No one thought two days of heavy rain would result in a new limited-edition dish in Sarnia.
“I’ve been making kimchi for a while, and I usually source it from local farms when I can,” says Lo-Anne Chan, owner of Jiak, a small-batch kimchi producer in Sarnia.
“In the summer, we always try to do something together to bring attention to the fact we have three awesome organic farms in our county,” she adds. But this year, a devastating series of storms saw huge rainfall over two days in July, leaving many farmers with destroyed crops.
“Our little farm recorded 6.5 inches of rain in six days,” continues Ryan Slyzuk, farmer and co-owner of Taproots Green Gardens. “What happens when you get that much water in a week? The water just sits there, and the plants drown. For us, it was devastating.”
Earlier this year, Slyzuk installed a 750-foot tile from the back of his market garden to the roadside ditch, but with so much water in two days, the ditch backed up, and Slyzuk still lost crops.
In the spirit of minimizing food loss and advocating for ecological farming, Chan reached out to Slyzuk and two other local organic farms to give their not-quite-ripe produce a second life.
“I’ve developed relationships with the farmers who grow the vegetables my family enjoys and learned to appreciate the hardships of small-scale farming. It’s given me a better understanding of the environmental and social impacts on these small businesses and really emphasized the importance of supporting local and sustainable business,” says Chan. “Seeing my farmer friends share their stories of losing rows of crops after the heavy rains flooded their fields, I really wanted to support them by not letting their salvaged crops go to waste, but also highlight the hours of work that real people have put into growing delicious, organic vegetables.”
Chan asked organic farmers for the produce they could salvage. Chan got to work and created a kimchi called Farmers Blend, incorporating kohlrabi and carrots from Sycamore Farm Market, kale from Aslan Organics, and cabbage and bell peppers from Taproots Green Gardens.
For those unfamiliar with the joys of kimchi, it’s a nutritious fermented topping for the foods you are already eating and is very good for your gut. Chan says it’s delicious on toast with cream cheese or even a scrambled egg, rounding out the flavours of whatever you’re already eating.
Lambton-made, naturally fermented, gluten-free and vegan, Jiak’s Farmers Blend kimchi was born in two varieties: spicy kale and white cabbage. Approximately 40 jars of each blend were produced.
“I had to tweak the standard kimchi recipe a little and balance the acidity,” says Chan. “This particular recipe will be a one-off, but every year we will do something different.”
The collaboration not only helped Chan grow her bond with local organic farmers but the product is being heralded as a success in how Sarnia should think about food waste.
“Part of the reason I wanted to do this is because we need to realize there are so many things interconnected in this,” says Chan. “We’re trying to make the connection between the food on your plate and where it actually comes from. A lot of us are removed from that. We’re not in the field doing hours and hours of work.”
Slyzuk adds that “Repurposing vegetables in preserves and ferments is an age-old tradition that becomes especially practical when farmers are left with lots of ‘naturally imperfect’ produce as a result of some of nature's many challenges…Turning these vegetables into kimchi gives them a second life that is both environmentally friendly and truly delicious.”
Both Chan and Slyzuk emphasize the need for greater collaboration among Sarnia’s businesses, particularly in the food industry. They believe this will help people better understand the origins of the products we use and that local connections should be central to our efforts, as they impact so much of our lives.
Chan encourages everyone to enjoy the benefits of kimchi and says, “If you’re not sure about it, just get a little bit and add it to things you like… You can even trick your kids into eating vegetables. You can’t go wrong.”
There are still limited quantities of Jiak’s Farmers Blend spicy kale kimchi and cabbage baek kimchi at Aslan Organics, Sycamore Farm Market and Taproots Green Gardens.
Also check out Jiak’s original vegan kimchi varieties at Great Lakes Refill Co. in Sarnia.
This story was made possible by our Community Leaders Program partner.
Thank you to Community Futures Lambton for helping to expand local news coverage in Lambton County. Learn more