Reading Time: 7 minutes Chicken pot pie is on our radar the moment I arrive. I’ve heard raves about it, and it’s not long before I spot it. When I pick one up, I quickly understand something about this store’s reputation. At over 1.5 kg, this not your typical meat pie. Nor is this your typical store. Summerhill Market […] Read more
A turn at Summerhill
Running this family-owned independent Toronto grocery is amazingly like making a success of a mid-sized Canadian farm, which is why co-owner Christy McMullen is rarely standing still
Artificial intelligence
… the brave new world of how you’ll farm, and eat
Reading Time: 4 minutes It used to be that artificial intelligence was limited to the realms of science fiction and movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey or Terminator’s Skynet. Today, artificial intelligence is real — think Alexa or Google Home — and tools and applications putting it to use are emerging at a rapid clip in many fields, including […] Read more
Finding the right niche
If it makes you shake your head that these two large, sophisticated farms are focusing on, of all things, sweet potatoes as the right crop to build their futures on, listen to them explain why
Reading Time: 7 minutes In just a couple of pockets across the country, it’s estimated Canada is growing about 1,800 acres of sweet potatoes. About 1,100 of them are grown by Berlo’s Best. Why? The reason is partly what you might expect. Canadian demand for sweet potatoes has skyrocketed. Ethnic markets are booming, sales of new products like sweet […] Read more
Making ethnic markets pay
In Toronto alone, consumers are buying $400 million a year of imported ethnic vegetables. Could it make sense to grow them here?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Edamame, okra, bitter melon, quinoa, Chinese long eggplant — all these are edible crops that you’d have had a hard time finding on the country’s store shelves 50 years ago, let alone growing in Canadian fields and greenhouses. They’re still crops that few Canadian farmers know about, and that even fewer have considered growing. But […] Read more
Feds fund tomato and apple research
Reading Time: < 1 minute An Ontario research station is getting nearly a million dollars from the Federal government to develop new disease-resistant apple and greenhouse tomato varieties. The Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, located in Lincoln, Ont., will build on work done earlier by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists, who will continue to be heavily involved in the research. […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
