Locavore News – Ontario
Posted: May 27, 2010
Categories: Uncategorized
- Harvest Ontario 2010 – The Source for Local is coming
- Farm tour celebrates new map
- Community Gardening in Hamilton
- Mapping Sustain Ontario
- May 2010 Local Harvest
- What do those farmers do all winter?
- Creating Value-Added Products from Natural Resources
- Preston market returns
- Greenbelt grievances
- Horses unite rural and urban interests
- Andy Shay is 100 Mile Market’s Local Cheese Specialist!
Perspectives on good food and farming by Elbert van Donkersgoed
May 27, 2010
Harvest Ontario 2010 – The Source for Local is coming
The 10th anniversary edition of Ontario’s favourite ‘Source for Local’ will be available at your local Home Hardware, Home Building Centre and Home Furniture locations in early June! Pick-up your FREE edition of the largest and most comprehensive source for pick-your-own farms, roadside markets, farmers’ markets, wineries, fairs, country B&B’s and other great agritourism attractions. Supplies are limited and available on a first come, first served basis. Need quicker access to sourcing farm to fork products? Tired of searching through numerous websites? Find it all from farmers’ market to on-farm markets to what’s in season at one convenient location – Harvest Ontario 2010 website.
Farm tour celebrates new map
It was a voyage of discovery for students, seniors and media who boarded a white school bus Friday morning at Leaping Deere Legends. As part of the launch of the brand-new Buy Local! Oxford map, the group of travellers rode through the breezy Oxford countryside to visit three of the locations featured on the new map. A partnership of the National Farmers Union (NFU), Ontario Federation of Agriculture, the County of Oxford, Ontario Ministry of Food and Rural Affairs, the Christian Farmers Union, Oxford Wholehearted Living Network and local producers, the new map is designed to make it easier for farmers to reach local consumers. Woodstock Sentinel-Review story.
Community Gardening in Hamilton
There are 13 community gardens in the City of Hamilton. Some of these include: Green Venture, Churchill Community Garden, North Hamilton Community Health Center (NHCHC), Keith Neighbourhood Garden, Today’s Family Community Garden, Athens Street Community Garden, Dundas Community Garden, NHCHC Paradise Community Garden, Jamesville Community Gardeners and West Highland Baptist Church Victory Garden & Plots. Hamilton Community Garden Directory. Naturally Hamilton website.
Mapping Sustain Ontario
Sustain Ontario has over 165 members across Ontario. Check out this map of their network. Newsletter.
May 2010 Local Harvest
Foodlink Waterloo’s latest newsletter features EMU and a local farm profile on Banbury Emu Farm. Newsletter.
What do those farmers do all winter?
“What do the Herrle’s do all winter?” This seems to be the biggest question we get asked each fall. As a family, we reflect upon this past season each winter. We recount the highs and lows of the summer of 2009. We were faced with many agricultural challenges. With all the rain and cool weather, it was not the easiest farming by any means. What we are grateful for are the wonderful and understanding customers that come week after week in search of their fresh local fruits and vegetables. These are the smiling faces, warm gestures and words of encouragement that are expressed to us as a family each and every day. For this we are wonderfully blessed. Foodlink Waterloo story.
Creating Value-Added Products from Natural Resources
Eastern Ontario’s agriculture and forestry sectors are showing an increased interest in creating value-added products from local natural resources. At the most basic level, added value can come from either transforming a product in some way, or providing an additional service which complements the product itself. While specific solutions vary from resource to resource and are dependent on funding options, this paper offers real-world examples to generate ideas for future consideration. The Monieson Centre, Queen’s School of Business. Report.
Preston market returns
The farmers’ market will be returning to Preston’s Central Park this summer. Cambridge council has approved an exemption to the city’s outdoor vendors bylaw Monday that will allow St. Clements Parish to organize the Thursday farmers’ market in the park for a third season. The Preston outdoor market was started as an initiative of the Waterloo Region Public Health Unit as a means to bring locally grown produce to parts of the community that didn’t have easy access to fresh produce. Cambridge Times story.
Greenbelt grievances
Behind one of the barns on Eliane Michèle Crematy’s farm on Ramsayville Road is the rusted carcass of a Ford truck. The windows are smashed, the vinyl seats are slashed and the white paint has turned grey with time. A Manitoba maple tree and other weeds threaten to swallow the truck whole with their foliage. This isn’t Crematy’s truck, but it’s been there since the day she moved onto the farm almost two years ago. She has asked the National Capital Commission — her landlord — to remove the truck, yet here it remains. “It’s just so hard to get somebody here to say, ‘Yes, you’re right, we’re going to fix this,’ and take action,†Crematy says, letting out a long sigh. Farmers on the Greenbelt have many gripes: urban encroachment, crumbling barns and farm infrastructure, impractical leasing options and a landlord-tenant relationship that leaves many feeling disconnected from the NCC. Ottawa Citizen story.
Horses unite rural and urban interests
Horses are right at home around here, and they’re becoming more important all the time to the rest of Ontario, too. The province’s 350,000 horses and 80,000 horse owners help anchor Ontario’s farm economy, and offer some stability when other parts of the livestock sector are having their ups and downs. About half of all the horses in Ontario reside on farms and acreages within 150 kilometres or so of Guelph. It’s become a world-renown horse hub, a centre for all things equine. That’s thanks in part to expertise at the Ontario Veterinary College and at Equine Guelph, an organization dedicated to research, education and training, performance, healthcare and industry development. An ambitious plan is being discussed to consider turning Guelph’s 640-acre Arkell Research Station into a permanent equine education and research centre that would rival anything, anywhere, including the great horse parks of Kentucky. This initiative would reflect the importance of the equine sector to Ontario, and the economic impact could be tremendous. Owen Roberts writes in the Guelph Mercury.
Andy Shay is 100 Mile Market’s Local Cheese Specialist!
Chris McKittrick, co-founder of 100 Mile Market, is pleased to announce that Andy Shay has joined the team as its Local Cheese Specialist. In this role, Andy will assist in identifying and sourcing exceptional local cheeses, and will also be available to chefs, caterers and restaurants as a resource for using cheeses as an ingredient as well as for cheese plates. He also conducts cheese tastings, appreciation and pairings as a separate service. From a release by 100 Mile Markets Ontario.
AND IF YOU HAVE TIME
UK retailer issues bonds with returns paid in chocolate
British high-end chocolate maker and retailer Hotel Chocolat, which currently operates over 40 stores in the UK, the Middle East and the US, wants to expand even further. But rather than turning to banks or big investors for money, they’re inviting customer to buy bonds. Bonds that will pay chocolate returns. Two values of Chocolate Bond will be issued: both with the return paid in monthly Tasting Boxes. Holders of a GBP 2,000 Chocolate Bond will receive six free tasting boxes a year worth GBP 107.70 per year, and those holding a GBP 4,000 bond will receive thirteen boxes, worth GBP 233.35 per year. Which comes down to a 5.38% return. After an initial term of three years, and on every anniversary thereafter, bond holders can redeem their bond for a full return of their investment. If they decide to continue to hold the bond, the monthly boxes will keep on coming. Springwise story.