Monthly Archives : October 2017

Marzipan – what?


Reality check for our business idea So here we are, my husband Mike and I, planning to make and sell marzipan. But will anybody but us want to eat it, let alone buy it? The two challenges ahead: 1) We had never made marzipan 2) Would people know what it is and/ or like it? The easiest answer to both…

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Seed for Thought


Brian and Lorna McMaster, The Taco Farmers, want you to save your seeds The Taco Farmers. The name is pretty spot on when you consider that Lorna and Brian McMaster grow nearly 100 per cent of the ingredients for the menu of their taco-centric booth at the Charlottetown Farmers’ Market. However, what you may not realize is that your tortilla…

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The Little Island Kitchen


Apples I have a bad habit that I must confess. Every year when autumn rolls in I can feel an excitement growing in my bones. The crisp and cool air swirling through the trees is like a siren call that pulls me to the orchard, with no concern for what may follow. Romantic as it sounds, this lust for orchard…

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Sweet Innovations


Island Abbey Foods sets sights on becoming a global brand I used to think innovation mostly happened in fancy buildings with walls of glass and white leather furniture, on well-manicured green lawns in places far-flung from Canada’s island province. It turns out I was way off the mark. Way, way off. In fact, innovation can happen anywhere that you find…

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The Do Gooders


Upstreet Craft Brewing first Island company to gain B Corp accreditation When you think of a craft brewery, what are the first things that come to mind? High-quality, local beer—yes. A crowd of hop enthusiasts—yes. A hip place to hang out—yes. Now stop right there! Upstreet Craft Brewing is all of these things, and then some. Most recently, the Charlottetown-based…

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A Nutty Food Business


Maritime Marzipan—a German treat inspired by Island life If someone had told me a decade ago that we’d live in Canada one day I would have been surprised. If someone had told me two years ago that we’d have a house by the ocean I would have said they were crazy. If someone had told me six months ago that…

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1864 Feasting and Drinking (and creating a country)


The Fathers of Confederation, conviviality, and commensality Canada may have been born out of deliberated consultation, but it gestated in a sea of Canadian Champagne.* Prince Edward Island grabs hold of the title “Birthplace of Confederation” in the way a tenacious drunk holds on to parking meters. We can not let it go. When the Charlottetown Conference delegates from the…

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Chef Mitchell Jackson Takes First Place


Claddagh Oyster House chef wins 2017 PEI Potato Chowder Competition at PEI International Shellfish Festival If you think the PEI International Shellfish Festival is about gorging on oysters and mussels, while listening to some of the biggest talents on the East Coast, you wouldn’t be wrong, but you’d only be partially right. The Festival, which celebrated its 22nd anniversary this…

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A Farmer’s Perspective—OPINION PIECE


Sally Bernard explains why public discourse and panels on food policy and food sustainability need primary producers’ voices “Food policy is the area of public policy concerning how food is produced, processed, distributed, and purchased. Food policies are designed to influence the operation of the food and agriculture system.” (Source: Wikipedia) Food policy—it likely sounds vaguely interesting to most, dead…

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