A family from one of the US congregations of our church has been in France for two years now, engaging in what I would call pathfinder mission work. By that I mean they are travelling all over France to see if there are people with a hunger for the gospel and Christian fellowship, and to discover how practical it would be to locate somewhere in France and live as the French do. As I read their reports it appears they are doing a fine job on both accounts.

One of their recent reports described a trip to the Bretagne region. As they do, they described the history, the countryside, the architecture, the local culture and the local food. Especially the food! I was aware that Bretagne was known for crêpes, but I didn’t know that most of the butter consumed in France is produced in Bretagne. The French don’t much care for margarine, so that means immense quantities of rich, creamy butter are produced in Bretagne..

When we lived in Montréal thirty years ago, we considered it a special treat to go to the Crêperie Bretonne for a meal. It was a little Mom and Pop place located on Avenue Duluth, close to rue St. Denis. There weren’t many tables and only a low wall separating the kitchen from the dining area. The husband ran the kitchen and we could watch as he mixed the batters, fried the crêpes on a large grill and then filled them with whatever filling we had ordered (meats, cheeses, fruits) and rolled them up. Several different flours were offered for the batter, my favourite was sarrasin (buckwheat). I suppose there may have been other syrups offered, but I always chose maple or blueberry, which are québecois rather than breton. The restaurant is no longer there, there are other crêperies in Montréal but probably none so authentically breton.

Still on the topic of food, Québec shows its kinship with France in the variety of locally manufactured foods and the emphasis on natural ingredients. When we were there last summer, friends offered us a taste of a cheese made from sheep’s milk.

Ever since our neighbour to the south began loudly threatening tariffs on just about anything made outside of the USA, many Canadian consumers have begun to diligently search for Canadian-made products. Some will see something labelled Made in the USA or Grown in the USA and put it back on the store shelf. La Presse of Montréal has been running a daily column about how to buy as Canadian as possible. First they list products made in Québec, then products made in the rest of Canada, then elsewhere in the world, and lastly those made in the USA.

A couple of days ago the column’s topic was prepared mustard. Two things stood out. First the surprising number of small and thriving manufacturers in Québec. Secondly, they mentioned that no matter where in the world prepared mustard is made, the mustard seeds were probably grown in Saskatchewan. That got me to wondering why we here in Saskatchewan are buying mustard that is made in other places, other countries? Why are there no local mustard manufacturers?

A quick search of the internet showed me things were better than I thought. Down in the town of Gravelbourg in southern Saskatchewan there is a business called Gravelbourg Mustard, that makes eight different flavours of prepared mustard and it is available in many stores, including the largest supermarkets in our closest city. That will be on our shopping list the next time we go to Saskatoon!