forage

This week we are celebrating Gert Lund’s broccoli. Actually we’re celebrating the fact that Gert was able to coax anything out of the challenging growing season we’ve had. Broccoli loves cooler weather and so it has grown quite well. The problem is that as soon as the weather gets hot it becomes ready for picking and all at the same time. We’ve got a cream of broccoli soup and broccoli in some of the specials. We also have the first of Gert’s baby carrots and some of his lettuces in our salads and bagged greens.

Wow! The Farm Table Dinner at Chinook Honey went way beyond our expectations yesterday. The weather was perfect and Cherie and Art had people assisting with the opening of hives, learning about their mead, and tasting honey warm from the hive. Dinner was a great way to cap off an afternoon of getting closer to the people who grow, collect, and produce great food for us. Thanks to all who came and look for another dinner on the farm next summer.

Forage will be open on Friday serving our Roast Chicken Dinner and closed on Monday for Labour Day.

Here’s the menu for this week:

Monday - Roast Berkshire Pork

Broek Pork Acres Berkshire pork, slow roasted with herbs, served with roasted garlic mashed potatoes, pan gravy, and Lund’s broccoli $14

Tuesday - Bison Macaroni Casserole

Buffalo Horn Ranch bison, macaroni, tomatoes, and green peppers baked with cheddar cheese on top $10

Wednesday - Roasted Tomato Risotto Cake

Roasted tomato risotto cake served with summer squash, chard, and broccoli $13

Thursday - Vietnamese Chicken Salad

Sunworks Farm organic chicken, rice noodles, peppers, carrots, peas, broccoli, cilantro, mint, and peanuts on field lettuces with lime coriander vinaigrette $13

Friday - Roast Organic Chicken Dinner

Sunworks Farm roast organic chicken served with smashed potatoes and our famous gravy $40 whole $26 half $15 quarter

This Week’s Soup – Cream of Broccoli $7

This Week’s Salad – Lovage Potato Salad $4

Something Sweet – Mom’s Chocolate Cake $4

Forage Hours – Monday to Friday 2PM to 7PM – Closed Labour Day – 3508 19^th Street SW – PH(403)269-6551

Chinook Honey/Chinook Arch Meadery Farm Table Dinner

Sunday, August 30^th, 2009

3:00 PM Tours 4:30 PM Mead Tasting 5:30 PM Dinner

For all of those attending the Farm Table Dinner on Sunday you can find good directions on the Chinook Honey website here.

Head South to Okotoks, go through town and head West on Highway 7 towards Black Diamond. Look for the Chinook Honey sign on the South side of the highway about 2 miles from Okotoks. Turn South off the highway and Chinook Honey is the first place on the right. If you see the Big Rock (or geological erratic as they call it now) from the highway you’ve gone too far. We’ll get the tours started at 3PM sharp. The weather is looking good for an outside dinner and we should be serving it around 5:30 PM.

If you want to make more of a day in the country, check out the Saskatoon Farm in the area.

See you Sunday!!

We are excited to have flower bouquets back from John Mills of Eagle Creek Farm. These flowers are picked on Monday and we have them in Forage sometime on Tuesday. John selects the flowers that are at their best and the assortment changes as the season goes on. Bouquets are $15 and look great anywhere in the house! We are also looking forward to having John’s great garlic in very soon.

The fruit crops from the Okanagan are nearing the peak and this week we are featuring organic peaches from Blush Lane in our Peach Cobbler. We also have the Sunrise apples and we’ll bring in other great varieties as they come into season.

I took a cooler full of meat from local farmers to enjoy at the cottage and created the Asian Vegetable Salad to go with a Broek Pork Acres pork loin roast. It has cabbage, chinese cabbage, broccoli (from Lund’s), corn and a thai inspired dressing full of cilantro, ginger, garlic, chili, and lime. We enjoyed it so much I thought we’d offer it this week for you to try.

Sunday, August 30^th is our next Farm Table Dinner at Chinook Honey. Look for our Farm Table Dinner schedule for the rest of the year to be posted soon along with the fall schedule of cooking classes.

Here’s the menu for this week:

Monday - Chicken Tagine

Sunworks Farm organic chicken, chick peas, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, squash, and tomatoes simmered with moroccan spices served with cous cous $13

Tuesday - BBQ Braised Beef Shanks

Hoven Farms organic beef shanks braised with a tangy BBQ sauce and served with smashed potatoes $13

Wednesday - Vegetable Pot Pie

A variety of vegetables fresh from the market in a herb cream sauce topped with biscuit crust $10

Thursday - Greek Chicken Salad

Sunworks Farm organic chicken, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, Fairwinds Farm feta, and kalamata olives on greens with red wine and oregano dressing $13

Friday - Bison Meatloaf

Buffalo Horn Ranch bison meatloaf and saskatoon berry sauce served with buttermilk mashed new potatoes and carrots $14

This Week’s Stew – Curried Vegetables $8

This Week’s Salad – Asian Vegetable Salad $4

Something Sweet – Peach Cobbler $4

Forage Hours Monday to Friday 2PM to 7PM – 3508 19^th Street SW – PH(403)269-6551

We’re Back!

And all suffering various forms of jet lag since we’ve all been in different time zones for 2 weeks! Sue went to Vancouver Island, Genevieve went home to Newfoundland, Jaclyn went to Germany, Italy, and Spain, and Wade went to Ontario and Quebec and we are happy to have had a rest and seen some of the world. We look forward to reconnecting with all of you! Wade will be posting some of his observations on his blog At the Root over the next couple weeks.

We still have seats available for our Farm Table Dinner at Chinook Honey on Sunday, August 30^th and are close to selling out. Give us a call for more information or to book your seats. Chinook Honey is one of the stops for the Flavours of the Foothills Harvest Festival this Saturday and Sunday. There are a number of farms and places to visit South of Calgary and the weather is looking spectacular for one of our favourite events.

In the mean time, we’ve got a great menu planned for this week. Here are the specials:

Monday - Spanish Chicken

Sunworks Farm organic chicken, potatoes, peppers, and onions simmered with smoked paprika and lemon $12

Tuesday - Iranian Bison Stew

Buffalo Horn Ranch bison simmered with dried limes, onions, split yellow peas, and a touch of tomato served with saffron basmati rice $14

Wednesday - Summer Vegetable Wrap

A variety of greens slightly braised and packed in a Tres Marias tortilla with rice and Sylvan Star gouda served with cucumber salad $13

Thursday - Beef Taco Salad

Hoven Farms organic beef, field lettuces, tomatoes, peppers, and kidney beans with creamy chipotle dressing and Tres Marias tortillas $13

Friday - Roast Organic Chicken

Sunworks Farm roast organic chicken served with picnic potato salad and our famous gravy $40 whole $26 half $15 quarter

This Week’s Soup – Black Bean Soup $6

This Week’s Salad – Blue Cheese and Bacon Potato Salad $4

Something Sweet – Strawberry Rhubarb Turnover $4

Forage Hours Monday to Friday 2PM to 7PM – 3508 19^th Street SW – PH(403)269-6551