BestOVall Canning Company – Beans and All The idea for this blog began with an intriguing label for BestOVall Canning Company, a BC canning company, and ends with a delicious homemade version of Pork and Beans. Food packages and container labels are highly perishable and many don’t survive. Yet each one has a story and […]
Archive | BC agriculture
Buy Local – Buy BC
Buy Local – “Buy BC”, “Buy Canadian” In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are reminded by our provincial government to support local restaurants, farmers, and food producers, arguing that Buy BC is important for the economic and social well being of individuals and the country.[i] Additionally, the federal government, worried about consumers becoming […]
Chilliwack Corn
Chilliwack Corn Chilliwack corn is ready and this is a fact not to be ignored. It hit the market about a month ago and Chilliwack is now well into “corn season” with street-side corn stands everywhere! The season started late this year due to the weather but is now fully underway. Chilliwack is not a […]
Book Review – Street Farm
Book Review – Street Farm: Growing Food, Jobs and Hope on the Urban Frontier by Michael Ableman (2016). Chelsea Green Publishing. I found this book on BC Ferries before the COVID 19 pandemic and I just finally got around to reading it. It was the perfect feel-good read for lockdown times. Street Farm is a heartwarming tale […]
What’s Making Food History – April 29, 2020
By Mary Leah de Zwart on April 29, 2020 in BC agriculture, Ethical food choices, What’s Making Food History
Supply management and the food supply chain cannot be taken lightly: history happens as we sit in self-isolation. The Conversation.com Why-farmers-are-dumping-milk-down-the-drain-and-letting-produce-rot-in-fields
Garlic Harvest Update
Garlic Harvest Update A 2016 garlic blog post on the BCFH blog came to my mind today when I heard about Northlands Urban Farm‘s garlic harvest night on Wed. August 14, one of a series of urban farm events this summer. (Don’t be jealous, rest of Canada. It’s a calming oasis of greenery right in […]
Cariboo Potatoes
Cariboo Potatoes The Cariboo Potato is not a BC Heritage potato but it’s applicable to BC Food History for its name and its history of being grown in seed potato programs in BC. The ’50s were a time of rapid plant development by both the Federal Department of Agriculture and plant […]
What’s making food history 3/29/19 – Celery Fad
Celery juice is the latest food fad to hit the news. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/celery-price-cost-juice-health-trend-1.5076439?fbclid=IwAR3Urs3XtQfzJH-E_Q91RURZsR2UlER62pLPUBZftkmXtdvhOiioe8FC4vE A BC Food History post on celery describes its past growing history, and also its known allergen qualities. Armstrong BC – Celery City No More All food fads need to be examined critically.
Tilly Rolston and Coloured Margarine
Tilly Rolston and Coloured Margarine I noticed the comment “Mrs. Tilly J. Rolston, “The Champion of Coloured Margarine” on the back of an archived pamphlet describing BC Social Credit election candidates from the early 1950’s and I was immediately intrigued[i]. Who was this woman? For International Women’s Day, I decided to see what I could […]
Apple Packing in BC
Apple Packing in BC How d’you like them apples? When you are doing food history research it is so easy to get distracted. I was looking for information on another topic when I happened to come across the above heading in the History of Metropolitan Vancouver website.[i] It was part of an excerpt from the […]