In what can only be described as the best news story this editor has posted all week, Farmery Brewery has announced its Farmery premium lager will be available in Saskatchewan. Farmery Estate Brewery is a Manitoba- (and farm)-based company that uses its own farm-grown barley and hops to brew its premium lager. The company is… Read More
Category: Local Food
It’s now easier to find Ontario-made Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) wines at more than 100 farmers’ markets thanks to a new mobile map. Launched today via the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the app features an interactive map — accessed either online or on a mobile device — and helps shoppers quickly… Read More
Waking to the clatter of wind against the house, a dark sky and a still-sleeping sun never feels like a good omen. On June 5th, the early morning grey was entirely worth the effort, as I joined the Alberta Farm Writers’ Association on their annual tour. 1st Stop: Lakeland College Our first stop continued the northward… Read More
You see them at election time, in particular — politicians jockeying to get a photo op with a farmer, diving into a plate of homegrown food or trying to support agriculture in some other camera-friendly way, such as driving a tractor. Politicians should be a friend to agriculture every chance they get, not just at… Read More
The devil is in the details of a new two-year pilot program in Ontario designed to bring local food and wine together in farmers’ markets. But if the agri-food sector has enough patience to see it through, I believe everyone involved – farmers, wineries and consumers – can come out on top. Starting tomorrow, Ontario’s… Read More
Do you have that very famous lyric in the Don McLean song “American Pie,” running in your head? You should. Organic farming — as we know it — could be over. No, I am not an organic farmer, but if I was, I would be very concerned about a new pricing concept being pushed by large-scale… Read More
With new varieties readily available, growing tiny crab apples isn’t your only option, prairie-dwellers! In 2008, the University of Saskatchewan released Prairie Sensation, an apple evolved to our prairie climate, and at roughly seven to nearly 8.5 cm in diameter, it’s no crab. Though apple trees are largely grown as a hobby, with keen interest in… Read More
My daughter Kate and I headed out last Sunday afternoon to Kitchener to hear about a new – and what I consider very different – food service being debuted at the storied Walper Hotel. Up the staircase through the doors of the second-floor terrace ballroom, 250 curious guests were lining up at more than a… Read More
If agriculture is going to work towards providing quality food for informed consumers, we can’t be throwing each production system under the bus. Conventional agriculture needs to respect organic production as a valid production system (and a valid consumer choice), and organic producers need to stop vilifying conventional production and using misleading and down-right false… Read More
The picture to the left was shared with me by Cami Ryan. Several thoughts and rants come to mind as I look at this marketing campaign. Has marketing always been this dishonest? Have consumers always been so led astray? Are we all just pawns in the game of food marketing? I find it quite ironic… Read More