WTF is a Ramp and Why Shouldn't I Eat Them?

Wed, 20 May 2009 15:40:00 GMT

Photo credit: Emma Alter According to the Globe and Mail all my exhortations to readers to buy wild leeks, otherwise known as ramps as a healthy, local, sustainable wild harvest may be tragically mistaken.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Slow Food Founder Carlo Petrini On Local Eating

Fri, 15 May 2009 09:10:07 GMT

A gastronome who is not an environmentalist is stupid. An environmentalist who is not a gastronome is boring.

Thus spake Carlo Petrini, the founder of the Slow Food movement. It was just one of his quotable bon mots of the evening discussion I attended. It was his first time in Toronto and there was a lot of buzz about his appearance. The programme was presented by Planet in Focus, an organization that uses film and video to "explore social and ecological focal points", and the Italian Cultural Institute. Billed as "An Evening of Conversation" with Petrini, it turned out to be more of a lecture than a conversation, but it was fascinating for anyone who is interested in food, culture and society.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Giving Up the Day Job for Organic Farming: The Dolce Vita Diaries

Fri, 08 May 2009 09:27:46 GMT

Cathy Rogers and Jason Gibb had successful careers in television production in Los Angeles, with homes both in the U.S. and their native England. Finding themselves restless, they wanted some physical work that would challenge them and produce something of which they could be proud. After some searching around, they decided that moving to Italy and making organic olive oil would be a grand idea. Oh yes, they added a brand new baby into the mix as well. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Green Gift Guide: Green Gourmets

Wed, 06 May 2009 10:35:42 GMT

It's such a pleasure buying gifts for foodies. The possibilities are endless and you can find something interesting and delightful in every price range. This list of green foodie gifts is quite personal; I have a connection to everything that I'm writing about here. Click through to the slideshow to see my favorite gifts for food-lovers and chefs--they are all things I have used and loved, and your giftee will love them too. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Green Gift Guide: Green Gourmets

Tue, 05 May 2009 10:45:42 GMT

Buying for the cook in your life is always fun--especially since it often means he'll be sharing the fruits of his labor with you. Fill the life of your favorite foodie with the cookbooks, ingredients, and equipment on these pages, and then let him fill your life with the delicious results.

... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Tea Time: Deforestation, Drought and Death

Fri, 01 May 2009 10:59:50 GMT

Photo credit:Antony Njuguna from The Daily Nation I know I have been painting a pretty rosy picture in my posts of my trip to Kenya, because for me, that is what it was. I spent a lot of time looking for green washing from Lipton, but the truth is, Lipton has been practicing good stewardship for so long in Kericho that the Rainforest Alliance certification for their plantation there wasn't that big of a stretch, and the changes they were required to implement were minimal. The difference however, between the microcosm of the plantation and the macrocosm of the country was astonishing to me. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Tea Time: Health Care for a Work Force

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 10:19:13 GMT

Photo credits: Kelly Rossiter In my last post about my trip to Kenya to visit the Lipton Tea plantation, I talked about the benefits to the workers of the education of their children, and how the treatment of workers is one of the cornerstones of certification from the Rainforest Alliance. The other huge benefit that the workers receive from Lipton is their health care. As a Canadian, I have universal health care and yes, sometimes there are problems with the system, but I know that if I am sick, I will be taken care of without any cost to me or my family. What that means in real terms is that I don't wait to seek treatment until my symptoms are so bad that I am in significant pain, or perhaps beyond reasonable care, as many people who must pay a fee will do.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Earth Day: Listening to My Garden Grow

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 07:45:00 GMT

photo credits: Kelly Rossiter A number of years ago I was walking home on a warm spring evening and I kept hearing rustling. When I got to the front of my house the noise was quite loud, so I stood for a few minutes looking into my garden to see what was making the noise. Insects, mice? Turned out, much to my surprise, that I was hearing the bulbs breaking through the earth and moving the dead leaves that were lying on top of them. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Tea Time: Educating a Workforce

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 08:03:12 GMT

Photo credits: Kelly Rossiter In order for any company to be certified sustainable by the third party organization The Rainforest Alliance, there are certain areas in which they must be compliant. One of those areas is in the treatment of their work force and the benefits those workers receive. As I mentioned in my post on tea pluckers, the Lipton tea plantation work force is paid what we in North America would think of as ruinous wages, but they accrue a huge benefit through the company's policy of paying for housing, education and health care and providing a ready supply of clean, potable water. The Lipton tea plucker makes three times the average worker in Kenya. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

One of a Kind Show: Fabricawakuwaku

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 09:49:05 GMT

Photo credit: Kelly Rossiter I was checking out the Spring One of a Kind Show yesterday, and discovered that most of the green booths there have already been covered in the past by my colleague, Lloyd. But there was one fun looking booth with brightly coloured cloth stuffed animals that caught my eye. The mandate said that the toys were influenced by Dada, punk, minimalism and a surreal aesthetic. It's not often I come across a Dada influence in toys, so I had to know more.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Tea Time: A Human Face on Where Your Cup of Tea Comes From

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:03:41 GMT

Photo credit: Kelly Rossiter Waking up on our first morning in Kericho we were greeted with a spectacular sunrise and a slightly cool temperature. The journalists involved in the trip to the Lipton Tea Plantation in Kericho were scheduled to do a little tea plucking. When my housemates and I arrived at the designated spot to meet, we found that we were the source of much curiosity and even more amusement for the tea pluckers, as they knew what we were in for. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

My Brush With the Wildlife in Kenya

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 08:57:41 GMT

Among the many great projects that Lipton undertakes on their tea plantation in Kericho is the monkey sanctuary. This vervet monkey was a nursing mother and she was too busy stuffing as much bread into her mouth as she could to take the banana that was being offered. The other monkeys were happy to grab the fruit and run off with their prize.

Credit: Kelly Rossiter

... Read the full story on TreeHugger

My Brush with the Wildlife in Kenya (Slideshow)

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 08:42:29 GMT

Image credit: Kelly Rossiter There is nothing as exhilarating as seeing animals in the wild. I was incredibly lucky to see a huge number of animals on my visit to Kenya. In both Nakuru National Park and Nairobi National Park I saw lions, baboons, tons of zebras, a leopard and a cheetah among others. Alas, giraffes eluded us on this trip, but there were plenty of other sights. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

A View of Kenya by Air and By Car

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:46:46 GMT

Join me for a mini tour of Kenya, with photos taken on a flight from Nairobi to Kericho and then covering the trip by car returning three days later. It turns out that the images that interested me were reflective of some of the pressing issues that are facing Kenya today. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

A View of Kenya by Air and by Car

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 10:02:16 GMT

This is the first day of our press junket to Kericho, Kenya to see the Lipton Tea Plantation. They are working to get all of their tea plantations certified by the Rainforest Alliance by the year 2015 and we are going to see just what that entails. We are scheduled to take the quick flight from Nairobi to Kericho and then drive back three days later through Nakuru National Park to hopefully see some wildlife. In the meantime we have an extremely full schedule awaiting us in Kericho. Luckily for me, I didn't read any of the news reports about small plane crashes before we took off. Apparently over the past years quite a number of government ministers have been killed in plane crashes. As it turned out the flight was wonderful and uneventful and I got to see a number of fascinating things, many touching on the pressing issues facing Kenya today.

Credit: Kelly Rossiter

... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Tea Time: Efficient Cooking in Rural Kenya

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:43:44 GMT

When I got to Kenya, everybody told me that I had to try ugali, which is pretty much considered the national dish. So I did. It's corn meal and water, cooked until it resembles bread dough before it rises. I can't honestly say it was the most delicious thing I ate on my trip to Kenya, but I can see the caloric importance of it in the Kenyan diet where maize is plentiful, and not much else is. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Tea Time: A Visit to a Sustainable Tea Plantation

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:46:19 GMT

all photos by Kelly Rossiter I've just arrived back in Canada from a trip to Kericho, Kenya to see the Lipton Tea plantation. They are working in partnership with the Rainforest Alliance to have all of their tea plantations certified sustainable by the year 2015. This is a massive undertaking, and Kericho is essentially the model plantation. I'll be doing a series of posts about the Kericho plantation and with a wealth of information to impart, I thought I would start with the obvious, the tea itself.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

A Trip to Italy and Michael Pollan, Too

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:58:44 GMT

I can see the allure of a beach vacation if you lead a high-powered life and you need a week to stretch out and do nothing but read and swim and drink fancy cocktails. Personally, I like some intellectual stimulation when I travel. I want to learn something about the place I'm visiting, and possibly about myself. Here's an amazing sounding trip where you get the beauty of Tuscany, spectacular food by an award winning chef, and lectures by TreeHugger favourite, Michael Pollan.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Should Your Pet Be Vegetarian Too?

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 10:08:00 GMT

If you are a vegetarian, does that mean your pet must be as well? Should our own moral choices about not eating other animals be visited upon our dogs and cats? Do our pets have the right to eat other animals? Do we deprive our pets by making them vegetarian? Are we denying the fact that they are carnivores? How do you keep them from hunting, if that is their nature? I don't really know the answers to those questions, but I bet our readers have pretty strong opinions about the subject. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Is Your Grocery Bill Determined by the Neighbourhood In Which You Live?

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:22:04 GMT

When I wrote my post a few weeks ago on Poverty and Vegetarianism I wanted to include something about the cost of groceries and the relation to where you live, but I only had anecdotal evidence. In my experience in Toronto, the tonier neighbourhoods may have expensive luxury items for sale, but their staple groceries are often cheaper than in poorer neighbourhoods. Now the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation has come out with a study that shows just how much Canadians are paying to provide their families with healthy food. The results were pretty shocking.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

The Value in Veganism

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 12:35:22 GMT

I don't believe in going on diets. You know the kind of thing I mean, eating only protein or eating only grapefruit for two weeks. Sure, you can lose weight and sometimes pretty quickly, but then the pounds all come back when you are finished with the diet. Ultimately I don't believe in these kinds of diets because it doesn't address the underlying lifestyle issues. North Americans eat too much fat, too much sugar, too much salt, and just plain too much. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

The Societal Schism Between Poverty and Vegetarianism

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:53:14 GMT

The cost of food is a huge issue for most families, but with tough times ahead, feeding your family will only get harder. On the surface of it, vegetarians seem to have an easier time of it. But is this true if you are a vegetarian who lives on, or below the poverty line? The more I read and thought about this topic, the more I realize that, as with many issues surrounding poverty in North America, it is also about race, class and education.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Children and Vegetarianism

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:08:22 GMT

Raising children on a vegetarian diet is nothing new and is completely safe, but on the whole, our Western culture remains somewhat skeptical about it. If you are just beginning to move your family into a vegetarian diet, you may find some resistance from your extended family and friends. You can gently remind them that all children need the same vitamins and nutrition, and as long as you provide that for them, their diet is up to you.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Beans, Beans, the Magical Fruit: How To Eat Them Without the Flatulence

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:26:47 GMT

I was chatting with my cousin about some health and weight problems she was having and I was stunned to discover that she almost never cooks vegetables for her family dinner. Too much trouble she said. I suggested that not only should she add vegetables every day, she should significantly reduce her meat intake and add legumes to her diet. She was vehement about not eating beans at all. Her reason? Gas.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Nine Ways To Get Your Vegetables

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 11:52:06 GMT

I'm wondering how many of you made resolutions to eat a healthier diet this year. And how many of you are actually doing it, one week into the new year? For those of you who are taking your first steps toward becoming vegetarian, you may have resolved to eat less meat. Well, how about resolving to eat more vegetables as a corollary.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Hold the Phone! 9 Do It Yourself Takeout Favourites

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 12:58:27 GMT

We all know the scenario where you come home from work tired and the kids are hungry and fractious. You reach for the phone and order their favourite pizza or Chinese food. But there are compelling reasons to forgo the telephone and make those things yourself. It is significantly cheaper to make your own food, and penny pinching is the order of the day right now. When you make your own you know exactly what goes into it, no MSG, no nitrites in your pepperoni. And of course, making it yourself means there are no pizza boxes piling up, no aluminum coated wrappers, no styrofoam or plastic "clam shells" to dispose of. Read on for nine great example of takeout food you can cook yourself.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

On Moving Toward Vegetarianism: Flexitarians

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 12:30:00 GMT

Photo credit: Kelly Rossiter We titled this series On Moving Toward Vegetarianism because it is aimed at people who are thinking about vegetarianism, but aren't quite there yet. I know that there are many of you out there who are long-term committed vegetarians, but I also know that there are vegetarians out there who eat meat in secret. And then there are those of you who openly identify yourselves as flexitarian.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

On Moving Toward Vegetarianism: Mock Meat

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 11:22:54 GMT

Photo: Kelly Rossiter I admit to being very confused about mock meat. I don't understand why anyone who has decided not to eat meat would want to eat something that is shaped like meat, or made to approximate the taste and texture of it. When I see those packages of fake bacon or fake hot dogs in the grocery store, I can't imagine ever putting that stuff in my mouth. I suppose there is a place at Thanksgiving for tofurky because of the cultural emphasis on the turkey, but otherwise my credulity is strained.... Read the full story on TreeHugger

On Moving Toward Vegetarianism: Finding Some Support

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 11:31:50 GMT

Photo credit: Kelly Rossiter A number of people have commented on earlier posts over the past few weeks about not knowing exactly how to go about being a vegetarian. You've made the ethical decision not to eat meat, but then practical issues come to the fore. Maybe you don't know what to cook, or how to get all your vitamins and protein on a vegetarian diet, where to buy local ingredients for a vegan diet, or even where to eat out. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

How to Go Green: Cocktails

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:21:34 GMT

Photo: Kelly Rossiter There is something about sipping on a cocktail surrounded by friends that makes a party feel special. It doesn't matter what the time of year, whether you are getting into the holiday spirit, or sitting on a dock by a lake. Anybody can uncork some wine or crack open a beer, but serving a cocktail takes some thought and imagination. Choosing the perfect cocktail to serve is a great way to set the mood of the party. It also takes a bit of ingenuity and legwork to make those cocktails green. From liquor to shaker and everything in between, we'll help you with lots of other ways to green your drinks, in our guide for How to Go Green: Cocktails over on Planet Green. Read on for a small sampling of our tips on how to make your cocktails tasty and green. ... Read the full story on TreeHugger

Recent Posts by TreeHugger's Kelly Rossiter, Toronto

WTF is a Ramp and Why Shouldn't I Eat Them?

Slow Food Founder Carlo Petrini On Local Eating

Giving Up the Day Job for Organic Farming: The Dolce Vita Diaries

Green Gift Guide: Green Gourmets

Green Gift Guide: Green Gourmets

Tea Time: Deforestation, Drought and Death

Tea Time: Health Care for a Work Force

Earth Day: Listening to My Garden Grow

Tea Time: Educating a Workforce

One of a Kind Show: Fabricawakuwaku

Tea Time: A Human Face on Where Your Cup of Tea Comes From

My Brush With the Wildlife in Kenya

My Brush with the Wildlife in Kenya (Slideshow)

A View of Kenya by Air and By Car

A View of Kenya by Air and by Car

Tea Time: Efficient Cooking in Rural Kenya

Tea Time: A Visit to a Sustainable Tea Plantation

A Trip to Italy and Michael Pollan, Too

Should Your Pet Be Vegetarian Too?

Is Your Grocery Bill Determined by the Neighbourhood In Which You Live?

The Value in Veganism

The Societal Schism Between Poverty and Vegetarianism

Children and Vegetarianism

Beans, Beans, the Magical Fruit: How To Eat Them Without the Flatulence

Nine Ways To Get Your Vegetables

Hold the Phone! 9 Do It Yourself Takeout Favourites

On Moving Toward Vegetarianism: Flexitarians

On Moving Toward Vegetarianism: Mock Meat

On Moving Toward Vegetarianism: Finding Some Support

How to Go Green: Cocktails