Canada Day is a great excuse to fire up the grill and make some of these fantastic 100-mile barbecue entrees. And with recipes to spare, you can try something new every weekend for the rest of summer!
For more great barbecue ideas, see our recent posts: Summertime Recipe Roundup: Appetizers and Summertime Recipe Roundup: Sides and Salads.
Did you know that we're near the peak of honey flow right now?
The term "honey flow" may be new to you, but it's an age-old term used by beekeepers. It refers to the fact that major nectar sources are in bloom at the same time that the weather is warm and the days are long. Flowers stay open longer, making their nectar available for more hours of the day, and the greater number of daylight hours mean honeybees can make more trips away from the hive.
Honey flow can last for several weeks. During this time, the phrase "busy as a bee" really makes itself understood. A honeybee can visit up to 40 flowers per minute, spending anywhere between 10 and 90 seconds at each flower. During each of its many nectar-collecting trips from the hive, a bee will visit between 100 and 1,000 flowers.
Back at the hive, worker bees repeatedly ingest and regurgitate the nectar in their "honey stomachs", until the partially digested nectar is ready to be stored in honeycomb cells. The honeycomb is left unsealed for the next part of the process: the bees inside the hive fan their wings, creating a strong draft across the open honeycombs, which speeds up the rate of evaporation of water from the nectar, making the honey thicker and sweeter and, most important, impervious to fermentation. The bees then seal off the honeycomb cells with wax caps.
Because of the bees' careful work, ripe honey has an incredibly long shelf life. Honey has, in some rare cases, been kept for decades, and even centuries! Having said that, honey should be sealed in glass containers and stored in a dark, dry place. Even then, it's best to consume it within two or three years.
Read honey-related cooking tips and recipes:
Use our Local Foods Locator to find honey in your area.
Berries have it all. With their jewel-toned colours, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries are a feast for the eyes and for the taste buds, too. And they are a storehouse of nutrients, high in vitamins and fibre, and an excellent source of antioxidants.
Buying and Storing
Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries are available both fresh and frozen. You can also find canned strawberries, but their texture is rather mushy and best suited to sauces and drinks.
When purchasing fresh berries, look for those that are firm and brightly coloured. Blueberries should have a whitish powdery appearance over the berry called a “bloom.” Avoid berries that are mouldy or shrivelled. Blackberries should be shiny and black, not dull or reddish.
Fresh strawberries, blackberries and raspberries don’t keep very long, so plan to use them within a couple of days. Blueberries stay fresh longer and can be stored for up to five days. Refrigerate berries as soon as possible after purchase, but don't wash them until you need them.
Keep reading for tips on availability, preparation, and 100-mile recipes...
There's something about summer that makes us crave fresh fish and seafood... in salads, on appetizers, and on the grill. We've rounded up some of our favourite 100-mile recipes for you.
Don't be limited by the listed ingredients! If you don't have trout in your area, try some other freshwater fish. If you can't find scallops, use shrimp instead. Remember: experimentation and flexibility are the key to local cooking!
Use our Local Foods Locator to find fish in your area.
Browse our Community Recipes for more great recipes featuring local ingredients. Got a recipe you'd like to contribute? Send it in!
The 100-milers dished out some great food in the series finale. Here are a few recipes:
Last night's episode may have marked the last 100-mile supper for the families of Mission, but the local eating journey isn't over. In the weeks and months to come, keep looking to this site for recipes, news, tips, tools, and more local food inspiration.
One more day till Canada Day means one more day to plan and prep some of these delicious local side dishes for your celebratory barbecue or picnic:
For more great barbecue ideas, see our recent post: Summertime Recipe Roundup: Appetizers.
The theme of this week's episode was pushing limits, as several of the 100-milers went outside their comfort zones. Sherida Peters got a lesson in cooking without a recipe, while Angela St. Cyr took a lesson in cooking under pressure at Vancouver's Raincity Grill.
Elsewhere, 14-year-old Cassie Clark Vernon received some lessons of her own from tribal elders who taught her traditional cooking methods.
Some recipes from the show:
And one recipe that didn't quite make it into the episode but deserves mentioning:
Browse our Community Recipes for more great recipes featuring local ingredients. Got a recipe you'd like to contribute? Send it in!
The sweet tartness of blackberries lends itself especially well to sauces, glazes, marinades, and desserts. With blackberry season just beginning, be prepared for those delectable mounds of shiny purple-black berries with these recipes:
Use our Local Foods Locator to find locally grown blackberries in your area.
Browse our Community Recipes for more great recipes featuring local ingredients. Got a recipe you'd like to contribute? Send it in!
If you're a gardener, you may be finding yourself suddenly overwhelmed with more produce than you can eat or gift to friends. If that's the case, perhaps you might want to consider donating a portion of your bumper crop to those in need.
Plant a Row, Grow a Row is a grassroots movement that has taken root and spread throughout Canada and the US. The idea is simple: gardeners take their extra produce to participating local food banks, who then distribute the food as quickly as possible to ensure that it is still fresh and at peak nutritional value.
As with any food bank donation, no donation is too small. Consider the joy you take in a flavourful ripe tomato, a cup of juicy berries, a half dozen baby potatoes, or a handful of fresh salad greens. Why not pass along that delight to someone else?
Zucchinis. Courgettes. Whatever you call them, you've probably noticed that they're everywhere in markets these days. And if you're a gardener, you may be on the verge of panic, wondering what to do with your burgeoning harvest.
No fear. We've rounded up some of our favourite local recipes that feature this versatile, nutritious vegetable:
Got a zucchini recipe you'd like to contribute? Send it in! Browse our Community Recipes for more great recipes featuring local ingredients.
network. A Paperny Films production.