SIAL 2025 Pitch Competition

I mentioned in a previous post that the SIAL Pitch Competition is always interesting – and this year was no exception. The competition gives Canadian and international start-ups in the food and beverage industry the opportunity to pitch their vision to a panel of industry experts and a live audience. Pitches are expected to focus […]

SIAL Toronto – Day 2

The second day of SIAL featured another full agenda, including the SIAL Pitch Competition, which is always interesting. There were 16 pitches: 12 in the product category and 4 in the food technology category. I’ll do a separate post about the pitch competition – and the winners – soon. Here I want to talk a […]

SIAL Toronto 2025 – Day 1

As I headed into the first day of SIAL, I wondered what I might write about. Now, sitting down to review my notes and photos of the day, I have so many things to share. I decided to organized today’s comments around a few themes. First, a bit about SIAL Toronto. It’s a trade show […]

Two Weeks Away

The SIAL Canada show is returning to Toronto April 29-May 1, 2025 at the Enercare Centre. SIAL Canada is an event for food industry professionals, but tickets are available to the public. The 2025 agenda has been announced and the country of honour is Canada. That may sound like a no-brainer (given the name of […]

Climate Change – All Year Long

If we were playing a game of free association and I said “impact of climate change on B.C. fruit and grape growers”, I’ll bet wild fires and excessive heat would be the first thing most folks – at least those of us who don’t live in B.C. – would say.  Well, certainly wildfires have not […]

Climate Action

Icellars Estate Winery, a certified organic, net zero energy winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, is a member of The Porto Protocol, a wine industry initiative aimed at climate solutions. In Icellar’s most recent newsletter they included a link to a documentary called “Seeding the Future” – it’s all about what members of the Porto Protocol have done […]

Holiday Specials

I am on the mailing list of a lot of Ontario wineries. I sign up to receive emails from them because I like hearing what’s going on at the winery. I’m always impressed with the ideas wineries have in terms of events they’re running and Wine Country Ontario-type events they participate in. This time of […]

A few days in The County

I’m just back from a few days touring around Prince Edward County with two food and wine-loving friends. My friend Sandy and I were visiting Susan and her dozen chickens, who live just outside Belleville.  Before arriving at Susan’s, Sandy and I did a bit of exploring of the western end of Prince Edward County […]