Locavore News by Elbert van Donkersgoed

Author: Katie Rabinowicz

Posted: September 9, 2009

Categories: Food in the News / News from Sustain Ontario

Perspectives on good food and farming

Apple growers count losses, seek help

The Georgian Bay Fruit Growers group is seeking federal-provincial tornado disaster relief funds and any other help governments will provide. The tornado that ripped through the Beaver Valley Aug. 20 destroyed an estimated 13.5 million apples, or 4.5 million pounds worth, said local apple grower Brian Gilroy, chairman of the Ontario Apple Growers. Owen Sound Sun Times story.

Norfolk farm showcased in national TV campaign

Before you go channel-surfing to bypass commercials, you might want to know that a local farmer is now featured in the latest commercial with President Choice’s CEO Galen Weston. Weston made a trip out to Nightingale Farms to shoot a commercial earlier this month advertising Loblaw’s Grown Close to Home campaign. The La Salette farm is one of Loblaw’s major suppliers of cantaloupe, which made it an easy choice for the large grocer to highlight. Simcoe Reformer story.

Winery expands to attract visitors

Chatham-Kent’s agri-tourism industry is about to expand. Finishing touches are being added to a 3,500-square-foot facility at Smith and Wilson Winery overlooking Lake Erie. A 70-year-old fruit packing barn on the Smith farm on Talbot Trail has been expanded and modernized to house a new wine store, a wine tasting area as well as space for meetings and social events.Chatham Daily News story.

Wine critics get taste of county vintages

Prince Edward County’s wine buzz is about to increase.  Members of the Wine Council of Ontario and 17 journalists of the Wine Writers’ Circle of Canada toured area wineries on the weekend. Caroline Granger of the Grange of Prince Edward County said their arrival is “one more step in that coming of age” of the county’s wine industry. Belleville Intelligencer story.

Bad patch of weather pounds pumpkins

Local growers of giant pumpkins who have their heart set on a world record will have to take a rain check this year. Simply put, it was about the worst year imaginable for the production of giant gourds. “Everybody you talk to, they have nothing,” says veteran grower Ken Armstrong of Vittoria. Armstrong has run a tidy little business in recent years producing large pumpkins for sale to shopping malls and department stores, where they are used in festive fall displays. Some years, Armstrong has produced as many as 90 big ones. Brantford Expositor story.

My Locavore Challenge

I’m getting myself ready for Green City Market’s Locavore Challenge, which starts this Wednesday, Sept. 9, and goes through Sept. 23. It takes a lot of planning, so I thought I’d share my gameplan with you. ChicagoNow story.

Connecting restaurants and bloggers for ‘tastecasting’

If vintners can conduct wine tastings via Twitter, it stands to reason that restaurants could do much the same thing to promote their foods. Which is just where TasteCasting comes in, facilitating the use of social media for taste tests and other promotional events to help restaurateurs get tongues wagging about them throughout the socially networked world.Springwise story.

The Canadian Culinary Book Awards

Can you judge a book by the cover? The expert panel for Cuisine Canada and the University of Guelph’s Canadian Culinary Book Awards wouldn’t dream of it. To select the best of more than 50 entries, some of Canada’s top food professionals cracked the spine, rolled up their sleeves, tested recipes and read every word. The winners along with the new Hall of Fame Culinary Book Award will be announced November 6, 2009, on opening day of the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, in Toronto. The Culinary Collection of the University of Guelph website

Is Farming the New American Dream?

In this economic climate, why is farming becoming a desirable life for young people who have the luxury of choice? In the post-Omnivore’s Dilemma reality, where farmer Joel Salatin is known far outside his county, it doesn’t take a genius to say it: farming has totally blown up. Essay by Makenna Goodman, Chelsea Green Publishing posted on AlterNet.

Old Boy Covers New Ground

If Michael Levenston ’70 had walked up to you at a party 30 years ago and started to regale you with stories of worm composting, you might have grimaced, made your excuses and sidled away. By his own admission, it sounds, well, weird. “It’s a pretty oddball area, and you can’t go to a lot of people about this,” he says. But today Levenston is the global go-to guy for that subject and other green issues that fall under the umbrella of urban agriculture. He started the Vancouverbased non-profit City Farmer Society in 1978, when no one used the words “urban” and “agriculture” in the same sentence. Old Times: Upper Canada College’s Alumni Publication story.

AND in case you missed it

Move over, Twinkies: Deep-fried butter is here

Who among us hasn’t simultaneously marvelled and shuddered over accounts of deep-fried Twinkies? Deep-fried Oreos? Deep-fried bacon? Well, brace yourself, because a new deep-fried item has been invented that’s so bold, so audacious, so brazen, it’s bound to take your breath away. The invention is none other than: Deep-fried butter. Story in Today at MSNBC.com