A very interesting play is debuting in Toronto this month. From February 18 to March 20, 2012 Crow’s Theatre company is presenting  a documentary play about the 4-year legal battle between Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser and the biotech giant Monsanto Inc.. Based on court trial transcripts, Seeds includes interviews with Schmeiser, Monsanto representatives, and with farmers, academics, lawyers and scientists from all across Canada.

Seeds is arresting documentary theatre chronicling the 4‐year legal battle between Saskatchewan farmer Percy Schmeiser and biotech giant Monsanto Inc. Based on court trial transcripts and interviews with all the players, including, Schmeiser, Monsanto representatives, farmers, academics, lawyers and scientists from across Canada, Seeds takes us behind the scenes of the battle for the future of food. In 2004 Annabel Soutar began to research the case of Monsanto Inc. versus Percy Schmeiser. Monsanto accused Schmeiser of growing their genetically patented Round‐up Ready canola seeds on his property without paying the licensing fee they require.

By taking us through a suspenseful labyrinth of legal conflicts regarding patent rights, scientific showdowns about GM food, and property clashes between farmers and the biotechnology industry – Seeds asks an essential question – can you patent a living thing? Or as Percy famously asked, “who owns life?”.

This landmark trial not only brought this question before the Supreme Court, but also garnered Schmeiser attention from around the world.

Chris Abraham says, “I’m thrilled to be introducing Toronto audiences to playwright Annabel Soutar and her remarkable piece Seeds. When I read it for the first time, I couldn’t put it down. Her dogged pursuit of the truth in the case of Monsanto vs. Percy Schmeiser is entirely gripping, as are her observations of the social and political implications of the paradigm shift in genetics happening under our feet. I can’t wait for the conversation and debate that will be sparked by this show.”

Seeds will have its Toronto premiere at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts from February 18, 2012 to March 10, 2012.

Prosciutto is not your average ham. Dry-cured and served sliced paper thin, prosciutto crudo takes anywhere from 9 months to two years to prepare. This is not a ham that you will be studding with cloves and decorating with pineapple rings and cherries, but an elegant, traditional Italian delicacy that is most often served cold, as antipasto, often with fresh fruit such as melons and cantaloupes, or wrapped around breadsticks (grissini).

Prosciutto is also awesome on thin crust pizzas and a mainstay in traditional Tuscan cuisine, served with tagliatelle and vegetables, or simple cream sauces.

In Italy, where the production of prosciutto has stringent guidelines, there are two major types: Prosciutto di Parma is famous for its rosy colour and delicate, almost nutty flavour, a result of the parmigiano reggiano that goes into the pig’s diet, and the prosciutto di San Daniele, characterized by a deeper colour and slightly sweeter taste.

To prepare prosciutto, the boar or pig’s leg is cleaned and covered with salt and left alone for about eight weeks. During these months the ham is gently weighted-sometimes buried– to compress the meat and remove all the blood. After pressing the ham is thoroughly washed to remove the salt, and left to hang in a cool room until thoroughly dry. Once totally dry, the leg is hung again, this time at room temperature, for up to a year and a half.

This is obviously a labour of love, the process not having changed for hundreds of years.

Prosciutto can be found sliced thin and vacuum packed at most supermarkets, but nothing matches the real thing, freshly sliced from a leg that has been hanging around for a couple years for this moment.

Rob Gentile, Buca

Local chefs have been trotting out their homemade charcuterie in recent years, and “house made” prosciutto is becoming a hot commodity. If you want to sample some local prosciutto, prepared by some of Toronto’s best chefs, among them Mark Cutrara, Ted Corrado, Rob Gentile and Fabio Bondi, they will be slicing up their own prosciutto for you to try.

Drop by the Drake Hotel on Monday, January 30th at 7pm for “Battle Prosciutto”, taste them all and determine your favorite. It’s free and open to everyone.

A guest post by Christina Palassio, Communications Coordinator at the Stop  Community Food Centre.

More than 100 people braved blustery winds on Wednesday night to attend The Stop Community Food Centre’s 2011 Annual General Meeting. Held at our 1884 Davenport Rd. location, the evening featured hearty plates of brisket, creamed kale and roasted Brussels sprouts, Stop slideshows, folk tales by storyteller-in-residence Dan Yashinsky and farmer Margaret Zondo, and a year-in-review round-up by Executive Director Nick Saul. There were also awards—our favourite part. We were delighted to present one of those prizes, our Corporate Citizen of the Year Award, to the wonderful folks at Fiesta Farms.

Fiesta Farms has been a committed supporter of The Stop for many years. Owner Joe Virgona makes space on his shelves for The Stop’s coffee and Grow for the Stop veggies, two of the ways we fundraise for our programs while supporting sustainable growing and selling in the city. The store has sold hundreds of our Good Food for All cookbooks, helping to spread the word about The Stop – as well as our recipes – to food lovers across Toronto.

Fiesta Gardens’ support of our gardening workshops has allowed us to nurture green thumbs by providing sessions on composting, coldframing, tincture making and seed saving.

And the store’s sponsorship of our major annual fundraisers, What’s on the Table and Big Night at the Green Barn, has helped us to turn those events into some of the city’s best foodie fundraisers.

We can’t say enough about Joe and Judy and their team. They’ve set the highest standard of community involvement through their tireless commitment to creating a strong, healthy and fair city and a better food system. We’re privileged to work with them, and look forward to many, many, many more years of collaboration.

HIT TV SERIES EAT ST. OPENS VIDEO CONTEST FOR STREET FOOD VENDORS ACROSS NORTH AMERICA

- Winning vendor to be filmed for an Eat St. segment -

Street food vendors who think their food has the chops to be featured on the hit Food Network Canada and Cooking Channel series Eat St. might soon have their chance. Until Jan. 5, food vendors across North America can upload a video showing off their cart to http://eatst.foodnetwork.ca/contest 

Then, from Jan. 5 until Jan. 31, viewers will vote on their favourite vendors. The top five fan favourite carts and the grand prize winner will be announced Feb. 10, 2012.
Each of those carts will have a chance to be filmed for a four minute segment of an Eat St. Episode.
 

“Only the most delicious street food carts with the most colourful characters are featured on Eat St.,” says Audrey Mehler, executive producer at Paperny Entertainment. “We’re looking forward to seeing the best of the best from across North America. Let the games begin!”

To enter the contest, vendors must enter a short home-made video in the Eat St.Video Contest (http://eatst.foodnetwork.ca/contest) showing off their cart, their story and their cuisine. The entry is judged on the charisma of the vendor, the uniqueness of the cart and the quality of the food. It is not judged on the production quality of the video.
Video submissions close on Jan. 5 at 1PM Pacific Time. Then, from Jan. 5 to Jan. 31, street food lovers can vote for the vendors they would most like to see on the television show. Vendors are encouraged to use any means necessary to get votes from their loyal customers, as voters will determine the five North American fan favourites.
On Feb. 10, 2012, Paperny Entertainment and Food Network Canada will reveal which of the five fan favourite carts is chosen to win the grand prize — filming and production of an Eat St. segment.

Eat St. airs Fridays at 9pm ET/PT on Food Network Canada.

For more information and to enter the contest, visit http://eatst.foodnetwork.ca/contest
For more information, please contact: 
 
Corey Dilley
Invoke Media
EatSt@InvokeMedia.com

November is soon to end and December will be upon us. How time flies. It seems like only yesterday we were talking about planting daffodils and carving Jack-o-Lanterns and already Santa is peeking his bushy beard around the corner and sniffing the air for the scent that always signals the holidays are on their way. Roasted chestnuts may always be associated with Christmas, we have Mel Torme and Nat King Cole to thank for that, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be enjoyed all winter.Chestnuts are surprisingly versatile. When dried, they can be milled into gluten-free flour suitable for cakes or doughnuts known as fritelli, made into pasta, used as a thickener for sauces and stews.

Chestnut flour is the traditional ingredient for Corsican polenta known as pulenda. Candied chestnuts called marrons glaces also make an appearance in the holiday culinary repertoire of France, and in Italy; steeped in brandy and covered with marzipan, appearing as the titillatingly named Nipples of Venus.

Nipples of Venus made a memorable appearance in “Amadeus”

But it is the humble and rustic bag of roasted chestnuts that captures our collective imagination each winter. Certainly any excuse to crank up the oven to 400 for a half hour or so while the winter winds blow outside is fine by me, but regardless, snacking on a bag of  these hot, fresh roasted gems is habit forming, no matter what the season.

This Saturday Scarpetta Restaurant will be soliciting donations for Movember and offering complimentary bags of roasted chestnuts from 11-3pm.

If you can’t make it to Scarpetta, then preparing them at home couldn’t be any easier, the important thing to remember is to score each chestnut with an X before roasting, thus allowing the steam to escape and preventing the nut from exploding. Best enjoyed while still warm, you can also save them in a jar for snacking later, but peel them while they are warm as this is difficult to do when the nuts are cold.

Roasted Chestnuts

Method

–preheat oven to 400 F

–score each nut with an X

–place nuts on shallow pan

–roast in oven for 20 minutes

–peel while still warm