Great Mexican ingredients right in the Byward Market!

I first met Anne Cadotte about four years ago, when I was shopping for fresh vegetables at the Byward Market in late August.  What immediately caught my eye is that Anne had fresh Tomatillos, Serrano and Poblano chiles, which at the time were hard to come by in Ottawa. At that precise moment I became a regular client of Anne’s, and I purchased enough Tomatillos, Serranos and Poblanos to last me through the winter. 

Four years later, I still await Anne’s presence at the Byward Market, and not only does she have Tomatillos, Serranos and Poblanos, but she’s expanding her inventory to include delicacies such as Zucchini blossoms and the Spanish Pimientos del Padrón, which are becoming quite popular among foodies as a super easy Tapa.

I’m going to walk you through Anne’s stall. Let’s start with the peppers: as I mentioned, Anne sells “Serrano” chiles, which are quite hot. These are perfect for making Salsas and for pickling.  Then there are “Jalapeños” and “Habaneros”, the Habanero being extremely hot (neither of these are quite ready, but will be coming soon). Both of these chiles are ideal for Salsas. Then there is my favourite: “Poblano” chile, which is always roasted, peeled and then either stuffed, cut into strips and added to other dishes or blended to make sauces. Poblanos range from medium to very hot and are great for roasting, peeling and then freezing for use throughout the winter. Poblanos will be making an appearance in 2-3 weeks, so watch for them. Last but not least, we have “Pimientos del Padrón”, a mild, little Spanish pepper that is always prepared as an appetizer, or “Tapa” by frying in a little olive oil and sprinkled with salt. These peppers are not cultivated by many people outside Spain, so you have to go buy some and give them a try. They are delicious and extremely easy to prepare.

Anne also has an impressive quantity of tomatoes: she has acid-free yellow and tangerine vine-ripened tomatoes, red vine-ripened tomatoes, regular red field tomatoes, low acid pink field tomatoes, and little grape tomatoes. She tells me that after the first frost, they will still have vine-ripened tomatoes from their greenhouses. Anne also grows Tomatillos, which as you may know are not really tomatoes, but they look like them, hence the name.  You can buy your stash and just peel off the husk and put them directly into zipper bags and freeze to use throughout the winter.  They make the best Salsa.

Anne tells me that since we have had an extremely dry summer, some of their produce - like the Poblanos, for example - has been delayed, but it will be coming out soon. For a little booth in the Market, Anne has an impressive variety and some exotic produce that is hard to come by in the city. Her prices are extremely competitive. I think it is always nice to support our local farmers and buy produce that you know has not had to travel from far away to reach our tables.

May 16, 2005, Nepean, Ontario

When I arrived at the factory it looked like any other office, until Gaby led me to the production room where I was immediately transported back to Mexico, and the aromas of my childhood.  The unmistakable smell of warm corn dough reminded me of the “tortillerías” back home. I remember the large sliding iron doors that took the place of the store front and opened to the sights and sounds of gas-driven tortilla machines , slowly but surely turning out perfectly round and cooked tortillas.  The operator would hand stacks of warm tortillas to the women at the front counter, where they were weighed on an old-fashioned scale - 1 or 2 kilos or whatever the customer requested - and wrapped in rough brown paper to take home.  We could never resist eating those warm tortillas right away, and by the time the package made it home, it was almost half gone!

But back to Gaby’s business... Mexican Corn Products Inc. is nothing like those tortillerías I remember. This is modern technology at its best!  I’m proud to say that machine comes from my hometown of Monterrey, where Gaby’s brother went to train on the proper usage of the machine. The tortilla machine still has the same basic design as it’s old counterpart, but that’s where the similarity ends.  This little baby is completely automated and  runs on natural gas, capable of producing up to 120,000 tortillas in 8 hours!  It has a variety of controls, lights and counters which José Godinez del Toro, Gaby’s dad and partner, tried to explain. However, given my non-technical background and the fact that it sounds like jet engine when it’s heating up, I can say that I am glad it’s him and not me handling that machine!  There’s a feeder at the top of the machine where the masa  (corn flour dough) goes into and gets pressed into a thin flat band of dough that from there goes directly through the cutters. They have different shapes of cutters, ranging from the regular sized tortilla (5”), to the tortilla taquera (3”), to the round nacho shape and the triangular totopo shape.  After going through the cutter, they go on a conveyor belt to a series of 3 comales (griddles) on three different levels, one above the other, where the tortillas get flipped from side to side to ensure even cooking.  From the griddle they go back on the conveyor belt – again, on three levels, one above the other, and this one has the function of cooling the tortillas sufficiently before they get to the stacker. The stacker is the final stage of the machine process. This has a device that automatically counts the number of tortillas before the attendant pulls them out and stacks them to be weighed and bagged.  Again, this is very different from Mexico – stainless steel tables, digital scales and then the tortillas are put into plastic bags, sealed and packed into 24 kilo boxes to be shipped.  Ah... progress...

Another line of products is the chips.  They make natural, jalapeño and chipotle flavoured chips.  Packages come in 220g or 450 g bags.  The natural chips even come with a little package of salsa, so you can snack on  them like we do in Mexico!

A visit to the Mushroom Farm
Metcalfe, Ontario - April 29, 2005

I recently got back from visiting “the farm”, and by that I mean Continental Mushrooms, located in Metcalfe, Ontario. I met Chris Strang through the cooking school, and when I found out he worked at the farm, I immediately asked if I could have a tour of the place. He was very gracious and invited me over to have a peek at the place. I invited my friend and wine educator Antonio Mauriello, to come along.

As we were driving down the 9^th Line Road,  just past the cute little village of Metcalfe, we could not help but see the yellow and green farm.  As we got out of the car, the first thing we noticed was a strong sulphur and almost gassy smell, and immediately I was reminded of “compost”.

Visitors are asked to report to the office and when we walked in my first impression was of a family-owned business, down to the farm dogs Daisy and Rocky. Chris came out and immediately handed us a hard yellow helmet, explaining that those are the rules – safety always comes first. After a dubious look at our clean leather shoes, we started our tour. We were about to find out what was behind that look.

Chris began by explaining that there are 32 houses, each one 3 stories high, where the compost beds grow mushrooms at different stages.  No house is growing mushrooms at the same stage, so they ensure year-round production. We entered one of the houses and as soon as we walked in, my nose was assaulted by the most wonderful earthy aroma – it reminded me of a cream sauce with delicious chantarelles (it was close to noon, so I was getting a bit hungry!) Antonio said he could recognize all kinds of aromas he normally smells in some wine. It was quite wonderful to be there, to see those tiny mushrooms coming out of the compost beds, it’s the kind of thing you would see on PBS, on a documentary, or in a cooking show with the Chef at Large!

The mushrooms in that first house were in the early stages, around 1-2 weeks, so they were very small – some of them didn’t even look like mushrooms yet, but more like tiny white pellets just sitting there. We were informed that mushrooms don’t need any light to grow, so most of the time it is pitch black in there, and the temperature is controlled at 68 degrees Fahrenheit, with the humidity level at around 80%. Actually, if I closed my eyes, I could almost feel I was in the jungles of Veracruz, surrounded by that balmy humidity…

There has to be complete air circulation around the beds, and that is why all the walkways are made of wooden planks, not solid concrete.  In fact, when you are on the third floor, I imagine if you are even the tiniest bit afraid of heights, you would not be comfortable in the higher levels of these walkways.

We toured a couple of houses, each one growing progressively bigger mushrooms, until we came to one where the pickers were hard at work. Mushrooms are cut leaving a bit of stem with the roots behind, and are immediately put in 5 lb. boxes, to be taken to the sorting and packaging department.

From there, we climbed up to the third floor to come out the back of the farm, to see where the compost is made. Huge amounts of hay are the first thing you see – that and heavy machinery. The compost is made largely from hay, corn cobs, cocoa shells, and peat moss, among other nutrients necessary for good mushroom growth. A big machine imported from Holland takes care of breaking down the bales of hay and in the process it heats it up, thus starting the composting process.  Then, the remaining ingredients are added to it and at the end it goes into “the tunnel”, which is like a giant oven that cooks the compost, to make sure it’s completely sterilized before it finds its way to the beds. After mushrooms are picked, the compost on the beds has to be discarded, so the houses have to be completely cleaned out, new compost laid down on the beds, mushroom spores scattered and the process begins again, taking almost a month for the mushrooms to be ready for picking. The discarded compost is sold as Mushroom Compost, and there’s a huge pile of it across the road from the farm, and that’s what we smelled when we first got there. (By the way, if you find yourself near Metcalfe, you can buy some of that compost for your garden).

The sorting and packaging department is where mushrooms are graded, packaged, labeled and shipped. Mushrooms are sorted by size and appearance, being divided into 4 categories or “grades”. The majority of mushrooms are packed whole, while others are bound for the slicer, and both make their way to your friendly neighbourhood grocery stores in those blue trays with the yellow and green labels, while others are sold for canning.

There is a lot of manual labour involved in farming mushrooms.  Continental Mushrooms has now about 250 employees, and everyone we saw as we were touring had a smile for us. Production is at an amazing 200,000 pounds of mushrooms per week – that’s a lot of mushrooms! White and brown (Café) mushrooms are grown at the farm, while exotic mushrooms like Shiitakes, Oyster, Enokis and Portobellos are bought from other farms to meet the demands of the market.

Sadly, our tour came to an end, and we made our way back to the office and had to part with those hard hats (thank God!). Our leather shoes survived the experience, but that’s only because it was not raining!  Chris sent us home with a couple of boxes of mushrooms, which will make it into some sort of cream sauce for my supper, you can be sure!  We left with a deeper appreciation for the humble mushroom – it takes a lot of work for it to find its way to our tables, and it’s wonderful to have a company such as Continental Mushrooms just around the corner from Ottawa. Think about them next time you buy some mushrooms.