Workshops teach Island how they can grow, preserve, cook own food There’s a whole education process involved in showing someone how to get food from a field to their fork. A group of Islanders is sharing that process to help empower others’ food security with a series of workshops and networking opportunities. The P.E.I. Food Exchange held one of its workshops over the weekend at Trinity United Church in Charlottetown, which focused on fermenting foods for long-term storage. “It’s a pretty interesting subject and it has health benefits,” said Kat Murphy, a spokesperson for the group. “Everything is free, we’re trying to have no barriers but it’s not just low income people (here). It’s people who want to learn these skills. Everybody wants to improve their health and get a better value for their food budget.” Guest speaker Sharon Labchuk showed a group of more than 20 how to ferment different kinds of foods. Labchuk said fermentation has become trendy in the past few years with the age-old process seeing an online resurgence. “It’s a good trend because it’s a good way to get probiotics in your body without spending a lot of money on supplements,” she said. “Its also a way of preserving food if you have a garden or access to vegetables and fruits. Originally, its intent was to preserve food.” The group was shown how to make sauerkraut, carrot ginger garlic pickles, kombucha and beet kvass throughout the workshop. Most of the ingredients were organic and locally grown, which Labchuk said was also a positive. Previous workshops have focused on preserving salsa and squash. The network was formed after a University of Toronto study released this past summer ranked P.E.I. as the second-lowest province or territory when it comes to food security affecting children. The study stated that one child in every four on P.E.I. faces some level of food insecurity. That report made many uncomfortable, said Murphy, who later talked to a farmer who had leftover bean crop free for the taking. The problem was, the farmer couldn’t find anyone to pick it, she said. “I would certainly go and pick free vegetables to bring home to cook,” she said. “I thought, ‘I bet there’s a lot of other people who would be happy to do that as well’.” That grew into an idea of connecting farmers to those needing food and during that process it was realized that many had also lost the skills needed to cook their own food, said Murphy. “We know that clients of the food bank will go and choose an instant bag of mashed potatoes over a bag of potatoes because they don’t know how to cook them,” she said. “The workshops evolved out of that, because we realized the only way to solve the food problem is to empower people to grow their own food, produce it and be able to cook it.” Murphy said with participation in the exchange growing in the Charlottetown and greater Queens County area, the group is hoping to also create a branch in Prince County. From there, they hope to spread across the province. “We want it to just grow naturally by itself and for people to come forward and take leadership roles in their own community,” said Murphy. More information on the group and its workshops can be found at it Web site or Facebook page P.E.I. Food Exchange. [email protected] Twitter/PEIGuardian
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 00:45:05 +0000