A lot of news media recently have been asking about how to identify the Country of Origin for the products we find at the grocery store, like meat.  And, with the World’s Longest Barbecue just around the corner I think it would be helpful to know how to easily identify Canadian Beef and understand why it’s important to ensure the beef you are buying for your weekend barbecue, Monday night steak salad or the beef dish you order in a restaurant is Canadian.
Why Canadian Beef?  By choosing Canadian Beef, you …

Happy Canada Day, everyone.
To celebrate, I’m making a big batch of Anita Stewart’s Raspberry Maple ice cream. We’ll grill up some chicken from the local butcher and boil some new potatoes fresh from the farmers’ market.  A canola-based dressing laced with herbs from my garden will top a fresh green salad. You don’t get more local than your own back door.
I know you’re a shy bunch, but let’s be patriot today. Place your right hand over your heart, your left hand on the keyboard and share with the world what …

My husband, bless his soul, says all this patting ourselves on the back over local food is ridiculous.  And he’s really got a point.  As he says, “I ate local food every day of my life until I left my home and came to Canada.”  The vast majority of our world eats local food every day, we just have the privilege and the economic power to do otherwise.
Which makes me wonder, did my husband come to Canada just to have the privilege and power to choose pizza pops and jello?  …

When you come to our house you get served beef.  This is pretty much a given.
This weekend we had my parents up for a casual Saturday dinner.  I try to theme dinners – this Saturday night was France.  I served Steak Frites.  The steaks were lovely perfectly portioned grilling medallions.  The frites were a combo of potatoes and sweet potatoes with my secret spice mix.  All accompanied by a baby romaine salad with a Caesar vinaigrette dressing.   For dessert, local Stein’s Dairy Vanilla ice cream with maple syrup and fresh …

If the Globe and Mail is right, the Food Industry did it in the Pantry with a Salt Shaker.
The Globe just ran an interesting 2-part series on salt. Part 1, Under Pressure, examines the effects of high sodium levels in the diet. Apparently there’s so much salt in our diets that even teenagers are now suffering from high blood pressure.
Part 2, Searching for the Salt Gene, looks at the link between salt-related health issues and ethnicity. While salt is necessary for life, we can survive quite happily on a fraction …

These are the practiced hands of Natasha Akiwenzie. She and her husband Andrew own and operate Akiwenzie’s Fish. Their whitefish, pulled responsibly right from Georgian Bay, makes its way to Toronto Farmers’ Markets and onto the menus of top Toronto chefs like Jamie Kennedy. They’re a small. They’re struggling. And I suspect they aren’t alone.
So when I read Taking Stock of Fish in the Wall Street Journal, it got me thinking. Some CSAs in the US are branching into fish. Is this a effective way to support sustainable seafood and …

Canada is a nation of grillers. And no surprise here, beef continues to be #1 on the grill. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my steak and I love my beef burgers (in fact we had burgers for dinner last night), but to me the ultimate in easy prep and taste is a roast of beef. Living without air conditioning, however, makes this a love/hate relationship come the warmer months. Leave the oven on for three hours? No way!
Last summer, after two years on the “honey-do” list, our rotisserie …

Lily of Heaven
First let me tell you whence her name has sprung,
Cecilia, meaning as the books agree,
Lily of Heaven in our English tongue
To signify her chaste virginity.
–Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, Second Nun’s Prologue
I’m already harvesting the first sweetly anise sprigs of Sweet Cicely (Myrris odorata) from my kitchen garden here in Bruce County, southwestern Ontario. And I have been doing so since the middle of April when the first lacy shoots first poked through the lingering snow.
Sweet Cicely is actually the common name for two plants: Myrris odorata and Osmorhiza chilensis.
The …

When fiddleheads (or “têtes de violons” to us in Quebec) start popping up from the wet forest floor, we know spring is really upon us. Their arrival kicks off the growing season at Les Jardins Sauvages, our woodland table specializing in wild edibles. Everyone jumps to life, suddenly excited, celebratory, and very busy. Cooks and customers are eager to put something local, crunchy and green on their plates, and pickers are pumped to reconnect with nature and make a buck. The season is short, fast and frenzied — intoxicating.
As the …

This is quinoa in bloom. Until recently I’d never seen a picture of the plant. I knew quinoa was a South American ancient grain carrying many nicknames. Despite being dubbed Incan Gold and Gold of the Gods, I hadn’t paid much attention to quinoa after an unfortunate experience with it in pasta form more than a decade ago. But when I needed a gluten-free, low-GI alternative to rice, I found myself scouring the health food stores for the grain in its whole form.
The prices varied wildly. One popular brand was …