Unless you go to a really exotic restaurant, you probably won’t find any methi or golden Incan berries in your Caesar salad.
But you can grow both of these plants right here in Alberta, and they taste great, said Edmonton gardener Suzanne Cook. The same goes for red orach, cardoons, and other plants that sound like species from Star Trek.
“There are all kinds of greens we can grow here that we just don’t,” she said, and the more you grow, the more variety you have in your diet.
Cook is one of the many country living experts who will be at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre Saturday for the inaugural Sturgeon County Country Living Expo.
Sturgeon County holds free talks on subjects of interest to county residents throughout the year, but those are usually on weeknights when not everyone can attend, said Sturgeon County environmental program co-ordinator Shelayne Hofman. As an experiment, the county is bundling its hottest talks into a weekend event to see if more people attend them.
“It’s kind of like a one-stop shop.”
The expo will feature six free half-hour talks on many aspects of country life, Hofman said. Ken Williamson and Jill Burkhardt will talk about how to care for your well and pasture (respectively). Guests will also get to talk tree pests with Lorraine Taylor of the George Pegg Botanic Garden and chickens with University of Alberta poultry professor Frank Robinson.
Cook, long-time gardener and organizer of the Seedy Sunday heritage seed events in Edmonton, will be in town to talk about unusual vegetables you can grow in your garden.
Many of the vegetables Cook will discuss may be familiar to immigrants to Canada. Methi, for example, is a quick-growing spinach-like vegetable from India that’s high in calcium and often paired with potatoes in curry. Indian food stores sell the seeds in big bags under the name “fenugreek.”
“It’s almost a cross between a herb and a green in that a little goes a long way,” Cook said.
Others are super-nutritious. The milk thistle works well in salad and its seeds are thought to reverse cirrhosis of the liver, Cook said. Golden Incan berries are golden, tomatillo-like fruits (think of a tomato with a leafy wrapper) that are packed in antioxidants.
Cook said she planned to discuss how to raise these and other vegetables at her session.
Sturgeon County’s own Patty “Lola Canola” Milligan will also be at the expo to buzz about backyard bees.
“Over the past five years, the number of beekeepers in Alberta has doubled,” she said, and most of those new keepers have small-scale backyard hives.
Milligan said media reports on the many environmental threats to bees and an interest in local food appear to be behind this trend. But beekeeping can be expensive – you’ll need about a thousand bucks to set up your own hive – and there’s a lot you need to know about this region’s climate that you can’t find online.
“Winterkill is always a risk,” she said, and a cold winter can wipe out your bees even if you do everything right.
Milligan said she would reveal her top 10 tips for beginning beekeepers and many other interesting bee facts at her talk.
Saturday’s expo will feature displays by Johnny’s Store, the Alberta Invasive Species Council, and other local groups, Hofman said. Kids will get to decorate a pot and plant a tomato, and parents will be able to buy beef on a bun in support of Sturgeon Rural Crime Watch.
The expo runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visit bit.ly/2TQvBZ7 for details.
