S. Worthen | Weblog

I just called to price my first shipping option for moving my goods from Toronto to London. I was expecting that I was calling rather last-minutely, for several websites advocated calling at least six weeks before a given move. I was also expecting my goods would thenceforth take two-three months to cross the ocean.

Not so! Thanks to shipping between two major and well-connected cities, the agent told me that they ship weekly to London, and that my goods could be there within two weeks of shipping. With a turnaround time that fast, maybe I won't be airmailing very much after all!

I went to the Dufferin Grove Farmer's Market on Thursday. Freshly back from Chicago, the city named after wild leeks, how could I resist the wild leeks that the Forbes Wild Foods stand was selling? Inspired by this exploratory purchase, I also bought sunchokes, a vegetable previously unknown to me. ("Like a nutty potato", the vendor said. aka jerusalem artichokes.) Mixed greens and rhubarb completed my shopping - I was limited because whatever I acquired needed to survive an evening out at the pub.

With one thing and another, I didn't get around to cooking any of these treats until tonight. My lunch was large and late (dim sum!), so a wild leek and sunchoke soup was a pleasantly light and richly-flavored dinner. I used the Joy of Cooking leek and potato soup recipe, with a dash of cream. Either the sunchokes or the chicken stock unexpectedly turned the cream a distinctly yellow shade.

More exciting for me, however, is the prospect of rhubarb compote with sour cream for dessert. The rhubarb compote is cooling as I type. I love rhubarb dearly, but this is my first time cooking it myself. I've been sampling from the pot off and on for the past couple of hours.

In other food news, The Healthy Butcher, an all-organic butchery and high-end takeout joint, opened to a handful of enthusiastic reviews a few weeks ago. I haven't been yet, but I'm looking forward to checking it out in the near future.