Shopping In Toronto’s Chinatown

Toronto's Chinatown

Despite a mild insecurity with shopping in grocery stores where the latin alphabet graces few labels, I was overcome with a desire to shop in Chinatown today upon seeing the perfect, sunny weather. More than picking up a few veggies, I was hoping to gather some inspiration. I have gotten into a bit of a [...]

Good, Clean, Fair Food on the Web

For someone who loves information, the internet can be both a wonderful temptation and and a hopeless disappointment. The good, the bad, the well-researched and the total garbage all sit side-by-side out there in cyberspace. Information on food and farming is plentiful, but not all of it is accurate, informative, or useful. One site that [...]

Urban Agriculturalist: Vertical Farms

Urban Agriculturalist is a series on the ways city and suburb dwellers use their land as a food resource. With an ever shrinking topographical footprint and a population in perpetual flux, the modern city has some feeding issues. A recent article in The Globe and Mail described the frustration of farmer’s market organizers over the [...]

Green Diva’s Guide to Delicious Living: Pre-Season Gazpacho

gazpacho1.jpg

This is a simple and flexible recipe for all seasons – even if you don’t have local fresh organic tomatoes. When tomatoes are in full season, it is fun to mix it up and try different varieties. I like mixing in a few sweet cherry tomatoes.  In the off-season, I use Muir Glen organic canned [...]

Growing New Hope for Refugees

A Woman from Burma just beginning her planting for the season.

A tough row to hoe. The old saying came to my mind immediately as I watched a woman working hard soil with hand tools. Each turn of the shovel was as likely to turn up construction debris as it did soil. Surrounding this agricultural vision, the landscape is anything but bucolic. The small urban farm [...]

Popeye Had It Wrong: Local, Fresh Spinach Packs The Authentic Nutritional Punch

Sorry, Popeye. Your tin can of spinach just can’t compete with the brawny nutritional wallop from a bunch of fresh greens from a local farmers’ market or home garden. Too bad Popeye didn’t know Angie Tagtow, an environmental nutritionist based in Iowa and a leading advocate championing public access to fresh, affordable, sustainably raised food. [...]

Healthy Summer Grub: Quinoa, Kale and Avocado Salad Recipe

Quinoa Salad

Ok, so according to the calendar, it may not be summer quite yet, but in California, the avocados are just starting to ripen, which is how I mark the start of the season. And when the weather starts getting warmer, I start turning to lighter, fresh meals. This quinoa-based salad is easy to prepare, and [...]