Tracks North, Cuisine Quebecoise
The cuisine of Québec is very influenced by French style cooking- more so than many other French speaking areas- but with more of an emphasis on New World ingredients. For example, there is a lot more game, maple, pine and other tree sugars, and foraged ingredients used in Quebecoise cuisine. Only a few hours from Boston, and even from Maine, cuisine Québecoise often used what look a bit like traditional New England ingredients… making a great home for our local scallops, foraged mushrooms, and more.
A Québecoise kitchen looks and sounds like the pre modernist French kitchen, complete with butter everywhere, but smells like a new world winter.
Listen to the sounds of Tracks North
The Tracks North menu is based on some of Josh and Katrina’s travel. In Montreal they found a surprisingly temperate February weekend, great vintage store finds, treacherous outdoor staircases, fun food markets, great book stores, and SO MANY amazing restaurants (Agrikol, Le Vin Papillon, Larry’s, and more). There were also some mediocre bagels...but I guess they like them a lot there. Many of these restaurants are alluded to in the style of the dishes on the Tracks North menu, but Larry’s...oh Larry’s...this restaurant actually inspired us to completely change our a la carte service style to make one menu available all day long, lunch through dinner. If you are ever in Montreal, you’ve got to go to Larry’s.
a photo of katie trying on the chef’s coat at Peregrine (aka a story for another day)
But...in addition to a little bit of travel (which most Juliet menus are based on), this one is also a little bit in tribute to Juliet manager, Katie...who is from just this side of Canada (Maine) and who grew up with a Quebecoise pantry. She brought Creton (hmm… how to say… a sort of rustic Canadian charcuterie made from pork), to a very special potluck we held in 2016, inviting the staff to cook some of their favorite recipes from home for the public, celebrating the diversity of cultures represented in our restaurant
Every week, we will get in half a pig from Dogpatch Farm in Maine (inching closer to Canada). It is a heritage breed, called mulefoot. More on the farm, and the pigs, below.
That will get used throughout the dishes on this menu. We actually set this arrangement months ahead of time, to purchase 2 whole pigs in February/March, (delivered in four installments because of space), which is incredibly helpful to the farmers planning their year, making it easier for them to do a great job. Livestock farming is very difficult, risky (financially), work.
dispatch form Sue, farmer and friend of Juliet
I'm [that’s Susan, the farmer] fixing the food chain in my little corner. Why? Because I CAN!
As a fed-up consumer and mother, I decided to grow our own meat. This idea quickly expanded to grow a little extra for our extended family and then it snowballed into growing to sell at the local farmer's markets. And somewhere in the mix of it all it was the decision to raise a rare breed. So in April of 2012, we loaded up the truck for a trip to New York to purchase the first of our Mulefoot breeding stock, Nibbles and Pinky. A few weeks later I picked up our boar, Chester, in New Hampshire.
We have since added two bloodlines from Indiana and another from Vermont in order to keep diversity in our Mulefoot herd. Fencing has been added yearly to enclose about 24 acres [that’s a lot] so that they have plenty of room to roam and just be pigs. These critters deserve a happy dignified life even if it is only a short life. It's not just that happy critters taste better, it's the right way to treat them, plain & simple.
Our pig herd numbers are in almost constant fluctuation as pigs head to market and new litters are born. For a very short time in the fall of 2014 we had over 100 pigs on premises! I'm amazed at how the farm has grown in such a short period of time and I truly love being a farmer. A huge Thank You to all who have helped make it all happen!
At Dogpatch Farm we believe and practice "know your farmer & fisherman". Buying local isn't just about great tasting food; it's about safer, healthier food, supporting the local economy and cutting the carbon footprint of our food supply. We value organizations that aspire to embrace fair trade principles and the many individual consumers who use their purchasing power to make a positive change in the lives of people and communities.
Dogpatch Farm is a Farrow to Finish farm which means our pigs are all born and raised right here on the farm until they go to market.
We are happy to sell Mulefoot piglets as registered breeding stock to help this breed recover to sustainable numbers. We currently have 5 bloodlines with plans to add more in 2017. I believe there are still fewer than 500 registered Mulefoot in the U.S. though I'm not sure of the exact population, they remain on the ABLC's "Critical" list. Please contact us to be added to the waiting list for breeding stock.
At Dogpatch Farm we raise pigs humanely in the woods & fields without the use of growth hormones or routine antibiotics. It's good for them, good for you and good for our environment.
