Cerisa is a yellow-fleshed specialty variety with slightly firmer cooking texture and excellent flavour. Plants produce high numbers of smaller elongated baby potatoes, a favourite in salads.

Singing Gardener: Nutritional benefits of the potato and a little-known way of baking it

Plus, Ted shares more reader feedback

Something tells me this intro might appear a little longer than usual. It’s all for good informative reading. Got your sprouted seed potatoes in the ground yet? It’s not too late to plant more! There’ll be a thing or two said about spuds further along. Plus — one method for baking potatoes and some reader […] Read more


A hemp plant in Alberta. (Jennifer Blair photo)

Hemp acres expected to double due to crop versatility

MarketsFarm — Canada’s hemp acres are set to double in 2019, according to the most recent principal field crop acreage report from Statistics Canada. The hemp industry is experiencing somewhat of a boom as hemp products of all stripes enter mainstream consumer markets. “Health Canada is running at least double the number of hemp license […] Read more

Try this caesar salad dressing recipe

Try this caesar salad dressing recipe

First We Eat: Not just for salad it’s also great spooned over a variety of foods like grilled or roasted veggies

We arrived for a preliminary visit at the farm in June 2010, a month ahead of our move-in date. Over-anxious? Eager? Yes, both, but mostly we came early to help my aging parents move out — into a bungalow in a nearby town — and to paint the old farmhouse we were moving into. I […] Read more


Mustard greens, or flowering gai lan, a Chinese form of broccoli, are assertive and blend well with strong tastes.

What to use for salad greens while waiting for local produce

First We Eat: In winter, turn to sturdier greens for warm salads and veggie dishes

In winter, when arugula and other salad greens travel thousands of miles, have been contaminated with E. coli or are too costly, I turn to sturdier greens for warm salads and robust vegetable dishes. Mustard greens, or flowering gai lan, a Chinese form of broccoli, are assertive and blend well with strong tastes. When I […] Read more

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


Forget about the ‘Spaghetti Western’ and try this ‘Spaghetti Eastern’ dish

Forget about the ‘Spaghetti Western’ and try this ‘Spaghetti Eastern’ dish

First We Eat: You’ll want to give this ramen noodles in a tasty broth recipe a try

It’s a wintry morning in Calgary, where I am visiting my son and his partner. We are bundled up, standing in line. Even though the chinook is blowing in, the morning is raw, and I am grateful I didn’t make any assumptions and underdress. It’s still deep-freeze Prairie winter. The restaurant’s door opens at 11 […] Read more

Lemon maple cranberry butter tarts.

Fowl supper? Fall supper?

Whatever you call them, they are a delicious Prairie harvest tradition

We gathered at my parents’ house on a mild autumn evening, clucking over Mom and Dad’s recent renovations, sipping Dad’s homemade wine, letting our appetites build for the fowl supper. Our neighbour Ken commented on the lineup he’d witnessed en route. “Halfway down the street and around the block,” he claimed. I was disinclined to […] Read more


The inside of the porchetta.

This pork porchetta is sure to please

First We Eat: Traditionally a whole pig would be roasted on a spit but here’s a smaller oven version

I visited my sister and brother-in-law in the Toronto area for Thanksgiving this year, the first time, perhaps ever, that I wasn’t home to cook the feast for my favourite holiday. But even though I wasn’t in my home kitchen, food played as large a part as usual. “We have errands,” my sister said soon […] Read more

(Photo courtesy Canaryseed Development Commission of Saskatchewan)

Canary seed market seen as dull, static

CNS Canada — Prices for canary seed over the last 15 months have fluctuated between 20 and 23 cents/lb. delivered in Western Canada, and there’s little chance that will change any time soon. To David Nobbs, managing partner of Canpulse Foods in Saskatoon and a director with the Canaryseed Development Commission of Saskatchewan, the canary […] Read more