Farmers’ Market Thrives In Sunshine
Vendors were kept busy with the turn out to yesterday’s market
Prince George, BC – Business was brisk at the Prince George Farmers’ Market at Wilson Square, as the crowds turned out to shop for local products in yesterday’s sunshine.
In just her 6th time at the market, new vendor, Kelly Little, was on her way to another sell-out. As the ‘chef’ behind Cariboo Culinary Artisan Smoked Sea Salts & Culinary Enhancements, Little uses knowledge gained on both Vancouver Island and the Carribbean to infuse coarse grain Mediterranean sea salts with a variety of herbs and spices.
She emphasizes her blends are ‘finishing salts’, applied sparingly after preparing your dishes.
"The premise of a finishing salt is to reduce or eliminate the table salt that we cook with," she says. "If you use a finishing salt, you will potentially reduce your sodium intake by 30- to 50-percent."
While she mixes it up every week, some of the blends available yesterday included a lemon pepper salt, a lime and chile infusion, and a vegetarian blend that combined various spices for a smoky bacon flavour – it had a reddish hue in honour of Canada Day.
Little says many people believe they need to cut out salt from their diets, but, she says, it’s often the fillers in the salts and the amounts used that pose health problems. She points out salt has many nutrients – potassium, iron, phosphorous – the body needs.
And for those needing something sweet, she also offers up flavoured finely ground cane sugar. Just maybe to rim the glass of your favourite cool beverage on a sun-filled afternoon.
Comments
Be careful about trying to eliminate all salt from your diet. I know of one lady who did this, only to go into a coma from sodium deficiency. She was a long time in the hospital and still isn’t her old self today, aobut two years later.
Indeed, salt is so important that it was one of the earliest items traded over long distances in some parts of the world.
Thank you “give more”. I wasn’t aware there was such a thing as sodium deficiency. My wife has stopped using salt for 16 years due to news of sodium being so bad for us. I’ll warn her. Thanks again.
One’s body needs electrolytes, not necessarily sodium. In north America it’s nearly impossible to have a sodium deficiency.
But with a lot of sweating, etc,. one can run low on electrolytes, of which potassium is one. A great source of potassium is bananas and raisins.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/263142-potassium-levels-in-raisins-banana/
“Be careful about trying to eliminate all salt from your diet.”
Who would do such a thing?
Everything in moderation. And eat bacon whenever possible. ;-)
Install a salt lick on your dining table. :-0
It is VERY possible to have a sodium deficiency in North America. Older women in particular seem to be susceptible, especially if they do all of their own cooking from scratch. Processed foods and restaurant meals contain a lot of salt. Cooking from simple, basic foods means low salt and some people take it a bit too far.
Unfortunately, I developed a taste for salt when I lived in a tropical country…I drank so much water when I was doing active physical work to keep hydrated that I pushed my salt levels too low. I had to remind myself to “top up” with extra salt, a habit that has been hard to break here in Canada where I don’t need the extra salt.
Drink a couple of cans of V8 juice a day, and the average person will get enough salt for the day …..
Has anyone ever counted the number of stalls and determined how many of them are actually occupied by “farmers”? I think farmers are outweighed by those who sell crafts as well as processed foods such as the spices, bread, etc.
We really do not have enough of a farming community here to service a one time a week crowd willing to spend money on locally grown farm products.
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