Author Archive
Good news, urban farmers are getting busy, despite the unspring-like weather.
Check out the Toronto Star article about Erica Lemieux from City Seed Farms and get inspired.
I had the pleasure of chatting with Erica at a Food Forward event a few months ago. She’s a local girl who was inspired by BC spin farms and decided to make things grow in Toronto backyards.
Good news is that she’ll be a speaker at Food Forward’s next Foodie drinks event, May 5 at Stella.
Please check out a wonderful post on Folks gotta eat about a new grant by the McConnell Foundation to help strengthen regional food economies.
This is inspiring stuff. We need it, and we need more of it.
Ever heard of the Doomsday Vault?
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is located on the remote island of Spitsbergen, Norway. It’s a backup should anything happen to seeds currently being saved in traditional genebanks — a type of safety net against loss of diversity.
Sounds like a good enough idea, right? If calamity strikes, be it natural or man-made, we have something to go to, a plan B.
But as Genevieve Grossenbacher of Seeds of Survival, mentioned at the 2011 Organic Grower’s Conference, who is going to have access to those seeds in an eventual disaster?
Will you? Not likely. Nor will I.
With the free exchange of seeds now being further threatened by Canada’s Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement with the EU (more on CETA at the National Farmers Union), it’s high time we expand our love of local food to include local seeds.
Local seeds are adapted to the local environment. They have evolved over thousands of years to grow and flourish in a specific location with specific growing conditions. Local seeds produce the best, most resilient, most nutritious local food and are the best seeds to plant -– and to save.
It’s spring. Plant your herbs and your veggies, but plan to save a few seeds from your harvest for next year. All you need is an empty clean jar.
More info on seeds and seed saving:
Seeds of Diversity
Guelph Centre for Organic Farming
Urban Harvest
Walmart goes organic. This has been so in the States for a few years now and in Canada for about one year. The articles are out there, but what does it mean to the organic movement?
This was brought up at the Canadian Organic Growers conference closing panel discussion this past weekend.
You might be forgiven if your first reaction to Walmart and organic is one of cynicism. But step back for a moment and consider the following.
If the organic movement is entering the mainstream, it will reach more people, some of whom may never have eaten an organic anything before.
This could be a first step for many new eaters.
It also means more fields will be devoted to chemical-free farming, and more square kilometres of our country’s soil will be able to heal.
Will this change the organic movement? Only time will tell. It may well weaken the movement. After all, Walmart’s reputation of low-balling businesses out of business is unlikely to change. Could this then put organic farms out of business?
I say that if we want to heal out systemically ailing (and failing) food supply chain, we need to start somewhere. I’m choosing to see this as a sign of the organic movement’s success.
The new agriculture is growing ecologically, socially and financially. If organics goes mainstream, really mainstream, and therefore becomes more affordable (and attracts even more followers), then perhaps the hard(er) core grassroots folks among us could then turn our attention to the embattled fight against GMOs, which our current organic standards do not even consider.
Just a thought.
The Canadian Organic Growers conference is taking place this Saturday, February 19, 2011 at the U of T Conference Centre. I had the pleasure of attending this event last year, and wouldn’t miss it for anything this year. I am even dragging my LocalFoody colleague, François — I lie, he’s equally psyched — along for the informative, enjoyable and very tasty ride (they serve a great lunch).
This year’s keynote speaker is Canadian author Silver Donald Cameron, who will be sharing some of his insights into Bhutan’s new economic model of “Gross National Happiness”, a system that values a more holistic interpretation of “quality of life” than we might be used to and includes the organic certification of the entire nation’s agricultural system.
Nice.
Panel discussions include GMOs, heritage seeds, Walmart, bread & beer, beauty products and more.
Where: U of T Conference Centre, 89 Chestnut St.
When: Saturday 19 February 2011, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Cost: $85 (Worth it, and students, retirees and the unwaged get a special rate.)
If you care about your food and want to be informed of the issues, this is a must-go-to event.
Winterlicious is upon us once again, in case you hadn’t seen the many ads around town. It’s running between January 28 to February 10, and reservations for the prix fixe treats are now being taken.
The lunch menus are running at $15, $20 or $25, and dinner menus are at $25, $30, or $35. These all include starter (or appetizer, as I like to say), entrée (or main course — never understood why the French word for “appetizer” has somehow become “main course”, anyone?), and dessert.
Drinks, taxes and tip are additional.
The City of Toronto site has a handy restaurant list where you can sort restos by various criteria, including Price, type of Cuisine, and Neighbourhood. And I’m very excited to say that one of the Cuisine criteria is Local/ Fresh Market.
Hooray!
Now exactly which restos are truly Local and which are Fresh Market is hard to tell. I’m thinking we at LocalFoody may have a good opportunity here to broaden our database.
All that said, LFP is promoting three of its certified local restaurants:
Reds Bistro
Veritas
Auberge du pommier
Bon appétit!
Eating local is akin to eating seasonally, and the benefits are widespread for the eater, the economy and the environment. Most of the time, eating seasonally is also a lot of fun, you get to discover new foods and learn new ways to prepare them. But what are we supposed to do in the middle of winter?
Eating local in winter often means eating the foods that were picked and sometimes preserved in autumn, at the end of the last harvest. Look at the foods your grandmother (or great-grandmother, depending on your age) would have prepared: soups, stews, breads, meat (for meat-eaters), root vegetables, fruits, pulses, pasta, grains.
Thanks to the wonders of the greenhouse and winter farming, we do have access to delicious local food in winter.
Here is a list of locally available foods. It is by no means exhaustive, but I want to show that while our choices are more limited this time of year, we still have some decent options.
Vegetables: Beets, carrots, cabbage, celeriac root, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, red kale, leeks, button mushrooms, crimini mushrooms, Portobello, shitake, red and yellow onions, parsnip (everyone’s fave!), fingerling potatoes, rutabaga, acorn squash, butternut squash, pumpkin, spaghetti squash, turnip, sweet potatoes.
(Thank you Pfennings, for listing where your food comes from on your website)
Fruit: apples, pears, dried fruits — like apricots, raisins, prunes, cherries, apple, certain berries, etc.
Grains and pulses: wheat, spelt, oats, barley, rice, millet, amaranth, quinoa, flax, corn, buckwheat, hemp, beans (pinto, kidney, navy beans, black), lentils (red, green), split peas (green, yellow).
Animal foods: milk, eggs, yogurt, kefir, cheese, beef, chicken, duck, pork, turkey.
Seeds: sunflower, pumpkin, sesame.
(Thank you Grassroots Organics for listing your bounty)
If you aren’t always able to find local foods, don’t fret. Take a minute to think about your reasons for choosing local in the first place, and apply these same principles to the foods that are available. If you’re concerned about nutrition or the environment, opt for the foods that meet your criteria ( organic, sustainable, fair trade, etc.).
In the meantime, as we wait patiently for those first cherries to appear, we can become soup and stew experts. Here are a couple yummy winter recipes to help get you started:
Epicurious – Celery Root and Potato Puree with Roasted Jerusalem Artichoke “Croutons”
101Cookbooks – Lively up yourself lentil soup
It’s another new year and some of you might have decided to entertain a resolution or two. After avoiding such things for the past several years, I decided to creep into 2011 on a quieter, more contemplative note and have come up with a few priorities for myself.
On the topic of changing habits, and of course, more specifically, food habits, check out the TedxHart House lectures of last month, The Future of Food.
Jason Qu, recent graduate and coordinator of U of T’s campus agriculture program, discusses campus food initiatives, and suggests a more holistic approach to food is the starting point that will stick.
The Secret Classroom
Lauren Baker, Director of Sustain Ontario, discusses changing the farming system and creating more opportunities for the little guy. Here, here!
10 Good Food Ideas
I can’t find the lectures of the other speakers, Dan Donovan (chef and product developer for Ontario’s Own), and chefs Jeffrey Crump and Bettina Schormann, of Ancaster Mill.
If anyone has those links, please share!
Bonne année!
This Friday, Dec. 17, 2010, is the first ever No Fast Food (Eat Real) Day!
Consider this day as a small pre-holiday season challenge!
I say small because, it isn’t really that hard to eat real food.
That said, over the next few weeks, you may well participate in some culinary excesses. You might have a meal at a friend’s or family member’s house, perhaps someone who doesn’t (yet) share your local-food values and interests.
Or you might be travelling, and forced to choose between greasy fast food joint X and sugary donut n’ coffee joint Y. There may even be times when you will have to (shudder) choose between eating badly or not eating at all!
So, I ask this: make Friday, December 17 the day that you do make the choice to eat real, to slow down and think about the food you eat.
Today is Tuesday. This is fair warning. You have time to organize. You have time to shop. Just one day. Just try it.
No Fast Food Day is the brainchild of Food Forward, a dynamic new and super-friendly food-focused non-profit on the Toronto scene.
Sign up and commit!
I dropped by The Sweet Potato last Friday and had a chance to chat a bit with Tracy from LocalFoodPlus. LFP has expanded! They have gone national and are now certifying farmers in Québec, British Columbia and Manitoba, in addition to Ontario. Nice!
To help promote LFP and support local farmers and suppliers, not to mention eat some tasty, fresh, local food, take the LFP pledge to shift $10 of your food budget to certified local sustainable food.
Better yet, go visit the folks from LFP yourself and sign up at these locations:
• Bonne Vie – Dec. 9th, 1:00 pm-6:00 pm
• Wholesome Market – Dec. 17th, 4:00 pm-7:00 pm and Dec. 18th, 11:00 am-4:00 pm
• Fiesta Farms – Every Saturday and Sunday in Dec., 11:00 am-4:00pm
If you’re lucky, they might even give you a handy button to decorate your winter coat.
Cool green fun fact!
As of the time I’m writing this, 2634 people have taken the LFP pledge,? reducing greenhousegases by 263 cars, and creating 26 new jobs!
