Cooking on a winter-weather shoestring

Cooking on a winter-weather shoestring

First We Eat: Golden Vegetable Latkes

The view out my window is relentlessly white. Deep snow has collected across the yard, and the temperature is hovering around -30 C, as it has for the past week. The forecast for the coming week is no better. The roads are rotten. Winter weather means that this week’s cooking must be from the pantry, […] Read more

Stop bullying your parents!

Stop bullying your parents!

As land values increase pressure may be put on to sell

There are some columns I wish I did not have to write. This is one of them. Through the past few years of land values jumping as much as 23 per cent in one year it is no surprise to farm families to see their balance sheets with larger numbers. It is shocking to those […] Read more


PHOTO: COURTESY W.H. PERRON

Singing Gardener: Draws for tomato seeds have taken place

Plus, what kind of weather should we expect after this cold winter?

Draws for the dozen packets of Cosmonaut Volkov heirloom tomato seeds took place on March 5. Winners can expect their seeds in the mail via Canada Post with names appearing in April 9 issue of Grainews. Endless thanks to each and all who participated. I’ll be checking the entries for comments and garden tips following the draws […] Read more

Pain that lasts a long time sometimes stops feeling like pain, and becomes a part of who we are, sometimes appearing as other health conditions.

Do you suffer from constant pain?

Pain is the body’s way of saying something is wrong. Don’t just stifle it

A client messaged me today — a local farmer who had started seeing me as a personal trainer. Routinely complaining about his shoulder pain during sessions, I suggested we focus on rehabbing his pain first, but was met with resistance as he had already “tried more than six therapists and nothing had worked.” I left […] Read more


Saying farewell with apple crepes

Saying farewell with apple crepes

First We Eat: What better way to pay tribute after hearing 
my cooking mentor had passed away

I learned recently that my culinary mentor, Madeleine Kamman, died in July 2018. At the time, the event went unnoticed. But when I got word, the news flattened me. Madeleine was the tigress who taught me to trust my palate, who set my benchmarks. She valued methods, flavour principles, terroir — that ineffable link between […] Read more

Dump your grain, not your pain

Dump your grain, not your pain

Stop dumping anger and 
start creating a healthy legacy

The email subject line read “UNBELIEVABLE” in all caps, and I knew it wasn’t going to be a happy farm transition story. Fourteen bullet points ensued with anger, poor decision-making, people not taking responsibility for their inaction. After ingesting a dump load of angst my reply simply was, “And what do you want me to […] Read more


How much attention do you pay to your heels? Shown are simple tools to easily prepare a lemon for a special purpose after squeezing out the juice.

Singing Gardener: Try this natural treatment for cracked and dry heels

Plus, info on an easy-to-sow and easy-to-grow annual flower

There’s a proverb that says: Bad for the rider — Good for the abider. So what does that mean? Here’s one explanation. The rider is driving a vehicle on a muddy road with ruts and faces uncertainty ahead. The abider is a farmer whose fertile fields are sufficiently moistened and prepared to produce a good […] Read more

This traditional Ukrainian heirloom tomato was renamed to Cosmonaut Volkov in honour of a deceased Russian cosmonaut. Ted tells a whole lot more.

Singing Gardener: Fruits of the vine — heirloom tomato and heirloom melon

Don’t forget to enter Ted’s tomato seed draws

If you’ve ever attended live theatre, you may have experienced a curtain raiser. It’s a short, dramatic piece performed before the main play or event of the evening. That’s not to say there’s no such thing as live theatre in the afternoon as there certainly is. Now just imagine yours truly standing at the mike […] Read more


Reclaiming our peasant heritage

Reclaiming our peasant heritage

First We Eat: Don’t be intimidated by Boeuf Bourguignon — 
just a fancy name for beef stew

Yesterday I walked home from morning coffee at my neighbour Sharon’s house, my passage closely observed by a leggy Black Angus calf. She bounced up to the barbed wire fence, her head high as she gave my dog and me the once-over. Jake stopped in his tracks, uncertain what this until-now-predictable creature was up to. […] Read more

Letting go of loneliness on the farm

Letting go of loneliness on the farm

If you are experiencing loneliness here’s some solutions to try

Her sniffles were clear on the phone line as she said, “He used to spend so much time with me on the weekends, but now that we are married he doesn’t even have time to go to church with me on Sunday morning. I am extremely lonely.” Another much older woman touched my arm to […] Read more