Italian panic, winter chill, volunteer opportunities and our two cents worth.
Rice, tomatoes, olive oil. These staples of Italian cuisine are set to become the latest victims of global environmental and economic challenges. Whilst it is pretty easy to find workarounds for iceberg lettuce or hot sauce, having to substitute olive oil out of a dish is much more difficult. Not to mention distressing. We struggle to think of cooking that doesn’t begin, end, or both with olive oil. How will we go on?! Well, at least we have the olive oil part covered at Harvest. Readily available, finest quality, reasonably priced staples are part of the remit at Harvest. We know life is tough right now, particularly in these cooler months. But our Harvest community is tougher, and they continue to turn out for you.
Well, mostly. We can’t pretend that the winter months and increasing covid cases aren’t taking their toll on the weekly roster. Nonetheless, the spirit of the Harvest community remains unbroken and stronger than ever. Everything has a time, winter will soon give way to spring, and we’ll be back at full force.
Do you know what really turns a frown upside down though? An amazing dinner at the end of the day. We have been offsetting a somewhat bleak outlook with some rich, luxurious, to-hell-with-the-food-budget meals lately. We’ll wear layers and keep the heating down at home. We’ll walk places to save fuel. We’d much prefer to be chilly and well fed than be warm and live on baked beans. Not that there is anything wrong with baked beans mind you.
Our two cents worth.
Overheard in a watering hole that shall remain nameless – Saint John – was a conversation about preparing truffle pasta. All was seemingly going well until it was suggested by one member of the group that one could thicken one’s sauce with a roux.
No. Wrong. Stop. Don’t.
All you need for truffled pasta is this: Truffles and pasta, obviously. Plus two cloves of garlic, butter, some cream, two egg yolks, and some sharp cheese. Mince the garlic and sautee it in the butter. Cook the pasta. Add the cream to the butter and garlic and reduce slightly. Put the egg yolks and your finely grated cheese in a mixing bowl. Grate the truffle into the cream mix. Put the cooked pasta into the cream mix. Dump the pasta into the bowl with the yolks and cheese. Thoroughly incorporate and serve. Wham, bam, truffle pasta ma’am.
What else turns a frown upside down? When people say nice things about you! We were pretty chuffed to see this piece in Time Out online, despite its glaring inaccuracies, inappropriate analogies, and run-of-the-mill copy.
No offence Time Out Magazine, just sayin’.
To finish at Harvest
A couple of things to end this week. Firstly, agriCULTURED is on the hunt for volunteers for the festival. After such an amazing turnout for their Ferment Stations volunteer training workshop, they’re now putting out the wider call for volunteers at other events. There are some brilliant things to be part of and you can pick and choose what you’re keen on. You can contact Harvest’s very own Meghan at [email protected] to register your interest.
Finally, speaking of Harvest’s very own, your humble newsletter author will be participating in a discussion panel as part of the Fire and Ferment dinner (also part of agriCULTURED) on the 6th of August. You can pick up tickets to that and everything else from the website linked above.
Ok, enough for now, thanks for reading, better times ahead.