Grainews: First We Eat -Freezer Archaeology

Grainews

I was sitting at my neighbour Sharon’s kitchen counter on a Sunday morning, enjoying our weekly coffee. My puppy, Jake, fussed at my feet, his manners strained by my insistence on a “Down-stay,” so I didn’t hear what Sharon had said, just held out my empty mug for a refill and shrugged. Sharon, who has known me for nearly thirty years, poured more coffee and repeated her words.

Grainews: “First We Eat” – Curling & Chili

Grainews

For the past seven years, we’ve greeted the New Year by throwing makeshift curling rocks across the icy lake that surrounds our home west of Saskatoon. The lake arrived in spring 2011, eight months after we’d taken up residence on what has been my family’s farm for decades.

News from the kitchen keyboard

It’s been years – ten, when I count ’em up – since I wrote a food column. My most recent was an eight-year run as a freelance food columnist in The Calgary Herald. When that lurched to a messy end as the newspaper world leaked red ink everywhere, I thought I was done with such things, intent as I was on becoming a published LITT-URR-ARRY writer. A writer of poems, essays, fiction. I confess that despite the stellar example of the late and great MFK Fisher, one of the most amazing food writers ever, I was convinced food writing was the ghetto of the writing world. Well, I was wrong, and I admit it. I knew it even then – all you need to do is stroll through my library to see the names of great food writers on many, many books about food to know – that food writing has an indelible place in my life. And we all know indelible ink doesn’t fade.

So – with pleasure – I am more than delighted to say that I have been hired as the food columnist for Grainews, a magazine read by thousands of Canadian farmers and food producers. It feels like coming home, in many ways, some of them ironic, to be writing in a farming magazine: here I am, living on the family farm with my partner Dave,  writing essays, fiction, poetry, AND a food column. How great is that? My worlds have collided in a messy and unexpectedly generous way. Yes, there will be food! I’ll be posting my columns as they run, and begin today with the first three that are now in print. And here’s a shout-out to my running buddy and good friend, Amy Jo Ehman, the former food columnist for Grainews, who put me up for this particular gig. Stay warm, AJ.