Avenue Edmonton: A Night of Scotch with the Ladies

Meet J.

Pictures by Tim Wilson

He's a Scotch educator from Authentic Wine and Spirits Merchants in Calgary, AB.  I was doing some early research for a couple pitches on the changing relationship between women and whisky and Kate (in marketing for Beam Int'l)  suggested I speak to her husband, J. He had facilitated scotch tastings for over a decade and had started to see more women in the room.

I emailed him and he suggested I come to Calgary for a tasting. A couple girlfriends and I schemed about a weekend of women and whiskey... but no date worked for me to travel. Then his job brought him to Edmonton, AB.


He suggested we organize our own tasting.
I suggested I host it, put food on the table, and find a dozen women to try it.

Then, together we threw a party. 

Avenue Edmonton agreed to feature the evening in its July 2013 Food & Drinks Issue. Find my feature on A Night of Women and Whisky here.

There were a few more ladies in the kitchen and tucked in the living room. My husband and brother-in-law are slinking around back (actually my brother-in-law is behind the lens!), hoping for a few drops of scotch. 

This was the night's door prize. My neighbour and friend, Becky Pickard, originally painted this work for a silent auction fundraiser. It is one of my favorite pieces - now made even better! She's added it (among other of her pieces) to a 7 oz flask. Check out her facebook page. If you want one, they are also sold at The Carrot Coffeehouse and Zocolo in Edmonton, AB.

Spezzatino: Mining for Mushrooms

I pitched the idea for this feature after working as a tour guide at the Bellevue Mine Tour in the Crowsnest Pass, Alberta. The stripping of the coal mine's seams had ended half a century ago and I would occasionally have people ask me if anyone had considered re-purposing the mine. I'd ask, "Into what? Perhaps an underground swimming pool (the abandoned shafts were flooded with water)?" "No," they'd say, "into a mushroom farm."

There were rumours of such a farm in Drumheller, Alberta, and in fact, one of the US' largest mushroom suppliers used an old mine site for decades before technology made other above-ground farm settings more profitable. I was fascinated by the idea of re-claiming abandoned mine sites and when the opportunity to write about mushrooms came up for Spezzatino (an on-line magazine based in Toronto), it seemed like a great way to learn more about the possibilities.

Read the full article here.This article also appeared in the American magazine Fungi, Spring 2011.