Toward the end of November, The Food Connection got together for a Holiday Feast; the final gathering for the group in 2015. It was nice to see a good turnout of people at this busy time of the year. With twenty-three people in attendance, we had a smorgasbord of interesting dishes and stories to share. As usual, we began by introducing ourselves and the meal we had brought, with some of us explaining how our dish fit into our own traditions for the holidays season. For some

Slow-cooked comfort food: right on time for the winter rains! Despite the rainy evening we had on Wednesday, some 15 of us showed up at the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House for another one of the monthly potluck, cooking, and all-things-food-related sessions run by The Food Connection. The theme for this month’s event was slow cookers—very timely, now that the winter seems to have finally decided to show up. The selling point of this workshop? It promised an easy way to pro

The Grape September Relay How do you get jam from 66 pounds of grapes? With the help of the Vancouver Fruit Tree Project, we tackled the challenge in a vine-to-jar relay this harvest season. First up, the backyard grower. These local grapes were grown by octogenarian Iris, a neighbour from around 17th Avenue and Cambie Street. She told us they were a little like Concord grapes, but not quite as sweet, and perfect for jam-making. Second, the harvesting team. The grapes were pi

What an amazing time we had at the Harvest Feast!! This summer as we brainstormed for September's potluck & workshop we thought, 'let's celebrate the harvest season like we did for last year's pizza party, but take it a step further!' So we devised a crazy promotion storm through posters, media outlets & social media and invited as many people as we could to bring local seasonal ingredients and make an entire meal together. Go big or go home! More than 60 people from the comm

It was a crowded house on the last Wednesday of June as a bunch of new friends gathered to learn more about Turkish cooking from local chef Nil Alt. Turkish cuisine is about more than the well-known confection Turkish Delight. Nil explained there are a ton of different countries and cuisines that have influenced Turkish cooking, including the Middle East, Asia, Russia and the Mediterranean. The foods eaten can vary depending on which area of Turkey residents are from, and wha

The theme for this month's workshop was showing people how to use alternative ingredients in a way that's super easy, delicious and guilt-free! Because of the nature of our sinfully sweet evening, we asked that people bring savoury dishes for the potluck, and that they did - there were heaps of chickpeas, greens and quinoa everywhere that also provided a nice balance to the second half of the night. Once we moved on to dessert, our workshop leaders Sondi and Tami shared their