Finding organic and fair-trade bananas in Montreal.

Finally, after 3 months of blizzards, winter seems to be showing signs of weakness in Montreal. I’m sure this doesn’t mean that winter is over, even though spring officially began over two weeks ago, but still, today the sun was shining and the snow was melting, and people were out on the […]

On December 17, 2007, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that the government will be implementing a new "Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan".
Apparently, the federal health and agriculture departments want feedback from Canadians on how the government should carry out its proposed food and consumer safety action plan. They have set up a website […]

Montreal enjoyed several days of warm weather last week, which melted almost all of the snow that had fallen over the last two weeks, and there was a lot of it. Just as I was beginning to enjoy walking to work in my hiking boots, mother nature dropped another big snowfall on us and I […]

Michael Pollan came to Canada — almost.
The promotional tour for his new book "In Defense of Food" landed him an interview on CBC Radio’s The Current (listen to the interview here) this past Wednesday, January 9th. He wasn’t actually in Canada — he broadcast his bit from the CBC studios in New York while […]

I wish I had a tomato. Instead, I get snow.

That is what we woke up to on New Year’s day.
I would easily trade all this snow for a fresh tomato that I can slice as thick as I want, because I have so many tomatoes. My garden has given me so many tomatoes, and my […]

I sometimes envy those of you who live in climates where you can get fresh fruits and vegetables all year round. I cherish those moments in July and August when I was able to bite into a fresh tomato that tasted like juicy paradise. Those days are long gone.
This is what it looks like in […]

Noshette and I went down south to Charleston, South Carolina, to attend a wedding of an old childhood friend of hers and we did a little bit of Ethicureanating while we were there. (once the word Ethicurean gets an entry in the dictionary, we’ll have to figure out how to conjugate it.)
A quick bit of […]

This week was Noshette’s birthday, and among the many things we did to celebrate was to have dinner at Les Jardins Sauvages, which in English means "the wild gardens", a woodland table restaurant in St.Roch de l’Achigan. (Since I no longer go by the name "Nosher", Noshette will now be known as "Megan".) The 30 […]

My gradual evolution from a junk-food eating, non-recycling, ignorant human into a pure, unadulterated 100% Ethicurean is still undergoing some serious metamorphoses. Last year I felt that I was producing more garbage than was necessary, so I started a worm compost in my storage room. I gradually decreased my meat consumption until I found a […]

My search for a supply of sustainable meat is now ended, successfully. Pictured below is a quarter of a pig that is now in my freezer.

I had been calling around town and emailing people, trying to find someone who raises pigs in a sustainable manner. I found a few expensive shops that I could’t possibly […]

When the leaves begin to fall from the trees around these parts and the Canadian geese fill the skies, some folks smile with delight at the vibrant colours of the fall foliage. Other folks, a group which I belong to, see it in a different light. For me, autumn signals the death of the […]

I have been so busy gardening and cooking and enjoying the last few weeks of summer that I never got around to writing "Vermont Diary - Part II", the thrilling sequel to "Vermont Diary - Part I." Contributing to my negligence was a short trip to Maine, highlights of which I will include in this […]

I subscribe to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency food warning, recall, and allergy email notification service. This means that I receive an email every time any food produced, processed, or sold in Canada gets flagged as a possible danger and requires a warning. I receive warnings every single day, which is sort of scary.
The […]

I just came back from 2 amazing days in Northern Vermont.

You see, I was hired to be a chauffeur to an evil capitalist management consultant who was going to a small Vermont town - with or without me - to convince a nice small-town Vermont construction company owner to diversify and morph into […]