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The red alder tree, a member of the birch family, is native to California and the Pacific Northwest, and has been used to smoke fish and meat for centuries. The smoking process cloaks this chocolate-brown salt with an intense, rich smokiness.
Alderwood Smoke salt adds the natural heady flavour of slow-smoked alder wood to sea salt, for an incredibly deep smokiness that enhances the taste of venison or root vegetables.
Tyler McVety and his brother Chris, from West Bloomfield, Michigan, launched Beyond the Shaker in July 2009, after 2 1/2 years of researching and developing a line of all-natural organic salts. They enjoyed instant success.
OGourmet is proud to be their first international reseller with all of their 23 different salts on sale.
They offer a vast collection of unrefined sea salts in their pure form, or blends that are hand made by a chef with a focus on organic and sustainable ingredients.
Traditional blends include French Herb Blend, which combines flavourful aromatics from the countryside of France with fleur de sel sea salt. More contemporary products include Chef’s Blend, a mix of mineral-rich sel gris sea salt with three different varieties of ground peppercorns, for a distinct but versatile flavour.
Shelf life is different from expiration date; the former relates to food quality, the latter to food safety.
A product that has passed its shelf life might still be safe, but quality is no longer guaranteed. These concepts and the related rules for food products differ considerably from country to country.
According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) "Durable life" is the period, starting on the day a food is packaged for retail sale, that the food will retain its normal wholesomeness, palatability and nutritional value, when it is stored under conditions appropriate for that product.
Durable Life Date (DLD) means the date on which the durable life of a pre-packaged product ends.
To download the analysis of the Canadian Council of Food and Nutrition on salt, click on this link.
Eat Salmon. It's full of good omega-3 fats. Don't eat salmon. It's full of PCBs and mercury. Eat more veggies. They're full of good antioxidants. Don't eat more veggies…
It seems you have to be a nutritional scientist these days before you sit down to eat - which is why we need Dr. Joe Schwarcz.
Joe Schwarcz (PhD McGill 1973) is Director of McGill University’s Office for Science and Society which is dedicated to demystifying science for the public, the media and students.
An apple a Day is a must-read book for anyone who hungers for the truth about what we eat.
Vinegar is made from the oxidation of ethanol in wine, cider, beer, fermented fruit juice or nearly any other liquid containing alcohol that yields its key ingredient, which is acetic acid.
Commercial vinegar is produced either by fast or slow fermentation processes. Slow methods are generally used with traditional vinegars, and fermentation proceeds slowly over the course of weeks or months. In fast production processes, vinegar may be produced in less than a day.
There are various methods of slow fermentation. See the Guide to Vinegars to learn more about methods used to produce better quality vinegars. And what about balsamic vinegars? Well, they are not really vinegars…
Many people. All Canadians first of all, since most of us depend on grocery stores for our food supply.
Then, more precisely, the 1.4 million people who work in more than 24,000 retail food establishments and more than 63,000 food service establishments. That’s a lot! For more details, click on this link.
And what is being distributed? More than 40 G$ of food products. Want to learn more on the subject? To view retail sales data (2005) produced by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, click on this link.
This combination of summer truffles (Tuber aestivum) and mushrooms, cooked in traditional “Urbani House” fashion (in olive oil with a touch of garlic, salt and pepper), has become the most popular truffle product of the Urbani collection.
You can count on it! This mushroom and truffle sauce is ready to serve, and Its black colour will stand out on any dish. Simply add it to pasta, grilled meat, roast beef and grilled or boiled fish to enjoy instant success.
All wild foods are harvested from the Canadian wilderness by trained pickers who practise sustainable harvesting methods – sustainable for that particular plant species, but also sustainable for the pickers (whose livelihood is supported by a thriving source of wild foods), and sustainable for other wildlife.
The only additives used to preserve them are other foods, i.e. cider vinegar, organic sugar or fruit pectin. None of the wild foods are subject to artificial colours or preservatives, herbicides, pesticides, irradiation, or created as a result of genetic engineering.
Forbes Wild Foods products received complimentary reviews from a large number of magazines and newspapers: Non Timeber News, Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Toronto Life, NOW magazine, Toronto Star, etc.
Wild Vegetables and Food Plants!For a long time Canadians relied on wild berries, fruits, mushrooms and edible plants as an important component of their staple diet.
This component of non-cultivated products has gradually diminished with the development of mechanized agriculture and urbanization. Many people today are simply unaware of the benefits and the flavours of some of these foods.
The Wild Vegetables and Food Plants guide is therefore an interesting contribution to the rediscovery of these wild foods and local products. This important guide will come in handy.
