Food & Drink

Beer and cider celebrated

Photo: Destination Silver Star More than 20 craft brewers will pour a variety of beverages at the Beer & Cider Fest. The event will showcase local breweries and cideries Saturday, Sept. 9 in the Silver Star village. There will also be a couple of distilleries taking part. Tic

Cooking up Okanagan Eats

Photo: Figure.1 Publishing Okanagan Eats goes on sale September 5, 2023. The unique regional cuisine of the Okanagan is on display in all its fresh, vibrant glory in a new cookbook. Okanagan Eats is the third in a series featuring authors Joanne Sasvari and Dawn Postnikoff that star

'Delivering our culture'

Casey Richardson A Penticton restaurant owner has dipped into the sake brewing business, not wanting to lose his supplier for the best-fermented rice products around. Kizuna Sake was launched earlier this year by Tatsuo Kan, who runs Kojo Sushi. Kan brought his family from Japan to Vanc

Feast of Fields returns

Photo: Feast of Fields Okanagan Feast of Fields is gearing up for a return to Kelowna. The event—set to take place Sept. 17 at 1 p.m. on the farm property of Priest Creek Family Estate Winery in Southeast Kelowna—will celebrate the contributions local chefs, restaurants, fa

New distillery on the block

Photo: @cedistilling | Controlled Entropy Distilling Summerland’s boozy options keep expanding, with a new small-batch artisan distillery opening on the north end. Controlled Entropy Distilling has been open with limited hours in the past month, having a soft opening with just hu

Get ready for the fair!

Chelsey Mutter It’s time to giddy up and go – the Armstrong IPE is back for its 122nd year. The fair opens today at the Armstrong Fairgrounds. “We’ve been through wars and depressions and ups and downs, and COVID caught us, but we are back on our feet,” say

7 Deadly Sins postponed

Photo: Don Urquhart Guests at last year's 7 Deadly Sins party. Blasted Church Vineyards has announced the postponement of its annual 7 Deadly Sins party, initially scheduled for September 9, due to the current wildfire situation. Citing wildfire-related poor air quality, and tra

Fruit growers help save food

Photo: Contributed BC Fruit Growers’ Association wants to keep as much edible food as possible out of landfills, which is why it recently donated 300 bins to a local food charity. Food It Forward has partnered with a packing house to collect its culled cherries that do not meet m

Push to aid apple growers

Photo: Contributed BC Fruit Growers’ Association has launched a new website to help its apple farmers better market their product. “Orderly marketing is simply a way to describe how B.C. apple growers may achieve better results—for example, in marketing and promotion&

Saintly Wines rosé

Photo: Contributed Wine: Saintly, the good sparkling rosé Winery: Saintly Wines Why drink it? The brainchild of Arterra Wines Canada, the Saintly label is, according to the website, “more than a wine. It's a lifestyle,” one that offers everything for sale from

Life on the road

Photo: Kristin Peturson-Laprise Kristin Peturson-Laprise's "Rabbit Hollow Express" trailer, her home away from home while on a cross-continent vacation. This week I am in Maine, as we continue our journey across the continent and back. The motto here on everyone’

Restaurants need support

Photo: Bad Tattoo Brewing - file photo Local restaurants are facing unprecedented challenges as the devastating wildfire season in British Columbia has impacted tourism levels. The BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association is calling upon the community to rally behind their local rest

Rebooting recovery

Photo: Castanet Wildfires and the smoke they produce are hurting what is typically the height of the tourist season in the Okanagan. Two songs have been swirling through my head in recent days—Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again, and, at the opposite end of the musical spectrum, D

Community support goes on

Photo: Contributed The community is doing what they can to show their appreciation and support for the firefighters and first responders battling the wildfires currently burning in the Okanagan. A number of organizations have decided to give back, including Grizzly Bear Bistro and Bar,

Smoke taint a possibility

Photo: Don Urquhart It's too early to know what impact the smoke will have on this year's grape crop. The Wine Growers of BC (WGBC) industry association says it's too early to know the impact of the smoke on this year's grape crop while urging support for local supplier

'We've been closed 2 years'

Photo: Tracey Prediger Local business owner still getting calls two years after selling micro green and edible flower business It’s been two years since Greg Hewitt with Lake View Farms in Vernon sold his microgreen and edible flower business but he’s still getting calls fo

Upper Bench '22 Riesling

Photo: Contributed Wine: Upper Bench Estate Winery 2022 Riesling Winery: Upper Bench Estate Winery Why drink it? Because Riesling is one of the world’s greatest wine styles, and Upper Bench’s version is awesome. That’s why. Seriously, if you need more reasons,

Eating the culture

Photo: Pixabay Poutine The adventures on the Rabbit Hollow Express continue. (If you missed last week’s launch, I hope you will scroll down to see more and join me on Instagram for pictures. ) We have reached Quebec, where Hubbie’s roots are. We are immersed in French -

Cheese-burger ice cream?

Photo: The Canadian Press Cheese-burger flavored ice cream, pickle fries and pink macaroni dinner served with caviar in a bread bowl are some of the new food offerings at this year's Canadian National Exhibition, the 144-year-old fair that opens this week. The CNE's chief execu

Impact on local vineyards

Photo: Don Urquhart Tragedy in the vineyard - Kerner grape vines were almost entirely wiped out at Nostalgia Wines. This is the second in a series (parts one and three here) exploring the severe cold event that wiped out an estimated half of the Okanagan Valley’s wine grapes this