May 17th 2013
Quebec government announced yesterday its goal is to boost Quebec’s food self-sufficiency to 50 per cent.
Schools, hospitals, day-care centres and other government-financed institutions across the province will be enlisted to help reach this ambitious goal.
Currently only 33 per cent of food is grown locally. Consumers will be enrolled too, via an awareness campaign, in order to influence the supply chain of their supermarkets.
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September 15th 2012
Originally published in the Journal de Montréal on September 15, 2012.
Are you traditional in your choice of fruits and vegetables? There is nothing wrong with that, but did you know that there are a variety of choices other than well-buttered, salted corn on the cob and fried or baked potatoes? It would be a shame especially in this harvest season, not to take advantage of it to enhance your meals with these products that were the staple diet of our ancestors.
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September 8th 2012
Originally published in the Journal de Montréal on September 8, 2012.
Tomorrow is the 10th edition of the ‘Open House’ day on Quebec farms. This activity will enable thousands of locals to visit agricultural facilities in all the regions of Quebec, free of charge.
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August 25th 2012
Originally published in the Journal de Montréal on August 25, 2012.
Harvest season is in full swing. This is the ideal time to make the most of local fruits and vegetables, not only for immediate consumption, but also for stocking up on them.
It is also the best time to go pay a visit to producers, or do the rounds of market places. You’ll see that market garden production does not yield only uniform and perfectly shaped products that can be usually found in the supermarket. In fact a substantial part of agricultural produce, despite being perfectly edible, is unfortunately wasted purely because of its appearance: Part of this produce is used for manufacturing processed products, but the rest is simply thrown away.
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August 24th 2012
My 2 posts about the Drummondville front yard garden case have stirred quite an interest. A few people have asked me to write more about the various initiatives popping up all over in North America.
I invite you all to check the very informative website of Kitchen Gardeners International and to watch the video of its founder, Roger Doiron, speaking in front of a TED audience.
Enjoy the speech and start your own garden.
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August 16th 2012
Great news about the Drummondville front yard garden case, which attracted over 30,000 petition signatures and significant international media attention. (We described it in an earlier post).
Earlier this week, the Municipal Council announced that, henceforth, front yard kitchen gardens will be allowed and have even invited the two gardeners to help shape the city’s new guidelines for urban food gardens.
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August 3rd 2012
Urban gardening is fashionable these days. But if you are building a gorgeous kitchen garden in your front yard – rather than in the back yard – you may run into big trouble with your town’s authorities.
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