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Fresh and dried herbs have been used extensively in cooking and food preparation since the earliest periods of human history. Over the previous hundred years, it appears that many culinary herbs have been eliminated and in some instances replaced by natural and artificial chemicals which provide flavour without any significant nutritional benefits. The most salient example is common salt, or sodium chloride. This chemical is abundant in nature and plays an essential role in human physiology. A daily sodium intake of several hundred milligrams is sufficient for maintaining a healthy body. Such an amount can be easily obtained from fresh whole foods such as organically grown fruit, vegetables, grains, and seafood. When consumed in excessive amounts,...

An essential consideration when storing fresh fruit is to ensure that only the highest quality examples are selected in the first place. As an organic producer, the objective is always to provide a safe, nutrient rich environment, one which enables healthy fruit to develop without the assistance of toxic pesticides and other chemical additives. Fruit which has been nurtured appropriately from the earliest stages will always store more easily, and remain fresher than produce which has been compromised by adverse growing conditions or bad management. There are few long term advantages to be gained from storing crops which are in poor condition. Most fruit can be stored in a variety of ways. Any decision regarding the most suitable approach to...

You can’t beat good quality fruit bread made with wholesome organic ingredients. Bread that’s lush with plump dried organic fruit and baked to perfection is nearly everyone’s favourite mid-morning snack in my house. When I’m baking, the aroma from this fruit bread permeates every corner of the house and is enough to bring everyone into the kitchen to find out what’s going on. What’s that good smell? And then of course, “Who’s having the first slice?” plays out. It’s a running joke in my house. Drawing on the famous comedy sketch, “Who’s on first base?”, our very own version takes place just before I cut the first slice of fruit bread. Laughter and mirth follow. But the funniest thing of all is that I don’t even remember...

One of the most important jobs performed by any competent chef begins well before they enter the kitchen. Being able to identify and source the freshest, highest quality produce is arguably the most important skill a well-trained chef has. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that it is the one skill that differentiates a great chef from a merely competent chef. When I’m looking to bring a new trainee into the restaurant, I’m more interested in their ability to identify and select great produce than I am, at least initially, in their ability to cook. I can teach them to cook. And to a certain extent I can provide instruction on selecting great produce. But I honestly believe that the best chefs have additional sensory capacity and powers...

We live in a world where many of us have become alienated from the production, manufacturing, and distribution of our basic food supplies. Surveys conducted with primary grade children have frequently revealed startling deficits of knowledge about the natural basis of common foods. We can remind our children that eggs are laid by living and breathing chickens however their everyday experience is often mediated by the powerful sterility of supermarket chains and fast food outlets. Concerns of this nature have been a driving force for a wide range of government and private initiatives to reform childrens education and access to clear information about the interrelationships between healthy environments, food, and lifestyle. A new breed of media...