Wild strawberries on Gilmour Street, Peterborough, ON

Meet Fragaria vesca. (What? Based on the title you were expecting something else? These are wild strawberries, not strawberries gone wild.)

Also known as the woodland strawberry in deference to its natural habitat in the forests and meadows of the Northern Hemisphere, out there in the wild the whole plant is a tasty treat — ungulates ...
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Seville oranges, halfway to being marmalade

Bitter. Oh, so bitter. Yet intensely fragrant. A fruit of perfect balance.

That’s the calling card of the Seville orange (Citrus aurantium), also known as the sour orange or bigarade. Its fleeting season, a scant few weeks in the dead of winter, makes this fruit’s appearance at markets a much-anticipated event.

With thick, pockmarked, and highly fragrant skin ...
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Beefsteak tomatoes at Ottawa’s ByWard Market

Has there ever been a varietal more aptly named than the “beefsteak” tomato? Weighty and dense, tender and flavourful. Best eaten in thick slices. Just like a nice cut of, well, beef steak.

My favourite thing about this tomato, however, is its reputation as a bit of a renegade. Its defiantly large size and bulbous ...
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Red Haven peach poached in rosé wine with blueberry-basil garnish

What you do: Boil rosé wine with some sugar and a cinnamon stick until mixture becomes syrupy. Add peeled peaches and simmer about 10 minutes, until they are tender but still hold their shape. Cool. Serve a peach in a pool of the rosé syrup garnished with blueberries and basil (cinnamon basil ...
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Raspberry picking at the Rose Family Farm in Mount Albert, Ontario

It rained the whole time we were in the field. I think the berries taste that much sweeter for our dedication.

Red currants

It is 8:45 a.m. on a Saturday in July. I descend the steps of the 504 streetcar at the intersection of King Street West and Jarvis. As I wait for the light to change to allow me to walk south towards Front Street I observe the knots of people already clogging the sidewalks in amongst the outside vendors at the ...
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Lime tart with fresh raspberries

I know. I know! It’s yet another dessert post.

I’m just as surprised as you are, as I’ll gladly side with savoury over sweet every single time. But what can I say? There are worse things in which to revel than sweets, and revelling in them I have been indeed if my recent food writing is ...
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Tower of Strawberry-Vanilla Jam

Welcome to Photo Friday.

Over the months I’ve been watching the images in my photo library pile up and thought it a shame that only a select few make it up here in full posts. My shutter finger tends to be more prolific than my keyboard fingers, so Photo Friday will help me share what I’m up to in ...
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Lemon loaf

I can tell you precisely when I started to cook — not just help in the kitchen, but do full-fledged home cheffing pretty much on my own. It was Summer 1990, as recorded in Candles and Parsley, a entertaining record book I got as a gift and starting filling in with meticulously detailed dinner-party notes not long after receiving it. ...
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An old friend: lemon meringue pie

Lemon meringue pie and I go way back.

I have filmy, fragile memories of my mom making it in the kitchen of the house I lived in until I was eight. In those days there was Tenderflake lard for the crust, Shirriff mix for the filling, and after being amazed every single time that clear, viscous egg ...
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