Upside-Down Company Platter
In her story about hospitality, “Sharing food with my two families,” Natasha Krahn describes being served a traditional Palestinian dish turned upside down on a large platter. Here is the recipe as found in the Extending the Table cookbook. In large, heavy saucepan, heat: 1-2 tablespoons / 15-30 ml oil (preferably olive) Add and fry…
‘I eat your garbage’
I am a thief. I steal our food system’s waste. Let’s be clear. Grocery stores throw edible food into their dumpsters. I go to those dumpsters and jump in. I dig through boxes and bags, and salvage everything I can find. I take it to my house and painstakingly sort through it. I cut and…
Expressing love with food
Fred Redekop often reminded his congregation that preparing food for others who may be struggling with illness or a death in the family is a way of showing love and care. So when it came time to say farewell to him after 25 years as our pastor, we wondered what food was appropriate for our…
Take, bless, break
The Evansons were out of our league. We were a plain old missionary family coming from rural New Hamburg, Ont., and they were über-educated university professors from glamorous Colorado, U.S.A. But as she so often did when newcomers arrived in Brazil, my mom took the Evansons under her wing. She picked them up at the…
‘We sit and eat at the same tables’
“Grab a coffee and go and sit down. You get served at the table. They’re really nice here,” said one guest to another on March 14 of the community dinners served every Saturday night from November through April at Stirling Avenue Mennonite Church in Kitchener. Lou Murray Gorvett, who coordinates the dinners, is clear that…
Who feeds the world?
Without conventional agriculture more people would starve. That is the link commonly drawn between global hunger and the dominant form of North American farming, which depends heavily on fertilizer, fuel, pesticide and genetic inputs. This link is captured in the axiom that says farmers “feed the world.” The implication of this phrase is often two-fold:…
Zweiback Trail book keeps the stories alive
As the son of Russian Mennonites who arrived in Canada in 1924 and 1926, I have a positive bias towards this book which takes the 26 letters of the alphabet and picks one event, recipe or idea from the Russian/Prussian/Dutch experience and relates part of the story. It is packed with historical information, and very…
The Kingdom of Heaven is Like Pflinzen and Chapjae?
In our home, we discovered a new favourite fusion dish. In a surprisingly tasty combination,we ate Pflinzen and Chapjae together. Pflinzen is a food from the Russian Mennonite side of our family. Made with eggs, flour, and milk, it’s a kind of eggy crepe. Chapjae is from the Korean side of the family and is a…
Catering to immigrants
Walk into Pacific Flooring and Imports in Abbotsford, and customers will see a seemingly unlikely combination of laminate flooring, spices, international foods and charcoal for barbecues. But, as proprietor Hans Goertzen says, the biggest selling item is yerba maté, a South American herbal tea popular with many Mennonites. Packages of the maté are prominently displayed…
A celebration of food and faith
Recently I stood in line-ups for two different kinds of “Mennonite” foods. In one line I waited, along with many others, for my order from the annual Laotian Mennonite spring roll sale. A week later I waited for my two dozen Russian Mennonite fleisch perishky (meat-filled buns). Both of these delicacies were received with delight…
