Edible Tulip

Seedy Saturday

Foodshare hosts this excellent event. If you have a plot of soil and care about preserving Canada's genetic plant diversity or simply just want to grow some funky heirloom tomatoes with yellow brazen stripes then come on by! You will find reams and racks of eclectic seeds that you won't be able to wait until the spring thaw to get gardening. If you happen to be someone who keeps their seeds from the prior season's harvest then you'll find like-minded individuals to swap yours with theirs and expand your garden's horizons. The fair isn't just about seeds however there are tons of eco books and lots of folks who live outside of the city who participate and show their wares - honeys and creams, knits and baskets. There's always a good, if somewhat hippie-ish (but what can one expect from a seed show!), vibe and it's a fun way to spend an hour on a saturday afternoon in March - celebrating the beauty of a seed into a glorious edible wonder.

Location: Scadding Court Community Centre
at 707 Dundas St. W. (southeast corner of Dundas West and Bathurst)
Wheelchair Accessible

Time: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Cost: FREE (but recommended donation of $2 which goes to Seeds for Diversity)

WORKSHOPS (scheduled from between 11 am to 2 pm)
1. Soil Making 101 with Krista Fry
2. Screening and panel discussion of the documentary, "From Seed to Seed" with Roberta Stimac
3. Seed Starting - drop in at the greenhouse
4. Seed saving internationally. A farmer's right to save seeds with Kate Green from USC

Vicia Faba and Phaseolus

Samuel II:17, 27 - 29
"And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi... and Machi... brought wheat and parched corn, and beans... for the people that were with him, to eat: for they said, The People is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness."

There are beans everywhere - in the big baskets at the green grocers around the corner and in barrels at the market. I'm drawn to them because they taste so utterly like spring - fresh, dank, dirty, sweet. And if there's anything in this wilderness of a city that feeds my soul, it's crunching into a green bean and tasting the spray of life.

Soup for a Gypsy

I tend to think of myself as a bit of a gypsy, roaming from place to geographic place, city to city, job to job, mindscape to mindscape, embracing it all, absorbing the experience, then moving on with all of the necessities of life and a suitcase of ripe and vivid memories.

This Gypsy Soup is a take on Mollie Katzen's from her Moosewood Cookbook. I used squash (a butternut that I cooked ahead of time instead of the called for yams) but otherwise I stuck fairly close to the ingredients: cooking an onion and celery with some garlic and ginger in oil. Adding spices like cumin seed, cinnamon, turmeric, cayenne, and cardamom into the blend (although you can definitely play around with the spice mixture depending on your tastes). Then I added a couple of cups of water, the squash which was mostly cooked and cut into cubes, some julienned zucchini and a can of plum tomatoes. As it neared readiness, I added a can of chick peas. After serving into large clay bowls, I squeezed half a lemon into the soup, chopped a mixture of parsley and cilantro and stirred that in, and cut up an avocado. Then I took a spoonful of hot mango chutney and put a big dollop on top of everything.

This soup/stew is gypsy-like in that it is Spanish in flavour and spice and that it works with the scenery i.e. any green or orange vegetable suits the rhythm.

Try a bottle of 120 Chardonnay 1995 from the Santa Rita winery in Chile which retails for $9.60 at the LCBO.