Early fall, and I am on a holiday with Mom, revisiting the foods, places, and faces of her youth. Mom is a retired dryland farmer, and like me, she misses the ready access to fish and seafood that we enjoyed during our earlier coastal life while Dad was in the Canadian Air Force. So on […] Read more
Similarities of fishers and farmers
First We Eat: There are many parallels between these two professions including the next generation hesitant to carry on with the family business
Making the best of a tough tomato harvest
First We Eat: This summer was disastrous for growing tomatoes as well as many other crops
War contributes to the transportation and appropriation of goods around the globe. For instance, tomatoes were among the plants and animals that ended up in Europe in the unequal exchange of goods, disease, slavery, land theft, and genocide between New World and Old, beginning in 1492 and culminating in1650, called the Columbian Exchange. This event […] Read more
Meal ideas for a hot summer
First We Eat: Get your meal preparation done before the day heats up and think ‘cold suppers’
Like many rural residents, Dave and I live surrounded by trees and shrubs: the double windbreak planted by my grandfather in the 1940s — caraganas, Manitoba maple, and linden — with ornamental crabapples, lilacs, blue spruce, white paper birch, fruit trees, highbush cranberry, columnar aspens. I love our trees. In the tough climate we live […] Read more
When summer heats up what better way to cool down than eating ice cream
First We Eat: Why not make your own? It’s really not that difficult and the varieties are endless
I love ice cream. I am not alone. In my immediate family, Dave and Mom perk up like hungry pups whenever we stop at our favourite ice-cream joint. A 2019 survey reveals that 25 per cent of Canadians eat ice cream two or three times a month, making us solid contributors to its global consumption, […] Read more
A chicken in every pot
First We Eat: Every summer I pick up our year’s supply of butchered chickens from our local farmer
I buy my chickens from a local farmer. She sells me eggs too — blue, brown and white ovals so beautiful they can’t help but taste better than commercial eggs. Each winter, my farmer sends me a note when she is ready to order her chicks, and I guess how many birds I think we […] Read more
Pass the crackers please
First We Eat: Many of us may be snacking too much as we watch too much TV. Try this healthier choice instead
Don’t you wish you could have your buddies over? Miss those chances to get together and just hang out? Me too. I miss parties. I miss hanging out. I miss visits. I miss shared meals. Who knows when we’ll be able to celebrate like that again as we move into our second year of COVID lockdown. […] Read more
Try making this timeless, classic dessert
First We Eat: What could be better than a creamy, homemade chocolate pudding?
After Dad died last year, Mom started giving things away. It was as if his absence triggered her awareness of her own mortality and her dwindling need for stuff. She gave pots and pans to my eldest son, vases to my cousin, Dad’s unopened bottles of Scotch to her cousin, tools to my brothers, wineglasses […] Read more
Kindness and corned beef
First We Eat: When neighbours shared a butchered steer I wanted to share back as thanks for their generosity
My neighbour Sharon gave me half a beef brisket last week. She and her husband had taken a steer to the small local abattoir for slaughter, and were generous in sharing after the animal had been butchered. I decided that whatever I made, they’d receive some back for their kindness. Brisket, as you know, is […] Read more
Food and ‘family’
First We Eat: Just like in one of my favourite movies — food plays an important role
Like most of us, Dave and I have been binge watching movies. High among my all-time favourites is “The Godfather” I, II and III. I particularly admire the attention that director Francis Ford Coppola pays to food, making it integral to many pivotal “family” scenes. We enter the tragedy at Connie Corleone’s wedding, rich with […] Read more
Hot soup for a cold day
First We Eat: Try variations of this basic recipe to help get through the frigid weather
Before the polar vortex returned and the morning thermometer read -40 C, I spent some time splitting birch for the wood stove in the kitchen. We live in a house that’s over 100 years old, and my mom thinks that it was originally assembled from two grain bins bolted together; three steps lead down from […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
