Tours connect consumers to the land.
Connecting consumers to land makes food taste better
There’s a reason farm-to-fork meals taste so amazing. For one thing, the food is fresh. Knowing how farmers raise the beef, pigs and produce also contributes to confidence in the outcome.
But something else made the recent Taste Alberta farm tour and picnic lunch such a delicious experience for the dozens of diners involved. Seeing, first-hand, how hard the farmers work to create the food we ate made our taste buds cheer in support.
After watching Mandy Melnyk of Meadow Creek Farms chase her hormone-free pigs around the spacious, strawfilled pen on her farm near Thorhild, why, the bacon on the pickled potato salad seemed all the crisper. Listening to Graham Sparrow, who has a certified organic farm near Opal, describe how it takes three big farm workers to lift a single length of irrigation hose gave extra punch to the pickled radish.
Melynk and Sparrow own two of four farms on the tour, which stretched roughly between Gibbons and Thorhild and also included Kampjes Dairy and Cajun Angus. The tour, held on July 13, took most of the day to complete, but the payoff included a lunch at rural Coronado community hall created by top-notch Edmonton chefs Mike Scorgie (who owns Woodwork) and Chris Tom-Kee (whose kitchen experience includes Canteen and Unheard Of). In the welcome heat of a blue-skied Alberta afternoon, roughly 75 guests relaxed in lawn chairs and on picnic blankets, sampling a wide array of local products and sharing stories about the day’s adventure.
Mike Scorgie barbecued fat and juicy Sangudo beef sausages, and then served them alongside a homemade beet and horseradish relish and a Brassica salad — a combination of marinated kale, charred cauliflower, sweet radishes and tiny cubes of Alberta farm cheese. Tom-Kee served slow-roasted pork loin and smoked pork belly on fresh baguettes stuffed with roasted Swiss chard and caramelized onion aioli. For dessert, we lapped Tom-Kee’s creamy posset, a pudding of Alberta milk, topped with stewed rhubarb and macerated berries.
Cheery volunteers from the 124 Grand Market, where Melnyk and Sparrow both sell their products on Thursday evenings, attended to guests of all ages. The event was a fundraiser for the market, and a similar day’s entertainment is in the works for harvest season. (Watch this space for details as they emerge.)
There was a time when everybody knew someone with a farm. Growing up, close friends of our family farmed near Leduc, and I remember wandering among the damp rows of the verdant back garden, picking things for dinner. That experience is not as accessible as it once was. In 2011, the number of farms in Alberta dropped by more than 12 per cent from 2006, part of a steady decline that started in the middle of the last century. Happily, the trend toward fa r mers’ markets and farm-to-fork meals means people still have a chance to appreciate what it takes to produce high-quality, delicious-tasting, farm-fresh food.
I spent a little time with Sparrow and Melynk, and gleaned some details about their small farms.
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT SPARROW’S NEST
Run by Graham Sparrow, 46, a farmer for 20 years, 14 of them at this certified organic, 28-hectare farm near Opal. Sparrow’s Nest is a Community Supported Agriculture project (CSA), which means it sells subscriptions at the beginning of the season to fund seeding. For $800, members get a big basket of fresh vegetables and fruits (from kale to strawberries) delivered weekly to drop-off points in Edmonton throughout the growing season. He also supplies Edmonton restaurants including Corso 32, Noorish and Elm Cafe, as well as Earth’s General Store.
Sparrow couldn’t run his farm without the help of three temporary foreign workers from Mexico who live in small cottages on-site. Newest toy: a $13,000 greenhouse which means Sparrow can grow seedlings and bedding plants, an enormous boon to the business. Oldest toy: a 1946 tractor/cultivator used for weeding as no herbicides are sprayed on an organic farm. Last word: “Supporting local growers is very important for the rural farm economy. Without the support in the urban centres, there is no way we could do what we are doing. It keeps people on the farm in rural Alberta and rural Canada. It’s bringing people back to the land, and it’s keeping people connected to where their food comes from.”
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT MEADOW CREEK FARMS
Run by lifelong farming devotee, Mandy Melnyk, Meadow Creek has been a CSA project since 2011 and has 110 members who pay $500 annually (less for seniors) to belong. Melynk hopes to achieve 250 members to be sustainable long-term. Members pick up certified organic vegetables (25 varieties, from green beans to spaghetti squash) and freerange meat (pork, turkey and chicken) at drop-off points in Edmonton. Consumers can select products for individual orders from the farm’s online store; being a member gets you a discount on vegetables and a priority on meat, meaning that Melynk gives her product to the subscribers before she sells it at markets. The animals are raised without hormones or routine antibiotics. If an animal becomes sick, it is treated but not slaughtered until 90 days after it has had antibiotics. Last word: “I never had a vision for the farm to get where it has got, but you evolve. You go with the flow. This year, we are selling garlic scapes and two years ago, I didn’t know what garlic scapes were. People ask, and we just learn.”
CHRIS TOM-KEE’S SUMMER VERRINE
This yields 10 portions.
Ingredients for macerated strawberries: 1 pint Sparrows Nest strawberries, halved 1/3 cup (75 mL) sugar 1 sprig of mint, finely chopped
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes. Reserve. Rhubarb compote ingredients: 3-1/2 cups (875 mL) rhubarb, diced 1 cup (250 mL) sugar 1 tablespoon (15 m L) vanilla
Combine all ingredients in a pot and simmer until reduced by half. Chill and reserve. Posset (pudding) ingredients: 1 litre (1 quart) cream 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) plus 1 tablespoon (15 mL) sugar 1/2 cup (125 mL) plus 2 tablespoons (25 mL) lemon juice
Combine sugar and cream in a pot and bring to a simmer. Cook for 3 minutes then stir in the lemon juice. Immediately pour into 10 small ramekins or small glasses. Chill overnight.
To assemble, put a tablespoon of rhubarb compote on top of the posset. Then add the strawberries layered with any optional garnishes (such as edible flowers) just before serving.