose these next time, but then again, the server also recommended the Potato and Beet Latkes-crowned with two poached eggs, sautéed white wine spinach, brunoised red pepper and dill studded crème fraiche.  I have learned my lesson and will not judge this gem by its unpolished exterior.

Kath’s quote: “No man is lonely eating spaghetti; it requires so much attention.”Christopher Morley

Love-that is all.