SHELF LIFE

SociétéOrignal — Seashore Honey / Miel Maritime 300g, $15 available at gourmet and health food stores, and online: societeorignal.com This is an elegant and incomparable product, and in some ways it can’t be separated from the unique colony that produced it. SociétéOrignal is a collective of artisanal food producers specializing in dairy, seafood, poultry, game, wild harvest and pantry items. The Quebecbased company is the opposite of agribusiness: it is regional, diverse, uncompromising and stewardship-driven. Family farms and small businesses are at its core. SociétéOrignal is possibly the only culinary hub in Canada where delicacies such as swollen stalked cat mushrooms and freshcaught yellow sturgeon are available, not forgetting the Canadiana on offer, such as the special stoneground corn used in the Native porridge Sagamité. A very few of SociétéOrignal’s pantry selections sometimes show up on shelves outside Québec, and Shelf Life was lucky enough to find this honey at Forno Cultura in Toronto. From Baie- desSables in the Gaspé region, the honey tastes faintly salty — this is because the flowers at its source grow beside the ocean. It has an intense white colour and a curious, almost pillowy texture. There’s nothing like it, which is why Shelf Life decided to try it in a variety of plain and fancy recipes. We liked it best three ways: dabbed on a strawberry; in an improvised honey and bourbon glaze for roasted carrots; and mixed with pistachios in a small dollop accompanying roasted caramelized pineapple. Better still, this wonderful honey is not too distingué for a midnight quickie — a peanut butter and honey sandwich.