BITTER, AF? What’s that all about?

Don't worry we'll explain it all!

Welcome back intrepid readers/viewers/followers/commenters/customers and friends! Special thanks to Val, Janice, Corinne, Amy, and Shelley for comments, shares and likes! That’s how we grow. It really does mean a lot to us to know people are reading and sharing. Have we told you lately that you are all awesome?!  [Jason’s note: *Ahem. Except that one that told us to “PISS OFF”, eh? But we’re not bitter, really. I may get a little salty, though…] 

Jason here: So as the first manner of business, we should just clear up any confusion. In order to bring more use and value to the Colleen’s Chocolates and FOOD EXPLORER brands we (mostly me) started off this new fangled thing called “a substack” which will slowly replace our newsletter for the most part. Now to show off a bit, we had the option to give everyone a “trial full subscription” for the first month or so - kind of like trying out a puppy for the weekend :) We are just so excited to have you all here and wanted to share a view into what the loyal subscribers will be getting. But, because of the automated emails that Substack sent out (not us!), some of you reached out as you were confused by these “paid subscription ending” emails. Don’t worry you’ll still be subscribed; you're just classed as a free subscriber which means you’ll still get most of our articles - but some will be teaser “previews” or just paywalled (for a very reasonable value, we think). While we’re not doing it strictly for the money; all your support means everything to us! 

For the most part we wanted to share great stories with everybody; get some great info out there; and maybe spread some news or some joy with the hope you all have a good read, and a giggle or two. And, create a Community. Hey, that reminds us, do you know anyone who wants to be a guest writer/contributor on our Substack - maybe YOU!? Drop a comment below or reach out. 

Thanks to every one of you so far for your interest, ideas, suggestions, support, and comments - they really keep us going - and we are SUPER excited to have 2 bonafide, wonderful paid subscribers now!!! That’s up 100% from the last Substack! Kim is our newest superstar!!  Business done - Now, let’s get started on this post :) 

What’s that in the sky? The sun?! JUNE IS HERE and that means the sun is finally warm for us Edmontonians but for our farmers it means the first wave of “seeding madness” is well under way, leading to them filling the greenhouses with starter plants before exciting new varietals or old favorites begin hitting the markets and then our forks. Colleen had the pleasure of having a great conversation  clucking like a hen with some of our new favourite farmers - Ryan and Rylee (cool spelling,btw) - owners of Thistle Hill Farms at their booth at the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market last week. [Jason’s note: We first met Ryan at the *ahem and cough cough* now defunct 97th street Edmonton Downtown Farmers’ Market and we’re so pleased he’s moved over to the OSFM!! Surprisingly, he doesn’t seem bitter.]

Have you heard about these wonderful people yet? It was the last week in May but Colleen was already talking with them about how to use some more of their 70 chemical-free herbs, micro-greens, veggies, and edible flowers!! as she’s already done two podcasts: one pickling their amazing varieties of radishes and also one about her Pea-shoot pesto and how to covet and protect micro-greens so they last after you get them from the market.. (Oh for you recipe hounds, Thistle Hill have a Chicken Schnitzel with Pea Shoot Pesto Spätzle - Recipe Idea you can try too!)  Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming Substack including more recipes, pictures, ideas and info! 

See, the secret we keep wanting to share about Thistle Hill Farms has to be their daring, but well chosen, and almost curated edibles; but don’t worry there’s not TOO many exotics to scare us North Americans yet always something simple and exciting to try. Last week it was a green Mizuna lettuce from Japan that we’ve never seen before here in Edmonton. You really have to respect small farmers like Thistle Hill for taking that risk to bring us extraordinary taste and nutrition experiences. Remember to appreciate that we only have such choices based on the faith, commitment and investment of small farmers who I guess are hoping that Edmonton and central Alberta have some adventuresome culinary souls out there that will give something like MIZUNA sweet-bitter greens a chance. Or daikon radish varieties. Or some amazing micro-greens. The point is that the secret is going to be out of the bag soon so get on down to OSFM on Saturdays and check them out or shop online! 

[Jason’s Note: Okay, bitter things are the theme today - but in a good way, not like that other article so many of you keep stopping us and asking about… Hey, Colleen has a bit of an “origin story” for ya, today.]

Colleen: Back in 2007 I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada. I had been living in Denmark for a few years and ended up getting a job at the Mirage in Las Vegas. Now you have to understand that in Denmark there’s really not a lot of junk food. There is junk food, but you have to pay a fat tax if you want to eat it. So you’re not going out and buying a happy meal at McDonald’s for five bucks, you’re buying one for $25. When I lived in Denmark, I ate really well. I bought fresh ingredients pretty much every day on my way home from work and a loaf of bread was not something that you put in your cupboard and hope that it lasted for two weeks. You ate it that day.

Moving to Vegas was a huge culture shock to my system - there was so much heat (Denmark had 1 day of summer LOL) and so much excess of everything!   I remember shopping one day with my dad, he helped me move there, and going to a WalMart and being totally overwhelmed.  He actually said to me, “What’s wrong with you?”  Honestly, it was just too much - from an isolated Danish life straight to the giant city-hellscape life, meep!  Now, the other shock to my system was I decided that I should eat every single junk food that I had not eaten for the past couple of years! I loaded up on every greasy fried fast food item that you could imagine. But what ended up happening was after a while my body revolted and I ended up getting quite sick. I remember my coworkers coming into the room and asking if I was OK as I was heaving into the toilet. 

Not knowing what to do, I called my mom because I couldn’t take being sick anymore and sometimes I’m not very smart. I couldn’t figure out that it was all the garbage food that was going in was garbaging out! My mom mentioned that she had seen a woman on Oprah called Kathy Freston and she was promoting this diet called veganism. Now my mom called it vaaaaaganism, so was it actually vague? Who knows - lol.  (Also, I’m not being mean I am mocked for the way I say baaaagel!) I didn’t know anything about it, but I decided I’m gonna try this. So I went cold turkey and switched from a carnivorous/omnivorous diet to a vegan one. We’ll save the rest of the “7 years a vegan” journey for another article, but I learned a lot. [Jason’s Note: Until I tempted her out of that nonsense with some delicious RibEye steaks as I recall. You want bitter? She tried to feed me Vegan perogies?! HARD NO!] 

One of the things that I learned really quickly was that my normal diet had had very little variety. So leafy greens were just iceberg lettuce and if I was feeling “fancy” then Romaine lettuce in a Caesar salad. With this new lifestyle/diet to learn, I needed to figure out what I could eat. So I went to Whole Foods. (Sidenote: as wasteful and unhealthy as Las Vegas is, they have a surprising amount of Whole Foods, also affectionately called “whole paycheque “or “whole in your wallet”.)

I basically went up and down the aisles, looking at every single thing to find what I could eat that was under the category of vegan. And to my surprise, I suddenly realized there was a lot of variety and so many foods that I had never even heard of or tried. Kale - what the hell was kale? Arugula - who is eating this crazy green that I’ve never heard of?   What I ended up also discovering was that I really like bitter tasting foods like kale and arugula. I used to be the dummy that bought dandelion greens at Whole Foods. Yes I know that HERE they just grow in your yard (if anybody wants dandelion greens - come to our yard we’re stocked with them!) But in Vegas, I didn’t have a yard with greens in it, instead I had a desert landscape yard - aka cacti and rocks.

Now to answer a bigger question - why would you want to even eat “bitter” foods? Don’t they taste, uh … Bitter A.F.?? Well, I actually want to do a deeper dive (in a substack or podcast or video) into this exact topic because I have an incredible book called Bitter by Jennifer McLagan that goes into great and beautiful detail!  The book is stunning with really interesting recipes so it needs its own exploration.  But, for right now bitter foods have health benefits like being rich in antioxidants, promoting digestive health, and of course detoxification.  Sometimes I just say to Jason, “I need parsley and cilantro, STAT!!” because my body wants to do a little detox.  Bitter foods are complex in their flavour profiles and can add something unique and interesting to any meal.  The more bitter foods you eat, the more your overall taste perception improves, too.  It may be an acquired taste for some but once you start adding them into your diet, I have found you’ll want more.  Just ask Jason - he likes to whine that the only green I want in my salad is arugula! [Official Editor’s Note: Jason doesn’t “whine” - he accurately observes and does most of the shopping and 90% of the food prep for Queen Colleen!]  And he is correct because I just love it so much!  And, the last awesome thing to consider about bitter foods is they are present in many culinary traditions. So, of course you can see why it will need an entire article to further delve into this topic properly. 

For Mizuna specifically, it’s nutrient rich and great for the immune system.  Full of antioxidants to protect your cells from damage, and it’s anti-inflammatory plus high in fiber promoting gut health.  That’s a lot of good stuff there!  And, locally grown to boot - Yay Thistle Hill Farms! I quite enjoyed the taste of the Mizuna. It was more of a peppery taste and although not super bitter, it did have a little bit of that dandelion flavour to it as well, just not as strong as actual dandelions. I used it in salads and Jason enjoyed it in his Faux-Pho tri-noodle soups that he was making all week because of the rain.

Oh, back to our farmers’ market foray the other day, we had more adventures with the Mizuna lettuce because after leaving the OSFM we headed to our second favourite place on Saturdays, Culina’s Bibo Strathcona - a wine, sake, chorizo and kefir tasting bar!! We mentioned to the chefs that we found Mizuna at the market and because they are Japanese gals they kind of lost their minds! They are very familiar with Mizuna (it’s native to Japan), and they love it and were especially amazed as they’d never seen it here. So of course we shared ours with them, told them where we got it, and they shared what we could do or cook with it. Everybody at Culina is great like that, by the way, always sharing and building up and supporting local or community farmers and vendors!  

Now we always like to end off with a question or two - so what bitter foods do you like to eat??  Cocoa powder, endive, turmeric, olives, grapefruit, walnuts, radicchio?  There are so many amazing ones to choose from! And what would YOU do with a new food experience like this? The easiest thing to do is actually just put it into a salad which is what I did because you can focus on the flavours easily; I liked the little hits of pepper from the greens. Then I looked up a few other ways to use it, and some suggestions were to put it in with pesto (hey remember we made pesto with pea shoots, here’s the recipe again if you missed it and you could sub in some Mizuna), or even into a soup especially something like miso soup.  

And a final last thought: Mizuna is not so much Bitter AF as it is Bitter Amazing Food :)   Now tell us all the things in the comment section below and see you at the next farmers’ market!

[Jason’s last note: *Ahem, btw - June 15th the “resurrected” Downtown Edmonton Farmers’ Market will start on 104th street off Jasper. How will it go? Will it be Bittersweet AF? Get on down there, talk at some vendors, support local and then let us know what YOU think, eh? JMC]