Local Flavours with Food Stylist Ruth Gangbar

I’m Ruth Gangbar, a food stylist with an off-grid cottage rental biz in PEC (plus, I really love to cook and eat). I’ve been invited to show you how to build your own Charcuterie board, inspired by the one I styled on page 58 of the Bay of Quinte Discovery Guide, with photography by Johnny C Y Lam. Given it’s not raining, and the Farmer’s Markets are open in both Belleville & Quinte West (Trenton) off I go to gather what I need for this “How-to” post for the “Foodie Weekend in Belleville”.

Let’s get started!

1) Assemble your ingredients:

Belleville Farmers’ Market (Tues, Thurs, Sat)  provided:

Farm eggs, green beans, baby orange carrots: Lookout Point Farm Marmora 

Organic cabbage and albino beet sauerkraut, speckled butter lettuce:  Frog Pond Gardens @frogpondgardens 

Maple syrup:  Fosterholm Farms @FosterholmFarmsPicton

Purple carrots: Jackie’s Market Stand 

Quinte West Farmers Market (Wed, Sat) in Trenton provided:

Black raspberries and new baby onions: Back to the Country Preserves

Pizza dough: Dough Mama @Doughmamamama

Sweet and sour mustard: Just Herbs and Spices 

Rosemary garlic potato bread:  Earth Oven Breadman Maynooth

Spiced Gouda, Italian Gorgonzola, mini Kaiser(GF) and Ladjager salami, Westphalian Ham, haggis (yes, haggis!), pickled Amsterdam onions, Empire Jalapeño and Chillies Mozz, oat cakes: Trenton Delicatessen 93 Dundas St W. Trenton @TrentonDelicatessen

Organic Portuguese artisanal olive oil,  Morrison Point Farm Summer Wildflower Honey: The Local Food Shop.

2) Assemble your tableware

3) Start Building—the FUN part

I made delicious deviled dggs using the sweet and sour Mustard & mayo in the filling, topped with Organic sauerkraut,chives and smoked paprika.
Green beans and baby onions got tossed on a hot grill pan, while I baked a Black Raspberry, cheese curd and sage Focaccia Bread using the pizza dough…drizzled with some wonderful olive oil and honey for dipping. A real surprise was the Haggis, which I quickly seared and then caramelized in Fosterholm Maple Syrup before slicing. It’s got a great texture! — with steel-cut oats adding a slight chewiness.

If you’d like more practice please join me for a food styling and photography workshop on September 10th.  Details at ruthgangbar.com.