What I enjoy most at the events are the question and answer sessions and these highlighted for me the big issues for local food in Canada today. At Toronto’s Culinarium, where we had a book club-style meeting with fabulous food to eat, the big question was how to take local food to the mainstream. The Culinarium […]
Category: The Politics of Food
The common wisdom in the local food movement is that eggs collected from happy chickens–happy because they have the chance to peck at the green grass, eat grubs, and breathe fresh air–are better. Their deep yellow yolks look better and taste more creamy, less sulphurous–better. And that these chickens are not only happier, but healthier. I
Here’s my latest piece from Maclean’s about Canadian farmers who are starting to grow tropical crops in our Nordic climate. -SE Jason Verkaik’s family has been pulling carrots from the same brown earth in Ontario’s Holland Marsh for three generations. However, these days the carrots are changing. Some of the thick, orange spears of his
I’m embarrassed to admit it but I’d never eaten congee until this morning when I ventured to a very cool Hong Kong style restaurant in Toronto’s Chinatown for a first taste. I’ll be talking more about this great resto for my CBC Radio column this coming Wednesday, April 7th, but in the meantime, I’ll report
Thanksgiving is one of my favourite times of the year–the harvest is in, the jams are made, the leaves are golden, and the focus is good food . On the holiday weekend, I always like to try something new with food, like making cinnamon rolls in a brick oven like we did last year. On the Sunday morning,
The difference was astounding. Truly astounding. I put a spoonful of the polenta I made from open-pollinated, stone-ground corn meal I’d bought from Mark Trealout at Kwartha Ecological Growers and I swear I heard birds singing, felt the wind in my hair and the hot sun on my face as I was transported to the
Open pollinated corn polenta vs. store-bought corn mealRead More »
I’ve been eating farmhouse and artisan cheese from Quebec for years, and yet I had a profound discovery at the Fromagerie Atwater counter last week in Montreal. I was at the market to tape an interview, with the CBC Radio program C’est la vie, about the chapter in my book that tells the history and story
Just when I thought my interview with Hai Tran, owner of the Toronto restaurant Hanoi 3 Seasons, was coming to a close, I asked about spring foods. Of course, in Vietnam, a tropical country, there are seasons too!When I think spring eating, I think fiddleheads, asparagus, the fresh chives that pop up out of the
Even in tropical countries people eat with the seasonsRead More »
Sunday was a gorgeous day in Prince Edward County, Ontario. The sun was shining on the spring-green fields, the sky was blue and the waves of a windy Lake Ontario were crashing on the beaches that run along the county’s coast. And so I was especially thrilled to see a good turnout at the Slow
Slow Food Fair in Picton a fabulous stop on the book tour!Read More »
I’ve been having a blast writing about the Canadian local food movement for The Atlantic’s Food Channel. Topics covered so far include our country’s underground backyard chicken movement and Jonathan Forbes’ search for the matsutake mushroom in Northern Quebec. It’s great that people outside of this here country and taking an interest in what we’re doing!