It’s Spring… Somewhere Else!

The food magazines are filled with recipes for light salads and all things rhubarb right now, accompanied by stories of newly green backyard gardens and the joy of seasonal eating. Sigh! Evidently, they don’t live around here. Last time I checked, the yard was a vast stretch of mud, winter’s mess of strewn branches and

ADM Licenses Canadian Firm’s Soy Protein Product

A soy protein product made by Canadian plant protein firm Burcon NutraScience will go to world markets by way of agri-food giant Archer Daniels Midland. Illinois-based ADM has signed on to a 20-year licensing deal with Burcon for worldwide production, distribution and sale of Burcon’s Clarisoy, billed as a 100 per cent soluble, transparent protein


Recipe Swap – for Feb. 17, 2011

If dried peas don’t strike you as something to use when you’re baking, you probably haven’t heard about the flour made from them. Green split pea flour, whole yellow flour and chickpea flour are a line of Manitobamade flours now passing taste tests in kitchens around the country as home bakers hear about their health

Hytek Rebrands Itself As HyLife

Manitoba’s second-largest hogprocessing plant is about to get a whole lot bigger. A major expansion planned for Springhill Farms in Neepawa will increase its slaughter capacity 5,500 hogs a day, or 1.4 million hogs a year. The expansion is scheduled to take effect April 2012. Springhill currently slaughters 3,650 hogs daily. The plant will also

Recipe Swap – for Feb. 3, 2011

– FromTheSoupBook by Louis De Gouy CURRIED PUMPKIN AND POTATO SOUP I made this variation of a pumpkin soup recipe recently. It produces a thick, creamy soup with only a hint of curry.– Lorraine Sauté onion and garlic until translucent then add chicken stock, pumpkin, potato and spices, cook on medium heat stirring frequently until


Ottawa Broadens Food Discussions

The federal government is broadening its consultations on food policy by launching a discussion with eight consumer organizations. The consumer round table was proposed last year in Sheila Weatherill’s report on the deadly 2008 listeria outbreak. It also dovetails with the Connecting with Consumers theme of the annual meeting of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture

Maple Leaf Foods Investor Calls For Board Changes

Activist investor West Face Capi tal cal led for a special meeting of Maple Leaf Foods shareholders Dec. 3, saying it is concerned about how the company’s board of directors operates. Investors have expected the hedge fund to push for changes since it bought a 10 per cent stake in Maple Leaf in August, and

Recipe Swap – for Dec. 9, 2010

You might have read in our paper last week about the amount of food wasted in Canada every year. The numbers are eye popping. We are throwing away a mountain of food – about 40 per cent of all food produced in this country. That’s about $27 billion worth of edibles, or slightly less than


The Butternut Squash Rediscovered

“Don’t forget to plant the butternut squash…” I kept urging my husband this spring, who does the bulk of the spring garden work every year. He didn’t forget. A good thing too. We lost most of our garden’s potatoes to blight this year. But in our basement cold room where potatoes in gunny sacks would

Produce Can Cause Foodborne Illness

When I teach food safety classes, I often ask my students which foods they associate with particular foodborne illnesses. They usually associate chicken or eggs with salmonella. But what about produce? Salmonella infections can cause fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. For young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems, the illness