Food & Drink

Beer for 45 cents, wine 60

Photo: Contributed If our story on food prices from the 1970s and beyond had you feeling nostalgic, you may need a drink after this one. We shared photos earlier this week from the Vintage Vernon and Old Kelowna Facebook groups that showed just how much grocery prices have changed.

Holiday wine bundles arrive

Photo: Contributed The holiday season is upon us, and Phantom Creek Estates is ready to make yours a memorable one. The distinguished, Oliver-area winery recently revealed its exclusive, limited-time 2023 holiday wine bundles, perfect for both wine aficionados and culinary enthusiasts.

The BC bug bakeoff

Inside a culinary lab at the University of British Columbia, nine students took turns offering a menu of insect-infused recipes to a panel of judges. Beef tacos wrapped in cricket flour-laced tortillas. Mealworm ginger sugar cookies “to add a little protein during the holidays.” A

All you can eat for $1.95

Photo: Vintage Vernon Click here to view gallery Photo: Vintage Vernon Photo: Old Kelowna Photo: Vintage Vernon Photo: Old Kelowna With the days of $100 beef roasts and $25 burgers upon us, the price of groceries and eating out is surely on many people's minds. Food infl

Wines for the holidays

Photo: Contributed As we start to gear up for the holidays, entertaining and gift-giving may be on your mind. And what a better way to celebrate this time of year then with a bottle of fine wine. To help you decide, Castanet 's wine columnist, Shelley Boettcher, has put together four

Holiday baking treats

Photo: Contributed Do you have visions of shortbread? Are you, like me, one of the few people who honestly likes fruitcake? Now that we are officially in the holiday season—with a month to go before Christmas, it’s time to preheat that oven. This week I’m going to

Roster dishes out kindness

Photo: Castanet file photo The Roster Sports Club Bar & Grill will be serving up kindness again this holiday season. The Vernon eatery is gearing up for its fourth annual Dish Out the Kindness fundraiser. Running throughout December, the campaign supports the Salvation Army'

'Full bodied, well balanced'

Photo: Contributed Wine: The Hatch 2020 Portmanteau of Merit and Heritage Winery: The Hatch Why drink it: When was the last time you laughed when you bought a wine? Or drank it? That’s one of the things I love about The Hatch. Jason Parkes and team make seriously good wines, b

Holiday socializing

Photo: Pixabay Can you believe it? We are entering the holiday season. I don’t know where the time goes. It’s like socks in the dryer. I wonder, does it seem to go faster when we are older or younger? I have almost always wanted to pack more into a day. As I get older, I ha

More cantaloupe recalled

Photo: The Canadian Press The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is now recalling three brands of cantaloupes because they may be contaminated with salmonella.  The brands are Malichita, Save on Foods and Urban Fare and include not only whole cantaloupes, but pre-cut chunks, fruit sa

Eat, drink and get rewarded

Photo: Contributed Maestro?s Mediterranean Restaurant and Terrace Support local businesses that serve delicious food and drink, and you will benefit from it in the best way possible. It really is that simple. If you get to all 31 stops on Tourism Kelowna’s Local Flavours Pa

Ban unpaid restaurant shifts?

Photo: The Canadian Press  A server works on the patio of a pub in the ByWard Market in Ottawa, on Friday, June 23, 2023. Ontario is planning to explicitly ban unpaid trial shifts for restaurant and hospitality workers, while also strengthening rules against deducting employee wag

Ready to Cook now in mall

Photo: Contributed Tetiana Kopets with children Sofiia, 14, and Tim, 10. Ready to Cook has already built a cozy home in The District shopping mall in downtown Kelowna. Now it is spreading its deliciousness to another busy part of the city. The shop that has brought an authentic tast

Sandhill Blanc de Blancs

Photo: Contributed Wine: Sandhill Wines 2020 Method Traditionelle Blanc de Blancs Winery: Sandhill Wines Why drink it: This sparkling wine is made in the traditional method, which is to say that it has undergone a secondary fermentation in the bottle, similarly to how Champagne is m

Keep the home fires burning

Photo: Pixabay With Remembrance Day this weekend it seemed appropriate to write something about keeping the home fires burning. It occurred to me this translates into today’s world too, and not just for those with loved ones in a war zone. It is important to remember those who fo

Winery creates new festival

Photo: Pexels Hoping to bring some Christmas cheer and drum up a little more business for the Naramata Bench, one local winery is starting its own holiday themed event. Joel and Linda Chamaschuk, co-owners of Chain Reaction Winery, reached out to their neighbouring businesses to see if

Smile cookies for Archway

Photo: Tim Hortons All five of Vernon’s Tim Hortons locations will be donating 50% of their smile cookie profits to the Archway Society. From Nov. 13 to 19, Tims will be kicking off the holiday season with smiles and kindness. The campaign will see 100% of proceeds donated to

Cookie donations needed

Photo: ALERT 41 volunteer bakers brought more than 300 pounds of cookies, muffins, loaves, tarts, cupcakes and biscotti in 2022 Dust off your rolling pins and grab your favourite holiday cookie recipe to help out the Animal Lifeline Emergency Response Team Society. ALERT is prepping

Nothing goes to waste

Tracey Prediger "Every single day, throughout the day, we are going through our produce ... if we feel something is unsellable, something that you or I wouldn’t buy, we set that aside." Mike Pare, store manager at Vernon's local Buy-Low Foods, says rather than throwing

Golden Burger's best bites

Photo: Tracey Prediger Deena Derksen proudly hoisted a giant burger trophy over her head after her creation was voted No. 1 in the North Okanagan Community Living Society’s 2023 Golden Burger Challenge. Derksen is chef and manager of Diner on 6 and named her burger the Triple Sma