A lazy girl's guide to preserving tomatoes

I'm sitting here writing this with a hoody pulled over my nightgown, a quilt over me and a warm beagle at my side.  It's been cold and rainy here in Toronto and I fear my garden's day are numbered. We had so many tomatoes this year I feel really lucky.  In addition to all the tomato sandwiches and salads I canned up some red salsa and made some tomato basil jam (more on that later).  With the cold weather coming I didn't want all the unripened tomatoes to go to waste.  I took a big number of the green ones and made big batch of salsa verde for the winter.  I left another bunch of them nestled in crumpled newspaper in a box in the basement and they ripened up nicely. 

Fig preserves redux

Remember last year when I wrote about making fig preserves two ways?  They were delicious, garnished many a cheese plate in the last year and made lovely hostess gifts during the holiday season.  In their tiny 125 ml jars they were the perfect size to just open and pop on the cheese platter as is.  Well I'm back at it.  I figure if George Lucas can go back and reedit the Star Wars trilogy every couple of years I'm allowed to go back and improve on my fig preserves (I fully realize nerds everywhere will debate if George Lucas' changes are really improvements but in the case of my preserves they are!)

Fresh Moves for food deserts

Alexandra Cousteau on World Water Day

World Water Day. If you've been reading Folks Gotta Eat for long, you know that I give a shit about the future of water, and so should you. Here's one of the best pieces I've read in celebration of World Water Day, so I thought I would share it. It's from the granddaughter of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Alexandra Cousteau. She writes, "Today is World Water Day. To mark the occasion, I have three challenges for you..."

Making granola bars is easy!

I admit freely to having a bit of a crush on Galen Weston Jr. of the Loblaws grocery chain here in Canada.  He is often maligned for his hokey ads for new President's Choice products that paint him as an everyman who just gets really excited about premade cheesecakes when in actual fact he took over the 9 billion dollar Loblaws Companies Limited from dear old Dad.  

March 22nd is World Water Day

I just took the Tap Water Pledge in support for public tap water on the Council of Canadians website, then I went into my kitchen, filled a pint glass with Toronto tap water, and drank it down. What a luxury! 

Learning about Canada's food trends

When it comes to dining out, I'm pretty easy going. My many years of waiting tables, hosting and bartending while I was in university and graduate school (everything from truck stops to fine dining) made me damn grateful if the food somehow makes it to the table. If I have a glass of vino in my hand to keep me occupied within ten minutes of arrival, well, there is no cap on the tip. I'm so easy going that I count myself lucky to walk into a cafe with only three main courses on the menu and learn that they only have two left.  Hell, at least there's a choice.

Veterans to farmers

Today is Tuesday. Here at Folks Gotta Eat, we try and learn something new on Tuesdays. I've just been reading about a project that seems like a good use of USDA funding - the Farmer-Veteran Coalition.

Learning about food and class

I just read a fabulous article in Newsweek, of all places. I'm not sure if it's my white liberal guilt (which I don't really believe in, but seems to be a common label), or my on-going concern that I will be further divided from my family, but I think a lot about food and class. This particular article is great because it tosses out some fantastic facts that provide perspective on what is happening in the U.S., and in many parts of the world, concerning the great food divide.

B.C. and Ontario food production

I admit it - I'm an absolute sucker for publications, television shows, films - just about anything that showcases what folks are doing to solve complex social problems. Some might say I'm, um... hopeful and positive. No cynicism at Casa Melanie allowed! In this vein, The Tyee has a new series running on Thursdays and Fridays that educates, stimulates and inspires: Growing the Local Bounty: Reports from Farmlands In Flux in Ontario and B.C.