I came to Newfoundland for the first time just over four years ago. I can still vividly recall taking the ferry across from Nova Scotia in the late winter, listening to the groaning sounds of the ice around the boat. Within two months of arriving I made my first trip to Bonne Bay, a remote fjord on the west coast of the island. I went to learn about the food system and fisheries in the region as part of a PhD program I was beginning at Memorial University that fall.
Maple syrup conjures up images of towering arboretums in places like Quebec or Vermont, but it’s a little known secret that the rugged and hardy maple trees of Newfoundland make darn fine maple syrup. With nothing more than a half dozen maple trees, some old salt beef containers and a handful of 25 cent metal tree taps, you’re good to go and can expect to end up with over a dozen bottles of hand made maple syrup.
Spectacular vistas, whales breaching, ice bergs floating by, and a foragers paradise. We are blessed with many wilderness areas that offer abundant edible plants. I rarely go on a hike without stopping to have a little taste of this or that. In this post, I will touch upon some of the edibles currently available in our wonderful wilderness.
Thanks to the listing from Seeds of Diversity, I was able to locate a gentleman in Newfoundland who has a great deal of experience growing a wide variety of potatoes here. Last week, I recieved by my set of samples from George, and here's what my benefactor told me about the varieties:
Red Dutch: A very dry, yellow flesh red from Holland in the 1940’s. An excellent potato. Late maturing.
Northern White: A white flesh variety, from Quebec apparently, from the early 1900’s. Very high yield. Good taste.
It is so cool to me to see my perennial herbs come back each year. The use of fresh and preserved herbs makes meals taste and smell more appetizing and adds rich nutrition. The extra hardy herbs are oregano, scallions and chives. Sage, thyme and tarragon need a little mulching in the fall to guarantee a good return.
This post is a bit delayed in arriving, with photos from late May. As a follow-up to Costa's A Taste of the Wild Side posts I brought a few unusual ingredients together for a meal. It's too late in the season now for harvesting young knotweed shoots and dandelion greens but hopefully you'll still be inspired to seek them out next year. The codfish I used was locally harvested and then frozen.
As a CFA, going to see the capelin roll has been on my 'to do' list since arriving in the province. That image of thousands of silver fish just under the surface of the water caught my imagination right from the beginning. This past Tuesday was the first time I've been able to make it out during that brief window of time that the capelin are flocking to the beaches.
