Growing Good Food Ideas Spotlight: Ontario Nature – Forest and Freshwater Foods

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Author: Ravi Singh

Posted: May 6, 2013

Categories: News from Sustain Ontario

Powerline Films has been traveling across Ontario gathering stories of people and places that are transforming the future of food. Created in partnership with Sustain Ontario and more than a dozen partners, these videos shine light on good food ideas from many regions of our province. Informative, beautiful, and engaging, these videos are sure to inspire.

The new Growing Good Food Ideas videos from 2012-2013 were launched April 24th at an event with Premier Wynne at Queen’s Park! This second round of videos includes 23 new videos from 17 partners, exploring a wide variety of topics from forest foods foraging to food charter development.

The following video, part of the Growing Good Food Ideas project, profiles Ontario Nature’s Forest and Freshwater Foods project, which is all about the hidden treasures of Northern Ontario’s Forests.

Forest & Freshwater Foods from Sustain Ontario on Vimeo.

For many, the forests of northern Ontario are synonymous with timber. This video unearths the underappreciated value of forest foods – wild mushrooms, fiddleheads, blueberries, boreal teas, and boreal birch syrup. Follow Ontario Nature, the True North Community Cooperative, and Environment North, as they grow the forest food movement in the north. Northerners are enjoying delicious and nutritious foods, the region is more self-sufficient, and the environment is better off.

Mark Bell of Aroland First Nation tells the story of the blueberry initiative, where community youth have developed economic opportunities from non-timber forest values. Joe Baxter and other professional foragers make the case for taking food from the forest to the plate. As Baxter says, “If it’s good for the bears, it’s good for us.”