End of 2010

2010 was a busy year at the Ground to Griddle kitchen.  We have welcomed many new members and had a few leave us.  We have enjoyed some of the local bounty provided here in north western British Columbia and tried some food from further away...some of which we grew in our greenhouse at the Princess Neighbourhood Garden.  It has been a year of food related learning and building connections in our community.  As we have tried to enjoy seasonal food as part of our kitchen menu throughout the year, it seemed fitting to do some cooking for the coming holiday season.

For our last cooking day of 2010, we decided that Christmas baking was on the agenda.  We made Gingerbread cookies, Sugar n’ spice cookies, Chocolate mice (yummers!) and Chocolate/peanut butter Teddies!  What an amazing amount of cookies!  Next year I think we might try to make some things that don’t involve the oven space.  We managed to get everything cooked and everyone had some great baking to take home for the holidays. 

We’ll be back at the kitchen January 4^th, 2011!  Merry Christmas and see you in the New Year

Medicine Bags and Beading

October 26^th

Today was a great day at the Ground2Griddle Kitchen!  Our guest Lillian Morris showed us how to make medicine bags from caribou and moose hide and then how to bead decorations onto them.  Most of us are not finished our beading so we plan to continue when we meet again next Tuesday. 

Lillian is a local First Nations elder from Moricetown and when we first met in May she offered to lead these beading sessions.  Today was a planning day which allows us extra time to fit in fun, learning activities such as these!  Thanks Lillian!

Sauerkraut Making with local sauerkraut guru...

Karen one of our town's local sauerkraut guru's kindly offered to share her skills to everyone at the Ground2Griddle kitchen.  Our first guest blogger as well!  It was so exciting to have the mysteries of sauerkraut revealed!  Visit the link to see the photos from this session.

Sauerkraut Making

Gail gathered up around 120 pounds of cabbage over the weekend.  The cabbage was picked right from the field which makes it perfect for sauerkraut making.  These winter cabbages (best to use) have lots of moisture to release in the process of making sauerkraut.

The cabbages are cleaned and have outer leaves removed then washed and drained.  They are cut in quarters and have the core removed.  The cabbage is shredded by using a shredder, which we used, placed over a large container to catch the shred.  The shredded cabbage is put in the crock and tamped down to crush the cabbage and release the juices and get fermentation started. For tamping we used the beautiful wooden tampers hand crafted by Bruce.   After about 2 inches of packed cabbage,  coarse salt (non-iodized) is sprinkled   over the layer.  We used slivers of fresh garlic at the same time as the garlic.  The process of shredding, salting with garlic and tamping is repeated until the crock is full to about 4 inches from the top.  The cabbage juice will be at the surface of the cabbage when the crock is full.  It was great having all the hands helping and the total of 17 gallons of sauerkraut was completed by lunch time.  Way to go!

Weight is required on top to keep air out of the cabbage and so it doesn't dry out during the 6 week fermentation stage.  Zip lock freezer bags work well to provide that weight.    Warmth (room temperature) is required to keep the fermentation going, so the crocks are now nicely nestled in the kitchen (or Jake's bedroom for the 12 gal crock) to ferment away.  Keep the lids on though or the house starts to smell like really dirty socks that have been forgotten about.

In 6 weeks, we'll be eating the best sauerkraut YOU'VE EVER HAD.  Thanks for the great day!

Harvesting from the wild

We went on a berry picking trip on Tuesday to Telkwa.  We picked an ice cream pail each of highbush cranberries and rose hips even though it was very much the end of the season.  Next week we will make jelly. 

It was a beautiful fall day with the wind blowing and the weather changing quickly from sunshine, clouds and rain.  We built a fire in the woodstove of the picnic shelter where we had our lunch.  Our hands were so cold from picking and the wind.  Next year we will have to get out about two weeks earlier to make it easier to see the berries as well as to get them at the peak of the season.  The cranberry bushes had already lost their leaves so they were harder to see.  With so many leaves off the trees though, we had great views of Tyhee Lake and the fall colours on the opposite hillside.

 Wild berries are one of the most amazing food sources we have here ranking high against the wild salmon run.   Huckleberry, Blueberry, Cranberry and Saskatoons...nothing is more thrilling than the free bounty offered by woods!  And these are just the most plentiful berries...I’ve seen wild raspberries, currants, gooseberries...

Farmer's Markets

I found out this week that our local Farmer’s Market will continue running until December! Yay! In this northern part of the world it has been thrilling to be able to access the quality, delicious food available at our local market.


Fifteen years ago, when I first moved here, the “farmer’s market” consisted of a bread vendor and a plant/produce vendor. I appreciated the market then and was a regular visitor, getting my first taste of spelt bread and learning about the plant varieties that thrived in our northern climate. But now our market has more than 30 vendors flogging such diverse products as recycled fiber, hand-loomed scarves to the Happy Pig Farm’s “Happy Biscuit” ...think fresh, homemade English muffin topped with organic, free range egg and a delectable patty of savoury sausage... all prepared on the spot and hand delivered to you as you drink coffee with friends standing in the sunshine. Saturday mornings couldn’t get much better.

Remember though, if you aren’t here when the bell rings to herald the official market opening at 8am you will not be getting your weekly supply of spelt bagels or cinnamon buns....food goes fast and certain items have been known to sell out by 10am! We still take those farmer’s market essentials like bread, plants and produce very seriously here... but now as well as your weekly meals you can buy the hand thrown pottery plate on which to serve it.

So...if you live in our region I highly recommend the Smithers Farmer’s Market as a great place to find some of the most delicious, fresh food in the Bulkley Valley and probably a friend or two. If you don’t live here...look in your local paper, or ask at your town office if there is a market in your area. You are bound to enjoy it and at the same time you can access food straight from the farmer’s who make and grow it! Fresh food the old-fashioned way!

Ground2Griddle visit Hazelton, BC

Yesterday was an all day expedition for Ground2Griddle Kitchen participants to the culturally rich area of Hazelton, BC. With our lunch packed we headed 67 km west on Highway 16 to take in the sites of Hazelton, South Hazelton and the Kispiox Valley.

Hazelton is one of the most beautiful places around. Situated on the banks of the Skeena and at the base of the stunning Roche de Boule Mountain Range we were suitably inspired by the end of summer breeze and the pristine waters of the Skeena and Bulkley Rivers. This region is rich in the cultural food traditions of the Gitxsan people of which Salmon is one of the most important. At ‘Ksan Historical Village, we toured the many longhouses, the museum and the “River of Mist” art exhibit. This exhibit is a moving documentary featuring current and archival photographs demonstrating the symbiotic relationship of the salmon, the people, the wildlife and the land of this region.

As we walked along the banks of the Skeena in “old town” we stopped to admire the 10,000 fish display organized by the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition in their struggle to prevent Shell from establishing oil and gas industry in the Sacred Headwaters. With so much of our land, water and food at stake the struggle to preserve this area is imperative. Reconnecting people to their place within the food cycle is a vital part of this community and the community in which the Ground2Griddle kitchen operates.

It was inspiring to visit the youth educational garden behind The Learning Shop, lush with beets, squash and potatoes, and to admire their pop bottle greenhouse. Providing opportunity for people to “own” their community fosters the initiative required to maintain and protect cultural traditions and the land and waters on which they are dependant.

We at the Ground 2Griddle Kitchen are thrilled to be a part of a movement to bring back food into the hands of the people!

The Beginning

Well, this is my first foray into the world of blogging and I'm pretty excited!

 "Cultivating Wisdom" is what we hope to accomplish in the Ground2Griddle Neighbourhood Kitchen here in Smithers, BC.  Our neighbourhood kitchen is a community learning project designed to reconnect people with the fine art of cooking, preserving, harvesting and growing food!  In fact we have an interest in all things food and in particular food security.  Our community, like many others, is interested in bringing food back into the hands of the people who eat and grow it!  We do not want to be dependent on large supermarket chains that carry produce from all over the world but very little from the fertile valleys of our own province. 

This blog has been created as a learning opportunity for those who participate in the kitchen and to be a resource for others interested in the many aspects of food production and preservation in our region and regions abroad! We will have a selection of guest bloggers to offer their unique perspectives about all issues food and we encourage blog viewers to comment and pose particular questions to our bloggers. 

Dig in!