Don Genova's Blog

‘a r t f a r m’ is the dream of Margit Nelleman and Victor Vesely, a couple who moved from Vancouver to North Cowichan to live their dream of combining a farm with a gallery and teashop. 

Victor was a communications staffer for the David Suzuki Foundation, Margit, a potter and educator who grew up on a farm in Denmark.  Now she’s back on a farm, creating teapots that quickly reminded me of the artistic style in the animated portion of the old Beatles movie, ‘Yellow Submarine’. 

Elongated pour spouts, bulbous belly-like pots, whimsical tops, elaborate designs painstakingly etched by hand into the teapots.  The whole process of making her teapots is labour-intensive, as she doesn’t use a traditional potter’s wheel, everything is built by hand using coils of clay piled one upon another.

One of my favourite creations in the shop is a teapot called ‘High Tea’.  The pot is about two and a half feet tall, enough to satisfy any Mad Hatter tea party.  (High Tea is the pot she is posing with in the photo) 

“All of my pots are fully functional,” says Margit, no matter how big or small, although some people may use them just for special occasions or ceremonial purposes.

This weekend, (Dec. 5th and 6th 2009) there is an open house at the farm. Drop in to taste tea, see Margit's creations as well as that of two glass artisans, and enter a contest to win one of her teapots.  Click this link for more details.

When it comes to what to brew in the teapots, Margit and Victor decided to import fairly-traded teas from around the world in an effort to keep artisan tea brewers in business.  She cracked open a canister of pine-smoked Chinese black lap sang tea for me.  Its fragrance rapidly curled out of the can, the smoke and tea and pine creating a heady fragrance, as did the hand-rolled little balls of jasmine tea.  My favourite, though, is their traditional Earl Grey tea that has been enhanced with lavender grown on their own farm.  They make other blends with home-grown mint, chamomile, stevia and calendula.

A r t f a r m – www.artfarm.ca  8350 Richards Trail, North Cowichan

A funny thing happened yesterday. I pulled a grass-fed beef chuck steak out of the freezer for dinner and thought of James Barber.

I remembered that he had a recipe for chuck steak in an old cookbook of his that I have owned since 1983, the second cookbook I ever owned, called 'Flash In the Pan'.

In the recipe you brown a huge chuck steak and then simmer it in a rich sauce you develop with onions, garlic, tomato, oregano, vinegar, cayenne and cocoa.  Yes, cocoa.  He called it Tijuana Barbecue, and it was an adaptation from a recipe he learned from a woman while visiting that infamous Mexican border town.  I don't think there was anywhere in the world he visited that didn't result in him bringing back an adaptation of a traditional recipe.

Anyway, the steak and its sauce were delicious, and after dinner my wife asked me, 'When was it that James died?'  I thought for a second, then realized it was about two years ago this time of year. A quick consultation for his obit and I had the exact answer. Two years ago today, November 29th, 2007.

Was it his spirit reaching out to guide me to that recipe one day before the anniversary ?  Nah.  I just like to think his influence continues to affect me, and affect everyone else who loved James and his no-nonsense, unpretentious recipes and food philosophy.

This is that cookbook, well-stained and abused.  I used it a lot in the years after I picked it up at a garage sale in Terrace, BC.  This morning Ramona and I were paging through it, noting all the recipes I had tried, as I had circled them by page number in the index, and I thought we should make another James recipe tonight in his honour.  I had a couple of chicken leg and thigh combos in the freezer, so out they came while I considered the chicken dishes in Flash In The Pan.

I settled on an old favourite, Chicken Tovarich.  How could I resist after re-reading his introduction?

"Wolves, beautiful women in horsedrawn sleighs, ice and snow everywhere, and potatoes and vodka. You know what Russia is like.  A primitive version of North Dakota.  It was quite a shock to find that there are light, joyous, sunny dishes in Russia, food made with sun-warmed fruits, and exciting at an Italian ever imagined – all of them easy to make and most of them digestible, even without vodka."

And so tonight it's Chicken Tovarich, chicken, red wine, walnuts, onion, garlic and tomatoes, with lemon juice and peas to liven it up.  Another Barber bonanza.  Thanks, James.

My documentary on Cowichan Bay becoming Canada's first Cittaslow or Slow City aired last weekend across American on the environment radio show Living On Earth. See the transcript and pics at this link http://www.loe.org/shows/shows.htm?programID=09-P13-00047#feature4
Page up for audio.

This week on All Points West I introduced listeners to Seth Burton of Cosmo Knives on Salt Spring Island. 

I’ve collected a few knives over the years…my bread knife, my filleting knife, various paring knives, a cleaver, and a bunch of knives commonly known as chef’s knives, the all-purpose sort that can be used for most chores in the kitchen, slicing, cutting, chopping.  I have my favourites, but I am always on the lookout for the next great knife, one that might feel better in my hand, keep its edge longer, slices a tomato better…so when I heard about Seth Burton’s shop on Salt Spring Island, I had to go visit.

Seth’s Cosmo Knives are made pretty much from scratch.  He starts out with raw hunks of steel, heats them and presses them and rolls them and cuts them and grinds them and seasons them and so on, until he has a finished product.  His shop, not far from the Fulford Harbour ferry terminal, is jammed with grinders and presses and a forge, much of it built or designed by Seth himself.

Seth just found a 6,000 pound metal roller in Quebec, bought it and had it shipped on the train to Vancouver, where a friend with a BIG truck picked it up.  This device helps him take layers of heated metal and flatten them out so he can cut the raw form of the knife out of it. It really helps him make his special line of Damascus steel knives.

Damascus steel was originally created in 900 or so AD, but the Damascus steel we know today consists of many layers of steel laminated onto a central core.  The way the layers are folded and processed and etched with acid creates incredible patterns on the blade of the knife.  If you like knives, you look at this kind of knife you want one…the picture here is of some of his first efforts in making knives from the steel he can now roll out.

Seth started off as a cabinet maker, thought that was what he wanted to do, then dabbled in blacksmithing and making tools, a friend of his asked him to make a knife, and then he and that same friend shared a little voyage of discovery, where he came across a famous knife maker in the U.S. Southwest.  He spent just an hour and a half with him, but by the end of that time he knew what he needed to get into the business in a serious way, and more importantly, that he could make a living at it.

As I walked around the shop with Seth, I realized just how many steps it takes to make one of his knives…forging, rolling, cutting, grinding, handle making, polishing.  He’s approaching the 1500 mark now, every knife has the name of his company, Cosmo, stamped into it, and the number of the knife.  Prices range from about 200 dollars, all the way up to say 800 depending on the complexity of the construction.  When you consider how much work goes into each piece, though, and the quality of the metal and the assembly, it’s not really that much more than a factory-made knife.  I think it would be a great Christmas gift for the foodie in your life who has everything.  Hint, hint, hint!  But order now, as these are truly made to order.  Go to his website for more info.

This is the latest knife he's made in the new steel he's dubbed 'Damacore'.  Beautiful, isn't it?  Retails for $795.  Worth every penny…