Seeing this year’s fresh Okanagan cherries being unpacked at the local farmers’ market, in the wake of a disastrous 2024 growing season in that region of British Columbia, was a magical moment.
Tag Archives recipes
Summer brings a cherry jubilee
First We Eat: Direct off the tree or baked into desserts, the fruit is rich in both flavour and nutrients
Stock can be the stock answer for a healthy diet in recovery
First We Eat: These simple combinations of ingredients come bearing highly nutritional benefits
Stock is the foundation of many restorative dishes. In folk medicine that recognizes the healing value of food, this is old news.
Plan for leftovers
First We Eat: Preparing ingredients to do double duty is just good sense
The act of eating occurs repeatedly on life’s continuum, and marshalling your ingredients to do double duty is just good sense.
How we can be Gordie Howe in Canada’s kitchens
First We Eat: There are Canadian foods I’d love to see on my table if I could obtain them here
Interprovincial trade regulations exist to protect local economies, preserve regional autonomy, and of course generate local income. But even the Bank of Canada believes lowering internal barriers would boost our economy while effectively keeping our dollars in Canada.
A literary celebration of food
First We Eat: Like a good meal, ‘One Book One Province’ is meant to offer a shared experience
On the Prairies, the month is a hopeful time for food lovers: we’re perusing seed catalogues, planning our gardens and dreaming about salads made from the season’s first greens.
Comfort food for hard times
First We Eat: What foods help you find peace in stressful situations? Here’s one of mine
Hand-pulled Shanghai noodles redolent of wok hei, the near-mystical “wok energy” or caramelized smokiness that has been called the breath of a wok, are a revivifying dish of comfort — soul food for hard times.
Cooking Canadian, part 2: Shopping local
First We Eat: In recent years we’ve seen serious disruptions in our culinary supply chains
The eruption of trade wars and tariffs has me looking harder than ever at what we eat and where it comes from, like every other Canadian.
Cooking Canadian, part 1: Rediscovering cabbage
First We Eat: As Canadian food staples go, cabbage is cheap and plentiful
Cabbage and its bitter cousins — brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli — can be eaten raw, roasted, grilled, braised, stir-fried, steamed or simmered, best with something equally pungent, like garlic and onions, or salty, like anchovy or bacon.
Tools and techniques, part 4: Handmade
Inanimate objects have a time and place — but the hands are a cook’s first tools
My hands knead and stretch and shape, fold and pleat. They evaluate texture and assess degree of doneness. In the kitchen, my hands are my first tools.
Tools and techniques, part 3: Between a rock and a hard place
First We Eat: Pounding ingredients with a pestle encourages a calm approach to cooking
My mom tells me my counters are too cluttered. “Why don’t you put some of that stuff away?” she asks me repeatedly. Much of the counter space in my old farmhouse kitchen is occupied by electric tools designed to grind foods or to alter their shape: a food processor, blender and coffee mill stand shoulder […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
