I’m blogging abroad bringing my Canadian foodie friends news from the home country. I’m on assignment with the Canadian Living fashion department in the Veneto region of Italy. I will be covering food and recipes from this region in an upcoming issue. (more…)

This isn’t exactly a find but I have been looking out for local strawberries and they have been late arriver’s this year across Canada (that late start on the warm weather hasn’t been a happy thing for early crops). But I have spotted my first (more…)

Daniela’s 4 steps to pouring the perfect cup of tea (without making a mess). (more…)

Silk Road in Victoria is run by the charming and incredibly knowledgeable Daniela, if you want to know something about tea, she is the woman to ask.The tea shop houses a spa, a retail space and countless house blended teas from across the globe. (more…)

On the pier below Wharf Street in the heart of Victoria, you will find the restaurant Red Fish Blue Fish, who take minimizing their environmental impact seriously. Aside from the garbage and recycle separating, reusable bamboo trays and sustainable fish on the menu; this fish shack has “up-cycled” it’s diggs from a reclaimed steel cargo container. (more…)

Continuing with my tour of Canada’s west coast I lately made my way out for a second time. This time I was bound for Victoria and Tofino for four days on a whirlwind tour. One of the reasons I was there was to experience the High Tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria. (more…)

Here is the press info for Winchester Cellars Newly launched gin:

VICTORIA GIN A FIRST FOR VANCOUVER ISLAND
Ken Winchester of Winchester Cellars in Victoria, BC has launched British Columbia’s only handcrafted gin. Winchester’s Victoria Gin has already won gold at the Northwest Wine Summit amongst more than 1,000 wines and spirits. Victoria Gin blends 10 locally grown organic botanicals from juniper berries to rose petals and is distilled in small batches in a gleaming handmade wood-fired copper pot still. A secret 11th ingredient (more…)

I have this dream that one day I’ll own a property in southern Italy near the ocean with olive groves, where I press my own olive oil and I will have a huge stone outdoor table where I serve bountious meals that I have cooked in my outdoor wood burning oven. So, I am a bit away from this dream but somehow I have managed to convince a friend that an outdoor oven is essential for her cottage in the Kawartha’s. I’m considering this version my practice oven for when my villa is ready.

I’ve already been up one weekend to start it off. (more…)

Nicolette Novak runs The Good Earth cooking school in the heart of Niagara’s Twenty Valley region. The beautiful country setting, nestled in vineyards and fruit trees, would inspire anyone to get their hands dirty and cook up a storm. There is a big garden out back and Nicolette lives in the cottage her Grandmother lived in before her. If it sounds pastorally ideallic that’s because it is!

The kitchen packed us a “Moveable Feast” of fried chicken, salads, cornbread, yummy local cheeses, and homemade cherry turnovers made from last years cherries that had been stashed in the freezer for the winter. If you have an overnight in the area book a class at the cooking school or have the kitchen pack you a lunch and head to balls falls for a picnic lunch with a bottle of wine from one of the vineyards.
It was early in the season so the garden wasn’t yet in full swing. The school hosts dinners at the table in the centre under a canopy.

One of the visiting chefs was instructing a class while I was visiting.

This is part of the alfresco kitchen in use during the summer.


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Yesterdays post was about Featherstone Vineyard and their innovative and ecological method of culling the grapes leaves from the vines. Another innovation measure (actually, really more of a step back in time) they have introduces is falconing in order to control the vermine population. Between running vineyard, doing all of the marketing, and cooking for the porch side lunches on offer at the vineyard - Louise Engel is a falconer and has two hawks she uses on the property. This one is named Amadeus. (more…)