A story by a thousand cuts

When is the last time you had your knives sharpened?

I don't mean using the shitty sharpening steel that came with your Kitchen-Aid butcher block. I mean actually took your knives to a cutler, someone who has sharpens, maintains, and resurrects knives to their true glory.

It's ok. I've never done it either.

Image via Grindhouse's Instagram feed. 

But that may change, now that I've met Joshawa Lamkey from Grindhouse Blade & Ware Care. Lamkey has been sharpening blades here in Halifax for the past few years, but his devotion to all things bladed is not just in their maintenance: it is in the stories found within.

Joshawa Lamkey is a cutler, creating and sharpening knives for a living. But in the latest episode of "Assis Toi", Lamkey tells us how knives can be windows into the lives of their owners, both current and former. For more information about Joshawa and his business, Grindhouse Blade Care, check out: http://www.grindhouseedge.com "Assis Toi" is a radio series that airs on Information Morning and Island Morning on CBC Radio in the Maritimes. It tells stories about the kinds of relationships that people have with food. For more info on "Assis Toi" and its producer, Simon Thibault, check out: http://simonthibault.com http://twitter.com/simonathibault

In this latest - and last - episode of Assis Toi, Lamkey tells the story of how an unsuspecting-looking knife turned out to be a hand-hammered beauty.  You can stream the episode here, or you can download the podcast via iTunes here. 

Update, September 3rd, 2015: I got a lovely email today from a listener named Harriet McReady who heard my piece about Josh and his knives. She gave me permission to share her email with you.

My father always kept his knives in top condition, and I have two of his sharpening stones and use them are use them regularly. (Perhaps not as well as he did... as he would sit calmly for what seemed a very long time... I have not such patience. ) He also carried a small stone in his pocket, which he used anywhere he found a dull knife!

But I wanted mostly to tell you that I have a knife that was my great-grandmother’s; a bread knife. It was given to me by my aunt, who died in 2012 at the age of 91. It has an inscription looks like “The Etna Bread Knife”

Patent May 25 1886 Landers  Frary &Clark New Britain Conn. U.S.A. (I think these letters are correct.)

The handle is wooden, with a carved decorative braid. I use it nearly every day and treasure it greatly. 

My aunt said a bread knife should never be used for anything but bread... and I obey!

Just goes to show: you never know where another story can pop up.

Old stomping grounds, new foraging grounds.

It can be complicated to explain where I grew up. 

I was raised in a village in Nova Scotia, called Pointe-de-l'Église. But it's also known as Church Point. You see, I grew up in a french-speaking community, in an anglophone province, hence the two names.  The community is called Clare, which is also its municipal designation. It's also known as la Baie Sainte-Marie, or the french shore, which is the name given to the series of french-speaking Acadian villages that dot the shoreline in the area between Digby and Yarmouth.  

Is that as clear as mud? Good. I'll just call it home for now. 

Participants in the Tintamarre, an Acadian tradition where participants gather together to make as much noise as possible, to remind the rest of the world that Acadians are still here. 

Suffice to say, I recently went home to visit my family, participate in the 60th anniversary of the Festival acadien de Clare, which is the oldest Acadian festival in the world. I had the chance to go picking fruit in my parents' orchard, and even go fishing for mackerel. You can see the best bits of the trip over on Steller. 

A crab apple tree in my parent's orchard.

But I also went there to do some work for an upcoming project, an audio documentary that will be podcast in the next few months. I can't say much more than that, but stay tuned. I'll keep you posted.

I also had the chance to visit my old alma mater, Université Sainte-Anne, Nova Scotia's only francophone university. It was there that I ran into Sébastien Dol. Sébastien and I were both students at Ste-Anne, and his father was a professor in the science department at the time. When I ran into him, he suggested he take me out to go foraging for mushrooms on the campus, a habit he picked up from his father.

Sébastien Dol spent many a day in the woods as a kid. But he wasn't always playing hide-and-go-seek with other kids. He was usually out with his father, seeking out edible wild mushrooms that grew in the area. In the latest episode of "Assis Toi", Sébastien recounts tales about his father, and how they bonded while foraging for all sorts of local mushrooms. "Assis Toi" is a radio series that airs on Information Morning and Island Morning on CBC Radio in the Maritimes. It tells stories about the kinds of relationships that people have with food. For more info on "Assis Toi" and its producer, Simon Thibault, check out: http://simonthibault.com http://twitter.com/simonathibault

You can hear more about Sébastien in this episode of Assis Toi, which you can listen to via streaming over at CBC, or you can download the podcast on iTunes.

Symphony In Blue

This week's episode of Assis Toi might as well be subtitled, In The Basement. 

That's where Lyndell Findlay, owner and cheesemaker from Blue Harbour Cheese plies her trade.

Lyndell Findlay is a devotee of cheese. But perhaps her greatest love is for all things blue. In the latest episode of "Assis Toi," find out how this woman went from working for the UN with refugees to becoming a cheese maker in a basement in the north end of Halifax. Find out more about Lyndell's cheese-making at http://blueharbourcheese.com "Assis Toi" is a radio series that airs on Information Morning and Island Morning on CBC Radio in the Maritimes. It tells stories about the kinds of relationships that people have with food. For more info on "Assis Toi" and its producer, Simon Thibault, check out: http://simonthibault.com http://twitter.com/simonathibault

Since she launched her Urban Blue cheese, a gorgonzala-esque double cream blue cheese, Findlay has been amping up her production, as tasters and buyers seem to be following her wherever her cheese is sampled. She has been chronicled in The Globe and Mail, and is currently working on a few more cheese products which have yet to reach the market.

You can listen to the latest episode of Assis Toi by streaming it here, or downloading it here. I also invite you to Have A Seat with Lyndell, down below.

"Have A Seat" is a collection of previously unaired audio from interviews that air on CBC Radio's "Assis Toi". The series looks at people's relationships with food. Some of the world's best blue cheeses are traditionally made in caves, but Lyndell Findlay wanted to create a truly urban cheese. That became Urban Blue, and Findlay has found herself with quite a hit. In this episode, Lyndell talks about creating an "approachable" blue. For more on Urban Blue and Blue Harbour Cheeses, check out: http://blueharbourcheese.com For more on Simon Thibault, check out: simonthibault.com twitter.com/simonathibault

Neverending Cookbooks...

A few weeks ago, I did an episode of Assis Toi that featured author Lindsay Cameron Wilson talking about cookbooks. It appears that episode may have struck a chord with people, as Lindsay and I were invited to be on Maritime Noon, CBC Radio's noontime call-in show for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. The subject: your favorite cookbook. 

It was great to hear people tell their stories of their favourite cookbooks: how they came to be in their possession, what they have cooked from them, and so much more. What struck me the most was how many people brought up the Purity Cookbook, a simple, homey book that started out as a promotional item that - at least according to the callers - shaped their kitchens in more ways than one. Many thanks to Jonna Brewer and Polly Leger for inviting me to to come onto the show. 

You can stream the episode here, or download it here. The discussion starts at the 11:35 mark. 

Park-ing it in Nova Scotia

This week’s episodes of Assis Toi and Have A Seat wouldn’t have happened without the help of social media. 

I was at the CBC working on an episode of Assis Toi, when I checked my Twitter feed. And this is what I saw:

I was a little confused... what was one of the biggest names in Canada's culinary world doing in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia?  So I tweeted at him, asking what he was doing in the province.

Turns out he has family in that area of southwestern Nova Scotia, and was paying a visit. He was really impressed by what he saw in the area and wanted to share things with people on his social media accounts. Things like this video of sword fishing that he posted to his Instagram account. 

Clockwise from top left: Park and Neil Patrick Harris, a selection from Park's restaurant, Park and his fellow judges on Chopped Canada, down at the wharf in Yarmouth, NS. All images from Antonio Park's Instagram feed, which you should check out.

For those of you who don't know Antonio Park, here is the Coles Notes version: 

- He is the brains behind Park Resto and Lavanderia, two very successful restaurants in Montreal.

- He is of Korean heritage, raised in South America, came to Canada as a teen, and trained as a chef in Japan.

- He is a judge on Chopped Canada. 

- People go ape for his sushi. Especially celebrities.

- He brings in fish from Japan. But not just any fish. Fish that is, in layman's terms, acupunctured. 

I sent Park a message and asked him if I could interview him about his time here in Nova Scotia, and he happily agreed. You can listen to that interview in its Assis Toi version, by streaming or downloading it. Or check out Have A Seat for an extended interview with Antonio, where he tells me how his time with the men and women who work the waters in this region have changed the way he looks at fishing.

"Have A Seat" is a collection of previously unaired audio from interviews that air on CBC Radio's "Assis Toi". The series looks at people's relationships with food. A few weeks ago, Antonio Park tweeted that he was visiting Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Intrigued, I asked if i could chat with him while he was here in the province. The talented chef sat down with me for an extended chat, which has been condensed here. Have a listen. For more on Antonio Park, check out the website for Park Restaurant, http://parkresto.com For more on Simon Thibault, check out: simonthibault.com twitter.com/simonathibault (Image via Antonio Park's Twitter feed - http://twitter.com/chefantoniopark)