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Artisinal
On the cover: Gabriel Arsenault stokes the fire at Atelier Gourmand by Dave Snow
This page: Winter fruit by Dave Snow
Darren Tran and his family's 2B Green Farm in Summerside, P.E.I.
Gabriel Arsenault and Emilie Rancourt are making pizzas and plans in Charlo, N.B.
The city's "heartfelt (culinary) embrace"
Jocelyn Durston and Tim Burns on small-scale growing and fermenting in Canning, N.S.
Hossein Barar on starting from the ground up in Moncton
A recipe to warm you, from us
hello from us
Winter is one of our top four favourite seasons in the Maritimes. Not just for the magic of a walk on the beach with the biting wind on our cheeks or a ski through a snow-dusted forest ... but for the time spent cozying up with a warm cup of something and great conversation. Cold, frozen days make such moments all the more special, and vital.
In her piece in this issue, Emily Lawrence suggests that inviting each other into such moments is a "love language". We're sure you'd agree, this language is one most Maritimers are fluent in. Listen for it when you walk into a local shop, restaurant or studio, when someone shares a recipe, a dish or a story. Every piece in this issue started in this language—with communities, friends and family helping each other to make their ideas happen—whether a farm, a restaurant, a shop or a new idea.
We offer this issue as a bit of warmth amidst the colder termperatures and the tremendous and all too present challenges we as humans have before us. We hope you'll find a little light in these pages, something to buoy us all on and inspire us to do what we can to build up our communities, open our hearts to each other and thrive together on this beautiful little planet.
As 2023 slips into 2024, we wish you all peace and love,
Sara & Dave
edible Maritimes
CO-EDITORS & DESIGNERS (& storytellers)
Sara & Dave Snow
CONTRIBUTORS
Haqq Brice, Jennifer Campbell, Inda Intiar, Emily Lawrence, La Cave Media, Stacy Morris, Jody Nelson, Sophie Peloquin, Peter Simpson, Chris Snow, Stephanie Vicente
THANK YOU
To all of you—our readers, advertisers, contributors, our friends and family—for supporting local storytelling and independent print media. We couldn't do it without you!
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edible Maritimes
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Photo: Eagle and Pokeshaw Rock, Bay of Chaleur, N.B. by Dave Snow
Correction: Issue #8, "Banking on pie", misspelled names in photo caption for photo on page 43. Corrected caption: Mikayla, Katelyn, Bien, Darra, Cody, Sarah, Erica.
wapsokes
Passamaquoddy
Mi'kmaq
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
Language resources:
Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Language Portal https://pmportal.org/dictionary/wapsokes
Mi'kmaq Online www.mikmaqonline.org
Hosting as a love language
Emily Lawrence on the warmth of sharing a cup of hot cocoa, or whatever your favourite recipe might be
WORDS & PHOTOS BY EMILY LAWRENCE
For many of us who cook and bake, hosting is a way we show love. When it storms, come over. When there’s something to celebrate, come over. When listening and care is needed, come over. I see you. I made this for you. Help yourself. Napkin? There’s more on the stove. I thought you would like this dessert. I know you like raspberries with chocolate. How do you want your coffee? Stay longer. I love you.
Hosting combines the forces of all five love languages: acts of service, quality time, gift giving, physical touch, and words of affirmation. The first three are easily evoked when creating a meal for others in their company—a thoughtful eating experience is a service, a shared activity and a gift. The mouthfeel of any dish that combines creamy and crunchy, flakey and foamy, or chewy and gooey can be a sensory experience that rivals many acts of physical touch. To say “make yourself at home” upon arrival or “to our friendship” while glasses clink can be priceless words of affirmation.
Many of my warmest memories surround a living room coffee table with something piping hot being shared. Spending a hurricane curled up on the couch with a bottle of wine, sharing stories of heartache, embracing your sous-chef while they whisk and taste a nutmegspiced bechamel sauce, laying on the crumb sprinkled carpet with bellies full of spaghetti—these are the moments that make my house feel like a home. To soothe and to satisfy is all a host and recipe aims to accomplish.
I believe that behind every seasoned host are two essential elements: a few, tried and true recipes that can be made at the drop of a hat, and a pantry that is stocked with the ingredients to make them. At my friend Brea’s house, the best chicken wings or dumplings can be made in a moment’s notice, and her ability to whip up a dip is nothing short of a masterclass. Steph’s last minute layer cakes are characterized by delightful, experimental flavour combinations and resourcefulness. I look forward to Kate’s German carrot dish with every dinner invitation. Garlicky herbed meatballs, latkes with lemon sour cream, or some cozy combination of tomatoes + carbs + cheese are common players when my friends come by—with a Lactaid on the side for those who need it.
For dessert, I can always depend on cocoa, milk, and my recipe for Salted Tahini Hot Cocoa which can feed dairy-free and gluten-free palettes alike. Pair this liquid gold with any snappy cookie for dunking, and you and
your guests will be laughing. Add a shot of booze or espresso to have this recipe meet more needs.
Salted Tahini Hot Cocoa
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons tahini
3 tablespoons maple syrup
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
Pinch of cardamom (optional)
1 ½ cup unsweetened milk of choice
Whipped cream and sesame seeds for serving
In a pot, whisk together cocoa, tahini, maple syrup, sea salt and cardamom (if desired) until combined.
Add ¼ cup of milk and whisk to create a paste, then add the rest of your milk and continue whisking until incorporated and no lumps remain. Place over medium high heat and stir continuously until hot and steaming.
Serve with whipped cream and sesame seeds.
Emily Lawrence is a photo-artist, baker, maker and gardener in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. @emilylawrence www.emilylawrence.ca
Réduire son empreinte écologique n’aura jamais été aussi plaisant!
Reducing our ecological footprint never felt so good!
TEXTE DE / WORDS BY SOPHIE PELOQUIN PHOTOS DE / BY LA CAVE MEDIA
Bio & Co—épicerie en vrac, c’est l’histoire de Rémy et Vanessa Hyppolite, un couple d’origine française arrivé au Nouveau Brunswick en 2015, dans le cadre d’un programme visant à promouvoir l’immigration francophone dans la province. « On voulait initialement s’établir à Moncton, mais après avoir visité Bathurst, on a changé tous nos plans et on a décidé que c’était dans le nord du Nouveau-Brunswick qu’on allait refaire notre vie », explique Rémy.
Une fois établis, Vanessa et Rémy remarquent rapidement qu’ils ne peuvent pas facilement adopter le mode de vie qu’ils avaient en région parisienne. Il existe en effet peu d’endroit dans les environs pour se procurer, en vrac, une variété de produits biologiques de qualité. Le concept de Bio & Co a donc émergé d’abord et avant tout d’un besoin du couple de retrouver et rendre accessible ce type d’offre dans leur nouvelle communauté.
Le Zéro déchet : tendance ou mode de vie ? Rémy et Vanessa se lancent donc tête première dans l’entreprenariat en 2022 avec la création de leur boutique. Comme les boutiques zéro déchet demeurent encore assez rares hors des grands centres urbains, les deux propriétaires sentent aussi qu’ils jouent un rôle important d’éducation. Mais c’est une mission qui leur va très bien, car ils adorent passer du temps avec leur clientèle à expliquer les avantages du zéro déchet et les bienfaits des produits offerts en boutique.
L’habitude qui semble la plus difficile à changer pour leurs clients, est de penser systématiquement à apporter des contenants réutilisables lorsqu’ils viennent en boutique. « Nous n’offrons pas l’option de sacs de plastiques pour le vrac. C’est un choix que l’on a fait, et c’est vrai que, pour certains, c’est une contrainte d’avoir à apporter ses propres contenants », explique Vanessa. Ils ont considéré offrir des sacs compostables comme alternative, mais n’ont pas encore pris la décision de faire le pas dans cette direction. « On y réfléchit car, un de nos objectifs avec la boutique, c’est bien entendu de sensibiliser au mode de vie zéro déchet, mais aussi de démocratiser ce type de mode de vie, en le rendant plus facilement accessible à tous », explique Rémy.
Il est vrai que la vision du zéro déchet que partagent
Bio & Co market is the story of Rémy and Vanessa Hyppolite, a French couple, who arrived in New Brunswick in 2015, from Paris, as part of a program to promote francophone immigration in the province. “We initially wanted to settle in Moncton, but after visiting Bathurst, we changed all our plans and decided that northern New Brunswick was where we were going to start a new life,” explains Rémy.
Once established, Vanessa and Rémy quickly realized that they couldn't easily adopt the lifestyle they once had in Paris. There were few places in the area where they could buy a variety of bulk quality organic products. The concept of Bio & Co therefore originated from their need to find these products for themselves and make them available to their new community.
Zero waste: trend or lifestyle?
In 2022, Rémy and Vanessa decided to go “all in” and they opened their boutique. As zero-waste stores are still quite rare outside of major urban centers, the two owners feel they play an important role in increasing people’s access and awareness—a mission that suits them well, as they both love to spend time with customers, explaining the benefits of a zero-waste lifestyle and the value of the different products they offer.
But old habits are sometimes difficult to change. Because it’s a zero-waste shop, Rémy and Vanessa often need to remind customers to bring reusable containers when they come to shop. “We don't offer the option of plastic bulk bags. It's a choice we made, and it's true that, for some people, bringing their own containers is a constraint”, explains Vanessa. They considered offering compostable bags as an alternative, but haven't yet decided to move in that direction. “One of our objectives with the boutique is, of course, to raise awareness about the zero-waste lifestyle, but also to democratize it, by
Vanessa et Rémy est loin d’être culpabilisante. Ils voient tous deux l’adoption de ce mode de vie comme un processus graduel, qu’on intègre dans notre quotidien, une étape à la fois. En boutique et dans les médias sociaux, ils prônent plutôt une approche low waste (faible déchet) que zero waste (zéro déchet). « On préfère encourager les gens à poser de petits gestes pour adopter un mode de vie qui tend tranquillement vers le zéro déchet, pour que ça demeure réaliste », explique Vanessa.
De leur côté, pour réduire encore plus l’empreinte écologique de leur boutique, Rémy et Vanessa travaillent, de concert avec leurs fournisseurs, pour revoir la façon dont les produits leur sont livrés, et diminuer le plus possible les emballages sur toute la chaîne de distribution. « C’est pour cela qu’on aime travailler avec des petits producteurs locaux, car on connait les propriétaires et on peut discuter avec eux de notre vision, et trouver ensemble des solutions pour réduire à la source. »
Une offre biologique, locale et variée Rémy et Vanessa ont établi leur boutique autour de trois volets phares importants à leurs yeux : la santé, l’écologie et l’offre de proximité. En effet, c’est à la suite de problèmes de santé que Vanessa s’est mise à s’intéresser davantage à ce qu’elle utilisait comme produits alimentaires et cosmétiques et qu’elle s’est notamment penchée sur les produits cosmétiques
making it more readily accessible to everyone,” explains Rémy.
Vanessa and Rémy's vision of the zero-waste lifestyle is far from guilt-inducing. They both see the need to adopt it on a gradient scale, integrating it in our daily life, one step at a time. In stores and on social media, they advocate a “low-waste” rather than a “zero-waste” approach. “We prefer to encourage people to take baby steps to slowly move towards a zero-waste lifestyle, in order to keep it feasible and realistic,” explains Vanessa. To further reduce their boutique’s ecological footprint, Rémy and Vanessa are working with their suppliers to review the way products are delivered to them, and to minimize packaging along the supply chain. “That's why we like to work with small local producers,” Rémy says, “because we know them and can share our vision with them, and together find solutions to reduce at the source."
Organic products, with a focus on local Rémy and Vanessa’s boutique evolves around three key themes: health, ecology and proximity. A few years ago, Vanessa faced some health issues forcing her to reconsider the type of food and cosmetics she used. Her interest in natural cosmetics grew from a desire to reduce the amount of harmful products she was exposed to, on a daily basis. What started out as a personal interest quickly developed into a complete offering of bulk cosmetics. At Bio & Co, you'll find soaps, floral
naturels. Ce qui a commencé par un intérêt personnel s’est rapidement développé en une offre complète de cosmétiques en vrac. On y retrouve des savons, des eaux florales (macérats), des huiles, argiles, et une foule d’autres ingrédients pour la fabrication de cosmétiques naturels maison (de la marque One Soak, une entreprise québécoise).
Bio & Co donne une vitrine à une panoplie d’autres petits producteurs canadiens, principalement du Nouveau-Brunswick et du Québec. Parmi les produits d’intérêts que la boutique met de l’avant dans son offre en vrac, notons : les cafés biologiques de la Brulerie du vieux poste (torréfiés à Edmunston, N.-B.) ; les thés de la marque Camilia Sinensis (Montréal, Qc.) ; les produits ménagers naturels de marque Pure (SaintAlexandre-de-Kamouraska, Qc.) ; les vinaigres & huiles biologiques pressées à froid de la marque Olives Pressées (Montréal, Qc.) ; une belle variété de grains, graines et noix ainsi que des farines moulues sur pierre biologiques de l’entreprise Speerville (Speerville, N.-B.).
L’augmentation du coût de l’alimentation ?
Au moment où le coût de l’alimentation continue à monter en flèche, l’offre de Bio & Co s’inscrit dans une solution pour les petits budgets. « Un mythe derrière les produits biologiques, c’est qu’ils sont plus chers, mais notre objectif, c’est de pouvoir rendre accessible ces produits, et le vrac nous permet aussi de le faire », explique Rémy. « Acheter seulement ce dont tu as besoin, au final, réduit grandement les risques de gaspillage alimentaire. C’est mieux pour la planète, et c’est aussi mieux pour le porte-monnaie », ajoute Vanessa.
Un nouveau modèle d’entreprenariat
Depuis quelques mois, la boutique a modifié ses heures et n’est ouverte qu’en soirée. C’est que Vanessa est aussi infirmière-enseignante et travaille à temps plein, et Rémy a fait un retour aux études. Mais pour les deux acolytes, le projet se doit de continuer. De toute façon, cette boutique, c’est une passion et non un travail, comme l’explique Vanessa : « Quand je pars de l’hôpital pour venir à la boutique, je viens décompresser. J’adore être ici avec les clients, défaire mes commandes, placer mes produits sur les étalages ». Ce changement dans les heures d’ouverture n’a pas eu l’air de déranger la clientèle, qui continue à être au rendez-vous, malgré les heures réduites. « La réponse a été positive, commente Vanessa, les clients comprennent notre démarche et cela nous a beaucoup motivé à continuer ce modèle d’affaires ».
waters, oils, clays and a variety of other ingredients to create do-it-yourself (DIY) natural cosmetics. Bio & Co showcases several Canadian producers, mainly from New Brunswick and Quebec. Among the bulk products featured in the boutique are: organic coffees from Brûlerie du vieux poste (roasted in Edmunston, N.B.); teas from Montreal's Camilia Sinensis (Montreal, Qc); natural household products from Pure (SaintAlexandre-de-Kamouraska, Qc); cold-pressed organic vinegars and oils from Olives Pressées (Montreal, Qc); and a wide variety of organic grains, seeds, nuts and stone-ground flours from Speerville (a company from Speerville, N.B.).
A solution to the increasing cost of food?
At a time when the cost of food continues to soar, Vanessa and Rémy would like their shop to be one part of the solution for small budgets. “One myth behind organic products is that they're more expensive, but our aim is to make these products accessible, and selling in bulk allows us to do that too,” explains Rémy. “Buying only what you need, at the end, greatly reduces the risk of food waste. It's better for the planet, and it's also better for your wallet,” adds Vanessa.
A new business model
Over the past few months, the boutique has changed its operating hours and is now open only in the evenings. Rémy has decided to go back to school while Vanessa works full-time as a nurse, and teaches at a nursing school. But they remain committed to their shop and have found a way to do both. This boutique is a passion, not a job, as Vanessa explains: “When I leave the hospital and come here, I am winding down. I love being here with customers, unpacking my orders, placing products on the shelves”. The new opening hours hasn't slowed business. “The response has been positive,” says Vanessa, “customers understand our approach and are a great motivation for us to continue with this business model.”
Although they don't really know what the future has in store for them, Rémy and Vanessa continue to nurture ideas to grow their business. They would like to expand their space, offer community workshops, and offer local and organic fruits and vegetables. As they grow, their goal will remain the same: to serve the community, the very reason why they opened the store in the first place.
Dropping into to say hello and you'll soon be chatting about zero waste, local and organic food, or DIY cosmetics.
Même s’ils ne savent pas exactement ce que l’avenir leur réserve, Rémy et Vanessa ont encore plusieurs idées d’expansion pour l’entreprise. Ils aimeraient agrandir les locaux, offrir des ateliers pour la communauté et intégrer une offre de produits frais, avec des fruits et légumes locaux et biologiques. Leur objectif demeurera le même ; être au service de la communauté, la raison même pour laquelle ils ont mis en place cette boutique au départ.
Venez les rencontrer pour discuter zéro déchet, alimentation locale et biologique, ou encore cosmétiques DIY.
Bio & Co
175 Main St, Bathurst, N.B. facebook.com/bioandcomarket
Sophie Péloquin est naturothérapeute et coach holistique en santé & mieux-être. Foodie dans l’âme et passionnée d’alimentation et de nutrition depuis plus de 15 ans, elle croit au pouvoir rassembleur de la nourriture pour connecter les gens. / Sophie Péloquin is a naturotherapist and holistic health & wellness coach. A foodie at heart and passionate about food and nutrition for over 15 years, she believes in the power of food to bring people together.
La Cave Média is the collective work of Fred Guitard and Olivier Boucher. Both of them share their love of telling stories through the support of visual creation. / La Cave Média is the collective work of Fred Guitard and Olivier Boucher. Both of them share their love of telling stories through the support of visual creation.
Husband and wife team Peter Tompkins and Jennie Wilson opened 11th Mile restaurant at its current location about a year before the pandemic hit.
WORDS BY JENNIFER CAMPBELL
PHOTOS BY LARA MCCONCHIE-JOHNSTON
When asked to present a dish that represents himself on a plate, Peter Tompkins produces a piece of pan panfried salmon drizzled with white soy vinegar and chili oil and served on a crispy rice cake alongside a cucumber salad. When edible Maritimes interviewed him in the summer of 2023, the dish was on the menu.
“It’s been on the menu for a while,” says Tompkins, executive chef at 11th Mile restaurant on York Street in downtown Fredericton. “It's probably the favourite salmon dish I've ever done.”
Tompkins says he “control overcooks” the sushi rice with a little mirin and rice wine vinegar and then makes it into a patty and sears it until it’s crispy. The salmon— skin off as his customers always send the skin back when he leaves it on—sits atop the rice and he serves the cuke salad alongside. The salad has shaved quick-pickled cucumbers—made with salt and sugar and then rinsed with rice wine vinegar—along with shaved radishes and cilantro.
“I think the dish represents what we're trying to do here in terms of reinterpreting dishes from other ethnic cultures or other cuisines,” he says. “This is kind of a play on a sushi pizza, so it’s got the crispy rice, salmon, and the white soy vinaigrette, but we’re lightening it up and making it a little more modern. And then it’s also about embracing some of our local ingredients with the salmon from New Brunswick. And then we’re just using a little simple salad with things that I like, which are radish and cucumber. Growing up, I always used to eat them out of the garden.”
11th Mile’s story
Tompkins runs the restaurant with his wife, Jennie Wilson. Both New Brunswick natives—he grew up in Bath and she grew up in St. Stephen—they decided to head back to their home province in 2017, after wanting to be part of the solution to the brain drain rather than part of the problem.
The couple actually met while both were working as servers at the restaurant at the one-time Sheraton Hotel (now the Delta). Wilson was working while studying education at St. Thomas University and when she finished, they decided to move to Toronto, where they stayed for 17 years. He continued to work in restaurants as a server until he started to feel he’d had enough of the front of house and wanted to try his hand at cooking.
“I was working for people who eventually became my mentors at a place called Stork on the Roof,” he says of the owners, Michael van den Winkel and Jennifer Gittens. “I just asked if I could start working in the kitchen.”
But Tompkins thinks the real motivation for doing so came when he and Wilson went on a honeymoon in Europe.
“We were in Paris and San Sebastian, Spain, and we did some Michelin star meals,” he says. “Just the hospitality that was shown to us by the chefs—not necessarily the front of the house, [was inspiring.] The chefs and chef owners were coming out and greeting us and just being very gracious with us. And it just was a kind of a different side of the industry that you didn't see here so much, where it was a little more about the attitude of the chef.”
When Stork on the Roof closed, he went to work at Oliver & Bonacini’s Biff’s for a year before deciding he needed to go to culinary school and enrolling at George Brown College. He returned to work with van den Winkel and Gittens when they opened their restaurant, Quince Bistro, and eventually became head chef there. When they opened Little Sister, an Indonesian restaurant, he moved there and then when they transitioned Quince to a new restaurant called Noorden, Tompkins served as head chef there before deciding to move back to New Brunswick and open a place of his own with Wilson.
“It was always the idea that we'd open something together,” Tompkins says. “We both had successful careers and we were enjoying that, but then we just got to a point where we wanted to do something that was maybe a little more meaningful. And Toronto doesn't need another restaurant. I can't contribute anything to Toronto's culinary scene—it's pretty full. So we thought coming back to New Brunswick, we could do something a little different and hopefully contribute to the culinary scene here. We liked the city and we wanted a different pace of life—and we certainly got it.”
Tompkins says van den Winkel, who is of Dutch origin, is his No. 1 mentor. “So he has a lot of Indonesian influences,” Tompkins says, as Wilson adds that Gittens and van den Winkel are still friends and often visit and provide advice to the newer restaurateurs. “That's where like a lot of the spicing comes from in my food—that sweet and hot balance.”
Pandemic pains
Wilson and Tompkins opened in 2017 on Regent Street as a “bar with good food,” but the concept didn’t really catch on. Too many locals just saw it as a bar and not a place to order food. When the landlord said he wanted to reclaim the space for offices, the couple was agreeable. And then the two found the space they’re in now, which is a former Fredericton institution—Mazucca’s Variety Store, owned by brothers John and Gus Mazucca. The décor in the resto actually features some photos of the shop, which closed in 2007 and which Wilson and Tompkins both remember.
They opened the York Street space in 2019 as a restaurant and were just settling into a comfortable rhythm when COVID hit. That said, Tompkins doesn’t like to complain too much because compared to the rest of the country, Fredericton didn’t have it too badly.
“Our customers really supported us,” Tompkins says. “We pivoted and pivoted and pivoted and we made it work and came through the other side and business is still here.”
They stripped back to just the two of them as staff and started doing meal kits—complete with a three-course meal that just required final touches and heating, cocktail and bottle of wine.
“There was really no reason to buy wine from us, but they bought wine from us,” Wilson says. “We kept the prices low on booze. And people were desperate for it.”
A recent expansion
When Wilson and Tompkins were ready to grow their business, they were looking for something that would be pandemic-proof and landed on a partnership with Half Cut Brewing Company on Fredericton’s Northside. Their new business, housed within the brewery, is Coastline Pizza.
“We were ready to grow, and wanted to create a complementary business,” Wilson says. “We were ready to build out our staff, and wanted to create something that would be less vulnerable to COVID than a restaurant. We rent space from Half Cut and provide [the food for the brewery’s customers.]”
The plan was also to grow it into a wholesale business and its first customer turned out to be First Light Distillery in the Hanwell area. “It’s 10 kilometres away from Half Cut and that was always part of our deal.”
11th Mile
79 York St, Fredericton, N.B. 11thmile.ca
Jenn Campbell grew up in Fredericton and remembers Mazucca's fondly. She's glad Fredericton now has a haven for food lovers in its place.
Lara McConchie-Johnston is a Quebec City-based, Norton N.B.-born photographer, specializing in portrait, wedding, and food photography. In her work, she focuses on movement and light to capture her subjects in a true-to-life, dynamic way.
Page 14: Tompkins and Wilson at 11th Mile
Page 16 top: Wilson mixes a drink at the bar.
Page 16 bottom: Street front
This page top: Tompkins panfries salmon.
This page bottom: Panfried salmon drizzled with white soy vinegar and chili oil, served on a crispy rice cake with cucumber salad
Skye Glen Creamery
An artisanal farmgate dairy reimagines a family farm on Cape Breton
WORDS & PHOTOS
BY JODY NELSON
The drive to Skye Glen Creamery is part of the experience. Rolling hills and pastoral fields line the winding road across Cape Breton Island. A long laneway takes you to the base of a field dotted with grazing Jersey cows. A big, inviting sign says “creamery”, letting you know you haven’t lost your way. When you enter the modest shop, you can see Meghan Brosens hard at work on the other side of a glass wall, turning the fresh milk from the Jerseys you just admired into bottled milk, cheese, and gelato. “People love to see where their food comes from,” says Brosens. From the scene around the creamery, to the process on display, to the self-serve milk filling station, she has nailed the experience.
When Matt and Meghan Brosens saw an ad for a dairy farm for sale in Cape Breton, they knew right away that their farm dream was coming true. More than a dream, the Brosens knew what they were getting themselves into. The couple had been farming sheep in Ontario, and Meghan grew up on a dairy farm. Their hearts were always set on raising cows, but getting into dairy in Ontario was financially out of reach. In Nova Scotia, lower land prices made the transition possible.
In 2013, Brosendale Farms came to be—500 acres, quota to milk 45 cows, and a new place to call home and build a family. It didn’t take Meghan long to weave an onfarm creamery into the vision. With some thoughtful planning and mentorship, Skye Glen Creamery took shape and opened its doors in 2021.
From the start, the Brosens designed their creamery with a hyperlocal mindset. “Very little goes off the island,” says Matt. “We knew that if we just focused on Cape Breton, we would be laughing. There is enough business here and we are the only ones.” That being said, the business plan was tough. “What do you base it on when you’re the only one?” The Brosens scaled their operation to the population of the region. They knew that they didn’t need large equipment, and that they could do a lot of the labour themselves.
The creamery is also an important part of diversifying the farm business. Dairy operates as a supply managed system. Farmers own quota, which gives them the right to sell milk at a set price. “45 cows don't pay the bills anymore,” says Matt. “One reason we built the creamery was because we are just too small to survive on quota alone.” In the 10 years Brosendale Farms has been operating, the milk price has only gone up two cents per litre. Meanwhile the diesel tank now usually rings
in at over $2000 to fill. “Back then, a loader tractor was just under $100,000. Now it’s around $300,000 for a similar machine. It’s challenging.” The creamery gives the Brosens a way to add value to their milk and continue to grow and diversify their on-farm experience and the viability of their business in the long-term. Family farms are built with future generations in mind.
The most critical resource on the farm is time. Even with both Matt and Meghan working 60-70 hours per week, there is never enough of it. “We keep saying things are going to slow down or get easier…but it is always full tilt,” says Matt. “If we get in for supper at 9 or 10 o'clock, that’s a normal night. Milking never stops— you can’t turn it off.” Every time the Brosens bring in some help, they are buying time. Meghan now has a neighbour working in the creamery and it has taken a big weight off of her. They also have someone delivering products around the island once a week. Skye Glen Creamery is a producer member of the Cape Breton Food Hub, a local food co-op. “The Food Hub has been great for us,” says Matt. “We drop off our products once a week, and they do the rest. We are one of their biggest shippers now.” This service saves them a lot of time and effort in marketing and distribution.
The most recent time saver is Carly 2.0. Lovingly named after a farm hand from past years, Carly 2.0 is a robotic milking system, and it has been a game changer. Like many sectors in the region, finding and keeping staff can be crippling for businesses. “The thing is anyone can milk a cow but to milk a cow properly takes skill and time,” says Matt. “When we moved here there were tons of young kids around, but if they’re any good, they are snatched up, they leave, or we can’t afford to pay what they’re worth.” The Brosens have found that the cost of running the robot for a week, works out to what they paid in the past for five milkings. It has added reliability and sustainability to their operation, while giving them the freedom to get off the farm from time to time.
These days, running a dairy farm is not just milking cows. The nutrition side of things is intensive, and quality and balance in nutrition impacts the creamery. “Every time we make a cut of hay, rows are marked based on which field they came from, and which cut it is. All of those are sampled, then the nutritionist formulates all the rations,” explains Matt. “The cows have tags with pedometers that measure their activity, including tracking their chewing so you can monitor their feeding or if they’re sick. The robot adjusts their feeding and
milking accordingly.” The robot offers more than the efficiency of time. It optimizes animal care, yield, and milk quality.
With only one inspector in Nova Scotia for dairy operations, and the slow down of Covid, getting the creamery set up took time, but the Brosens used the time to do a lot of the work themselves, and to get their recipes just right. The mentorship of old friend and cheese expert, Jon Karn, gave the Brosens a big advantage in the early days.
Karn is an innovator himself. Back in Ontario, he runs a mobile creamery, going around to dairy farms to help them process milk into cheeses for home use. He has also worked in large scale cheese making. “Everything’s got to be perfect with him,” shares Matt. “He set us on the right path. When we started there was so much to learn. That first product you are putting out to a customer has to be good…they’re not going to come back and wait for you to get it right”. Among the many quality products Karn supported Skye Glen Creamery in developing, their cheese curds have captured the hearts of Cape Bretoners and visitors. Aptly and cleverly called, ‘Squeaky Cheese’, their curds have the perfect springy texture. Karn instructed the Brosens, “if they’re not squeaky, they’re just mushy cheese”. They took this to heart and focused on getting the curds’ squeak just right.
Besides curds, Skye Glen Creamery also makes cheddar, fromage blanc, and brie. Next in line is Gouda, when the Brosens can get Karn back for some guidance. Meghan has experimented with butter, but it is hard to produce a high quality, artisanal product. She is saving this creative challenge for down the road. For all of the products, the creamery leans on the quality of the Jersey milk. “Jerseys are more efficient. They don’t eat as much and they give a higher fat milk,” says Matt. “More butterfat and more protein makes for really good cheese.” Growing up, Meghan’s family farm kept Jersey cows, so they also have a place in her heart.
Farming is a business, without question, but at its core, it is a lifestyle choice and a labour of love. Matt didn’t grow up farming, but his roots run deep in farm life. “As soon as I was able, I’d wave to the cows across the road out the window,” says Matt. “It was always a dream, but it was never realistic until I met Meg. You have to have a partner that wants to do this. It’s your life.” The Brosens do everything together, raising their three kids amidst it all. All three children have grown up in the
barn and now the creamery, learning to embody this life and this craft as their parents do.
Skye Glen Creamery
skyeglencreamery.square.site
Find their products in Port City Grocery, the Cape Breton Food Hub, Ms. Allen’s Cheese and Cigar Parlour in Sydney, Farmers Daughter in Whycocomagh, Brook Village Grocery, Ivan’s Daughters General Store in Inverness, Mabou Freshmart, The Other Cupboard Emporium in Ingonish, Hart’s of Boylston General Store, Antigonish Co-op, Back East at Home in Antigonish, Ratinaud in Halifax, and of course, on the farm in Skye Glen.
Jody Nelson stewards a piece of land on Hunter's Mountain, Unama'ki, where she invests her heart in her farm, her two boys and her community.
Meghan’s Mozzarella at Home
A Skye Glen Creamery recipe
4 litres milk (look for whole, non-homogenized Jersey milk for best yield)
1.5 teaspoon citric acid (or 15 tbsp vinegar) ½ teaspoon liquid rennet (or ¼ tablet) 1 tablespoon salt (or to taste)
Pour milk into large pot. Prepare citric acid by dissolving into 60 mls (¼ cup) of water.
While milk is still cold, add citric acid mixture or vinegar ensuring milk is moving to prevent curdling. Warm milk to 32 degrees Celsius (89.6°F).
Dilute rennet in 60 ml (1/4 cup) of water and add rennet mixture to milk. Stir for 25 seconds and remove pot from heat maintaining 32°C (89.6°F).
Let rennet coagulate for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes you should see a separation from milk to curds and whey.
Cut curds into 1 inch squares and let rest for 5 minutes. Warm curds and whey to 40°C (104°F) for over 20 minutes, gently stirring. Maintain 40°C (104°F) for one minute
Using a slotted spoon, scoop out curds into a Colander and let drain briefly.
Boil water to reach 88°C (190.4°F)
Set curds into a glass or heat proof bowl. Sprinkle salt on top and pour hot water on top. Let sit for a minute and start kneading and stretching. If it gets too cold add more hot water.
Form into ball and enjoy fresh with tomatoes, crackers or on pizza!
Enjoy!
Page 19: The Brosens at the farm
Page 21 top: Road to the farm
Page 21 bottom left: A Jersey cow at the farm
Page 21 bottom right: A Skye Glen Creamery milk dispenser
This page right: Skye Glen Creamery ice cream
This page bottom: Meghan Brosens checking the delivery truck
Vertically inspired
WORDS BY PETER SIMPSON PHOTOS BY STACY MORRIS
Summerside's Tran family is taking container growing to a new level
like tiny bonsai trees. They can last for years, Tran says, as he holds one in his hands to be admired.
Tran is not the first to grow mushrooms in shipping containers, and he’s tapped into a growing sector of “urban farming.” One advantage is the greatly reduced distance between farm and customer that allows not only a fresher product. Heartee, for example, harvests mushrooms in downtown Ottawa and has them on grocery store shelves an hour later. One restaurant, just a few blocks from Parliament Hill, has boasted on its menu about “550-Metre Mushrooms,” as that was the distance between the restaurant and Heartee’s closest
Another advantage of urban farming is getting an edge over larger and more distant major growers in building customer relationships. Tim Carroll, an associate professor of business at UPEI and a former PEI minister of agriculture, says that propinquity is an edge.
compete on price. They didn’t pick an easy industry to get into, but doesn’t mean it can’t be successful.”
Heartee, the Ottawa-based company, has containers growing mushrooms in Ottawa, Toronto, Kingston, Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal and Austin, Texas. The format is ideally suited to places where available land is at a premium, says Heartee CEO Jonathan Murray.
“Containerized mushroom farms make optimal use of both vertical and horizontal space, an answer to the land constraints of urban areas,” Murray says. “Additionally, mushrooms have lower electrical requirements for indoor cultivation compared to many other crops, making them a more energy-efficient choice for urban farming.”
P.E.I. has its own pressures on the availability of agricultural land, and also has urban spaces that can be adapted to urban farming; Heartee’s Ottawa container is in a downtown parking lot, while Tran’s are in an unused space behind a warehouse. “This model provides a scalable and modular farming solution adaptable to various urban spaces,” Murray says.
Tran is not affiliated with Heartee, but has a similar
farming/business model. He begins with substrate blocks of sawdust and ground soybean shells that he gets from a company in Halifax. The blocks are made of agricultural byproducts and are compostable once spent. They can even be used as nutritious feed for livestock.
Once mycelium spores are injected into the blocks, it takes two to three weeks for mushrooms to grow and be ready for harvest, depending on the type. Mushrooms are not fussy, but they need a constant temperature of about 17°C. They erupt from the substrate in an exotic variety of colours and shapes, from the dusky blue oysters to the lobe-like lion’s mane.
The Trans sell them online on their website, and at farmer’s markets in Charlottetown and Summerside. They’ve also established a beachhead in the island dining market, including at the Pilot House in Charlottetown, Harmony House in Hunter River and Ship to Shore, near Kensington.
“I’m using their mushrooms because it’s a local product. We use as many local ingredients as possible,” says Ship to Shore chef and co-owner Duncan Smith, who discovered 2B mushrooms at the Summerside farmer’s market, and was immediately intrigued. He put them on
the restaurant’s menu as “Island mushroom strudel,” full of five varieties of 2B mushrooms.
“It shocked the shit out of me how many we sell,” he says, in a fine turn of Island vernacular. “In the summer we were selling about 10 to 15 of them a night, which is pretty good, especially for a vegetarian option. We weren’t really expecting it to be that strong.”
Tran is grateful for the enthusiastic response his family business has found in their adopted island home.
“I got quite positive feedback. They love the mushroom and the freshness, and that we have a local supply here and it’s fresh every week.”
While he’s firmly focused on the P.E.I. market for now, he sees potential for taking his mushrooms to other Maritime markets, and perhaps expanding into other urban-farmed crops.
“I do have a model for vertical farming of vegetables, which also (works in) a shipping container. They have a lot of vertical farming in Europe and the U.S. as well. They provide fresh food to the community.”
It’s all part of the trend to shorten the distance between farm and fork. Even downtown, your next salad could be growing just up the street.
2BGreen Farm Summerside, P.E.I. 2bgreenfarm.ca
Peter Simpson was born and raised in P.E.I., then left to write about a lot of stuff for a lot of years, but returns every summer for a lot of days.
Stacy Morris is an Australian-born lifestyle and editorial photographer, based on P.E.I.
Page 25: Tran in front of his container.
Page 26: Tran with shitakes and oyster mushrooms.
Left: Tran checking growth in the container.
Firing up a dream
Quand le rêve s’enflamme
WORDS BY / TEXTE DE SARA SNOW
PHOTOS BY / PHOTOS DE DAVE SNOW
FRENCH TRANSLATION BY SOPHIE PELOQUIN
Gabriel Arsenault and Émilie Rancourt are planning a restaurant—a warm and inviting space where people can sit down and enjoy artisanal wood-fired pizza, or fresh-made pasta, or take some home, join friends for a meal, or take a slice outside. They are in that exciting stage—huddled over plans, full of anticipation, deciding where to build the new oven and install freezers, how many tables and how the indoor space will connect with the outdoor space.
Time and community, and a great deal of woodsplitting, have shaped their plans for this new restaurant in Charlo, N.B..
Pizza and place
Charlo is a village lined by long sandy beaches on la Baie des Chaleurs (or Chaleur Bay) in the northeastern corner of the province. It is a community of just over 1,300 people that grows in summer, and again in winter when plentiful snow makes for fabulous snowmobiling, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing. In fact, many refer to Charlo as the cross-country ski capital of the province.
Gabriel’s father grew up in neighbouring Dalhousie and he recalls summer trips from Montreal to large family gatherings here. “We used to spend our summers here when I was young,” he says, “getting all together here, 40 or 50 of us, every year.”
Both from Montreal, Gabriel and Émilie met over food—in an oyster bar in the city. Gabriel had worked in kitchens for fifteen years when the restaurant where he worked closed for renovations. At the same time, Emilie had a break when her engineering contract ended. So with time to explore, they took a trip to Charlo and it was a bonfire, here on the beach, that sparked their plans for local artisanal pizza.
“We came for a little vacation and we just loved it so much,” Rancourt tells us. “We were dreaming, making a bonfire on the beach and dreaming about moving.” The next day they started looking for a house, something they could renovate, and found one just outside of the village, where the South Charlo River winds its way toward the bay. In a matter of weeks, they bought the house and were making plans to move from Montreal.
“We were wanting to find a way to make food here, to make pizza and to make a living,” Gabriel says, “I was making a lot of pizza for myself and friends, experimenting, so we decided on the wood oven.”
Gabriel Arsenault et Émilie Rancourt envisagent de créer un restaurant — un espace chaleureux et invitant où l'on pourra s'asseoir et déguster une pizza artisanale cuite au feu de bois, ou des pâtes fraîches ; un endroit où l’on aura autant envie de rejoindre des amis pour un repas, que de prendre une commande pour emporter, ou encore de s’installer simplement en terrasse avec une part de pizza.
Ils en sont à cette phase passionnante de la planification, excités de voir le projet se concrétiser, se penchant sur les plans, décidant du meilleur endroit où installer le nouveau four, les congélateurs, déterminer le nombre de tables et les espaces de rangement qui leur seront nécessaires, et optimisant la façon dont leur espace intérieur rejoindra leur nouvel espace extérieur.
Leurs plans pour ce nouveau restaurant situé à Charlo, au Nouveau-Brunswick, a été façonné par le temps : le temps passé auprès de leur communauté, et le temps passé à bucher le bois qui a nourri le four de leur toute première pizzéria.
La Pizza à sa place Charlo est un village bordé de longues plages de sable fin sur la Baie des Chaleurs, dans le nord-est de la province. C'est une communauté d'un peu plus de 1 300 habitants qui s'agrandit en été, puis au cœur de l’hiver, lorsqu’elle accueille les passionnés de motoneige, de raquettes et de ski de fond, qui apprécient les lieux pour sa neige abondante. En effet, Charlo est considéré pour plusieurs comme la capitale du ski de fond de la province.
Le père de Gabriel était originaire de Dalhousie, une ville voisine. Gabriel se souvient très bien de ses voyages d’enfance lorsque sa famille venait de Montréal pour de grandes réunions familiales. « Quand j'étais jeune, nous passions nos étés ici, dit-il, nous nous réunissions tous ici, 40 ou 50 personnes, chaque année ».
Tous deux originaires de Montréal, Gabriel et Émilie se sont rencontrés autour d'un repas, dans un bar à huîtres de la métropole. Gabriel œuvrait déjà dans les cuisines de restaurants depuis quinze ans lorsque le restaurant où il travaillait a fermé pour rénovation. De son coté, Émilie venait de terminer un contrat dans le domaine de l’ingénierie. Disposant les deux d’un peu de temps, ils décident de faire un voyage au Nouveau-Brunswick. C’est sur la plage de Charlo, au bord d’un feu de camp, que leur projet de pizzeria locale et artisanale a vu le jour.
With the help of friends, the pair renovated the old garage next to their house, built a wood-fired pizza oven and, in 2018, opened Atelier Gourmand. Their pizza, it turns out, was just what this community, and the region, was looking for. “There weren’t very many places to eat here, so from the beginning it worked really well for us,” Gabriel says. “And also because the pizza was great,” he adds with a smile.
“It’s been so great since the beginning,” Émilie says. “We didn’t have a website, at first, we just had Gabriel’s cellphone. Just in the first hour, I don’t even know how people found out, through word of mouth maybe, but it was crazy that first day, people were lining up.” “People were traveling further and further every year,”
« Nous sommes venus passer des petites vacances et nous avons tellement aimé ça, raconte Émilie. Nous étions là sur la plage, autour du feu, à rêver que nous nous établissions ici ». Le lendemain, ils commencent leur recherche pour une maison ; un endroit qu'ils pourraient rénover, et ils en trouvent une juste à l'extérieur du village, là où la rivière Charlo Sud serpente vers la baie. En quelques semaines, la maison est achetée et ils préparent leur départ de Montréal.
« Nous voulions trouver une façon de préparer de la nourriture ici, de faire des pizzas et de gagner notre vie», explique Gabriel. « Je préparais beaucoup de pizzas pour mes amis et moi-même, et j'expérimentais. Finalement, nous avons décidé d’opter pour le four à bois.»
Gabriel says. “Word spread about three years ago and now people drive here to pick up frozen pizza for the month. It soon became bigger than we expected,” he adds. (Dave and I first heard about Atelier Gourmand when visiting friends in St. Jacques, a three-hour drive, on the other side of the province!)
Initially, Gabriel and Émilie thought winters might be slower, so they ran pizza-making classes for groups and local schools. But demand for Atelier Gourmand pizza grew quickly. “We are now full time with the business,” Arsenault explains, “and in winter it’s still busy here with all of the winter activities.”
“Summer is very busy with tourists and when fall comes,” Émilie adds, “it’s the support of the community that keeps you going all year long.”
Community, and time, and lots of wood
The support of their community has helped them build their business and life here in this village along the bay. In 2021 they had a baby. Their son, now 2 ½ years old, is already learning the art of tossing pizza
In 2022 they added fresh pasta to their offerings. “We are the only ones doing it here so it will take some time to increase demand,” Gabriel says. “It’s a job we have to do to get this product known and we want it to be well known. It goes well with pizza as well.”
Walking into their atelier (french for workshop or studio) is as if walking right into warmth itself. When we visit on a frosty winter day, Gabriel is stoking the fire, waiting for it to reach its ideal temperature. Emilie is stocking the refrigerator with fresh-made pasta when the phone rings. She answers cheerfully, and takes an order for pick-up.
Avec l'aide d'amis, le couple rénove l'ancien garage attenant à leur maison, construit un four à pizza au feu de bois et ouvre l'Atelier Gourmand en 2018. Il semble que leur pizza fût exactement ce que dont cette communauté et la région avaient de besoin. « Il n’y avait pas beaucoup d’endroits où manger ici, donc dès le début, cela a très bien fonctionné pour nous, explique Gabriel. Et aussi parce que la pizza était excellente », ajoute-t-il en souriant.
« Ça a été tellement génial depuis le début, dit Émilie. Au départ, nous n’avions même pas de site Web, nous avions juste le téléphone de Gabriel. Dès la première heure, je ne sais même pas comment les gens ont découvert notre restaurant, le bouche à oreille peutêtre, mais c’était fou, le premier jour, les gens faisaient la queue ».
« Les clients venaient de plus en plus loin chaque année, explique Gabriel. La nouvelle s'est répandue, il y a environ trois ans maintenant, et les gens ont commencé à venir ici en voiture pour acheter des pizzas surgelées pour le mois. C’est vite devenu plus grand que prévu», ajoute-t-il. (Dave et moi avons entendu parlés de l'Atelier Gourmand lors d'une visite chez des amis à Saint-Jacques, de l’autre côté de la province, à trois heures de route de Charlo.)
Au départ, le couple s’attendait à ce que les hivers soient moins achalandés, alors ils ont offert des cours de fabrication de pizza pour des groupes et dans les écoles locales. Mais la demande pour la pizza de l’Atelier Gourmand a augmenté rapidement. « Nous travaillons maintenant à temps plein avec l'entreprise, explique Gabriel, et en hiver, c'est toujours occupé ici avec toutes les activités hivernales. »
« L’été, l’endroit est très fréquenté par les touristes et quand l’automne arrive, c’est le soutien de la communauté qui nous permet de continuer toute l’année. »
Prendre le temps de nourrir la flamme
C’est tout le soutien qu’ils ont reçu de leur communauté qui leur a permis de bâtir leur entreprise et leur vie ici, dans ce village au bord de la Baie. En 2021, ils ont eu un bébé. Leur fils, aujourd'hui âgé de 2 ans et demi, apprend déjà l'art de préparer la pâte à pizza.
En 2022, ils ont ajouté des pâtes fraîches à leur offre. «Nous sommes les seuls à le faire ici, donc il faudra du temps pour créer de la demande, dit Gabriel. C’est un travail que nous devons faire pour faire connaître ce
“Usually, it takes three people making pizza,” Gabriel tells us, “one prepping the dough, one putting the ingredients on and one to put it in the oven.” In a threehour evening shift, he is often making 60 pizzas, in an oven that fits three at a time.
While Atelier Gourmand is clearly a busy spot, the pace requires both patience and hustle. Good pizza, Gabriel points out, is all in the time. “I had done a lot of research, and a lot of trial and error,” he says, “and I learned that good pizza is all about the fermentation of the dough. You have to let time do its job. There’s a big difference when you take the time to do it the way it should be. You don’t want to rush it.”
Fermentation is only the half of it. “There is also a lot of splitting wood,” he says with a laugh. “I’ve learned a lot in five years,” he adds, “When we’re really busy I have to spend a lot of time making sure the fire is perfect for the pizza.” Their new hybrid oven for the new restaurant will make temperature control, and staff training, easier and will have space for 5 to 6 pizzas.
produit et nous voulons qu’il soit bien connu. Les pâtes se marient aussi bien avec la pizza! »
La pizza reste au cœur de leur activité. Dès l’entrée dans l’Atelier, on ressent tout de suite ce côté chaleureux qu’apporte le four à bois. Nous leur avons rendu visite en hiver par une journée glaciale. Gabriel prenait soin d’attiser le feu en attendant qu’il atteigne sa température idéale alors qu’Émilie s’affairait à remplir le réfrigérateur de pâtes fraîches, lorsque le téléphone sonna. Elle répondit joyeusement en prenant une commande pour emporter.
« Il faut normalement trois personnes pour faire une pizza, nous explique Gabriel, une qui prépare la pâte, une qui met les ingrédients et une pour la mettre au four ». Dans une soirée de trois heures, Gabriel doit généralement enfourner 60 pizzas, dans un four qui ne peut en contenir que trois à la fois!
They take the same patient approach with their business
Si l’Atelier Gourmand est un endroit très fréquenté, l’ambiance décontractée semble vouloir laisser le temps au temps. Car comme le souligne Gabriel, « Une bonne pizza, c'est avant tout une question de temps. J'ai fait
and with their plans for their new restaurant. The designs for their new space are drawn up, their builders are booked. “It is bigger, and nicer, than we had in mind at first, but we found some great architects,” Émilie says. “It’s taking longer but it will be well done.”
“Half of the new space will be fine grocery and the other half will be the restaurant, with the wood oven, the bar,” Gabriel adds. “And there is a demand for ready-to-eat so we’ll have more refrigerator space.”
The desire to provide customers with a place to pick up ready-to-eat food and ingredients is partly due to their own experience finding supplies. “If you want to live here there aren’t very many people,” Gabriel says, “which we love but it does mean it might take longer to find what you need. But we have suppliers who look.”
Currently, Atelier Gourmand is open from 4pm to 7pm. “When we open the new restaurant,” Émilie says, “we’ll open earlier so it will be a better schedule to shop for your meals.”
They've planned their business around the community they love and the feeling is mutual. As they get ready for this new chapter they will keep the fire burning and the pizzas, and pasta, coming.
Sara Snow lives for fresh pasta and is lucky to be married to her own personal pasta chef. She loves any pizza with mushrooms, and a hearty sprinkling of parmesan.
Dave Snow dreams of pizza, his favourite being the Margherita, and nothing gives him more pleasure than the site of a just-finished bowl of pasta.
Stepanie Peloquin loves a pizza with arugula and prosciutto, and is lucky to live so close to Atelier Gourmand!
Page 28: Fresh made linguine / pâtes fraîches
Page 30: Gabriel and É milie in the kitchen
Page 32 left: Pizza (photo by É milie Rancourt)
Page 32 right: House made sauce / sauce fraîches, Point La Nim's Hengst Quality Sausage products (sausage, pepperoni and donair meat / viande donaire)
Next: Atelier Gourmand pizzas, fresh made linguine
beaucoup de recherche, d'essais et d'erreurs, dit-il, et j'ai appris que la bonne pizza est une question de fermentation de la pâte. Il faut laisser le temps faire son œuvre. Il y a une grande différence lorsque l'on prend le temps de faire les choses comme il se doit. Il ne faut pas se précipiter ».
La fermentation n'est que la moitié du travail. « Il faut aussi nourrir le feu, et pour cela, il faut fendre beaucoup, beaucoup de bois, dit-il en riant. Lorsque nous sommes très occupés, je dois passer beaucoup de temps à m'assurer que le feu est parfait pour la pizza ». Le nouveau four hybride, plus grand, pourra accueillir 5 à 6 pizzas, et sera plus simple d’utilisation, facilitant ainsi le contrôle de la température et simplifiant la formation du personnel.
C’est aussi avec cette approche, tout en douceur et en patience, que le couple aborde leur entreprise et la construction de leur nouveau restaurant. Ils ont finalisé les plans pour leur nouvel espace, et ils ont réservés les contracteurs. « C'est plus grand et plus beau que ce que nous avions imaginé au départ, mais nous avons trouvé de très bons architectes, explique Émilie. Cela prend plus de temps, mais ce sera bien fait ».
« La moitié du nouvel espace sera consacrée à l'épicerie fine et l'autre moitié au restaurant, avec le four à bois et le bar, mentionne Gabriel. Et comme il y a une demande pour le prêt-à-manger, nous aurons plus d'espace pour les réfrigérateurs.
Leur volonté d’offrir à leur clientèle un endroit où se procurer des ingrédients et des aliments de qualités vient de leur propre expérience à essayer de s’apprivoiser en matière première. « Si vous voulez vivre ici, il n'y a pas beaucoup de monde, dit Gabriel, c’est ce qui nous plait, mais cela signifie aussi que cela peut prendre plus de temps pour trouver ce dont vous avez besoin. »
L'Atelier Gourmand est actuellement ouvert de 16h00 à 19h00. « Lorsque nous ouvrions le nouveau restaurant, ajoute Émilie, nous seront ouvert plus tôt afin d’offrir plus de flexibilité pour ceux qui désirent acheter leur repas du soir. »
Ils ont bâti leur entreprise et leur offre autour des besoins de la communauté qu’ils chérissent, et on le leur rend bien. A l’aube de ce nouveau chapitre, Gabriel et Émilie garderont le feu bien vivant pour continuer de vous régaler de leurs pâtes et pizzas.
Atelier Gourmand pizzas and linguini
Halifax, a 24-hour love affair
A culinary immersion in the warmth of an east coast city
WORDS BY STEPHANIE VICENTE
PHOTOS BY CHRIS SNOW
As first-timers in Halifax, with barely 24 hours to work with, it was crucial to have a meticulously planned trip. Everywhere I visit, my goal is to feel at home, to feel belonging, to feel immersed in the local culture. I habitually steer clear of the welltrodden paths frequented by tourists, casting my gaze instead towards those hidden treasures and quaint charms that pave the way for meaningful dialogues with the heartbeats of the place—its local inhabitants, who inject it with its distinct character and allure. Halifax naturally fostered the immersive experience I sought. The city's essence effortlessly seeped through personable interactions, be it with a bartender, a chef, or the local shopkeeper. Each conversation unfolded as if with a long-cherished friend, bridging the gap between visitor and local. Regardless, my husband, Chris, and I primarily adhered to our pre-compiled itinerary of selected locales, intricately researched and chosen for their unique appeal.
We hail from Ottawa, ON, but were visiting family at the cottage in New Brunswick when we decided to drive down to Halifax. Rolling into town late on a Friday evening, we had reservations at Bar Kismet at an hour we’d normally be found in bed. Despite this, we happily ventured just two blocks from our hotel (Brewery Park) in the North End, hearts full of excitement and room in our bellies for a little snack. Bar Kismet is as equally a bar as it is a restaurant thanks to its well-curated cocktail list, natural wines, fresh pasta and coastal plates. Given the time, we were delighted to discover the restaurant brimming with patrons, adding to the warm ambience of the just-dark-enough lighting, and the unpretentious yet tasteful decor.
For Chris and I, dining experiences are a time for reflection—on our marriage, on all the meals we’ve shared at home and abroad, and on the present moment. Once seated, we marveled at the environment around us, feeling like we were simultaneously transported to Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and sitting comfortably in the easygoing east coast of Canada. Chris savoured a cocktail that was a playful concoction of bourbon sour meeting key lime pie while I sipped a tart beverage of chicory vodka, blended aperitivo, lime and cloudberry. Our shared entrées included a delicately crafted egg yolk raviolo with chanterelles and a plate of the carrots, crab and bearnaise. The menu at Bar Kismet paid a captivating homage to both the season's bounty and the local agriculture. As we took our leave, we found ourselves beguiled by a profound fondness for Bar Kismet, harbouring an eagerness to revisit it once more.
small goods. Reminiscent of a childhood favourite, this sandwich honours the classic elements of white fluffy bread, but with some seriously generous filling. Luke’s also carries pantry items, baked goods, and coffee. Following lunch, we walked down to Fortune Doughnuts on Gottingen street. Locals had informed me that there are two revered donut shops, Fortune and Vandal. We were closer to the former so that’s where we landed (however if Chris had his way we would’ve gone to both). In keeping with the childhood nostalgia, we got Dunkaroo doughnuts. Continuing our walk in the North End, we stumbled upon two shops that are worth visiting if you like shopping for independent brands: Slowly Slowly and Vaughn’s General Store.
We explored the North End until we reached downtown, where we had two main objectives: buy wine at Bishop’s cellar and eat dinner number one at Highwayman.
Bishop’s cellar is tucked away near the harbourfront and stocks an incredible selection of natural wines, craft beers from across the country (and the world), and hard-tofind liquor. A man on staff passionately presented some of the wines to us along with a tasting. We purchased some wine and a Basque cider on his recommendation, and began our walk to our first dinner stop. Like Bar Kismet, Highwayman came recommended by several friends, but because our goal for the weekend was to eat our way through the city, we planned for a 4pm dinner so we could have a second dinner later that night. Once again, an unusual hour for us to dine, but I was not about to miss out on this popular restaurant.
Highwayman focuses on Spanish-inspired dishes of seafood, meat, vegetables, and snacks (tapas and pintxos) with equal focus on the cocktail list. Chris enjoyed an eloquent tiki cocktail with rum, Amontillado sherry, strawberry, mint, lemon and bitters. I prefer more booze forward beverages, so my cocktail of choice had gin, brandy, bitter bianco, grape, almond, and egg white. We ordered several dishes to share, starting with the scallop crudo that was fresh, their maritime sweetness and delicate texture uncompromised. We then turned our attention to the patatas bravas—a dish worthy of pause and praise. While consistently satisfying by nature, the rendition served at Highwayman soared to new culinary heights—skillfully balancing authenticity and innovation. Next, we savored pintxos—appetizing Spanish bites served on crisp, freshly-baked baguettes. Our chosen pairing was the coupling of manchego and jambon. Next came the charred carrots, a specialty not to be missed in this region, whatever the establishment, and the shrimp with garlic. The shrimp dish evoked a familiar Portuguese prawn dish, something I'm intimately acquainted with, from my own Portuguese heritage. In the end, this meal filled us more than we’d anticipated and we still had a second dinner to conquer a few hours later.
To cap off our night (and visit to Halifax), we headed back to the North End for dinner number two at the Narrows Public House. Approaching the historic retrofitted home originally built for a ship merchant in 1896, I stood at the base of its steps and appreciated what I knew I was about to experience: a warm hug. They don’t take reservations so we anticipated a wait. It was almost 8pm and the crowds out front were well-formed. We were gracefully guided to one of many quaint waiting areas scattered across the various dining rooms. Each was fittingly equipped with a narrow antique countertop, offering a perfect perch for our pints of beer as we stood
patiently. Once seated, Chris and I could not focus on one another as our eyes scanned the many artifacts on the walls, constantly interrupting each other to point and say “look at that!” Each room in the Narrows is a feast for the eyes, yet instead of sensory overload it actually translates into great comfort, much like the food. The menu is locally sourced and absolutely everything is made in-house, with a great emphasis on the usual east coast suspects: fish ‘n chips, boiled dinner (with corned beef, vegetables, and potatoes), dutch mess, hot chicken, and of course hamburgers. We kicked off our meal with devilled eggs and anchovies, and an order of their molasses brown bread. Tummies still full from Highwayman, we split the fish ‘n chips next. The batter was very light with a hint of sweetness, which was unique and refreshing and removed much of the heaviness that often accompanies battered fish.
Our maiden voyage to Halifax affirmed the city as a shining beacon of culinary brilliance and blossomed into a heartfelt embrace with the place itself. It was a journey punctuated by charismatic dialogues with the locals, whose passion and warmth permeated each interaction, blurring the line between visitor and dweller. We easily immersed ourselves in the tastes,
textures, and tales delicately woven into Halifax's food scene. Despite the brevity of our stay, the city etched itself irrevocably onto our palates, leaving us yearning for an encore of the flavours so passionately showcased throughout our visit.
Stephanie Vicente moonlights as a freelance writer and mental health advocate, by day she manages product in the tech industry.
Chris Snow is a videographer and photographer hailing from the Ottawa-Gatineau region.
Page 36: Cocktail at Highwayman
Page 37: Devilled Eggs with Anchovies at the Narrows
Page 38 top left: Brewery Park Inn
Page 38 top right: Inside Luke's Small Goods
Page 38 bottom: A Luke's Small Goods sandwich
Page 39 top: A Dunkaroo Donut at Fortune Donuts
Page 39 bottom: Scallop Crudo at Highwayman
Below: Carrots, crab and bearnaise at Bar Kismet
Right top: View from our table at The Narrows
Right bottom left: Bourbon Sour cocktail at Bar Kismet
Right bottom right: The Narrows
A sweet balance
Jocelyn Durston and Tim Burns plant purposefully and bottle up fermented goodness.
WORDS BY SARA SNOW
PHOTOS BY DAVE SNOW
It’s mid-November and Jocelyn Durston and Tim Burns have a walk-in cooler full of cabbage. “A month or two ago we committed to a local farmer that we would use a certain volume of his cabbage,” Durston explains. “He put it aside for us, but he closesup his walk-in cooler in about two weeks! So we have been just flat out making ferments to keep our cooler from over flowing.” Both smile as they talk about the process, undaunted—joyful, in fact—at the prospect of preparing thousands of jars of sauerkraut. “It’s been busy,” Durston adds with a laugh, “and probably why we haven’t thought about planting the garlic yet.”
A place to grow
Nova Scotia’s North Mountain forms the north western edge of the Annapolis Valley, from Brier Island to Cape Split. Country roads zigzag up through a patchwork of farms and forests, vineyards, orchards and hop yards, grazing horses and sheep, and fields of berries. Just past the village of Canning and not long before the mountain drops its steep red clay edges onto the shore, sits the sweetest little farm stand. In this stand, you’ll find fresh vegetables, bouquets of flowers, jars of pickled scapes or kimchi, and, always, sauerkraut. This is Seven Acres Farm & Ferments, where Durston and Burns, along with their dog TeeJay and two cats Lola and Tommy, grow vegetables and flowers and create fermented food you’ll want to eat again and again.
Durston found her way here from B.C. with a background in the politics of food and agriculture, and some experience growing vegetables on her own, and fermenting foods. She set out to find land of her own.
“I had never been to the east coast,” she says, “but it held an allure.” That was ten years ago. She was soon renting in Kentville, working at local farms and markets, and searching for land. “When I found this piece,” she says, “it was a half-overgrown meadow, a field and a forest, and no house. But I really liked it.” She plotted growing space, and, with the help of her new community, found a small home to plant on the land, and got started.
“At first, I was just growing flowers and veg but I didn’t have the capacity to grow all year round,” Durston says, “so I started thinking I could do ferments. I remember the first Saturday I brought one case of 250ml jars of plain sauerkraut (to the market) and they sold out like that. And the next week people were asking me when I was making more. Farm markets are such an amazing platform to test products,” she adds, “so it just evolved through there and my capacity to manage it did to.”
Burns grew up in nearby Falmouth, N.S.. He had long been inspired by books such as Abigail Gehring’s classic Back to Basics , with its tools for ‘voluntary simplicity’, reading it over and over. He was working for local fair trade and organic coffee roaster Just Us! when he met Durston through online posts of vegetables and perennials, and a mutual interest in small-scale farming.
One thing led to another, as is often the case when stars align and windy roads criss-cross through Nova Scotian hills, and the pair was soon growing vegetables and flowers together, and creating an expanding line of ferments.
Purposeful planning
Their land is, as their farm’s name implies, just seven acres. It is a largely wooded wedge that hugs a country road on one side and rises up into a forest on the other. They cultivate just a bit more than one acre for vegetables, herbs and annuals. They’ve installed nesting boxes for Tree Swallows and grow perennials, asparagus, nut and fruit trees, berries, currants, and raspberries. “We still have the half-overgrown meadow,” Burns laughs, “but we are careful about growing what we need.” He picks up a deep red pepper as long as his hand, and as big as a large carrot. “We grow these peppers to make kimchi powder,” he explains. “We also grow a lot of cucumbers for our relish, and garlic. And we grow peas—we don’t really use those in any of our products but they amend the soil really well. Legumes and peas and beans have a high demand at the market and feed the soil.”
“We are very strategic in terms of what we grow and what we outsource. We only grow what we can use in one of our value-added products or personally,” Durston adds.
Shortly after Durston and Burns started growing together, the pandemic closed farm markets. “That’s when we got into wholesaling,” Durston says. They built a commercial kitchen, markedly increasing their capacity for value-added products and now bottle enough to distribute from Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley to its South Shore.
Finding balance
This is the third year for their roadside stand and it has been busy. “It ebbs and flows,” Durston says, “but the nice thing is that we load it up in the morning and one of us can always load up when it’s getting low.”
On a typical summer day, the pair will be harvesting
vegetables, pruning tomato plants, or cutting bouquets of flowers. Durston slips into the kitchen with fresh picked garlic scapes, cucumbers or peppers, and start preparing kimchi or pickles. Burns turns to the rows of garlic, considering what works, what doesn’t and what they could do differently this season or next. “This year was our first time growing ginger,” he says, “and it grew really well. This spring was dry, so our pulses didn’t do well. Then rain and not enough sun for things to mature, but this fall has been great.”
The pair approach their work with flexibility, doing what they can to adapt to often unpredictable weather, made ever more volatile by the climate crisis’s impact on coastal regions.
Durston and Burns have found a sweet spot in their combination of seasonal vegetables, flowers and ferments. “Any one of those three we could increase what we’re doing,” Durston explains. “There’s enough of a demand but we just don’t have the capacity. So every year it’s just looking at conditions and where we should be putting our energy.”
“Some days it feels like we couldn’t do more,” Burns says, “and then we find new ways of doing things.” As we talk, he checks their spreadsheets. “We have bottled 6,000 jars of sauerkraut this year,” he says, “at 250 grams a jar that is 3,000 kilograms of sauerkraut.” That’s a lot of sauerkraut and more cabbage than they could grow themselves.
“We just go through so much green cabbage,” Durston says, “it doesn’t make sense for our small production space and lack of cold storage to grow the volume that we go through. So it makes sense for us, practically and economically,” she adds, “to outsource to other farmers. And we focus on the products that we can grow at larger volume for a small amount of space like garlic, herbs, hot peppers, some of the vegetables.” By outsourcing to other local farms they also contribute to a reciprocity that supports their local economy and community.
“We’re happy where we are, so it’s not about doing more or being bigger, but being strategic so we have that work life balance,” Durston says.
“We have an ecological approach to farming where we try not to ask more of the land than it can give us sustainably,” Burns adds. “We want the same thing for our business so we’re not asking more of ourselves than we can possibly do.”
Page 43: Durston and Burns tend to the tomatoes
Page 45 top: Inside the farm stand
Page 45 bottom: Durston and Burns harvesting garlic
Opposite top right: Garlic and scapes
Opposite top left: Seven Acres Ferments sauerkraut with cumin
Opposite bottom: A bouquet in the farm stand
This page: Tommy guards the garlic
Page 48: Durston and Burns head into the farm stand
Durston and Burns are now one market into their holiday market season. This last rush of market days coincides with hours of preparing ferments, putting fields to bed, and planting garlic. As Winter settles in, they look forward to a few quiet moments as they continue the Wolfville Market and supplying retailers. They do their deliveries themselves, making discoveries on the way—such as a bakery in Liverpool or a shop in Lockeport. “We plan our deliveries around a hike or bird watching or we’ll have a beer somewhere,” Durston says. “We make our delivery days something we want to do on a day off.”
So when you stop in to your favourite food shop for a jar of their second-to-none sauerkraut, you may have just missed them. Durston, Burns and their dog, TeeJay, might be hiking a trail nearby, watching for migratory birds, or toasting a hard day’s work with a local beer.
Seven Acres Farm & Ferments sevenacresfarm.ca
The evolution of a downtown food shop
WORDS BY INDA INTIAR
PHOTOS BY HAQQ BRICE
Hossein Barar on growing a local market from the ground up
In 13 years, Dolma Food has survived a fire, a pandemic, and many business changes. Inda Intiar sat down with owner Hossein Barar about Dolma’s future and the importance of providing quality food to the community.
Hossein came up with the idea for Dolma Food shortly after he immigrated to Moncton in 1990. Having grown up in the northwest of Iran and studied in Turkey, he desperately missed the kinds of food he was used to.
“I loved Moncton, I loved the people, and I really felt home. The only thing that was missing was the food,” he said. “If I want lamb, I couldn’t find the lamb. I go to the grocery store, they didn't know the difference between cilantro and parsley.”
For Hossein, food is one of the biggest pleasures of life. He’d come from a different food culture and habits. That included daily purchases of fresh food, sourced from local farms, and from vendors he knows.
“It’s about connection,” he said.
That was hard to find in Moncton over 30 years ago when the shops and restaurants didn’t have as much diversity as they do today. To solve the problem, he set up a table at the local Farmers’ Market, but that was short-lived. Eventually, he decided to open a market where customers could come to buy fresh produce daily.
“My idea is local food from local farmers,” he said. “Before that, I go to the farmers’ market religiously every week…and only in one day - Saturday morning - you have to buy food for the whole week. Always, I thought I could do a similar thing seven days a week.”
That idea came to fruition years later when he bought an old building that housed a bookstore and apartments at 251 St. George St. Dolma Food opened in 2010 as an independent grocery store sourcing produce from farmers in the Moncton area. “I wanted it to be downtown because I grew up in downtown and I lived downtown. My shopping habit is to shop for food every day if not twice or three times a day. That’s why I need more density and places where people share those kinds of values,” he said.
Today, Hossein gets his produce from farmers in the Moncton region who come to replenish the stock up to three times a week.
Dolma also added non-perishables from small farms and producers around the world. These are items include olive oils that Hossein sources from small farms in Italy and Spain that he’d visited.
“I promised myself something when I opened here, I would not sell something I won’t eat,” he said. “Luckily we have good farmers and those farmers provide us with good food.”
The Beginning of Dolma Cuisine
When Hossein decided to turn vegetables that would otherwise go bad into soups and sandwiches for sale, Dolma Cuisine was born.
“I saw that people enjoyed them,” he said. “Because in Canada people like good food, only they don’t have time to make it.”
A meat section in the store also sells pâtés and cold cuts. Dolma was doing well until tragedy struck just two days into 2016.
Fire engulfed the building, displacing tenants living in the apartments above Dolma and destroying the shop.
“At that time, I worked for six years - day and night. In six hours, everything was gone,” Hossein said. “We had just started a new way of production. Everything stopped. And I was tired. I really didn’t know if I would start back.”
The community support that flooded through Dolma’s Facebook page encouraged Hossein.
“We did all of our shopping there, and always felt so welcome,” one customer said.
“I was there at least three times a week,” another one wrote. “That's where I learned the immense difference between local ground beef and the stuff you buy at the grocery store.”
“It was a very humbling feeling, and I don’t think I understood enough how much Dolma meant for a lot of people, for farmers and the neighborhood,” said Hossein.
Two weeks later, he opened a small café in a rented space across the street. He rented another spot down the road for a small grocery store.
A Phoenix Rising, Only To Face A Pandemic
It took almost two years to construct a new building where the old shop used to be. In 2017, he reopened Dolma in a new two-story building, with a grocery store on the first floor, a restaurant on the second floor, and a bar on the rooftop patio.
The second floor evolved from a restaurant to an event space. Hossein rented it out in partnership with local businesses and chefs, but that model didn’t last past the pandemic.
Hossein didn’t sleep much in the early months of the pandemic. He was focused on keeping staff and customers safe while navigating an “unknown territory.”
“I’ve been through a lot before I came here. I was young when the [Islamic] Revolution happened, and the [Iranian] war with Iraq. All of those, at the time it was hard, but it prepared me for hardship,” he said. “I learned one thing. Don’t stay stuck in the problem. I usually work in the solution.”
With no events through the pandemic, he focused on expanding Dolma Cuisine. Jean-François Delamarre, a chef from Normandy, France, joined the shop shortly after its re-opening to help. He added kimchi, frozen empanadas, samosas, pot pies, lasagna, and many other items to the menu. Dolma began selling to other independent stores in the province.
The concept is to make it as convenient as possible for customers to eat good food. “During the week, if you don’t have time, you can put them in an oven or warm it up in a frying pan. It’s to feel like you made it at home, or how mom used to make it,” said JF, as he’s often called in the shop. “It’s this idea of simple and tasty.”
JF likes Dolma’s farm-to-table model which relies on good relationships with producers, and the ability to turn produce into dishes that make it easier for people to eat well.
“My parents are farmers and I knew where the food comes from,” JF says. “I know how the animals get treated and I know what the food tastes like. I know the whole circle. What’s really important to me is to transmit that to people.”
The pandemic showed the Dolma team that more people are embracing local products, and want to know where their food comes from. With newcomers from across
Canada and abroad growing the population in Greater Moncton, they saw that tastes and needs have evolved too.
“We try to grow and expand, but we still keep our core values intact, like local products, fresh foods, clean label and all of that,” JF said. “I think people are still searching for those products and proud to be part of Dolma as well.”
Expanding The Basics
The future of Dolma lies in its essence: a market that brings farm produce to consumers’ tables, alongside ready-to-eat dishes made in-house with quality ingredients.
Hossein and his team of 12 are now preparing the second-floor space to expand the grocery store and add a small eatery, planned for a mid-November opening. Hossein took inspiration from his latest European trip and plans to operate the eatery like a grocery store - no tip charge.
There are no plans for a second location, but he wants to expand the reach of Dolma Cuisine by selling products through local owner-operated businesses, independent stores, and small cafes. Some menu items are already available at Cochran’s Country Market in Saint John, Simply for Life stores, and a few other shops in Greater Moncton. The plan is to have them in most independent stores across New Brunswick by the end of 2024.
“We are going really in the right direction. So far, we’re able to survive,” Hossein said. “I’m hoping Dolma will survive way after me.”
Dolma Foods
251 St. George St., Moncton dolmafood.ca
Inda Intiar is a storyteller at heart, who loves writing about cultures and her travels.
Haqq Brice is a photographer based in Moncton, who enjoys poetry, art and theatre.
Page 50: Hossein stocking shelves
Right top left: House made strained tomatoes Right top right: The new store front on St. George St. Right bottom: Hossein and Chef JF
See page 57 of this issue for our Kuri squash soup recipe
See page 41 of edible Newfoundland & Labrador's Winter issue (#3) for our Roasted squash with lentils
LA FERME LA FERME du DDIAMANT IAMANT
Canard, Veau de lait, Saucisson, Jambon, Pâté et Galantine
Charcuteries Traditionnelles Françaises
579 Route 945, St-André-Leblanc, NB, 506 532-5579
Green Pig Market Salisbury
The Spice Box
St Andrews
Dieppe Farmers Market
Fredericton Farmers Market
Cielo Glamping Haut Shippagan
Co_Pain bakery Moncton
Marché au Corner Cap-Pelé
In House Smoked Meats ; Beef Jerky Smoked Salmon ; Sausage ; Produce
274 Route 175, Pennfield, NB 506-755-2992
St Andrews, NB
Prepared take-away foods made daily , Spices, grains and supplements , Fresh seafood and charcuterie , , Baked goods and sweet treats , h
Locally grown produce and owers Teas, co ee and more
Kuri squash soup
Kuri squash makes for a rich particularly rich and creamy soup. Spice up a frosty day with this easy, and very warming, recipe from us.
1-2 kuri squash (other winter squash are good substitutes if you can't find a kuri)
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled
3 leeks
Pinch of salt
Pinch of chili peppers
2 cups of your favourite broth (chicken, turkey, or vegetable is nice for this soup)
1 tablespoon grated or finely chopped ginger
1 tablespoon of your favourite curry spice (we recommend Suni Ferreira's recipe from Issue
#1 of edible Maritimes, Spring 2022 )
1/4 coconut milk or plain greek yogurt + additional for garnish
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
Parsley or cilantro for garnish
BY
DAVE SNOW
Wash squash and cut into large chunks, removing the seeds (rinse and save for your garden), and place on a baking sheet or in a cast iron pan, with leeks and garlic. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake in a 400 ° F oven for 30-40 minutes.
When squash is soft to touch (careful it's hot!), remove from oven, let cool enough to handle. Remove skin from squash and add the squash, leeks and garlic to a blender or food processor. Add broth, ginger and spice mix and blend to a smooth consistency.
Pour mixture into a pot, heat and serve. Garnish with a dollop of yogurt or a swirl of coconut milk, and some chopped parsley or cilantro.
