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ABOVE: Pastor Bill Harder of Camrose, Alta., uses a jar lid to cut rings of
lefse to get ready for rolling.
RIGHT: Rochelle Planz of Camrose spent the day rolling dough.
BY MARY MACARTHUR
CAMROSE BUREAU
An alphabet book based on Alberta
food and farmers has won a food literature
award.
Foodshed: An Edible Alberta Alphabet,
which profiles 76 Alberta growers
and producers, won the best food
literature award at the 2012 Gourmand
World Cookbook Awards and
will compete for the Gourmand Best
in the World Awards during the Paris
Cookbook Fair.
“It’s the Oscars of food writing,” said
author Dee Hobsbawn-Smith.
She said she used her extensive
network of contacts to tell the story of
food.
Through the farmers, Hobsbawn-
Smith discusses sustainability, animal
welfare, farm labour and the
environment.
“These farmers are largely engaged
NEWS
in sustainable agriculture for the
local Alberta market,” Hobsbawn-
Smith said about the dairy, cheese,
wine, beef, market garden, lamb,
grass fed beef, wild rice and asparagus
farmers whom she interviewed.
“I wanted to profile people who are
leaders making changes and are
inspiring to the public,” said Hobsbawn-Smith,
now of Saskatoon.
Hobsbawn-Smith has been using,
promoting and celebrating local food
THE WESTERN PRODUCER | WWW.PRODUCER.COM | DECEMBER 13, 2012
since 1992, when she opened her
Calgary restaurant, Foodsmith. It’s a
trend she believes is here to stay.
“There are a lot of good reasons for
wanting to eat local food. People like
knowing their money is going to local
farmers, not disappearing into a vast
food distribution network.”
She said consumers are increasingly
interested in knowing more
about food and the farmers who produce
it, and her book is a way to help
ABOVE: Jordan Watson of
Rosalind, Alta., concentrates as
she lifts the lefse off the pan.
LEFT: Colleen Mosand, left, and
Heather Fleck roll out the lefse
while Rick Bratrud flips the
lefse from two grills. | MARY
MACARTHUR PHOTOS
CHRISTMAS TRADITION | NORWEGIAN FOOD
Ready, set, bake — Norwegian style
Potato flat bread |
Experts and newbies
gather to make lefse
BY MARY MACARTHUR
CAMROSE BUREAU
79
BAWLF, Alta. — The need to carry
on the Norwegian tradition of baking
lefse for Christmas brought families
together for a lefse-making bee.
Half a dozen families wiped the
dust off their mother’s and grandmother’s
lefse grills, floys and rolling
pins to spend the day making lefse
for the second annual lefse making
party at the Bawlf Lutheran Church
hall.
Colleen Mosand said spending the
day making lefse is always more fun
when you turn the baking into a party.
It’s also a way of ensuring younger
people learn the skill of making the
Norwegian flat bread.
The rolling pins are covered in a
knee-high sock to ensure the correct
consistency for rolling.
Several kinds of floy, or lefse sticks,
were used for lifting the lefse off the
grill.
Each family brought 18 cups of
potatoes to use for the lefse mixture,
which at the end of the day would be
used for their Christmas food.
COOKBOOK | ALBERTA AWARD
Cookbook profiling Alberta food producers wins award
introduce farmers to consumers.
“They ask where to go to find farmraised
animals and ‘how do I know
what they raise is healthy?’ ”
She said the book, which was published
in April, has helped continue
the conversation about food between
farmers and consumers.
“People want more information
and to gain more knowledge of their
food and how to access it. It’s a book
about food with recipes thrown in.”