Fresh food season has arrived

What’s for dinner? With the arrival of the local fresh food season, the answer to that age-old question just got a whole lot easier. Fresh ingredients are as close as your nearest garden centre or farmer’s market.

Manitoba-grown asparagus leads the parade. Freshly picked asparagus from River Valley Specialty Farms in Bagot is arriving every second day, says Colin Remillard, co-owner of Jardins St-Léon Gardens, 419 St. Mary’s Rd.

At this time of year, local asparagus has such crisp goodness, Remillard says, that it can be eaten raw. Purple Passion asparagus has a sweet and nutty flavour and adds beautiful colour to salads. The spears turn green when cooked. Another variety, Millennium, a classic favourite with dark green, succulent spears, is also available at St-Léon. When grilling asparagus on the barbecue, Remillard keeps it simple — a light brush of olive oil, some salt and pepper — or he sprinkles a bit of Parmesan cheese on top for roasting in the oven.

Greenhouse-grown slicing tomatoes from Schriemers Market Centre and Greenland Farms are also available and ready for adding to your sandwiches and burgers or for making fresh caprese or pasta salads. Dreaming of roasted cherry tomatoes? There are many great varieties to grow in your garden or patio pots. Remillard is excited about Sakura hybrid organic, a medium-large cherry tomato that is perfect for slicing in half and adding to a barbecue skewer along with other roasted veggies such as cauliflower, broccoli, small young beets, onions and mushrooms.

Highly disease resistant, Remillard says, Sakura is especially adaptable to cool and hot climates and shorter growing seasons such as ours. Another variety he is excited about is Principe Borghese, an Italian heirloom tomato which produces prolific clusters of crunchy, grape-shaped fruits. Sweet Zen, a tiny red cherry tomato which Remillard says has built-in heat tolerance, may be just the right variety to grow in a year where all signs point to a hot, dry growing season.

Remillard’s dad, Denis, will begin harvesting his crop of microgreens as early as next week. Two popular varieties, pea shoots and wheatgrass, are perfect for adding to salads, sandwiches and homemade burgers. Remillard chops up wheatgrass in his blender and adds it to smoothies for a nutritional boost. And in just a few weeks, we’ll be enjoying the fresh, crisp taste of local radishes.

Fresh greens such as living butterhead lettuce, green leaf lettuce and basil are available now and are supplied by Neva Hydroponic Farms, a family-owned year-round hydroponic grower located near Landmark. The new owner, Denny Black, uses only non-GMO seed and no pesticides or herbicides.

Need a one-stop shop for all your ingredients? St-Léon has teamed up with other small businesses so it can offer its customers greater product diversity. Le Croissant, an authentic French bakery in St. Boniface, will deliver freshly baked buns daily to St-Léon.

"They’re heavenly," Remillard says, "and perfect for burgers." One variety is flavoured with shallots and red wine and another with Béarnaise sauce.

Local frozen meats, including grass-fed beef, will also be available at St-Léon throughout the season. For vegan food lovers, Boon Burger Café is supplying black-bean patties.

This spring, Remillard will also be selling Arctic char raised at Ridgeland Aqua Farm near Anola. In a brand new venture, St-Léon is now sourcing wild, sushi-grade saltwater seafood from a seafood co-op called Skipper Otto’s Community Supported Fishery, which works with small fishing families in British Columbia. Based on the fair-trade model of community supported agriculture (CSA), consumers place their order and the fresh catch can be picked up at St-Léon throughout the season.

Can’t get enough hummus? Happy Dance Hummus is an East St. Paul company that makes four different varieties — garlic jalapeno, curry masala, chipotle lime and creamy dill. Now carried at St-Léon, Remillard says the sensational flavours will persuade even those who don’t care for veggies to take a dip with a sprig or two of broccoli.

Dorinda Penner, co-owner of Sunshine Greenhouse in Steinbach, says that greenhouse-grown veggies and herbs can inspire you to cook more often and to garden, too. Penner is a big fan of the flavourful taste of cilantro in Asian dishes and salsa. She likes to combine cilantro with grilled shrimp, mangoes, tomatoes and lots of garlic for a blending of sweet and acid.

Janet Blatz, Sunshine’s vegetable specialist, has started a huge quantity of peppers from seed in time for the growing season. What’s new? Lemon Drop is a seasoning pepper that packs both citrus and fire. Originating from Peru, Lemon Drop ripens to yellow, Blatz says, and is easy to grow.

With 1.9-centimetre-round fruits, Joe’s Round pepper resembles a cherry tomato. It ripens from deep green to bright red, tastes hotter than a jalapeno and is great for pickling, Blatz says. Joe’s Round has great ornamental value in a patio pot, too, she says. Chile de Arbol is a small Mexican chilli pepper with a smoky flavour. Blatz says that it is excellent for making salsa and is delicious when dried.

For stir-fries, Blatz recommends ausilio thin skin Italian pepper, an Italian family heirloom pepper that was donated to Seed Savers Exchange by a fifth-generation Italian-American family that lives in Des Moines, Iowa. The fruits have moderate heat and are 12 cm long.

Aurora is another ornamental pepper found at Sunshine. Prolific, Aurora produces 4 cm long peppers in a range of colours from lavender to deep purple to orange and finally to red. The pointy peppers are upright like little flames, Blatz says, and have a spicy flavour.

Put out the fire with a cool drink. This season, at Sunshine’s Chinos Bistro, Penner plans to offer an Italian strawberry mojito made with fresh squeezed lemonade, sparkling mineral water, local strawberries and a splash of vodka muddled with Purple Ruffles basil leaves. The hint of basil gives this cocktail recipe great visual appeal and taste, Penner says. Purple Ruffles basil, an All-America Selections winner, is a versatile edible that offers both ornamental value to your patio pots with its ruffled dark purple foliage as well as delicious hints of anise in herbal vinegars and salads.

T&T Seeds in Headingley also carries a wide assortment of vegetables and herbs. Recently purchased by Jarrett and Jackie Davidson, former owner Kevin Twomey continues to be involved. I asked Twomey to name an herb that has piqued his interest. "The mushroom plant (rungia klossii) tastes just like mushrooms and can be added to salads, stir-fries and gravy," Twomey says.

Native to New Guinea, this rare and unusual plant is said to have higher nutritional value and protein content than actual mushrooms. Another advantage is that it can be grown in semi-shade. Our Farm Greenhouse in Portage is also carrying the mushroom plant this year. It’s selling quickly.

For quick and healthy dinner options all summer long, it’s time to get growing, but if you are too busy, let your local greenhouse do the growing for you. A season full of flavour is right ahead.

colleenizacharias@gmail.com

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