Jennifer was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta (Treaty 6), and now resides in Syilx territory, in the village of Naramata, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia.
Writing
Jennifer is a food culture writer and author of the books Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and The New Food Revolution (Prometheus Books, 2012), Food Artisans of the Okanagan: Your Guide to Locally Crafted Fare (TouchWood Editions, 2016) and has been included in a number of international anthologies.
Food and the City has been translated into Japanese, Korean, and French. It received the 2011 Dave Greber Freelance Book Award, a Canadian national award that recognizes excellence in social justice writing.
Food Artisans of the Okanagan is her second book. It received a Gold 2017 Taste Canada Award.
Jennifer is also co-author of tawâw: Progressive Indigenous Cuisine (Ambrosia / House of Anansi, 2019) with her friend Chef Shane Chartrand (maskêkosik/Enoch Cree Nation, Treaty 6). tawâw won a Best in Canada for its category of the World Gourmand Cookbook Awards, and also a Best In World, World Gourmand Awards.
Her magazine writing has appeared in enRoute, Western Living, Cottage Life, Canadian Geographic, Maclean’s, NUVO, Eighteen Bridges, and Reader’s Digest, among other publications.
She is currently finishing a book about seed banks, seed security, and seed savers around the world.
Teaching
Jennifer teaches magazine, food, and cookbook writing. She is on faculty at Pandemic University, which began as a cheeky pop-up writing school in April 2020 and now has over 2500 alumni from 35 countries.
Film
She has appeared in three episodes in the James Beard-award nominated filmed web series From the Wild: A Journey in Wild Food.