SOLAR GARDENS at Avalon

Welcome to the website of Solar Gardens at Avalon, our charming Solar Gardens shop conveniently located in central Saskatoon. We are a locally owned and operated business, established in 2005.

While we are perhaps best known for our beautiful succulents and succulent bowl classes (and now succulent class kits you can do at home), we are also very pleased to carry delicious and varied balsamic vinegars and olive oils, exotic spice blends, flavoured maple syrups, unusual candies and chocolates, our own delicious sangria line, puzzles, giftware and much much more. Explore this website to learn more about our succulents and exciting products.

Our website is frequently updated. We revise its content as new classes and products become available, and as new seasonal events approach. We update our CURRENT AVAILABILITY plant page very regularly and this is where you can order for contactless curbside pickup. We also offer in-store shopping, if you prefer not to pre-order and utilize our curbside pick up option.

Particularly at this time of Covid-19 physical distancing, we want this website to provide an easy way for our clients to stay abreast of our available products and new developments.

We are now in the process (on a continual basis) of posting a more complete listing of our many available products and will be adding a list of current pricing for products to make it easy for you to order any item via email.

Consider signing up for our newsletters, Facebook and Instagram. They are probably the best ways to keep abreast of all things Solar Gardens.

HOW WE ARE HANDLING THE AGE OF COVID-19

This year, more than ever, we need the normalcy of gardening and enjoying our back yards and being able to enjoy our decks, balconies, gardens and homes.

We have instituted a number of changes to allow you to easily and safely access our gorgeous succulents and other products.

We now offer both curbside pick up (of prepaid orders) and in-store shopping. You can order any of our products online for curbside pick up by emailing solargardenclasses@gmail.com OR come right in the store to shop.

E-transfer is the preferred method of prepayment for these services. If shopping in-store we accept Visa, Mastercard, debit and cash.

We are not offering any classes currently due to covid-19 and safe social distancing practices , but we have created convenient and beautiful class kits that allow you to make succulent arrangements at home.

Information on our "make at home" class kits, our other various products and how to order any Solar Gardens items for curbside pickup are available on this website

A number of changes have been instituted at our shop to meet the safety and public health regulations. These guidelines are now familiar to all of us.

• Outside and inside our shop, we ask people to maintain physical distancing of 2 metres (6 feet) or more.
• We have a mandatory face mask or face shield requirement.
• We have hand sanitizer placed near the door and we ask anyone entering the shop to use it immediately upon entry.
• There is a maximum of 15 people allowed in our shop at a time and the flow of movement along aisles is in one direction to prevent your path crossing with others.
• We have a dedicated entrance door and exit door.
• Sampling of our food items and our spice “sniffing jars” will not be available.
• We ask that customers do not visit our shop if you are feeling unwell.
  
• We apologize that our washrooms cannot be available to the public or even our clients during this time.
• Please demonstrate patient and mindful awareness of others when moving within our shop.
• Our staff may be called to do curbside deliveries while helping you and so they may need to attend to others. We apologize in advance if they are briefly called away.
• Please be patient and kind with each other and with our staff. We are all finding our way through this unusual and challenging time as best we can.
• Ultimately we hope to meet your needs and help you find a beautiful item while everyone remains safe and happy.

Thank you for understanding, following and respecting these public health guidelines.

And please note: Our Acreage is now permanently closed.

Effective April 2020 we have permanently closed our acreage greenhouses and Firestick Cafe to the general public and so the acreage is no longer available for classes, shopping, events, bookings or dining. Thank you for all your wonderful support of our acreage and Firestick Cafe over the years. It has been a great and challenging adventure. We plan to write a book about our non-stop, unbelievable, fantastic journey someday....with lots of pictures....and recipes...why not? Thankfully, our memories are very, very long!

Our acreage will now focus solely on the greenhouse production of quality succulents for Solar Gardens at Avalon and our wholesale clients across Canada.

But we are very happy to say that all of our wonderful products are now available through our Avalon shop. We hope you can pop by from time to time to check out our ever changing products and succulents.

HERE'S SOME REALLY GOOD "SPICE ADVICE"

Dried herbs and spices add a lot of flavour to our dishes. They are readily available and convenient to use. When we're able to blend a combination of spices and herbs the end result usually leads to a wonderful meal. Preserving the quality, freshness and flavour of your spices and seasonings will give you great tasting dishes and help eliminate boring meals.

Spices don't spoil, but over time they do lose their strength. When stored properly spices retain their potency longer than you might think. Whole peppercorns, nutmegs, cloves, cinnamon sticks and whole seeds, such as coriander, cumin, and cardamom all last longer than their ground counterparts.

Proper Storage

There are two critical keys to maintaining the optimum flavor and in getting the greatest value out of your herbs and spices. Store your spices and seasoning blends in air tight containers and keep them in a cool dark place. Keeping containers tightly closed will protect them from moisture and oxidation. Keeping them away from direct light will keep their colour from fading. We've also found that when spices are stored in glass jars they tend to retain more of their essential oil content (this is where the flavour is).

Never store your spices above your stove as the additional heat will more quickly lead to degradation of their quality. Also don't store them directly above your dishwasher as the increased humidity will also shorten their shelf life. Stored spices do best in temperatures below 70° and in lower humidity environments. While achieving both of these may be impractical in your kitchen, the closer you can get to the ideal storage of them the more flavour you will retain.

If you have ever heard it's good to freeze spices and herbs forget it! Condensation will be a problem each time the jar or bag of spice comes out of the freezer and is likely to introduce unwanted moisture to the spices. We also do not recommend shaking herbs or spices out of the bottle directly into something you're cooking as any steam/moisture rising up from the cooking dish will introduce moisture into your jar of spices. Instead it's better to shake the spice into the palm of your hand and then add it to the dish you're cooking.

Some people like to store red spices like chili powder, cayenne pepper and paprika in the refrigerator to prevent loss of colour and flavour. As mentioned in the freezer scenario above, this does more harm than good.

Whole spices keep the longest because they have not been cracked or ground which would expose their volatile oils to the air, which speeds up the breakdown of their flavor. This is why ground spices have a shorter shelf life than whole spices or seeds.

So Many Different Recommendations - Which are Correct?

The general recommendations for freshness dating are four years for whole spices and two years for ground. You may hear people say that spices should be replaced every six months. However, most spices are only harvested once a year, so it certainly doesn't make sense to replace them every six months.

If spices and herbs are kept as we have discussed the shelf life will be as follows:
  

• Whole spices and dried herbs, leaves and flowers will keep 1 - 2 years.       
• Seeds will keep 2 - 3 years and whole roots (i.e. ginger root or galangal root) will keep 3 years.       
• Ground spices and herb leaves keep 1 year.       
• Ground roots will keep for 2 years.

Just because a spice or seasoning blend is outside the date range listed above doesn't mean that the spice needs to be tossed in the trash. To determine if a spice or seasoning is still good you have to remember "appearance" and "aroma". A spice that is no longer acceptable will have lost much of it's vibrant colour and will instead appear dull and faded. The bigger key though is smell. To determine whether or not a ground spice is still good gently shake the container with the cap on. Remove the cap and smell the spice to see if the potent aroma of the spice is still present. If it is, then your spice is still in good shape. Spices don't just all of a sudden go from good one day to bad the next (like milk). From the time they're harvested they slowly begin to deteriorate and what you want to do is to prolong their optimum flavour for as long as possible with proper storage.

The Bottom Line ....literally haha!

A good overall practice to follow is to only purchase high quality dried herbs, spices and spice blends from reliable suppliers & in small quantities, so that you can easily use them up in a reasonable period of time.