Respecting food and farmer

Photo: Contributed There was a news story this summer about a farm in Ontario that had opened its gates for people to come and see their sunflowers, only to have the situation turn into what the farmer said looked like a zombie apocalypse. How can this happen? Read on, and I’ll e

Grape harvest looking good

Photo: Contributed The wine grape harvest has arrived in the Okanagan, and B.C. Wine Institute members are feeling good about this year’s crop. Jackson-Triggs Okanagan Estate viticulture director Troy Osborne said his harvest start date was close to the average, as Chardonna

Make room for US wines

Photo: CTV B.C.-only VQA wine stores like those opened with much fanfare in several Okanagan grocery stores will have to make room on the shelves for U.S. wine. The new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal struck Sunday requires that B.C. scrap a law banning international wines from groc

Quails’ Gate, West Kelowna

Photo: Contributed Join our wine writer, Allison Markin, every week for a wine review complete with food and music pairings. Featuring Okanagan and Canadian wines, with an occasional international bottle, Castanet celebrates the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine

It doesn't look like the pic

Photo: Contributed Have you ever tried a new recipe and had it not turn out? You follow all the instructions, you double-check the details, but in the end it doesn’t look at all like the picture they posted. How can this happen? Who would publish a recipe that didn’t wor

Masi, Italy

Photo: Contributed Join our wine writer, Allison Markin, every week for a wine review complete with food and music pairings. Featuring Okanagan and Canadian wines, with an occasional international bottle, Castanet celebrates the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine

Go ahead, lick your fingers

Photo: Contributed We get scolded as children when we dip our fingers into a pot of something to taste it, but who hasn’t wanted to do that? Did you ever take a swipe at the icing of a cake sitting on the kitchen counter? Do you prefer to bite an apple or cut it into wedges?

Lake Breeze, Naramata

Photo: Contributed Join our wine writer, Allison Markin, every week for a wine review complete with food and music pairings. Featuring Okanagan and Canadian wines, with an occasional international bottle, Castanet celebrates the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine

Eating the bounty

Photo: Contributed I wrote earlier this summer about the embarrassment of riches we experience with local fruit. All summer long there are fruit stands open to the crowds of tourists and locals alike, looking for the fresh fruit off the trees and veggies from the field. Tourist

Road 13, Oliver

Photo: Contributed Join our wine writer, Allison Markin, every week for a wine review complete with food and music pairings. Featuring Okanagan and Canadian wines, with an occasional international bottle, Castanet celebrates the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine

Fall fairies

Photo: Contributed I love fall, but this year it has come a bit early for my liking. It's too soon to be getting up in the dark again and thinking of wearing long pants and sweaters. It’s chilly in the mornings now — no more bare legs for me on my walk. Whe

Summerhill, Kelowna

Photo: Contributed Join our wine writer, Allison Markin, every week for a wine review complete with food and music pairings. Featuring Okanagan and Canadian wines, with an occasional international bottle, Castanet celebrates the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine

Sandwich making 101

Photo: Contributed As everyone heads back to the routines of school and work with the end of summer, I thought it wise to offer some tips on how to make the most of your lunch. I’m hoping some people who work in sandwich-making places will read this too, as I have had some sad sa

Tinhorn Creek, Oliver

Photo: Contributed Join our wine writer, Allison Markin, every week for a wine review complete with food and music pairings. Featuring Okanagan and Canadian wines, with an occasional international bottle, Castanet celebrates the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine

You can have your cake...

Photo: Contributed We are on the brink: the relaxed demeanour that guides most of us through the summer is about to end. Soon, we will be back in the hustle and bustle of school and schedules. We need to have rewards when life is this busy. Easily attainable rewards... Never fe

Roche, Naramata Bench

Photo: Contributed Join our wine writer, Allison Markin, every week for a wine review complete with food and music pairings. Featuring Okanagan and Canadian wines, with an occasional international bottle, Castanet celebrates the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine

Hardly Sirius (not a typo)

Photo: Contributed Legend has it that those extra-hot summer days came from the extra heat of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. The word means “glowing” in Greek, and the ancient Greeks believed that the heat of this star added to the heat of the sun, giving us what we

Quinta Ferreira, Oliver

Photo: Contributed Join our wine writer, Allison Markin, every week for a wine review complete with food and music pairings. Featuring Okanagan and Canadian wines, with an occasional international bottle, Castanet celebrates the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine

Top 3 campfire snacks

Photo: Contributed With summer in full swing, all the fun that makes up the season is happening every day and night. Days on the beach Picnics in the park Evenings around the campfire. (In British Columbia we improvise a bit with the campfire, but that is perfectly alr

Camelot, East Kelowna

Photo: Contributed Join our wine writer, Allison Markin, every week for a wine review complete with food and music pairings. Featuring Okanagan and Canadian wines, with an occasional international bottle, Castanet celebrates the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine