I love it when I get invited to Farm tours by
Farm Food Care. They are always fun and educational. This was my 3rd time doing the Farm Tours. I broke my lucky streak of good weather this time and I blame the Vaughan Centre station for that. Every time I have to meet someone at Vaughan Centre Station it pours. This was the 3rd time that happened but at least I had a fairly easy way to connect up with the bus this time. I say fairly easy because I poured just as we got there and the bus was about 15 minutes late so we all huddled inside the TTC entrance.
A bit of info about Farm Food Care first, they are a coalition of various businesses in the food production industry who do consumer research, promotion and program education about the agriculture industry. These farm tours are run by the energetic and organized Jennifer MacKenzie who is a food writer, cook book author and excellent tour organizer.
As I briefly mentioned we started our day by hopping on a tour bus in Vaughan at 8:30am and were given a little bag full of goodies which I unfortunately forgot on the bus because I had too much stuff to carry home. I will get to that in a bit. Jennifer makes home baked treats for the drive to the farms and we had coffee too.
Our first stop was the very popular
Sheldon creek Dairy located at
316 RR#2 5th Concession in Loretto, Ontario
We had a great tour through the bottling area and where the cows were and saw the whole process from start to finish.
Sheldon Creek are the first farm in Canada to produce A2 milk. It is milk that comes from cows that naturally produce milk with A2 version of beta-casein. Normally cows produce A1. It is easier on the digestive system. They likened it to the Red Head gene in humans. The A2 protein is comparable to human breast milk or goat, sheep and buffalo milk which is easier to digest for dairy sensitive people. As I have grown older I appreciate this a whole lot.
We learned a whole lot of things about their system including the fact that 4 degrees is the perfect temperature for milk. They use a voluntary milking system for their cows in a system that is kind of like a cow car wash. They walk up to a platform that allows the cows to be scanned by sensors and connected to the milking machine. They have fitbit kind of tracking that tells their computer sensor which cow it is and tracks the quantity of milk that is milked at a time and how many times a day they milk as well as the milk breakdown so they can tell if there is any illness that may occur in the cows. The cows are given a treat but they have it set up so that they can't keep going back just to get treats. Very smart. Cows are trying to out smart the machines but nope they can't do it. The cows all have definite personalities. It was obvious that there were selfie loving cows and ones that couldn't care less that there were a bunch of humans taking photos of them. Obvious from the sounds of the food going in and out of the cows if you know what I mean? We also fond out that they are feed a pickled hay concoction that inhibits bacteria growth and they lay in sand beds instead of hay beds or grass because it molds to their bodies making them more comfortable.
After learning about the dairy we all went crazy in their little store that stocks their fresh milk right from the back bottling area and they also sell local products. I can tell you that I filled up a cooler bag and it was heavy. I got one of their little bottles of heavy cream and coffee milk, chocolate milk and strawberry milk which is colored with beets. And I picked up some local gouda. I wanted more but had to haul it home and as it turns out it's a good thing I didn't get more because I could barely carry everything home. They were preparing to have an open house on the weekend and I wish I could have gone back to get more things.
After shopping like crazy and seeing the cows we trucked through the wet farm back to the bus to go for lunch at the
Gibson Centre. We were all very hungry and ready to get out of the rain by that time. The Gibson Centre is a beautiful community centre that hosts food festivals and lots of weddings apparently.
Lunch was fantastic. I shared a table with fellow food industry writers and friends Suzie from Just Crumbs, Fina the Healthy Italian and Mairlyn Smith the home economist and cookbook author and tv personality. Such a delicious and fun lunch. All of the food was from Ontario. We had chicken with crispy chicken skin and gnocchi with peas, roasted radish and asparagus, rillette on brown bread and strawberry shortcake for dessert. There was a pickled veg platter and everyone went crazy for the pickled brussel sprouts but I didn't have a chance to taste them. There was a speaker from Saskatchewan Canola who were the lunch sponsors and there was also a speaker from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture talking about how the new tariffs are affecting farmers like Canola farmers. Farmers are at the mercy of the weather and things like tariffs and government regulations so it's a really tough business to make a decent living sadly.
After lunch we hopped back on the bus to go to K2 Milling in Beeton. Owner Mark Hayhoe has been in the industry for 28 years. I am not sure they were quite prepared for all the foodies looking for fresh new things. Unlike the dairy everyone was looking to buy something to take home but they weren't really set up for grab and go sales as they normally sell to other businesses.
They mill non traditional things like hemp, flax, spelt, quinoa, pea, amaranth, rice and lentils. They also experiment with things like grapes and have a merlot flour and they have spices like turmeric and cinnamon. They also do unusual things like blueberry flour and cranberry flour using dried berries. Their motto is "grinding against the grain". I opted to skip buying a bag of flour at this point because I already amassed a bag of stuff and a centrepiece and dairy products.
I couldn't hear everything about the milling process but I could tell they like to think outside of the norm of the traditional milled wheat. We did learn about why things like ground oats aren't always the best thing to mill and different milled products react differently when baking which explains why gluten free products are never the same as wheat products. Some flours gum up and can't hold the structure. I think he said that spelt can't be over mixed or it breaks down.
And just as we finished having a look at the mill and picking up some milled products it started to rain again so i dashed back onto the bus to head back to the Vaughan drop off location. Back on the bus we were given surveys and then it was time for trivia and prizes. I won the centre piece at lunch and one of the trivia question on the bus and got a silver travel cup and straw and an ice cream scoop. I will use that for sure.
It was a super fun day even with the gloomy skies, muddy pathways and wind and rain. Spending time with great food industry people and learning how our food is produced is always rewarding.
Visit a farm, meet the people that produce your food and thank them for the hard work they do to feed your families safe food products. We have some of the highest food standards in Canada. We do not allow milk to be sold with hormones and the pasturization process is strictly regulated. I have visited some fantastic farms run by great people and you should do the same if you have the opportunity to do so.
Respect the food that is harvested so that we can continue to have this high quality food.
www.farmfoodcare.org
