Cuisine Canada Scene

Fresh rhubarb

My husband, bless his soul, says all this patting ourselves on the back over local food is ridiculous.  And he’s really got a point.  As he says, “I ate local food every day of my life until I left my home and came to Canada.”  The vast majority of our world eats local food every day, we just have the privilege and the economic power to do otherwise.

Which makes me wonder, did my husband come to Canada just to have the privilege and power to choose pizza pops and jello?  Maybe it is really the other way around, that there is much to learn from other global food cultures that can teach us about local food culture here in Canada.

Case in point, Central Asia, the home of rhubarb, is a dry, and harsh climate full of heat and cold, damp and dry.  If something can grow there, odds are good it will survive here just fine.  Rhubarb, our beloved pie plant, likely came to Canada through our plant-toting, Victorian-era ancestors, who were the first recorded consumers of rhubarb as a food, and not necessarily as a medicinal herb, as were the Chinese and Mongolians. Many, if not most of our local food plants are not native plants. What else could we be growing using season extension techniques, and appropriate cultivar selection? How can we expand our traditional boundaries of where, and how food can be grown and prepared?

But back to rhubarb, if we roll back into the culinary history of Central Asia, especially ancient Persia, food and its medicinal qualities were synonymous.  Foods had “garmi” and “sardi”, cooling and heating properties to balance the humours. Various recipes were really prescriptions for whatever ailed the body, as well as whatever suited the season.  Written recipes for traditional foods are rare.  Iran, even to this day, because of strict trade sanctions, has a strong reliance on local food production. Many other countries too. I won’t comment on Iranian politics. Still, what can we learn from countries who must rely heavily on local food production? How can we as a country strike the balance between sustaining international trade, while reenforcing local economies?

Too many questions, and I’m getting hungry. Back to the rhubarb. My distant in-laws, hundreds of years back, in the ancient Persian empire, were likely tucking into a delicious rhubarb stew, to ward off whatever ailed them. Plus I’m sure they enjoyed the first fresh foods of the season.

So, after celebrating a day of local food “back patting”, and all its joys, we are ready to tuck into some locally sourced Iranian rhubarb stew.  Arm of lamb from Thatcher Farms, braised with a bit of onion, butter, salt and pepper, until it is almost falling apart. A good handful each of fresh mint, spinach and parsley (thanks, mom) chopped fine, and quickly pan-fried in butter, then add the rhubarb (about the same quantity, or a little more than the meat). Saffron, salt and pepper to season, and a touch of honey because it is too tart. Buttery, tender spring lamb, balanced with the tart-sweetness of the rhubarb, and the fresh flavoured herb seasoning. I love rhubarb!

Now, if only there was a local producer of basmati rice…