Round Table discussion

Photo: Contributed The news can contain all manner of depressing and discouraging items. I am proud to be discussing a topic as straightforward as food and eating. The simple concept of sitting around a table and sharing news is something that we do at dinner time when we manage t

Baccata Ridge, Grindrod

Photo: Contributed For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjo

A virtually perfect world

Photo: Contributed I’ve been hearing a lot about bitcoin lately. I am an old school girl, so the notion of virtual currency that exists only online and can’t be used to buy anything seems a bit weird. But it is the wave of the future. There is so much about the world tod

Evolve Cellars, Summerland

Photo: Contributed For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjo

A side of guilt with that?

Photo: Contributed Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday…. Where does it end? Why do we have to be reminded constantly about what we should be doing? With the American Thanksgiving weekend now upon us, the holiday season has officially begun — whether you li

Burrowing Owl, Oliver

Photo: Contributed For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjo

Did you eat your crusts?

Photo: Contributed When I was a kid, if I pushed my food around and didn’t eat it, my parents used to tell me that there were children starving in Africa and I should be grateful and eat up. Everyone in my generation got the same speech. Although most of us did think, at some poi

Pentage, Penticton

Photo: Contributed For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjo

Good food brings happiness

Photo: Contributed Winter is here. All of a sudden, we left the picturesque beauty of fall with its rainbow of colours and we were sucked into a grey vortex of snow and darkness. The melting snow and ensuing muckiness is even worse, spoiling any chance of a new, scenic beauty. We

Quail's Gate, West Kelowna

Photo: Contributed For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjo

Keep home fires burning

Photo: Contributed This time of year is one of reflection for many; as Mother Nature turns herself inward, making the plants go dormant and the days go shorter, so we look inward and reminisce. Did you know that the days around Halloween are known worldwide for their connection to the

See Ya Later Ranch, OK Falls

Photo: Contributed For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjo

The Great Pumpkin Patch

Photo: Contributed Growing up, I never thought I would get to live next to the Great Pumpkin Patch. Imagine my delight the first year I watched the pumpkins grow and change colour in the field behind our house. Magically, they appeared through the leaves and began to glow in orange and

OK Crush Pad, Summerland

Photo: Contributed For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjo

The taste of friendship

Photo: Contributed I'm catching up with a girlfriend in Calgary this weekend and one of the things I always enjoy is the food and drink we share. It's just another part of the magic of friendship, that you can trust someone else’s taste in broadening your horizons.&nb

Township 7, Naramata

Photo: Contributed For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjo

Howling at the moon

Photo: wearelightningwolf.com Coyotes and wolves have howled when the moon is out since Ancient Greek and Roman times. Hecate and Diana, goddesses of the moon, hung out with wild dogs in the night.  In Norse mythology it is dogs running across the sky that chase the moon and

Maple Leaf Spirits, Penticton

Photo: Contributed For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjo

Why did the chicken...?

Photo: Contributed We just returned from a trip with our camper trailer, touring the interior of the Western States. It was a mostly remote trip, sprinkled with doses of civilization in various forms. We took in some classic Americana, and made great memories, too. One of the intere

Mirabel, West Kelowna

Photo: Contributed For Canada’s 150th birthday this year, Castanet is featuring an Okanagan wine each week, celebrating the bottles of our Valley and the diversity of the Canadian wine industry, including suggested food pairings and Canadian music artist to listen to while enjo