Doing it by the numbers
The first thing I learned – well, not the first but up there, for sure – is that volume measurements are for amateurs. Being an amateur (and expecting to be…
food
Road Trip to K2
No, not to the mountain. To the mill. The flour mill in Beeton, a little more than an hour’s drive southeast of me. We took a little road trip today…
Fort St. John landowner built rodeo on farmland, against Commission ruling
Controversial development of rodeo ground on farmland near Fort St. John (The Horse Park) Read this Nov. 13 story from CBC.ca revealing that northeast BC landowner Terry McLeod has built…
A Tricorder To Find Out What’s In Your Food
TellSpec is a new device currently being crowd funded that tells people what’s in their food – just like a Star Trek tricorder. It uses spectrometry to analyze the food…
Minister Pat Pimm should resign for meddling in farmland hearing, says group
Public interest group IntegrityBC is calling for the resignation of Liberal Agriculture Minister Pat Pimm, following the revelation that he and Fort St. John Mayor Lori Ackerman meddled in an…
I’m struggling with this…
My recent passion for bread and baking has caused a bit of an internal upset. Not the baking thereof, but rather the writing about it. I’m doing a lot of…
Delta Council OK’s Southlands development – proposal now goes to Metro
Photo: Anne Murray Read this November 8 story from the Vancouver Sun on Delta Mayor Lois Jackson and Council’s 6-1 vote in favour of Century Group’s application to build 950…
Bread, Madness and Christianity
The witch craze of Europe is a popular, albeit often misrepresented, part of our collective history. Everyone knows witches were hunted, tortured and often killed – burned at the stake,…
Farmland advocates fire back at secret plan to gut ALR
ALR co-founder Harold Steves on his family farm in Steveston, BC (Damien Gillis) VANCOUVER – A leaked cabinet document that proposes significant changes to British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Reserve —…
Delta’s Southlands: Canada’s longest, least democratic farmland battle
Dana Maslovat of Southlands the Facts near the contentious Southlands property in Delta, BC Canada’s most contentious piece of farmland is back on the chopping block as the Corporation of…
BC’s Agricultural Land Commission to be plowed under for gas industry
Read this Nov. 7 story from The Globe and Mail’s Mark Hume on documents obtained by the paper which suggest the BC Liberal Government is planning to dismantle the regulator…
The New Art of the Old: Baking Artisan Bread
So far, my re-entry into the world of baking bread has gone fairly well. I started rather hesitantly, unsure of the results, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the…
Harper picks CETA over H of C
I couldn’t believe it when I heard it on the radio this morning. On the first day of the debate regarding the Reply to the Speech from the Throne, Stephen…
Bread the Old-Fashioned Way
For all the reading, the reviewing and the researching for the best bread maker these past few days, it’s somewhat ironic that instead I turned back to the old-fashioned method…
The Smallest Helper
While I was pondering the nature of flour in my cogitations about bread machines (I’m still debating which model, by the way – suggestions welcome, but local stores have few…
Something so basic, yet so different stands between us
You’d think it should be this easy: just take a bread machine, throw in all the ingredients listed in the recipe, push a button, wait, remove loaf and eat. Yum.…
Simple pleasures and the greatest of treasures
Ok, it’s that time. Time to put down the pen, or in this case, the keyboard; start cooking dinner – very slowly, for maximum flavour – and cut the grass…
Soil Benefits from Organic Farming
The benefits of organic farming keep revealing themselves – it turns out that the soil itself benefits from farmers growing organic crops. “Farmers interested in transitioning to organic production will…
A Cup of Pu-Erh
It’s dark in the cup, but in the glass pot for brewing, it’s a deep copper. It smells of earth and age, a hint of horses and leather. A rich,…
Canada mulls crackdown on pesticide suspected of killing bees
OTTAWA – The federal Health Department is proposing tighter rules for the use of a pesticide that is suspected of killing honey bees. It is asking for public comment on…