Toronto’s Conscious Food Fest came across my twitter feed this week and when we were wondering what to do on Saturday afternoon, it seemed like a perfect fit for a sunny afternoon. As it worked out, it would have been worth it even in the rain – history lesson and all! The festival isn’t exactly kid-focused – though there were a good number of kids there and the Real Food for Real Kids tent had some cool activities. Isabelle and Tom had fun grinding their [...]

I’ve seen the ads for the Toronto Zoo’s overnight educational programme a couple times and decided to finally give it a try as mother-daughter adventure after my exam this week. At almost $200 for a single night for the both of us, it was a bit of a splurge and not something that everyone can spring for. The evening starts with a personal tour of the zoo’s African area with two well-trained guides, Chris and Sarah-Lynn. With kids ranging from about 6 to their late [...]

Today was the last day of the Urban Edibles course, led by Alexis Burnett of Earth Tracks and a team of volunteers from the P.I.N.E. project. Even though the workshops only ran for less than 2 and a half days, there was a lot of information packed in – both by the facilitators and fellow students. I left this afternoon with a head full of projects, notebook of tools to start them with and feeling like I have a supportive network on which to lean [...]

A full day of classes today and thus, I’m a little tired and not really up to writing much. But did want to pop in and update as the second day did not disappoint either. We learned that you can eat small pinecones like brussel sprouts, how to process acorns and the difference between an infusion, a decoction, a moon tea and a solar tea. Personally, I learned that reaching into your bag with a pair of opening pruning shears will bring into focus the [...]

I’m back from my first day at a course on “Urban Edibles”, being run by the P.I.N.E. Project near Toronto’s High Park. (If you’ve never checked them out, you should – really interesting, innovative work they’re doing). I’ve been lurking on the P.I.N.E. Project website for some months now, trying to figure out how to fit some of their programs  into our schedule. Still, when a course on foraging wild plants in an urban area came up, I was intrigued with enough reservation not to [...]

Digital boy prefers screen rock to actual rock. And a coconut butt. That is all.

Isabelle takes a hammer to an innocent coconut… and he cracks.

An real snowy day activity – and what to do with any (unlikely) leftovers. Maple taffy is a tradition with my mother’s French-Canadian family: tire d’érable.

How to bake salt-risen dough – an often forgotten method for making a unique, fine grained bread with nothing but potatoes and the suspension of disbelief.