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May 2010: To Peel Or Not To Peel - The Potato Question
Posted by Morgan Ostler in her blog.
Spending So Much Time in Ireland these past two
years has given me many new ideas on the preparation of food, particularly the humble potato. Potatoes are served everywhere
in great abundance. Even rather posh eateries, which generally serve from a steam table, go overboard. Unless you call out
a plea to stop, your server will happily place great dollops of fried, boiled and mashed
potatoes on your plate. That’s all three on the same dish…hardly room for a green veg, a thick slice of Irish
beef or a ladle of rich gravy.
The most interesting thing about the
Irish way with a potato is that it is most often mashed with the skin on. Now that is a phenomena I wasn’t accustomed
to despite being raised by Irish parents. My mother’s idea of cooking spuds was
to cover them totally in cold water and bring to a roaring boil. When done the potato water was poured off and into the sink. Yikes! Well
my dears gather round and I will now explain the process for producing a perfect dish of mashed potatoes.
As you are likely aware, there are many vitamins and minerals in the
skin of the potato. Leaving the skin on adds precious nutritents. Red potatoes or Yukon Golds are the best candidates for
skin-on mashers as the skin in thin and smooth. The red skins give a lovely colour and your guests will clamour for this recipe. Now, slice potatoes into one inch wide rounds, place in a steamer and cook until just soft…about
15 minutes. Drain the water into a bowl and save for your soup stock container. Place
a clean tea towel inside the potato pot and leave for five minutes. This will absorb any excess steam and stop the potatoes
from becoming soggy. Then it is time to take out that masher and chop them up before
adding either milk or butter. Adding milk a few drops at a time allows you to mash the potatoes to perfection and control
the soggyness that happens when you splash in too much milk. Don’t forget a lovely knob of butter and there you have
it, a dish loaded with nutrients and the perfect comfort food. Explain to the kids that those enticing red flecks are a secret
ingredient.
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April 2009: Food Grown on Vancouver Island
has steadily declined and is currently less than 6%!! So when you sow a few seeds and start your very own food garden
you are taking your first steps in making us and our children “Food Secure” in our beautiful island home. You
will hear more and more about the issues of food sustainability. It means buying and eating close
to home and supporting farm markets and local producers in the mid-North Island.
Food sustainability on Upper Vancouver Island
Although the Strathcona Regional District, which includes the City of Campbell
River, doesn’t appear to fit the full picture of having agricultural potential, we do have significant Agricultural Land Reserves (ALR’s) designated
within our boundaries including the Discovery Islands.
Morgan Ostler, past City Councillor and "community activist" in a positive sense, says:
"Our region needs to explore the opportunities that are out there. We are no longer a community that can rely on its traditional
sources of wealth, and it’s evident that we need to diversify.
Food sustainability and food security are going to become important issues in the future and we need to join with other communities
on Vancouver
Island
who are part of this initiative.
"The statistics in the ministry’s recent brochure make fascinating reading. It shows the gross economic
benefits of agriculture in the Cowichan Valley are $47M. Nanaimo is $21M,
Comox-Strathcona District $32M, Port Alberni shows $5.5M and Powell River grosses $2M. All
of these communities have established Agricultural Advisory Committees."
This is why Morgan is organizing an Agricultural Advisory Committee (AAC) and doing
the presentation on forming an AAC to the Strathcona Regional District very soon.
Check out her blog
at http://www.islandfocus.blogspot.com/
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Plant a Cut-and-come-again Garden
Small Spaces Food Gardening can describe
anything from a box at the kitchen window to a big spread in the back yard. We all have different ideas of what gardening
means, but regardless, we are making the tantalizing connection between working with the soil and providing our own food.
For those of you holding down full time jobs and raising a family, time is precious.
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| Morgan showing Mesclun |
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| Jurgen's Mesclun, brought out in March! |
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What is Mesclun? In one word: mouthwatering. In more
words: Mesclun (pronunciation: MESS-klunn) is a mixture of young greens. Because the greens are young, they tend
to be extremely tender and often highly flavorful. Greens in mesclun can include endive, chicory, frisee, dandelion greens,
lettuces, spinach, sorrel, chard, mustard, arugula, radicchio, chervil, and many more.
Still , you can experience deep pleasure from even one large pot on the deck overflowing
with chives, parsley, basil, tomatoes and leafy green things for the evening salad. With
spring time comes the desire to wander through garden shops and peer at seed packages. A quick reward for neophytes planning
to grow food for the first time is to plant a Cut
and Come Again garden. You may produce salad greens that are grown almost continually throughout the year by planting leafy
veggies that can be harvested on a regular basis. This means cutting them in a specific
way so that they continue to grow and sprout more leaves for an ongoing supply of fresh
greens.
(taken from Morgan's column/blog)
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