Canada 
Alberta 
British Columbia 
Manitoba
New Brunswick 
Newfoundland Labrador 
Nova Scotia 
Ontario 
Prince Edward Island 
Quebec 
Saskatchewan 
United States 
Belgium
France 
Italy 
Switzerland 
Elsewhere
Month: September 2010
Planning pays off in time and money!
The secret of saving time and money lies in planning. Draw up your weekly menus in advance, based on seasonal products and flyer specials.
Red-hot chili peppers!
Chili peppers were one of earliest cultivated crops in Central and South America, around 7,000 years ago. Imported into Europe by Christopher Columbus and then spread rapidly across the globe by Spanish and Portuguese colonizers, they were immediately adopted as an inexpensive substitute to pepper.
Unloved parsnip
The British colonists were the first to introduce parsnips in North America in the early 17th century.
Reviving ground beef
Minced meat is the most popularly sold meat in the market as a result of its many uses, its reasonable price and good taste.
Which organic fruits and vegetables should we buy?
This is the question asked by one of our members who is concerned about the presence of pesticides in fruits and vegetables. My reply below is taken from the Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides which lists the dirty dozen and clean fifteen, published by the American organization Environmental Working Group, which has prepared this guide based on […]
It’s harvest time!
In this season, good vegetables can be found in all the grocery stores. So this is the ideal time to throw together some carrots, cabbage, potatoes, rutabagas, and stewing meat for preparing a good bouilli, as we call it in Quebec, or a pot-au-feu as it is known in France. I’m proposing two different versions […]
The succulent peach
Peaches have been cultivated for over 5,000 years in China, where they are considered a symbol of immortality; in fact, this country is still the world’s largest producer of peaches today. These fruits first traveled from China to India and Persia (present-day Iran), and from here, the armies of Alexander the Great introduced them to […]
Tasty and beneficial crucifers
Curly kale, red, Chinese or Savoy cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli: all these plants, so different from one another, share a common ancestor and they are all characterized by the presence of a flower with four petals spread out in the shape of cross (which explains term “crucifers”).
From eggplant to aubergine
Aubergine, a must-have vegetable in Mediterranean cuisine, gets its name from the Arabic ‘Al-badindgian’. Because of the distinct bitterness of the first varieties, it was initially looked upon only as an ornamental plant, believed by some to even cause madness.
Wine harvest festival … in Quebec
Originally published in the Journal de Montréal on September 4, 2010. Viticulture or vine growing in Quebec has its roots in experiments carried out by the first colonists when they were settling down here. When Jacques Cartier sailed up the St. Lawrence in 1535, he discovered wild grapes on our beautiful Île d’Orléans in Quebec, […]
Rediscovering our roots
Celeriac, turnip, Swedish turnip, parsnip, Jerusalem artichoke… so many root vegetables that were once an important part of our daily diet but have now sunk into oblivion. Why were these wonderful vegetables neglected? Firstly, because of urbanization, which has led to the progressive abandonment of vegetable gardens.
