Our Saskatoon Correspondent is on Holiday.

The Wheatland Café Renews for a 5th Season ACROSS SASKATCHEWAN – The popular noontime cooking show, The Wheatland Café, returns for a fifth season on CTV. Cooking host CJ Katz will be back cooking up delicious meal solutions that are made from scratch but are simple and quick to prepare. A big focus on the past two seasons has been showcasing Saskatchewan food and local producers and that focus will continue this season. Angel Blair will be back cooking with CJ after a year on maternity leave. The new season starts on Wednesday September 8th. Tune into CTV across the province at 12:15 every Wednesday.

Oatstanding Bakery Closes REGINA – It’s a sad day when a business closes and even sadder one when a business with a quality product closes. Last Friday July 23rd, Oatstanding Bakery, owned by Rob Fuller closed its doors. According to Manager Angela Fuller, a big problem was Health Canada not permitting the company to list the product, which is made with uncontaminated oats, as Gluten Free. Uncontaminated oats (oats never grown near crops that contain gluten), are for all intents and purposes gluten free. Health Canada has very strict guidelines regarding health claims and only a handful of ingredients fall into that category. What is particularly sad about this closure is it leaves a big hole in the gluten-free market across the West, where Oatstanding distributed their products. It’s extremely difficult for those who have a gluten digestion issue to get enough fibre in their diet and oats fit the bill superbly. Oatstanding Bakery is selling the formulation for all of their products as well as all bakery equipment. There is also a 3-year lease left on the building if you’re looking for space. For more information, contact the bakery at (306) 565-6287.

Italian Star Taking a Holiday REGINA – Owner Carlo Giambattista and his family will be taking a well-deserved vacation from September 6 – 19th. During this time, the popular deli will be closed. Make sure you stock up all those good things before then.

Regina Farmer’s Market News

• SunEarthYou (also known as “The Sprout Guy”) will soon be selling frozen wheatgrass shots. Make Henry Dyck’s booth your last stop when leaving the market. They will be sold in 1 oz shots. Just take them home and pop them in the freezer. Add a frozen cube to smoothies for quick boost.
• FarmGate Food is back selling eggs again. My suggestion would be the preorder as these sell really, really fast. They also have Berkshire pork and lamb, which you can also pre-order. Contact FarmGate at www.farmgatefood.ca.
• Lincoln Gardens is bursting with produce. If you’re looking for some different veggies, try their orange beets (don’t forget to cook up the beet greens. They are incredibly nutritious.), red carrots and yellow zucchini.
• Over the Hill Orchards has fresh sour cherries for sale. They are not pitted because pitted cherries are highly perishable. No worries though. I hand pitted 2 ½ cups in just 10 minutes. These cherries make the most delicious pie!
• Lajord Colony has orange cauliflower. Market Manager Ada Bennett says it has a creamy buttery taste.
• Golden Prairie has many cuts of wild boar as well as sausages.
• And here’s some interesting news – the market may soon have a vendor next year selling goat cheese. We’ll keep you posted on that development when it happens.

by Bev Robertson, President, The Bushwakker Brewpub
The craft beer industry sometimes sounds a bit like Rodney Dangerfield. We complain that the mainstream media does not carry as much coverage of craft beer as is warranted by the size of the craft beer market. We point to the fact that 60%-65% of the North American population drinks beverage alcohol, depending on whose survey you read. Twenty-five percent more people claim beer as their drink of choice than those who claim wine as their drink of choice, but wine gets much more coverage in most newspapers and television programs than beer. At this point we must point out that Savour Life is a notable exception and should be congratulated for being far ahead of the curve.

Re: Customer Dis-Loyalty

Dear CJ,

I do hear and agree with most of your comments about Superstore / Loblaws, now if I had a family of four to feed I would definitely look closer at the prices, volume and item counts, but like you I prefer my local grocer and Safeway and Loblaws. Specialty shops like Italian Star, the Farmer’s Market, etc are godsends and I would not trade them for anything. John Russell’s column was nice to read this week, two notes here: If you are travelling anywhere near Portage La Prairie, just a few miles east on the north side of the #1 highway is the Little Red Barn. They feature locally grown corn, bell peppers, potatoes, etc and have been a must-stop on my travels since the early 1990s when I lived in Brandon. Just two weeks ago while in Brandon and Winnipeg two groups of us made two separate trips to fill cars up with corn. Secondly, the multinationals are throwing it pretty thick, I first noticed this phenomenon when I was about 18 years old when Pilsbury went from a 128g pizza pop to a 100g.....and I know I am going to get slogged on this website but they changed the recipe...I always had a child’s love of deep fried pizza pops from the hockey rink....so I do enjoy them as a treat from time to time...but much less so now.... As always keep up the great work, thanks for another informative issue. ~  Warm regards, Keith Tramer CAIB, President, Tramer Insurance Brokers

Dear, CJ, Hah! I thought I was the only one around who hated Loblaw's marketing strategy. I want to buy Campbell's Soup, Hellman's Mayo, Heinz's Catsup, etc. etc. These are decades old if not 100 year plus names you trust. Who the hell is the "President" anyway... ~ E.D.

[Publisher's Comment: This article published last week in my Sugar Cube's column generated a lot of response from readers. If you're interested in what other's had to say about supermarket service - click here and scroll down to the bottom of the article.]