Food ideas
"I only bake with whole grain flours."
Welcome to November folks, Toronto’s grey month!
The days are getting noticeably shorter, and our farmer’s markets are getting smaller. Eating locally, all of a sudden, feels a little more challenging.
But don’t despair. It’s just time to get creative and learn to use what we do have in new ways.
I, for one, have been thinking about baking.
Must be the weather. Every year it’s the same thing: the body senses the coming cold and we crave the heavier foods that give us the extra energy we need to keep warm – foods like soups and stews – made from squashes and root vegetables, or the breads and baked goods made from grains.
Conveniently, these are also the foods that are locally available to us this time of year.
If you bake, or plan to, it might be worth considering this little seasonal craving when you go shopping for flour.
Your body is seeking a source of energy. A longer lasting energy will keep you warm (and functioning) for a longer period of time. A longer lasting energy comes from slower burning food, i.e. food that takes us longer to break down and digest. What takes us longer to break down in the baking world? — Whole grains and flour milled from whole grain.
I know lots of bakers who defend their refined wheat flours for the white fluffy breads and cakes, and oh-so-flaky pastry that it creates. But I personally just don’t see the point.
The refined flour gives us an energy spike, followed after by a crash that leaves us feeling more depleted than before we ate! And so we then want to eat more. Also, with the fibre, vitamins and minerals removed in the refining process, that lily-white flour is actually just empty calories.
To give yourself the energy you need this time of year, try going whole.
Grassroots Organics (Ontario) has an excellent selection of local whole grains, including whole spelt, whole red fife and whole wheat. They also have kamut flour (excellent for cookies), buckwheat flour, rye and rice flours.
Although not local, Bob’s Red Mill (USA) flours are also widely available in health food stores, and it’s a good name for quality flours – including almond, quinoa, amaranth, millet, coconut, organic corn and bean flours.
Coconut flour? Okay, that’s really not local, but … it sounds so gooood!
With tomorrow’s municipal elections in mind, I just came across an interesting reminder by Debbie Field, Executive Director of FoodShare Toronto, about the important role food plays in our communities:
www.foodshare.net/foodpolicy-cityagenda.htm.
Let’s make good food more accessible, not less.
Michael Pollan answers questions from readers in an interview with Time Magazine.
The End of Food — How the food industry is destroying our food supply — and what you can do about it
By Thomas F. Pawlick
This is the book I had wanted to write after I completed my natural nutrition program. Turns out it was part of the curriculum.
Pawlick, an investigative science journalist and experienced organic farmer, takes a critical look at our current food production practices in North America and blasts our misguided system that places profit over quality and sustainability.
He starts with a story about a single bright red tomato and a simple question that we have all asked: why is it so hard?
This question introduces a fascinating look at incredible industrial farming practices that have left our soil depleted of the nutrients it needs to produce plants of any nutritional value, poisoned water systems, destroyed wildlife, spread disease, ruined rural communities and, I would say, endangered the health of the general public.
The End of Food is informative, scary, sometimes dizzying and downright depressing, but Pawlick is trying to piss us off. Why? Because there’s no reason we need to be doing this. These are man-made problems that began in an era when we didn’t know any better. But we know better now, and Pawlick argues it’s time to do something about it. I agree.
The End of Food is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in the quality of the food they eat.
A few years old but great insights from this Ted Talk.
I have a confession to make. In the last federal election, I voted for the Green Party because Elizabeth May, like her or not, was the only candidate who mentioned food quality as a concern. Needless to say, she didn’t get in. But now in the run up to Ontario’s municipal elections in October, it looks like food might be back on the table.
Tomorrow morning in Toronto, the Canadian Urban Institute in collaboration with the Cities Centre at the University of Toronto is putting on a breakfast seminar on how and why food fits in the election agenda.
“How should we think about food? … We need to think and act very differently about how we grow, process, distribute and consume our food. Improved access to healthy and abundant locally-produced food is a worthy goal shared by the City of Toronto’s Board of Health…”
I should say so.
