Distilleries of Vancouver Island: A Guided Tour of West Coast Craft and Artisan Spirits by Marianne Scott Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2021 $25.00 / 9781771513326 Reviewed by Joe Wiebe * Published earlier this year, Marianne Scott’s Distilleries of Vancouver Island is essential reading for anyone who might enjoy a wee dram of Island whiskey, a sip…
Read more 1313 Island spirits and cocktails
Island Eats: Signature Chefs’ Recipes from Vancouver Island and the Salish Sea by Dawn Postnikoff and Joanne Sasvari Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2021 $38.99 / 9781773271675 Reviewed by Margot Fedoruk * For those of you who share Federico Fellini’s sentiment that “life is a combination of magic and pasta” then this may be the book…
Read more 1286 They had me at gnocchi
Bisous & Brioche: Classic French Recipes and Family Favorites from a Life in France by Laura Bradbury and Rebecca Wellman Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2020 $45.00 / 9781771513166 Reviewed by Peter Clarke and Maria Tippett * Here is a book that looks good, feels good and delivers the goods. It represents a fruitful collaboration between the…
Read more 1219 Burgundy to British Columbia
Food Floor: My Woodward’s Days by Margaret Cadwaladr Langley: Madrona Books & Publishing, 2020 $15.95 / 9871999546519 Reviewed by Mary Gale Smith * Margaret Cadwaladr has created a little book of stories that will be of interest to anyone who worked at Woodward’s or in a grocery store, or who buys groceries. It is a…
Read more 1136 Dollar 49 day, Woodward’s
One Good Thing: A Living Memoir by M.A.C. Farrant Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2021 $19.95 / 9781772012842 Reviewed by Mary Leah de Zwart * M.A.C. [Marion Alice Coburn] Farrant is an accomplished author, playwright, and humourist, living on the Saanich Peninsula near Sidney, BC. She has seventeen publications to her name, ranging from a novel and short…
Read more 1127 The Chesnut-Farrant exchange
Hearing More Voices: English-Canadian Women in Print and on the Air, 1914-1960 by Peggy Lynn Kelly and Carole Gerson Ottawa: Borealis Press, 2020 $24.95 / 9781896133713 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * As a library school student in the mid 1970s I was told that Anne of Green Gables could not be considered a Canadian classic;…
Read more 1085 A balanced cultural herstory
The Plant-based Foodie Vancouver by Brad Hill and Chris Dagenais; foreword by Erin Ireland and Anna Pippus Vancouver: Brad Hill Imaging Ltd., 2018. Available here, here, and here $28.95 / 9780994919540 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * There are two kinds of recipes: aspirational and accessible; they are not mutually exclusive, although they can be. The…
Read more 1043 In the mood for purple
Teatime Around the World by Denyse Waissbluth, illustrated by Chelsea O’Byrne Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2020 $22.95 / 9781771646017 Reviewed by Caileigh Broatch * Teatime Around the World invites readers to afternoon tea with an English duchess, to drink green mint tea in Morocco, and buy masala chai from chai wallah vendors in India. Within the…
Read more 1011 No tea left unstirred
Lure: Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the West Coast by Ned Bell with Valerie Howes Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2017 $29.99 / 9781773270876 Reviewed by Gillian Crowther * What is the bait for cooks? Ingredients? Recipes? What makes us cast our eyes over a cookbook? The cover? The title? The author? The search for inspiration? The…
Read more 1005 Ready, steady, halibut
Show Me the Honey: Adventures of an Accidental Apiarist by Dave Doroghy, foreword by Rick Hansen Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2020 $25.00 / 9781771513227 Reviewed by Natalie Lang * Bees. Those black and yellow winged creatures buzzing about and smelling the roses; perhaps there is more to them than meets the eye. Do they hold the…
Read more #971 Aphorisms from an apiarist
Valleys of Wine: A Taste of British Columbia’s Wine History by Luke Whittall Vancouver: Whitecap Books, 2019 $29.95 / 9781770503168 Reviewed by Bill Engleson * I cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food. — W.C Fields What wine goes with Captain Crunch? — George Carlin I like the wine and not…
Read more #951 New wine in new bottles
The Larder of the Wise: The Story of Vancouver’s James Inglis Reid Limited by M. Anne Wyness, with a foreword by Michael Kluckner Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2019 $32.99 / 9781773271187 Reviewed by Mary Leah de Zwart * In The Larder of the Wise: The Story of James Inglis Reid Limited, M. Anne Wyness promises…
Read more #949 Haggis and Scotch pies
Gather at Home: Over 100 Simple Recipes, DIYs, and Inspiration for a Year of Occasions by Monika Hibbs Toronto: Penguin Random House, 2020 $35.00 / 9780735236288 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * Gather at Home by Monika Hibbs is undeniably picturesque in the most conventional way possible. Hibbs is a lifestyle influencer, a daring career choice…
Read more #944 Food, flowers, and aspiration
Farm the City: A Toolkit for Setting up a Successful Urban Farm by Michael Ableman Gabriola: New Society, 2020 $19.95 / 9780865719392 Reviewed by Rose Morrison * While Michael Ableman’s Farm the City: A Toolkit for Setting up a Successful Urban Farm is written as a primer for those wishing to start an in-town farm,…
Read more #932 Ableman’s urban agriculture
Edible and Medicinal Flora of the West Coast: British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest by Collin Varner Victoria: Heritage House, 2020 $22.95 / 9781772033236 Reviewed by Rose Morrison * A book authored by British Columbia horticulturist Collin Varner is always worthwhile. Varner’s latest publication, Edible and Medicinal Flora of the West Coast: British Columbia and…
Read more #894 Varner’s wild foods & cures
The BC Wine Lover’s Cookbook: Recipes & Stories from Wineries Across British Columbia by Jennifer Schell, foreword by John Schreiner Toronto: Penguin Random House (Appetite by Random House), 2020 $35.00 / 9780525610366 Reviewed by Harvey De Roo * There’s something special about wine country and its people, and what better guide than Jennifer Schell, former editor…
Read more #893 Schell’s wine and food tour
Rocky Mountain Cooking: Recipes to Bring Canada’s Backcountry Home by Katie Mitzel Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada [Appetite by Random House], 2019 $25.00 / 9780147530981 Reviewed by Luanne Armstrong * I love reading cookbooks, especially in the winter, partly because in my community, every winter dinner is a potluck and also because winter just seems…
Read more #855 Rocky Mountain cooking
Footprints of a Foodie by Tanya dePape Victoria: FriesenPress Publishers, 2019 $30.99 / 9781525548307 Reviewed by Natalie Lang * Have you ever felt the need to uproot your life, visit a far off place, and reboot your perspective? Vancouver Island clinical counsellor Tanya dePape, in the wake of a divorce and several failed attempts at…
Read more #829 A pre-Covid foodie flyabout
The Olive Oil and Vinegar Lover’s Cookbook by Emily Lycopolus Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2019 (revised and updated second edition; first published 2015) $45.00 / 9781771513029 Reviewed by Natalie Lang * In A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf wrote “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” This maxim…
Read more #781 Oil and vinegar, Italy and Canada
Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food by Lenore Newman Toronto: ECW Press, 2019 $32.95/ 9781770414358 Reviewed by Mary Leah de Zwart, Linda Peterat, and Gale Smith of the BC Food History Network * Lenore Newman is a culinary geographer, professor, and holder of a Canada Research Chair in Food Security and the…
Read more #707 Food extinction alert