Being me has it’s privileges. This includes being friends with the people who grow my food, so I am truly blessed. You all know my favourite farmers so here is a story about one of them, and how they inspired something that happened in my kitchen. I’m talking, of course, about Fred and Ingrid DeMartines, with a side of Vicki Emlaw and Tim Noxon, of course. Vicki and Tim are always in there somewhere. This started when I was heading out to Stratford to see Much Ado About Nothing at the Stratford Festival, one of my favourite Shakespeare plays. It was excellent, if you care.

Hi Fred! 

I bumped into Fred and Ingrid at the family and friends night at Momofuku’s Daisho, they are suppliers. The pork they supply is for the Bo Ssam, and it is amazing! So, I was surprised to bump into these characters at the restaurant, and got so excited that I barreled across the room for hugs. What a great couple, I’m a BIG fan. Realizing that I would be out there way the following weekend, and that it had been some times since I was out to visit the piggies I thought I should take mom and cousin Paul out for a visit pre-show. Well wouldn’t you know, Ingrid insisted that we come for lunch. What a lady. Well, we had the nicest and most delicious lunch, featuring a slow roasted boar capicollo roast. OMFG.

My favourite guys, the wild boars

Fast foward to market the following weekend, when I got it in my head that I needed to bring a bunch of ground cherries home….connect the dots and you get the following recipe, thanks to advice from Rossy, my resident chef brain.

Without further ado…(see how I did that)…Ground Cherry Chutney.

Shelled ground cherries without the husk. The taste is sweet, hint of tomato, people get different things from this when they taste it, but everyone I have ever given one to has loved them

6 cups ground cherries, shelled

½ cup finely chopped onion

¼ cup ginger, minced

1 clove garlic,  minced

½ cup honey

½ cup sugar

½ cup apple cider vinegar

1 tbs mustard

1 tbs curry powder

Oil

Salt

• Shell and clean the ground cherries
• Sautee the onion, ginger, and garlic until soft
• Add the remainder of the ingredients to the pot and simmer until combined and nice and sticky