Edible Maritimes #4 Fall 2022 by Steadii Creative

edible Maritimes

the land ~ the sea ~ the people ~ the food

Take a Bite NO. 4 FALL 2022

Member of Edible Communities

Cozy up this fall with hearty grains and a Maritime egg

The Farro & Egg Bowl

nsegg.ca

Farro, an ancient whole grain, is packed with flavour, texture and nutrients, and works with nearly any combination of ingredients. This recipe mixes farro with lightly sauted cauliflower, beans, feta and an egg for a warm and satisfying meal any time of the day. Try it for breakfast, lunch or dinner with your favourite herbs and veggies. Serves 4 1 cup farro 4 eggs 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 cups small cauliflower florets 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced 4 cloves garlic, minced 1/2 teaspoon each salt & pepper 19 oz (1 can) cannelini beans, drained, and rinsed 2 plum tomatoes, chopped 1/2 cup prepared pesto 1/3 cup crumbled feta 4 lemon wedges (optional) Prepare farro according to package directions. Prepare eggs as desired — boiled, poached or fried will work nicely.

Heat oil in large non-stick skillet set over medium-high heat; cook cauliflower, onion, garlic, salt and pepper, stirring often, for 5 to 7 minutes or until vegetables are tender but still firm. Stir in beans, tomatoes and pesto; cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until heated through. Stir in farro until well combined. Divide evenly among four large, shallow bowls. Sprinkle with cheese. Cut each egg in half; arrange over farro. Serve with lemon wedges. Sneak in green veggies by adding a handful of baby spinach or shredded kale to the farro near the end of cooking time for a few minutes until wilted. Enjoy!

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

HELLO FROM US

TOQWA'Q

A RECIPE TO WARM UP CHILLY DAYS Barb Snow's Pumpkin Loaf

A POMOLOGICAL BIAS Simon Thibault and the ubiquity of apples

WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU APPLES The MacKinnons and their sweet orchard in the trees

BLUEBERRIES TWO WAYS Two recipes from us to help you get your fill

FORAGING A WILD RECIPE Dave and Kate Johnson and Kingston Peninsula dreaming

THE PHILOSOPHER CHEF Saint John's Mimimi chef and owner Ning Huo on what inspires him

FERMENTING TRADITION The Mackay's Yip Cider and generations of apple passion

SECOND SPRING Nick Chindamo on the second spring of early autumn

FOOD FOR THE SOUL Gyu-Na Park on what matters most

FIRE IN THE BELLY Rachael Robertson on a shareable and controversial recipe

GROUND CHERRIES A recipe to complement so many dishes

On the cover: Apples This page: Small harvests by Dave Snow

hello from us In this issue, Simon Thibault gets us thinking about apples. He suggests that while, or perhaps because, apples are everywhere we often fail to appreciate how special they are. He says this much more eloquently but we will let you read for yourselves. Apples are indeed everywhere in this region, in orchards and growing wild along old roads, paths, and in woodlands and forests. In this issue we celebrate the wonder of apples as well as the ways in which they bring people together. Fall is a time to bring in the harvest, to store food for the long winter months and preserve fruits and vegetables for later use. Fermentation is a process humans have adapted from the wild to save food such as apples and cabbage, transforming these seemingly simple things into undeniably delicious ciders, kimchi and more. In this issue, not only do we feature stories of wonderful people growing and foraging beautiful food, we are pleased to be sharing stories of some amazing folks who are thinking food and drink and community in delicious and thought-provoking ways. We hope you enjoy every story and every recipe. Cheers to chilly autumn nights and bright sunshine through coloured leaves.

Sara & Dave

edible Maritimes

the land ~ the sea ~ the people ~ the food

CO-EDITORS & DESIGNERS Sara & Dave Snow CONTRIBUTORS Jennifer Campbell, Nick Chindamo, Amber d’Entremont, Brice Haqq, Joe Mackay, Anthony Poulin, Rachael Robertson, Barbara Snow, Simon Thibault THANK YOU To all of you — our readers, advertisers, contributors, our friends and family for supporting local and independent print media. We couldn't do it without you! SUBSCRIBE edible Maritimes is published 5 times a year. Subscriptions are $28 and available at ediblemaritimes.ca FIND US ONLINE ediblemaritimes.ca instagram.com/ediblemaritimes ADVERTISE WITH US hello@ediblemaritimes.ca ediblemaritimes.ca 506-639-3117 PUBLISHERS Sara & Dave Snow Steadii Creative Inc No part of this publication may be used without written permission by the publisher. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our sincere apologies and notify us. Thank you, © 2022 Steadii Creative Inc. All rights reserved. Edible Maritimes is proudly printed in Canada on paper made of material from well-managed, FSC®-certified forests, from recycled material and other controlled sources. Through 1% for the planet we contribute one percent of our revenue to environmental non-profits.

Photo: A Troyer Orchard apple looking out to the Northumberland Strait by Dave Snow

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Read it, love it, share it! Please reuse and redistribute this magazine - read it again and again or pass it on!

toqwa'q fall, autumn from www.mikmaqonline.org, an online resource for the Mi'kmaq language with audio files to demonstrate pronunciation.

We respectfully acknowledge that we are in Wabanaki territory. On the unsurrendered and unceded traditional lands of the Wolastoqey/ Wəlastəkwey, Mi’kmaq and Passamaquoddy peoples, who have stewarded this land throughout the generations. This territory is covered by the Treaties of Peace and Friendship which the Wolastoqey/Wəlastəkwey, Mi’kmaq and Passamaquoddy peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1725 recognizing Wolastoqey/ Wəlastəkwey, Mi’kmaq and Passamaquoddy title. We stand with them in their efforts for land and water protection and restoration, and for cultural healing and recovery. Edible Maritimes Fall 2022

Barb Snow's Pumpkin Loaf With an emphasis on pumpkin, and simplicity, this loaf will be your new favourite fall recipe. Add more cinnamon, walnuts, or chocolate chips for a twist. 11/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 cup sugar (brown or white) 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 cup canned pumpkin (or 1 cup roasted pumpkin, mashed) 3/4 cup oil (or melted butter or a combination) 2 eggs 1/2 cup raisins (optional) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a large loaf pan with parchment paper. Combine dry ingredients, mixing well. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, oil/butter and eggs and beat well. Add wet to dry ingredients and mix to combine. Stir in pumpkin to combine and add raisins. Bake for 50-60 minutes, test with a toothpick before removing from the oven. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, coffee, tea or a little whiskey. Enjoy! Fall 2022

A pomological bias Simon Thibault explores the imprint of apples on the land, and on our memories

WORDS & PHOTOS BY SIMON THIBAULT

ranches hang over the sidewalk, their leaves small and spotted. At this time of year, the we ight of wild apples starts to pull the branches down, descending imperceptibly day by day. In a few weeks, hands will have come up to lift them up, so that people can pass under them. Most people won’t think about the tree, the branches or the paltry fruit itself; a nuisance at worst, a half-second of movement and recognition at best. And yet every time I pass by this tree, I pay attention. It’s a form of confirmation bias: once you see something, you can’t unsee it. In my case my bias is pomological; all I see are apple trees everywhere, no matter where I am in Nova Scotia. Some are trained or espaliered on the side of the highway, some are unkempt and abandoned on the backlot of a friend’s home, and some are barely noticed, producing out of habit in whatever capacity they can. Apples are so ubiquitous to us in this region they they almost become mundane. And that’s unfortunate, because they are truly anything but. They are one of the few fruit grown in this region where people still refer to them by variety or by season, and the ways we use them is situational, temporary, ephemeral. The Macs are out. The Spys should be ready soon. The general rule of thumb is that the later the apple comes to maturity, the longer it lasts, and inversely. Early summer apples need to be eaten out of hand quickly, and used just as quickly. Gravensteins seem to be made for pies, and any pie maker over the age of seventy will tell you so. Russets are made for keeping in cold cellars and storage rooms, and some varieties even taste better after being left to their devices in such spaces. Apples are grown, found, developed, and accident-ed into existence, and every one has someone who loves them. The name of an apple can hint at its identity, its history. Take for example, the Cox Orange Pippin. The word pippin comes from the French pépin, or seed, meaning that the apple was probably found wild or by accident, from a random seedling. Apples are heterogamous, meaning that like humans, they are a cross of the genes of their parents, and each pippin is an individual, bearing the likeness of its lineage while being completely of itself. Cox, in this case, is for Richard Cox, who grew this apple from the pippin of a Ribston Pippin in the early 1800’s.

The genetic diversity amongst apples means that apples are prime candidates for regional diversity, no matter where they are grown. A Gravenstein grown in the maritimes will vary slightly in character from one one grown in New York, or California, the latter of which has less than 10,000 trees in the entire state bearing the variety. And then there are the varieties developed here, such as the Calkin Pippin, named for Annapolis Valley farmer Ahira Calkin. Some varieties reach back a couple hundred years or so, such as the Belliveau, recorded in Acadian communities in southwestern Nova Scotia since the late 1780s. But apples, like all food crops, are grown to feed people, and farmers tend to grow what people want. They will tell you how much money they make off of newer varieties like Honey Crisp or SweeTango, trademarked varieties that speak of investments and dividends, scale and research, rather than happenstance of familial heritage. People know these names due to marketing campaigns, and they are indeed an easy sell. But if you ask farmers what they eat, and what they think you should be eating, the newest and shiniest is often the least interesting. They’ll tell you about varieties like Jonagold (a cross between a Golden Delicious and a Jonathan) that is as big as your fist, and keeps well on your counter until you need it. They’ll tell you about the farmer down the road who still grows Cox Orange Pippin, how anyone with an English grandmother swears by it. Thankfully, there are still records of what used to be grown here. Publications were produced by the province to promote the apple industry here, and many a small self-published coil bound book or corporate pamphlets can be found every once in a while. Even in my own family, a great-great uncle, Francois G.J. Comeau, wrote a pamphlet in the 1930’s for the Dominion Atlantic Railway to help promote both the Annapolis Valley’s apples and the railway that helped distribute them. Agricultural pride and economic promotion, all in one fell swoop. Meanwhile, 1966’s Ripe’n Ready by Joan Balcom is a collection of “kitchen tested” recipes from “Nova Scotia’s Famous Annapolis Valley,” and lists apples by variety and growing season. In 1981, Anne Hutten published Valley Gold: The Story of the Apple Industry in Nova Scotia, a book examining the cultural, agricultural, and economic impacts that apples have made on this place. Each publication lists popular

Left: A ripening Belliveau apple

FALL 2022

varietals, some names which are still said in this region, while others are mostly forgotten: Transparent. Blenheim Orange Pippin. Chenango Strawberry. Fameuse (Snow). Duchess. Melba. Crimson Beauty. Spartan. Northern Spy. Espopus Spitzenberg. Grimes Golden. Keswick Codlin. Nonpareil. Seek-No-Further. Red Russet. Pine Apple. Winesap. Twenty Ounce. Wolf River. L’Epice. Farmers remember the names of apples because they spend so much time amongst apples — getting to know them, remembering what this one likes and what that one doesn’t. They also remember cutting down the branches of old varieties, to make room for grafts of newer ones. They’ll tell you that no one wanted to buy the Sweet Bough, the Yellow Transparent, the Spartan, because none of their customers knew it. They’ll mention that their father used to grow Ben Davis and Rhode Island Greening, and they’ll remember the names of the customers who used to ask for them. Both the customers and the trees are probably long gone. But farmers will tell you that if you look around, ask around, someone somewhere may have an old tree in their backyard, or know someone who does. You know, the trees where you have to think hard to remember the name of the apple that it bore, and hopefully still bears. It’s entirely possible that some of those apple trees you see on the side of the road, the ones you spot on an abandoned farm, or that have gone on to grow nearly nothing in your backyard is (or was) one of these varieties, or many more. It could even just simply be a wild apple, a random seedling grown from a random pippin spat out by a person, shat out by a bird or a bear. But once you see them, you can’t unsee them. You think about what they are, who they are, what they brought, and what they hopefully may bring.

Simon Thibault is the author of Pantry and Palate: Remembering and Rediscovering Acadian Food. He and his work have appeared in The Globe and Mail, The National Post, CBC and Radio-Canada and many more. Find him at simonthibault. com.

Left top: Trellised trees in full bloom Left bottom: Wild apple tree Right top: Church Point Orchard, N.S., in full bloom

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When life gives you apples John and Jenn MacKinnon take on the island orchard of their dreams

WORDS BY SARA SNOW PHOTOS BY DAVE SNOW

edible MARITIMES

ed dirt roads criss cross their way between the green fields of P.E.I.. Along one of these roads, past Hunter River, and fields of something-justharvested, up through woodland and over a creek, sits an orchard, tucked in among tall trees. From the main building, rows of older apple trees lead down to more rows, full of nearly-ready apples. At the end of these rows, a creek with berry bushes along its banks, slips through the bottom of the orchard valley. A wide bridge takes us over this creek to younger trees that make their way up the hill back to the woods. For years, John and Jenn MacKinnon would drive up Warburton Road, in New Glasgow, to visit Olde Towne Orchard, picking apples in the fall or taking in the blossoms of spring. “We always thought it would be a wonderful spot to own,” Jenn explains. “We love it here.” “Then when it came up for sale in 2017,” John adds with a laugh, “we knew we had a problem.” They bought it, of course, and found themselves diving head first into their new lives as orchardists. Rockit, their golden retriever, leads us down through rows of trees as John explains some of the challenges they faced at the outset. “Some of these trees were 14 feet high,” he says. “They had been here such a long time and along here you could touch the trees on both sides,” he explains as he reaches out to demonstrate how narrow the path had become. “They were so close, we couldn’t get a tractor through.” The MacKinnons tackled the work head on and brought in an orchard expert to help them identify what needed to be done. “We’ve learned a lot,” John says as he takes us through the work of maintaining the orchard through the seasons, pruning, planting, nourishing and setting traps to monitor the sorts of insects that are visiting their trees, keeping an eye out for those that could do damage. While learning and managing their orchard has become a second full-time job, John describes it as “a labour of love”. John has long been a power line technician, typically travelling to the U.S. to “run storms”. When a destructive storm sweeps through an area, John is one of a group of skilled technicians who is called in. Over the years, this has meant a lot of time in the U.S. during hurricane season. More recenlty, however, with pandemic restrictions and international travel limited or halted completely, John’s work has been closer to home. This shift has given him some flexibility to focus more

on developing skills as an orchardist. At the same time, just after the pandemic hit, Jenn lost her sight quite suddenly. She found herself taking an abrupt turn away from her work in health care to learn how to live without vision. John and Jenn, and their son Perry, have taken this turn together and have adjusted how they work, live and run their orchard. Jenn did not stop fresh cider production, adjusting her process in the face of this new challenge. They have continued their orchard u-pick and attributed their ability to do this to the support they received from their community. Running their orchard is not just a labour of love, as John says, it is also central to their sense of community. Their u-picks become a hub of connection during the fall, with school visits, family trips, and opportunities to see old friends, sip fresh cider, share recipes and chat about the summer just past or the cold weather to come. The MacKinnons support and partner with other local businesses and schools, participating in local markets and contributing apples to local initiatives. Over the years, they’ve developed a partnership with the team at The Table Culinary Studio in New London where Olde Towne Orchard apples are featured on the menu every fall in various forms. Chef and owner Derrick Hoare describes the partnership as more of a friendship saying “John and Jenn have always been there for us whenever we need anything”. They’ve collaborated on cooking classes and team at The Table has joined the MacKinnons at the orchard to serve Apple Parsnip Soup and Apple Cake to orchard visitors. “The restaurant goes through tons of apples every season”, explains The Table's chef Hunter Guindon. “Apple Parsnip Soup,” he adds “is particularly nice at this time of year because both apples and parsnips come to their peak of freshness at the same time. And the apple cake,” Guindon says, “is a lot more about the apple than the cake.”

Previous page: John MacKinnon tending to the orchard Left: Apples ripening Above right: Olde Towne Orchard Bottom right: John, Rockit and a new friend, Bean

“I look forward to that time every year when they start pulling apples off the trees,” Guindon says. “It is so nice,” he explains, “to drive up this little dirt road and it opens up to this orchard where the trees are so well taken care of and the apples are beautiful.”

Visit Olde Towne Orchard during apple picking season 257 Warburton Rd, New Glasgow and www.facebook.com/oldetowneorchard/ oldetowneorchard.ca

Any red dirt road on the island likely leads to some hidden gem, but for John and Jenn MacKinnon, Olde Town Orchard is, as they tell us, “a little piece of heaven”.

edible MARITIMES

Fall 2022

Wild Blueberries Two Ways

Because, let's be honest, you can never have too many blueberries...

edible MARITIMES

Wild Blueberry Reduction

Wild Blueberry Cobbler

A simple way to enjoy blueberries on nearly anything... a pan-seared duck breast or pork chop with roasted vegetables or even a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

The cobbler is a baked version of a grunt or the inside out version of a buckle — merging biscuity dough with warm syrupy berries to top off a cool autumn evening.

1 cup wild blueberries 1/4 cup of water 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar 1 tablespoon of maple syrup A pinch of salt Pepper to taste Your favourite spirit (optional)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder Pinch of salt and a dash of cinnamon 1/2 cup cold, salted butter, cut into pieces 1/2 cup oat milk or preferred dairy alternative 5-6 cups wild blueberries 1/3 cup brown sugar 2 tablespoons maple syrup 1 tablespoon flour or corn starch

Place blueberries and water in a small sauce pan over medium heat and simmer, stirring constantly. As water and blueberries reduce, approximately four minutes, add balsamic vinegar, maple syrup, salt and pepper and your favourite spirit if you choose. Simmer on low for another two to three minutes. Turn off heat and cover pot. Let sit until ready to use. Reduction keeps well in the fridge for 2-3 days to add to another dish.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl combine flour, baking poweder, salt and cinnamon. Add butter and combine loosely with two knives or a pastry cutter. Add milk and mix. Place dough on board and divide into 6-8 pieces. In a medium bowl mix blueberries, sugar, syrup and flour. Place in an 8-inch square dish and top with dough balls. Bake for 50-60 minutes until berries are bursting between toasty brown biscuits. Serve warm with a scoop of ice cream.

Emjoy! Fall 2022

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Foraging a wild recipe Dave and Kate Johnson cultivate a perfect balance on New Brunswick's Kingston Peninsula

WORDS BY SARA SNOW PHOTOS BY DAVE SNOW

“

ey Dad, remember we are going to grow a rainbow tree,” Isabel says to her father, Dave Johnson, as she and her mom and her two younger sisters walk elbow deep through the vegetable garden, picking beans. The garden is bursting with tall garlic stalks, overflowing bean plants, huge squash leaves, rhubarb that might go into a pie or a cider, and so many other late summer offerings. “I do,” Dave says with a smile. “We talked about grafting all sorts of apple trees onto one and then we’ll have a rainbow tree.” Growing a dream Years ago, when Dave Johnson’s father was cleaning up the attic of his grandparents’ house in Kingston, New Brunswick, he found a couple of dried beans in the cushions of an old dusty chair. The chair and the attic had not been used in years so the beans were most likely very old, but he held on to them and gave them to Dave. Dave refers to himself as a dreamer and it takes one to recognize the potential in a couple of old dried beans. This summer, the Johnsons planted those beans and they are now growing in the garden. What they’ll become is anybody’s guess but that’s part of the fun. When Dave and Kate met years ago, they both already shared a love for the Kingston Peninsula. Dave had grown up in Beaver Dam and spent his childhood visiting his grandparents’ farm here and Kate had spent her summers at a camp down the river. The house they live in now sits on the hill above his grandparents' house. Dave and Kate would visit this place often, at one point renting the apartment above the garage. After university, Dave and Kate both studied at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design in Fredericton. Dave is a potter and Kate a painter and sketch artist, and their creativity is evident all around — in the ways they’ve created their garden spaces, the mugs they serve us coffee in, the attention they pay to the craft of cider making, the labels on their bottles and in the ways they engage their children in imagining and exploring the wild world in their backyard. We're sitting around a table in their yard, at the top of a hill sprinkled with new apple trees. The girls have just told us about a fairy corner of their forest and leave us to climb up into the trampoline and jump through rays of sunshine. Kate brings out some photos, a binder the previous owners had put together on the history of the house, and a book by the late Michael Phillips, a highly

edible MARITIMES

regarded apple grower and expert in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. In the collection of photographs is an old, framed black and white one of Dave’s grandparents standing here in this very spot, with Kingston Creek and Shamper's Bluff in the distance. Beyond the bluff, Belleisle Bay stretches out toward the rolling hills in the distance. This bay forms the northern boundary of the Kingston Peninsula, a long peninsula between the Wolastoq (or Saint John River) and Kennebecasis Rivers. It can be reached by road from towns such as Hampton or Springfield, or by several cable ferries that operate year round along the peninsula. “That was my great grandparents’ house,” Dave says pointing to the house down the hill. His aunt lives there now and his parents have moved from their home in Beaver Dam, to a house down the hill, along the creek. “The story goes,” Dave explains, “that my great grandfather gave his logging partner this property for a dollar back in the fifties.” A few weeks after the birth of their third daughter, Dave and Kate Johnson bought this house from the previous owner who had bought it from that farmer. The Johnsons have since planted rows upon rows of apple trees. Dave has bush hogged to open space for the wild blueberries and gardens, and he has had pigs in to replenish the soil for their garden. Working with the landscape The girls lead the way to the chicken coop where heritage breeds lay eggs of varying shades of blues, greens and browns. Violet and Emmie head to the pond to look for frogs and Isabel introduces us to the herbs she grows in her garden. When the Johnsons bought the land they hadn’t planned on cider necessarily. “We looked at the landscape and the slope and thought a terraced vineyard or something,” Dave explains. “We were thinking of an agricultural product that we could process and would have a shelf life and would draw people in. And then I noticed a lot of wild apple trees.” Dave and his business partner, Ian Johnson, a cider maker who grew up on a farm in Nova Scotia and spent time in the fruit growing regions of B.C., set to work exploring the possibilities the wild

Previous page: Kate and Dave in the cider building Right top left: Kate and Violet watching Isabel balance a chicken Right top right: Dave eating a handful of blueberries Right bottom: Isabel balances a chicken on her knee

Fall 2022

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apples might hold. Ian, an engineer, dug deep into cider making studies. Dave discovered apple expert Michael Phillips’ approach and he and Kate visited Phillips in his New Hampshire mountain orchard. “I follow his planting approach when I plant trees,” Dave explains, “inoculating trees with fungi, adding compost, wood chips and using a spray regime with beneficial microbes to nourish the trees and the soil — all important if you want to have a healthy tree and keep insects from taking over.” In addition to wild apples, the Johnsons have been planting an orchard. Their trees are still young so the yield is small but growing. “I grafted another 400 this spring,” Dave explains. “A good cider is a blend of sugar, acids, and tannins,” he adds. “We have a lot of sweet and acidic apples here in the Maritimes but they often lack the bitters, the tannins. So I am focusing more on bittersweet apples to get the qualities we need and we’ve been foraging for wild apples for the qualities that lend to that full bodied balanced cider which is our goal with this orchard.” “We’re planting a recipe for a kind of cider,” Dave says. “We’re lucky to have a great climate here for it with cold falls for later varieties and lots of moisture off the river. It means less consistency in terms of cold snowy weather but we do have that odd epic day when pond skating is perfect.” Building in sustainability The Johnsons have transformed their space into an orchard while giving the wild plants — the wild apples, blueberries, mushrooms, and others — room to flourish. They’ve invested in cider-making infrastructure, the fermentation building and tanks, pumps and a brand new bottler that speeds and eases the bottling process. Kingston Creek Cider currently produces 5,000 litres which is the baseline for a cottage wine license in the province. “To be sustainable we’d like to hit 20,000,” Dave explains, “while focusing on quality and ageing it out as we do, not deviating from that process.” Just after the last harvest, in late November, the grinding, pressing and juicing begins to prepare for fermentation, which takes place in large vats. “The initial fermentation can last five to six weeks or even

longer,” Dave explains. “We had a wild cider that took four to five months. We babied it because the natural yeasts seemed to prefer a particular temperature. If it dropped or rose, the yeasts would stop. It took time but it was worth it. It has been one of our best ciders.” Following the initial fermentation stage, the cider is pumped into large tanks for the winter. “Cider tells you when it’s ready,” Dave explains as he takes us into the building where the cider overwinters before being bottled. This unheated building, filled to the rafters with shelves of large tanks, will get cold in the winter but the temperature will hover around 5 or 6 degrees due to the energy from the yeasts in the tanks. “The cider continues to ferment while the cold helps the sediment drop out,” Dave explains. “It’s called cold crashing or cold clearing,” he adds. Once it’s clear they bottle the cider and it continues to condition and age. “How it ages will depend on what’s in there — the level of complexity of the apples to begin with. If you start out with a thin cider it likely won’t improve with time but if you have a balance of the tannins, the sugar, the acid, time will do it favours.” Their approach is not without its hurdles. Ageing out slowly makes it difficult to get the volume up without larger tanks and these require funds. “We feel we’ve created a quality product but I’ve taken it as far as I can without added infrastructure support,” Dave explains, “so this summer I’ve been focusing on landing funding which is also a slow process. This can be a bit of a struggle when you’re all in.” The work of launching and maintaining a farm of any kind is full time work and takes, not only an injection of resources, but consistent support to ensure farmers can succeed. In its 2021 census, Statistics Canada reported that the consolidation of farms and the aging of farm operators has led to a decline of farms across Canada. By turning to small-scale farming, people such as the Johnsons are making a choice that can benefit their own family and their community as well. Statistics Canada does report that the decline in the number of farms is slowing. This is a positive trend and hopefully leads to an upturn. For farmers, growers, and makers to survive and thrive, however, support is needed to ensure their success.

Left top: The Johnson family farm with Shamper's Bluff and Kingston Creek in the distance Left bottom: Kate and Violet, Dave and Emmie, head down toward the garden Next page top and bottom: Dave and Kate in the cider building with bottles of cider Page 27: Isabel, Emmie and Violet jumping in the sunshine

Fall 2022

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Community and creativity Dave and Kate appreciate being part of a very supportive community of farmers, growers and makers in the region. For example, their friends the Mackays run Yip Cider down the road and, in addition to sharing an occasional swim in the river, they also share ideas and resources. Dave has recently brought a truck load of apples to be pressed in their production facility. “And the apple growers are all incredible, top notch New Brunswick people,” Dave says. “The community is incredible here,” Kate and Dave agree and their involvement goes beyond the farm. Kate has just finished a Masters degree and begins a new counsellor position at the local elementary school this fall. She hands each of us a glass and Dave pulls cider from a tank. “This is wild cider,” he says, as we all take a sip. “Oh my gosh, it hits you right away,” Kate says. “Cider apples, wild apples, are often spitters,” Dave explains.

“They are apples you wouldn’t eat. They’re tannic and bitter. But it’s that quality that gives the cider the complexity and layers that make this spectacular. The complexity is all there,” he says with a smile. Dave pulls a few bottles that have been labeled with Kate’s artwork — an intricately pencil-sketched owl on the label of Kingston Creek Wild Cider is a testament to the art in the bottle and vice versa. Just as planting an old dusty bean takes a bit of imagination, launching a new farm and craft cider business requires a leap of faith and tons of creativity and hard work. Kingston Creek Cider www.kingstoncreekcider.ca @kingstoncreekcider

Fall 2022

edible MARITIMES

The philosopher chef Ning Hou, chef and owner Mimimi, reflects on community, culture and his signature dish

WORDS BY JENNIFER CAMPBELL PHOTOS BY HAQQ BRICE

Fall 2022

sked about his culinary influences, Ning Hou comes up with an initially surprising answer: “People who influenced me are all the philosophers. I’ve read a lot of books on Confucius and Taoism — and also sociologist Eric Fromm, who wrote The Art of Loving.” Ning, who hails from Harbin, a deeply multicultural city of 10 million in the north of China, also quotes Tuesdays with Morrie, the best-selling memoir of all time, about a relationship between a former student and his sociology professor, as a book that has influenced his approach to cooking. “Food is history,” he says. “That’s the reason I like food. Different countries have different foods and you can learn things about the culture in the food.” The chef and owner of Mimimi is committed to sharing his culture and creating community through food and he’s chosen to do it at the end of a strip mall in Saint John, N.B. From the outside, Mimimi is inauspicious and not exactly central. The port city’s increasingly interesting Uptown is a five kilometre drive away from Mimimi’s Millidgeville strip mall, but that hasn’t stopped culinary adventurers from flocking to

the restaurant to sample authentic Chinese food from the north of the vast country. The dish When asked to produce a dish that represents himself on a plate, Ning dishes up gou boa rou, a fried pork delicacy that dates back to 1907 in Harbin. “It’s our signature dish,” he says as he puts it down under an edible Maritimes photographer’s lens. The dish is pork medallions, pounded down to schnitzel thickness and then dredged in potato starch. The technique involves grating potatoes, then soaking them in water to create the starch. After he fries the coated pork, he drizzles a sweet and sour sauce of rice vinegar and sugar over the pork, giving it a whole other dimension. The coating is an interesting texture — chewy, yet yielding, with an exceedingly crispy exterior. The story behind the technique is one of a contest, Ning says. Chefs in China work toward getting lanterns — a grading system he likens to Michelin stars — and one chef, on seeing another’s number of lanterns, asked him if he could cook anything. The answer was ‘yes’ so the other chef asked him to cook him a deep-

Previous page: Ning in the kitchen at Mimimi Left: The bar at Mimimi with kitchen in the background Above: Ning tossing pork and vegetables in the wok

FALL 2022

fried icicle. Using the potato starch technique, the chef to whom the challenge was issued succeeded in presenting a deep-fried icicle to his peer. Ning, who is full of such stories, says that was where deep-fried ice cream originated. “If you use gluten, you won’t get the crispy texture,” Ning says. Mimimi’s Xi When he designed Mimimi, he made sure it was open concept. The kitchen is completely open and there’s a large bar of seats surrounding it. The tables are wooden, as are the benches used as seating at them. “I designed it this way to establish trust with our customers,” he says. “I want people to feel that this restaurant is part of the community. I am located here, I pay tax here, I am part of Canada, part of Saint John, New Brunswick.” Mimimi mostly offers its diners cuisine from East Asia in the Lu style — one of eight styles of cooking in China. Szechwan and Cantonese are two of the other more popular styles. “Lu is from warrior country and it dates back 2,000 years,” he says. He explains Chinese cooking is less about innovating and more about staying true to the many classic recipes.

“Basically, my cooking is northeast — northern China,” he says. As part of those traditions, he is a member of La Chaine des Rotisseurs, an international association of gastronomy that is now rooted in 75 countries around the world. It brings together food lovers — amateurs and professionals, hoteliers, restaurateurs, chefs and sommeliers — who all have their love of all things edible in common. Established in 1248 by Louis IX, who ordered the founding of several professional guilds, including that of the “goose roasters,” the goal was to improve the technical knowledge of its members, all of whom were involved in cookery. The Chaine existed until nearly the 1800s and was then revived in 1950. Today, the organization holds events around the world. Ning’s own story Ning’s culinary journey began at a young age. His mom, who happened to be visiting Canada when edible interviewed him, had a restaurant when Ning, now 38, was a teenager. He learned to love food then and remembers telling his parents he wanted to be a chef, which they didn’t relish. Chinese parents, he says, want their children to be lawyers and doctors, not chefs, which they deem as a profession that entails too much hard work. Now his parents are fixated on his three-year-old son becoming the doctor or lawyer, he says with a laugh.

He shares another story: In the 1980s, archeologists opened an 800-year-old tomb in Hangzhou that dated back to the Song dynasty and inside, they found a recipe for song saoyu, a riff on egg drop soup.

After high school, he came to Canada to study hotel and restaurant management at NBCC and UNBSJ.

“They could read the recipe because Chinese is one kind of Asian language like Hindu and Hebrew and we can still read it,” Ning says. “It’s amazing.”

But most of his Chinese cooking techniques he learned by watching YouTube videos over and over again to the point where his wife jokingly asked him if he needed medical attention. He also asked chefs in China to teach him. “I just liked cooking, and when I saw someone who was good at cooking, I would chase them — like a young boy might chase a young girl.”

Ning produced a few other dishes as well, including a “common stir-fry” featuring corn, snow peas, cabbage, bean sprouts, oyster sauce. “If a stir-fry is good, it should be shiny,” Ning says. “If it’s not shiny, something is wrong with the heat. You must use a highheat. Mushy and watery vegetables is not stir-fry. It looks easy, but it’s not that easy.” True to tradition Ning is a purist and stays true to the classic dishes. “Chinese cuisine is different from Italy and French,” he says, adding that you don’t often see a Chinese cook creating something “crazy new” because there are so many classic recipes.

“It’s a culinary arts program,” he said.

Speaking of courtship, Ning is married to a nurse, who is also from his home city of Harbin, but whom he met at UNBSJ. She is completing her master’s in nursing at Queen’s University in Kingston and living there with their three-year-old son. Ning sees his family once a month, but they will return to Saint John when her studies are completed. Learning curves Running an authentic Chinese restaurant in small-town Canada hasn’t been without its challenges. Some of his customers have taken “authentic” to mean that he makes his breaded chicken balls in-house. But there are, of course, no breaded chicken balls

on the menu. He’s also been working to educate his customers on the tastes he’s trying to get across, before they smother his delicate food with the ubiquitous soy sauce Canadians feel is Chinese. “I’ve spent a lot of time telling people we don’t put soy sauce on rice,” he says with a laugh. “I think they just don’t know.” Of course, the customer is king, so he gives them what they want if they ask, but asking is like plunging a dagger into his heart. Or, he says, akin to asking a French chef at a fine dining restaurant for some ketchup. “I use very little soy sauce in my cooking,” he says. “If a chef puts a lot of soy sauce in his food, it’s masking. It means the flavour is not good. If you’re eating good steak, you want the original flavour of the meat. You don’t do too much to it. Poor chefs use a lot of soy sauce. [If a customer adds it, it] to me, it means my food isn’t measuring up.” He says 99 to 100 per cent of his customers are very nice, understanding and keen to try his food, even if it isn’t chicken balls.

“I am happy,” he says. “It just takes some communication.” For example, he sometimes has to tell his customers not to eat the lotus leaves that surround his sticky rice on the dim sum restaurant. “I just want to be part of Canada and for Canada to be part of me,” he says. “I have an accent in English, but it’s part of Canadian English, too.”

mimimi.ca 725 Millidge Ave #1, Saint John, NB

Fredericton native Jennifer Campbell loves how close Mimimi is to her family’s Loch Lomond cottage. Haqq Brice is a photographer who is based in Moncton, and enjoys mixing photographs, poetry and cultures.

Above: Mimimi's signature dish gou boa rou FALL 2022

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Fermenting tradition In Long Reach, New Brunswick, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

WORDS BY SARA SNOW PHOTOS BY DAVE SNOW

n the river side of Route 845 in Long Reach, N.B., rows and rows of Mackay Apple Orchard apple trees overlook a quite remarkable point that juts out from the farm into the river. It is among these apple trees that the seeds of Yip Cider were originally planted. In 1964, when Yip Mackay decided to buy this farm near his father’s old camp, it is entirely possible he saw a future for his family in apples. It’s also possible he wasn’t thinking far into the future, or about apples at all, and was simply drawn to the Kingston Peninsula. He had spent years away for school, World War II, and work and there is no denying the urge to return to the beauty of this place. But it does seem that the orchard may well have been the apple of Yip Mackay’s eye. From one generation to the next As the family story goes, when the apples were nearly ready to fall off the trees Yip would round up family and friends to pick them, trading in apples and fresh cider and saving some for fermentation. His son Chas has kept the tradition strong, tending to the trees, opening the orchard for late summer u-picks that run until the apples are all picked and making fresh cider for friends and for farmers markets. Just as his father did, Chas Mackay has offered up his enthusiasm for apples widely, with the community and with his children. Emy Jenkins, who now works at Yip Cider, grew up in Long Reach and has fond memories of the annual apple picking tradition at Mackay’s. She’s raising her own daughter here and keeping that apple tradition strong. She says about Chas that he is always ready to chat about apples, sharing his passion for all things apples, and this is clear in the energy his sons are bringing to their cider company. Over the years, in between time away for school, work or travel, the Mackay children (two girls, three boys) would spend time at the farm. Joe was the first to return to work there, experimenting with cider making and soon Hugh and Sam joined him. They knew their grandfather was on to something with his cider recipe and, after some serious recipe development of their own,

Previous page: Yip Cider in the Taproom Above: Emy Jenkins with a selection of ciders Right top: An autumn harvest ready for production with the river in view. Photo credit: Joe Mackay Right bottom: Macey Ruff talks shop with a team member while Joe Mackay talks deliveries outside

decided to put a business plan together. Soon they filled their father’s garage with cider making equipment. In 2017, the Mackay brothers officially launched Yip Cider commercially and, as the popularity of their ciders grew, they set their sites on a piece of land up the road, opening a large production facility in 2020.

A growing appreciation Sam slides open the large doors of the production room and Joe heads out to greet someone with a delivery. Inside, production lead Macey Ruff is cleaning equipment among the gleaming towers of tanks, prepping for the fall’s harvest. “We’ve grown quickly,” Sam says over the sounds of tank maintenance. “This year we produced 90,000 units and we’ll likely reach 120,000.” In building on their grandfather’s love for cider, the Mackay brothers have timed it well. Ciders occupy a special place in New Brunswick’s craft beverage industry. “New Brunswick ciders have a big share of the cider inventory,” Sam points out. According to ANBL (Alcool NB Liquor), in fact, of the 81 ciders they currently carry, 55 are local ciders. “It’s impressive and it’s growing,” Sam adds. New Brunswick’s Kingston Peninsula is the perfect setting for this surging love of cider and cider-making. Growing conditions are perfect for all sorts of things and there is a palpably wonderful sense of community beyond the orchard. Yip Cider and Kingston Creek Cider, friends and fellow fermentation lovers, are not only making the most of the peninsula’s ideal growing conditions, they and other makers and entrepreneurs in the region are inviting people to visit, take a ferry trip to this beautiful place, pick apples, visit the market, stay the night, go for a hike or a paddle, sip cider and take in the river and a sunset.

water. This August, they opened their large event dome to host live music and other entertainment events. “It’s been really good,” Sam says when asked about opening such a space while running a production facility. “It’s great to be able to get the exposure, to get people visiting and learning more about our cider.” The Mackay brothers also feature Rothesay's own Pomodori Pizzeria pizza in their taproom. When asked why pizza with cider, Sam explains “it's simple, and Pomodori does it so well.” Sam says his grandfather’s nickname, Yip, was given to him as a child because he loved to talk. Yip Mackay would undoubtedly be pleased to see his grandsons bringing people together and continuing his cidermaking tradition here in Long Reach, and at this scale. He, after all, would invite everyone from all around to participate in apple harvests. As Chas and his sons, and his own grandchildren, carry on with new apple pursuits, Yip’s enthusiasm for apples echoes along the peninsula. Yip Cider 3015 Route 845, Long Reach, N.B. www.yipcider.ca @yipcider

Long Reach echo For the Mackay brothers, their passion for cider comes down to the process of making and they are committed to creating something they enjoy. “We wanted to do a dry cider because we ourselves like dry cider,” Sam explains when talking about their Vintage line of ciders. A dry cider is less sweet, as the sugars have been broken down through fermentation. “If you get a good fermentation you get the flavour from the apple,” Sam says. “Too much sugar can hide the flavour or overcompensate for lack of flavour.” Their attention to detail — and to flavour — has won them best-in-class at the Great Lakes International Cider Competition in Michigan. Just as people’s appreciation of cider is growing, Yip Cider is as well. In the midst of this rapid growth in production, the Mackays opened their Taproom next to their production facility with a wide wrap-around deck overlooking an expansive yard sloping down to the

Above: Yip Slushy with raspberry cider and juice Right top: Sam Mackay with Yip Cider's Vintage series in the Taproom Bottom right: A view of the Taproom from the backyard

FALL 2022

Second springss A (re)introduction to the already familiar I eased my way across a wide-mouthed river toward an open field. On the other side, a family of Great-Horned Owls had made a home out of an old Tamarack. Momma’s voice echoed through the river valley - likely to warn the kids that I was coming through. “Hoo-Hoo-Hooooo!” She called her unmistakable call - and I stopped. “Just passin’ through, friend” I replied, and continued on up the bank and into the grass. It’s late summer now, or, as we call it around here — second spring — a time a year where half of the plants begin to set their seeds, and the other half look toward producing a final burst of tender greens. As I walk, I pick the meristematic portions of the now chest high Stinging Nettle plants, roll them in my hands to break their stingers, and chew them up. Their flavour is intense, and, If I’m being honest, they taste better now than they did back in early May. Common Milkweed, Sochan, and various Toothworts fill the spaces between Cow Parsnip plants, and bushy pillows of Poison Hemlock remind me to pick with precision - and so I do just that. On my knees, I crawl — looking closely at the newly emerging basal leaves around the plants that I’ve watched grow up over the last few months. They’re all vibrant and thriving — and I take mental notes as I fill my bag. Before I leave, I take a good look around. Momma owl was still up high in her tree, just watching me. “I see why you chose this spot, miss” I said. “There’s food… everywhere!” “Hoo-hoo-hoooooo!” She replied. Which this time I believe translates to: “There’s always food everywhere… silly human.”

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Fall 2022

Food for the soul Gyu-Na Park makes kimchi for her family, her community and some furry friends in Clare, Nova Scotia

WORDS BY AMBER D'ENTREMONT PHOTOS BY AMBER D'ENTREMONT & ANTHONY POULIN

“

ave you eaten yet?” This is how one would greet you in South Korea, explains Gyu-Na Park (pronounced Gina). It wasn’t until I met Park that I learned how important food is in the Korean culture and how kimchi, a traditional Korean side-dish of fermented vegetables, is truly a staple food. “Kimchi can be used in many recipes,” Park explains. “I personally love making kimchi-jjigae (kimchi stew) with pork. You can also fry kimchi when barbecuing meat and another favorite is Fried Rice.” Park enthusiastically describes these dishes while we talk about our mutual love for food and, in this case, kimchi. In Korean culture, as Park explains, food at the table is shared with everyone, you always drink soju (traditionally rice vodka) while you eat and in a typical Korean restaurant there will be a separate room for you and your table to go sing noraebang (Karaoke). Originally from Ulsan, Park made her way to Clare, Nova Scotia, the home of her fiancé, Chris Mazeroll. Love brought her to the Acadian shore but it was the charm of an old Victorian-style home by the ocean that kept them both here. When Park received news that her brother was also moving to the Clare area, her mother told her to have kimchi ready and sent her a kimchi fridge from Korea. A kimchi fridge is one that is set at the right temperature to slowdown the kimchi fermentation, and Park set to work chopping vegetables right away. “Chopping the veggies and salting them to perfection, Left: Gyu-Na Park serving up kimchi fried rice / kimchi bokkeumbap Above: Seoul Food Kimchi

takes hours,” she says. “Before they go in the fridge, they get stored in a container and placed in a room temperature area for a day and are placed in the refrigerator the next day,” Park explains. Park also tells me that her version of kimchi is an “easy one”, which I fail to grasp at first — nothing about

it seems easy. Her process takes about 12 hours to finish while regular kimchi can take up to two days to finish. This is because she chops everything into bite size pieces, so that salting the vegetables doesn’t take as long. “When you make regular kimchi, you only divide the cabbage into 4 pieces so it needs to store for much longer,” she points out. Park's grandmother and mother are from Jeonju, the home of the Korean dish bibimbap, a dish of (warm rice topped with vegetables, meat, kimchi and other ingredients) where she says people take much pride in their food. Her 93 year old grandmother did all of the cooking for her family of 15 to 20 people until only a few years ago. Park’s mother acquired her skills and love of cooking from her own mother and, in the same way, Park has also inherited the joy of cooking for people, along with the skills that passed down from mother to daughter, and so on. “I’ve learned so much from watching them cook and have proudly become just like them,” Park tells me as we stop at the wharf where she feeds the cats. Park goes to the Saulnierville wharf every day to bring several feral cats food and fresh, clean water. As much as she is passionate about food and cooking, her heart is committed to both rescuing and caring for feral cats. At one point, she tells me, she found an abandoned house overrun by 30 feral cats. Immediately, she contacted J&M Fostering and SPCA de la Baie and together they rescued them, cared for them and found them new homes. She is grateful to both J&M Foster for Cats Nova Scotia and Nova Scotia SPCA-La Baie Foster for the work they do and is happy she can help. This is the bigger picture for Park. She dedicates a portion of the funds she raises from selling her kimchi, at the market and online, to cat care and rescue. The downtime in her 12-hour kimchi-making process is spent taking the time to go to the wharf every day, to feed and care for the cats. Park tells me that in Korean it is typical to say goodbye by saying “let’s get together to eat soon”. I, for one, can't wait.

Find Gyu-Na Park and her Seoul Food kimchi at Belliveau’s Cove Farmers Market or reach out to her on Instagram @Seoulfood_in_Clare. Your taste buds will thank you, and rest assured cats will thank you.

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Left top: Vegan and none vegan Kimchi, sold at the Belliveau’s Cove Farmers Market Left bottom: Park feeding Cali while Pat watches closely at the Saulnierville wharf Above: Kimchi fried rice / Kimchi bokkeumbap

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Amber d’Entremont is an Acadian, mother, professional dancer, photographer, artist, in short a multi-disciplinary woman with many strings to her bow. Finding inspiration for her art in the sweetness of life's moments, recognizing the depth in the simplicity of what surrounds us.

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Fire in the belly

WORDS & RECIPE BY RACHAEL ROBERTSON

Sharing recipes can be nourishing, and change-making

here isn’t a winter month that goes by that I don’t reach into the pantry and pull out a bottle of fire cider to warm my soul… and my body.

Fire cider is a spicy tonic of apple cider vinegar infused with vegetables, herbs and spices — ingredients regarded as having anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-microbial and anti-oxidant benefits. Left for four to six weeks to beautifully blend the flavours and mellow out the pungent ones, it is then strained and bottled for sipping. Fire cider is not spicy like a hot sauce. The heat comes from the organic apple cider vinegar, ginger, garlic, horseradish and hot peppers, and is mellowed with a touch of honey, citrus and herbs. The origins of fire cider are steeped in tradition and not any one person can truly claim it as their own. Formulas vary from maker to maker, season to season, region to region and are passed down from generation to generation. Renowned herbalist Rosemary Gladstar, known as the “godmother of American herbalism”, may have ignited the fire cider movement amongst herbalists and homesteaders when she shared her own recipe and technique for preparation with hundreds of students at the California School of Herbal Studies from the late 1970s through the 1980s. It was a fiery tonic that was deceivingly moreish and made with an abundance of local, easily accessible ingredients. Gladstar also published her recipe in a booklet and book in the early 1980s and fire cider became a staple in apothecaries, homesteads and herbalists’ kitchens. In 2012, a company named Shire City Herbals trademarked “fire cider” and soon began asking vendors on platforms such as Etsy to stop using the name “fire cider”. Herbalists, including Gladstar, were outraged. Shire City Herbal’s trademarking of “fire 46

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cider” was akin to trademarking the term “cupcake”. While trademarks denote a specific product to protect intellectual property, fire cider is a type of tonic, with a multitude of variations. It is not one recipe, belonging to one person. In response to Shire City Herbals trademark, several herbalists launched the Free Fider Cider initiative, quickly gathering thousands of signatures on petitions, sharing fire cider recipes and eventually going to court to argue their case. Finally, in late 2019, the US District Court in Massachusetts ruled in favour of the herbalists and declared fire cider a generic term. In our home we use fire cider during the change of seasons — when the weather is getting cooler but we’re holding onto summer through our shorts and sandals and frosty toes. And we take a tablespoon a day when we are feeling sluggish and want to nourish our gut microbiome. I think of fire cider as the bandaid for those moments when we’ve stopped listening to our bodies but I also know people who take fire cider everyday, and have done so for many years. The base in fire cider is a good organic apple cider vinegar, a key ingredient for any winter health tonic. We use Nova Scotia’s own Boates Organic ACV. Then, we add a variety of herbs and vegetables. A recipe to share In a standard fire cider tonic the main ingredients are onions, garlic, horseradish, ginger, and hot peppers such as cayenne. Shop for or gather ingredients locally and make a large batch to last the year. Or infuse ingredients as they come into season — like a stock pot that you top up periodically. I adapted this recipe from Rosemary Gladstar’s and it is our current recipe we sell today. This is my gift to you and I hope you too can pass it on for generations to come. Customize as you wish.

palatable tonic, but still has a kick to it so that you say ‘WHOOOOA’ when you drink it. As for the solids… on our farm, we put them through our juicer and add them back into our tonic. But you don’t have to do this. We’ve chilled them and made coleslaw, adding just a touch of mayo and salt to kick it up a notch. We’ve added them to fried eggs, or a stir fry while Rosemary Gladstar suggests using them as a chutney.

Fire Cider a recipe 60 grams onion 25 grams horseradish 20 grams ginger 25 grams garlic 1 cinnamon sticks 1 stems of rosemary (1.5 grams dried) 1 teaspoon mustard seed 10 grams fresh turmeric (1g ground) 25 grams lemons 1gram ground peppercorn 1 gram chillies or your preferred hot pepper 1 gram dried goldenrod 1 gram dried nettles 0.5 gram red raspberry Leaf 1 litre of organic apple cider vinegar 75g local honey (or more to taste) Finely dice vegetables and lemons, or give them a quick blitz in the food processor. Place all ingredients, except the honey, in a 1.9 litre (64 ounce) mason jar and fill up with apple cider vinegar and seal with a non corrosive lid. Shake.

One of my favourite things to do with fire cider, is to mix it into a smokey Ceaser. Take an ounce of whisky in a tall glass (Laphroaig is my fave!), top with Clamato juice, add a glug of Fire cider in place of Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce, and then season with a good mineral salt. Garnish with local smoked bacon. This fall, I hope you try our fire cider recipe and adapt it to your needs and taste. Our recipe is zesty because I love the bite of the lemons in there. We add nettles, goldenrod and red raspberry leaf to combat seasonal allergies, but you don’t have to. Add in oranges, beets and carrots to sweeten things up, or thyme and oregano to make it more herbaceous. Measurements and ingredients are fluid, so experiment and have fun making your own tonic to share with your friends, family and neighbours. Enjoy being a part of the fire cider revolution.

Rachael Robertson and her husband, Calum, uprooted from Old Scotland to New Scotland in 2013 with their two sons, in search of a rural life, living off the land. Their farm is nestled on the South Mountain in the Annapolis Valley.

At this point I don’t add the honey, as I like to add it at the end. I may add more or less honey depending on the spice or season, the onions or peppers. Allow your infusion to sit in a dark, cool space for four to six weeks. Shaking occasionally. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and put the solids to one side. Brace yourself to taste your tonic. It will be spicy and pungent, but also insanely flavourful. Warm your honey slightly and add until you feel it is a FALL 2022

The Ground Cherry The little fruit that is happy nearly everywhere

Ground Cherry Salsa A sweet addition to grilled shrimp or fish, with fresh oysters, on a taco or with tortilla chips. 1 cup ground cherries, peeled 1/2 cup cherry tomatoes 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped finely 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons lime juice 1/2 teaspoon salt Fresh ground pepper A dash a chilli flakes Slice tomatoes and ground cherries in half and toss in a bowl with cilantro and garlic. In a small bowl or jar mix remaining ingredients and then pour over tomatoes and toss. Eat fresh with any dish. Enjoy!

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