Allergies and sensitivities...

[fajrdrako]

This morning I went to the Farmer's Market which has been operating since spring at Lansdowne Park. I've been wanting to go since they opened, but the broken ankle made it difficult and I didn't get around to it until today. Even today, I was made aware that a short walk on a beautiful Sunday morning, which would have been simple a year ago, was problematic now. I was also a little surprised how shivery-cold it was: and there was frost on the ground.

But I enjoyed it immensely. I expected something like the Byward Market, only smaller. But it isn't. It's more interesting than that; there was a man playing a hurdy-gurdy for a charity, and people selling handmade wooden things, and people selling elegant pastries and baked goods, and people selling maple syrup, and a food court in a tent, where I had squash and pear soup for breakfast. There are lots of organic food and unusual meats like elk and bison and ostrich. I bought elk burgers and mushroom burgers and lamb (free range, local, organic) for stew. And piles of vegetables, including multicoloured carrots - why did that charm me so much? I'm making lamb stew for supper.

As I've probably said, I'm experimenting with a rotation diet to try to get more energy by keeping allergies (and candidiasis symptoms) at bay. So this sort of thing has been on my mind lately.

And New Zealand spinach, which is new to me.

I'm experimenting with a rotation diet in an attempt to fight allergies (and encroaching candidiasis) and to get more energy. I know allergies are everwhere, but I was somewhat saddened to see a booth at the Farmer's Market selling "epi-pals", a colourful pouch for kinds to wear to keep their epi-pen to hand. Used to be that you could only find that kind of thing a specialist stores.

About an hour after seeing this, I overhead a conversation on Bank street, between a little girl aged maybe six, and her mother.

Kid: He can't eat cheese.
Mother: He can't eat ice cream, either.
Kid: Why not?
Mother: Because he has allergies.

I guess it's the way of the world. I wonder what proportion of the world has to worry about reactions to what they eat.

Comments

[benbenberi.livejournal.com]

Multi-colored carrots: I was told some time back that the original carrot was actually purple, and that it was selective breeding that gave us the now-normal orange kind. So I guess the carrot genome contains a rainbow.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Ditto potatoes. There was an exhibit on the origin of the potato at the (Canadian) National Museum of Science and Technology on this a few years ago. The variety of potatoes and potato colours still available in Peru (or from specialty vendors) is very cool.

I'm curious how much of a taste difference there is between the multi-coloured carrots & regular carrots. There's definitely some difference between (say) Yukon Gold and red potatoes, but not a lot.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There was an exhibit on the origin of the potato at the (Canadian) National Museum of Science and Technology on this a few years ago.

Wasn't that fascinating? I've forgotten a lot of the facts now, but I remember that many of them were surprising.

I love different varieties of potatoes. Too bad the really exotic stuff is expensive.

I'll let you know if the different-coloured carrots taste different. I assume the food value is about the same? My first thought was that carotene is orange, and yellow (or purple) carrots must have a different carotene level, but that isn't necessarily true.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There was a purple carrot in the bunch I bought; it looked very strange.