FROM
THE
GARDEN

MY CAREER IN FOOD BEGAN AT HOME, and remains firmly rooted here. The exploration of what is possible in my own backyard is alive and well. In year one I was exploring whether or not I could grow my own lettuce. Many years later I’m keenly awaiting the splitting of my shallot bulbs, the productivity of my now mature fruit forest, and the shiso and cumin I’m growing for the very first time. Food has no boundaries. As omnivores we eat a vast diversity of plants and animals, which themselves have a nearly infinite array of combinations. Add upon that variation in cookery method and more immeasurable, personal style, and food simply should never bore.

 

I’ve spent a lot of years in a heavy form of food exploration at home, facilitated by my career in food film which has allowed me to both indulge in my interest in wild and farmed foods in Alberta, as well as gain perspective by regular travel to other cultures. My intent here is to consolidate it. A wise food writer once challenged me with ‘you should write a book’, to which my response was ‘why, it’s on my blog’. Her take on it was that it was in no easily digestible and concise form, and since I’ve realized she’s right. This will be meant to read as a book. It may become a book, although I have no aspirations to be come an author - a profession I have a tremendous amount of respect for.

 

Before I was grey in the beard, I realized my random path through food was wearing a few trails, and that my food was coming from one of three places: 1] from local farms 2] from the garden and 3] from the wild. Probably something in that order when I started. It now is something of the reverse.