Apples To Oysters: A Food Lover’s Tour of Canadian Farms

by Margaret Webb

On this passionate, cross-Canada odyssey, Margaret Webb introduces readers to 12 great farmers or, as she calls them, chefs of the soil and the sea, tractor-seat philosophers, poet biologists, thingamajig inventors, and zealous educators. Her stories of the challenges they face growing good food are inspiring, touching, gritty. They will make you hungry. They will make you laugh. They will make you run to your nearest farmers' market to hug a farmer. Arranged into sections titled Starters,Mains, and To Finish, these stories are of the passionate, driven people who farm and produce food in our country.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, Canada, Memoir

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2008

About the author

Writer, journalist, screenwriter Margaret Webb is an avid runner, foodie and adventure girl.

Author of Older Faster Stronger: What Women Runners Can Teach Us All About Living Younger, Longer

also Apples to Oysters: A Food Lover's Tour of Canadian Farms

Reviews

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is structured like a meal, in three courses. "Appetizers" takes in oyster farming in Prince Edward Island., Grand Manan (NB) dulse and the scallop fishery in Nova Scotia. "Mains" covers Newfoundland cod, Manitoba pork, Saskatchewan flax, Alberta beef and Yukon potatoes. The last section, "To Finish" takes us to British Columbia for apples, Quebec for cheese and Ontario for ice -wine.

What stands out to me are the remarkably vivid descriptions. The author does more than tell you about a place - she takes you there with wonderful detail. She makes the journey exciting by taking part in the actual work of each farm and telling us what that's like, and by using vibrant language to make every scene come alive. When was the last time you read a book about farming that was actually fun? This one will have you breathing in the salt air of the east coast and feeling the warm earth on your hands as you dig up a Yukon Gold potato. It was almost as good as a vacation.

You'll be hungry by the time you're done but fortunately there are a couple of recipes included at the end of each chapter for anyone who can't wait to get to a restaurant where these products are featured. The book will tell you where those restaurants are.

I wish this book was required reading for every Canadian so we'd all have a better idea where our food comes from and how much work goes into producing it. Full of eye-opening stories and a lot of information, it was never dry but fun to read from beginning to end. Try it, you'll like it. :)

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parts of this book were interesting - the author introduces us to 11 Canadian farmers who are focused on quality rather than quantity. But somehow the book as a whole just didn't work for me. Maybe it was too much focus on the author rather than the farmers themselves. Or maybe it was the somewhat artificial focus on only one product per province/farm, while paying lip service to the benefits of mixed farming.

[Poppy Marlowe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is kind of dated at the moment all these years later - I would have to google to see if the farmers were still in business - this book focuses on sustainable farming and using older methods to produce modern food.

I was horrified to hear that someone used FISH MEAL as fertilizer as we have two serious fish allergies in our family so now I have to worry about allergic reactions from cross-contamination??
There is nothing but love, love, love for the farmers she visits and she has nothing bad to say... Nothing. (A fellow reviewer mentioned "rose-coloured glasses" - oh heck yeah that is perfect!)

Food is HORRIFYINGLY EXPENSIVE these days and I doubt that I could afford any food from any of these farmers at a local market: I appreciated the recipes but will make them with affordable products I can find at my local grocery store...not that they are affordable these days, either.

(Oh, well, the book was only $1 at the Sally Anne store so no big loss there!)

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book’s subtitle says it all - a food lover’s tour of Canadian farms. Former Globe & Mail food critic Margaret Webb went to each of the ten provinces plus the Yukon territory, visiting farms run by people with a passion for what they do. Some were what you’d expect - vegetables, pigs, apples. Some that you might not traditionally think of as farms - oysters, cod. And then there are the farms I didn’t know existed - scallops, and seaweed. We meet the farmers and hear their stories. And of course there are recipes included. Now I’m hungry.

[Stephanie Weima · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it but definitely wished there was a map in the front of book somewhere so I could follow her travels across the country!

[Kristina Danza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic! Really enjoyed how the book was structured

[Joan Austen · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read about Canadian farmers, starting with apple growers and moving across the provinces.....oysters, cheese, vineyards, wheat etc. I found the stories fascinating and being from a rural background could relate to the appeal of the farming lifestyle, as well as the uncertainty of the farming business as most of the stories involved smaller generations-old family farms. If you ate today, thank a farmer!

[Gwnhwyfer · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first impression of this book (recommended by a co-worker) was not favourable. I thought it was nothing more than a journal of a foodie's gluttonous road trip, highlighted by visits to farms viewed through rose-tinted glasses.

Hmph. So much for first impressions.

Instead, the reader is treated to a provincial hop-scotch, each chapter highlighting one type of food (oysters, apples, wine, etc.) and the farmers who produce it (sometimes laboriously so). So while there are ample descriptions of meals as poetry (such as only a foodie, I'm assuming, can render), Apples to Oysters is so much more. Sometimes funny, sometimes heartrending, it's a journey into the lives of farmers who are striving to coax Mother Nature's bounty from the soil and the water, instead of taking it by force - or choking her with a cocktail of chemicals.

I'm glad I read it, even though it made me uncomfortably aware of how much the food we eat (and how it is produced) impacts our lives. It also gave me a sense of history and appreciate for the farming lifestyle.

My ancestors were farmers. One side came to Canada before it was Canada, barely 5 years after the War of 1812. They eeked out an existance and prospered in the wilderness of the Ottawa Valley. They raised large families and lived off what they could produce. My great-uncle was the last to farm, raising lambs and cows. The operation was a far cry from the hundreds of acres once possessed by our family, but, as a confirmed bachelor, it would end with him. I spent the first 3 years of my life there, and while I can't place those distant memories (I've been told all about it though), the yearning to return to that life is like a dull ache in my heart. That, however, is unlikely to happen (unless I marry a farmer and living the city hardly guarantees that option) and that, much life the feelings provoked by Apples to Oysters is a very bittersweet feeling.

(As a side note, based on the arrangement of the chapters, the title should have been Oysters to Apples, but that's just my opinion! ;)

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was recommended to me by 2 different people, so I finally picked it up. I was so glad I did! Food writer Margaret Webb has farming/food adventures in every province (and one territory) of Canada. She goes harvesting for dulse, explores flax, and Alberta Beef (of course), goes picking for Ambrosia apples, and tries Niagara ice wine. Her writing style is light and fun, yet she is able to convey some of the difficulties of farming, along with some of the beauties of food production in our country. I think my dad would like this book.

In addition, Webb includes recipes from her travels! It made me want to get in the car and do more ag tourism. :)

[Desmond Beddoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reading for those interested in those folks who passionately work in sustainable food production and those operating outside Industrial Food production. I enjoyed the human stories around the farming of apples, oysters, fish and dulse, not to mention the ice wine. The work ethic, challenges and rewards of those dedicated to doing it better inspires one to seek out their kind and produce in our smaller specialty stores and farmers markets.

[Hester · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book, but I wanted to love it. I learned about dulse, scallop fishing, and ice wine, but I wanted to learn more. Perhaps it is because I am an academic, but when I learn about something, I like to learn about it in depth. This book was an interesting travelogue, but I did not learn about any one subject deeply.

[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book--a Canadian version of Michael Pollan's excellent investigations and critique of how we grow our food. The slow food movement needs all the food authors out there to embrace our principles. Thanks Margaret for a great culinary trip across this country. And now I know which are the very best oysters to eat, if I can only find them!

[Yves · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book piecemeal over a year, drawn to the bookmark in the book, and feel that the subject entranced me. The writing less so but this is a good book where the subject will transcend writing style.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is making me hungry! I think I liked the oyster and the apple chapters best.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book. Would read it again!

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic read about the diverse culinary opportunities across Canadian. Loved every minute of the trip :)

[Tara Woodward · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a fun, well-written book on food and farming across Canada that’s still relevant today.