Food & Drink
When in Rome...
Oct 13, 2018 / 6:00 am
Photo: Contributed We just got back from a lovely camping holiday on Vancouver Island. Camping is a whole other world from our every-day life, with slightly adjusted priorities. It’s far more important when we are camping, to plan time for the campfire as opposed to doing the lau
Rustic Roots, Similkameen
Oct 7, 2018 / 5:00 am
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
Respecting food and farmer
Oct 6, 2018 / 6:00 am
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
Oct 4, 2018 / 12:38 pm
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
Oct 1, 2018 / 11:34 am
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
Sep 30, 2018 / 5:00 am
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
Sep 29, 2018 / 6:00 am
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
Sep 23, 2018 / 5:00 am
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
Sep 22, 2018 / 6:00 am
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
Sep 16, 2018 / 5:00 am
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
Sep 15, 2018 / 6:00 am
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
Sep 9, 2018 / 5:00 am
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
Sep 8, 2018 / 6:00 am
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
Sep 2, 2018 / 5:00 am
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
Sep 1, 2018 / 8:00 am
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
Aug 26, 2018 / 5:00 am
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...
Aug 25, 2018 / 5:16 pm
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
Aug 19, 2018 / 5:00 am
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)
Aug 18, 2018 / 6:00 am
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
Aug 12, 2018 / 5:00 am
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