By Cookie Roscoe, Farmers Market Manager

As Chairman of The Board of the Winnipeg Film Group, I learned how to sync sound, operate a boom, cut picture, edit, do story boards, and act in several award winning films before climbing into my first car painted to look like a cow and driving to Ontario. This prepared me for a long and successful career as a commercial voice over and mom. At some point, I figured out that the food I was eating was eating me back, so now I work for farmers because that’s really working for me. 

I’m an enthusiastic fan of Cookin’ Greens for lots of reasons. I manage farmers markets, one for the Stop at the Wychwood Barns and one at SickKids Hospital, with a strong mandate to serve farmers first. Cookin’ Greens does a lovely thing by taking products that farmers can easily grow almost any amount of in season, and preserving and even enhancing those products for sale during all the seasons where fresh is not available; a great way for a company to help local farms thrive. That’s the number one reason I love Cookin Greens, but I have a personal reason too: I have Celiac disease and can’t tolerate any gluten in my diet, so Toby’s products are safe for me and have become a mainstay, even a comfort food. One more small, but I feel very important reason I love Cookin’ Greens is particularly squash, a great food that Ontario farmers grow that’s delicious and so often overlooked. Almost a superfood, though I don’t like that kind of hyperbole, squash is sweet and nutritious and largely overlooked, but done to perfection in 4 minutes with 3 simple steps in the mix from Cookin’ Greens. To find a dish that pretty that I can prepare so simply and serve to guests with gusto makes me very happy. 

Market Greens Recipe:

I love to come home from a market day with bags of whatever was in season that day, and turn the oven up high, and roast a few sausages on a bed of potatoes, or carrots, or cauliflower, or whatever, all cut small enough that 40 minutes in a 400˚F oven is just right.

After 20 minutes of roasting I toss the veg in the juices the sausages are releasing.

5 minutes before it’s all done, I toss it again, and put a big pan on the stove for a bag of Cookin’ Greens, choosing one that complements what’s in the oven. This is a meal that can serve me and my partner alone, with delicious leftovers in mind. Or it can be made to feed 10, depending on who dropped in after the market. There is no photo of this as it gets eaten faster than the speed of light!