TORONTO – Last week’s Toronto Royal Winter Fair was the launching pad for a new Prince Edward Island culinary tourism promotion campaign that will see more than eight million potato bags inked (or tagged) with the slogan: “Pack Your Appetite for Prince Edward Island Potatoes.”

The P.E.I. Potato Board, together with the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Tourism, are sponsoring the drive, which will also include in-store promotions and advertising as well as the chance for two people — with the appropriate PIN number on their “Pack Your Appetite” potato sack — to win a trip for four to the Island, including airfare, accommodations, meals and culinary tourism experiences.

WEST POINT, P.E.I. – The government of Canada and the province of Prince Edward Island have come together with the community of West Point on a large investment into what’s emerged as a key tourism area for the Island. Improvements are slated to be made to the West Point Lighthouse Inn and Restaurant and the Harbourside Centre.

Minister Gail Shea, Minister Neil LeClair and Ralph Bulger, president of West Point Development Corporation, made the announcement today. More than $1.5 million will go towards moving the West Point Lighthouse Restaurant to the Harbourside and the construction of a boardwalk, a welcome/information centre, interpretative signs and streetscape improvements, as well as renovations to the interior of the West Point Lighthouse Inn.

HALIFAX – The Wooden Monkey in downtown Halifax is among the first business in Atlantic Canada to sign up with Ontario-based Bullfrog Power, which calls itself "Canada's 100 per cent green electricity provider"; Wolfville, N.S.-based Just Us! Coffee Roasters Co-op has also made the switch.

The company announced its move into Nova Scotia’s electricity market at a recent event hosted by the Wooden Monkey restaurant and bar. Bullfrog Power, which was already available in B.C., Alberta and Ontario, has since added Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and P.E.I. to its regional roster.

CENTREVILLE, N.S. – The pork and cattle industries may be suffering, but the good news is apple growers are expecting an average crop of good quality.

The Cortland and Jonagold varieties didn’t fair as well in the damp weather, but the increasingly popular Honeycrisp has been closing the gap. "Honeycrisp is making apples a little more attractive to people inside and outside of Nova Scotia," Dela Erith, executive director of the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers’ Association, was reported as saying by Halifax’s Chronicle Herald. "We might be looking at displacing more of the imports and doing a little more exporting." Currently Nova Scotia apples are sold to local markets and exported to Europe, the U.S., parts of the Caribbean, other Canadian provinces and local pie makers.