Locavore News by Elbert van Donkergoed

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Author: Katie Rabinowicz

Posted: August 26, 2009

Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario

Perspectives on good food and farming

Orchards bruised

In a few short minutes, what started out as a very good crop for apple growers in The Blue Mountains changed. Last Thursday’s F2 tornado uprooted trees, damaged buildings and tossed apples into adjacent fields. The storm affected as much as 10% — maybe even 15% — of the MacIntosh crop handled by the Bay Growers Co-operative Inc., a co-op that stores, packs and ships fresh eating apples. The co-op also lost dozens of 20-bushel bins. Dolmar said there are stories of young trees that have been sucked out of the ground and are completely gone, while more mature trees with fruit on them are leaning sideways with possible root damage. Owen Sound Sun Times story.

Is local food more expensive?

Is shopping at Bailey’s Local Foods (Waterloo Region) more expensive than a supermarket? I often get these questions and have not known how to answer. I’ve thought it was more expensive – and for good reasons!  So I took the time to compare Bailey’s Local Food Buying Club prices to the prices of a supermarket near the pickup location. And guess what?!?! Bailey’s came up slightly less expensive!!!  I was shocked. Nina Bailey writing on the website of Bailey’s Local Foods.

New round of our farm business planning course launched

This course is well suited to small and medium sized farms involved in direct market style farm businesses to create a farm plan for: succession, launching a new direct market enterprise or starting from scratch. To ensure your plan benefits from the experience of many generations of farming the course includes: 5 hours of one-on-one mentorship, farm tours and expert farmers at every opportunity. Farm Business Planning CourseFarmers Growing Farmers ProgramEverdale Farm website.

Seed Saving Garden Tours, Saturday, August 29

Bring a bundle of envelopes and join us on a seed saving walk through our heritage flower and vegetable gardens. You will learn about pollination and how to save seeds for a wide variety of ornamentals and vegetables. Take seed home with you. Save Seed and Save the Future! Saturday, August 29, 10:00 am and 1:00 pm, Diversity Gardens, 1528 Notre Dame Drive, St. Agatha. Information by email at cogpww@sympatico.ca.

La vida locavore

Top T.O. chefs share their fave recipes using locally sourced ingredients: Peaches ’n’ Cream Corn Polenta, Debu’s Pear-Fect Lassi and Café 668 Fruit Salad. Now Magazine recipes.

Sweden introduces climate labelling for food

Sweden is developing standards to help consumers make conscious choices about the impact of their decisions on global warming. Products with at least 25% greenhouse gas savings will be marked in each food category, starting with plant production, dairy and fish products. The label is a joint initiative by the Federation of Swedish Farmers, two food labelling organisations and various dairy and meat co-operatives. EurActive.com story. Climate labelling for food website in English.

Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch

Those corporations have been trying to persuade Americans to let them do the cooking since long before large numbers of women entered the work force. After World War II, the food industry labored mightily to sell American women on all the processed-food wonders it had invented to feed the troops: canned meals, freeze-dried foods, dehydrated potatoes, powdered orange juice and coffee, instant everything. As Laura Shapiro recounts in “Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America,’ the food industry strived to “persuade millions of Americans to develop a lasting taste for meals that were a lot like field rations.’ The same process of peacetime conversion that industrialized our farming, giving us synthetic fertilizers made from munitions and new pesticides developed from nerve gas, also industrialized our eating.”Michael Pollen writing in the New York Times.

Remote farming: tailor-made, no-fuss vegetable gardens

Italians can reconnect with the origins of their food. Le Verdure Del Mio Orto (‘The Vegetables from my Garden’)—lets anyone build an organic garden right from their web browser. Users select a garden size based on the number of people they’d like to feed; 30m2 is sufficient for 1–2 people and costs EUR 850 per year. The virtual gardener can then choose from 40 different types of vegetables, using a highly intuitive interface that includes information on expected yields and harvest times. Optional extras include a photo album of the garden’s progress (EUR 49), herb and fruit beds (EUR 50/75), and even a scarecrow with a picture of the customer’s own face (EUR 39). Once the garden has been designed and fees paid, planting begins on the farm, which is located between Milan and Turin in northern Italy. As the organic produce grows, it’s picked and delivered to the customer’s door within 24 hours. More details on the Springwise websiteLe Verdure Del Mio Orto website.Springwise and its network of 8,000 spotters scan the globe for smart new business ideas, delivering instant inspiration to entrepreneurial minds.

Pizza Wisconsinalia!

Now my locavore leanings have crowned a new favorite — one I thoroughly enjoy, savoring its clear, home-grown flavors in the famliar format I have loved all my life.  Pizza Wisconsiniana. I had it last night. It starts with dough made from locally grown wheat  flour, which I buy in crisp brown paper bags at the Farmer’s Market from Tom Brantmeier. I brush this  pastry plate with local garlic  (also from Tom’s farm) browned in olive oil (alas, no local source for this staple). Over that I lay locally grown, heritage tomatoes. Then comes the fresh mozzarella from …. Denise Thornton writing on the website, Digging in the Driftless, Life among the weeds in western Wisconsin.

Take a Ride – 2009 Tour de Greenbelt

Looking for a way to spend a late summer Saturday? Perhaps a leisurely bike ride through some of the most beautiful countryside in Ontario is the answer. Or maybe a freshly prepared meal using all locally grown food or how about spending a day with family and friends. Maybe paying a visit to a local farm or farmers’ market, or exploring some scenic attractions you may have never noticed before. Experience all of this and more at the 2009 Tour de Greenbelt! Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation August Newsletter