Farmer's Market Inspiration

It was a record breaking Hot Day in Toronto today and I wanted to go to a Farmer's market.  When I looked up farmer's markets on the Toronto Farmer's Market list I found a Market I have never been to before.  It's the West End Food Coop.  It's a Market on Saurauren, around the Dundas West area. It was a whim type of decision.  I just thought I want to go to a farmer's market and see if I could get some fresh picked Ontario Strawberries.

 I found my Strawberries and found a lot more inspiration and  a friend to share it with.   As I was walking around checking out the vendors I bump into my friend Nick.  He works from home so you never know what he's up to so I was surprised to run into him there.  Although it was closer to where he lives and nowhere near where I live.  I decided that since I am not working a day job right now I would like to check out farmer's markets that I haven't been to and see if there are any differences between them.  As it turns out it was Nick's first trip to that same market, even though he is close enough to ride his bike there.  I guess this was his first opportunity to check it out too. He picked up a fish sandwich and was about to sit down to eat it and on the way to the bench I spied a popsicle vendor who made all sorts of fresh flavours.  I was going to get a Vietnamese Coffee flavour or maybe a watermelon lime concoction but then she said there were a couple of things that weren't on the menu board.  One of them was a Mojito flavour.  BINGO....she got my attention.  On a day that is over 30 degrees what's better than a lime/mint Mojito.  I grabbed one while my friend parked his bike.  I guess it sounded good to him too so he got one for himself.

What a great day.  Sitting at a picnic table under a tree having some Mojito pops with a friend I just happened to bump in to.  Coincidence is a funny thing.

After having that great Mojito pop we both thought it was a good idea and we should do that at home.   So I decided to pick up some more mint to plant on my balcony.

After I left the market I stopped into Kensington market and even found the popsicle containers to make them with.   HMMM... interesting for an unplanned day.

I think I even spotted Carl from Top Chef Canada at that market doing a bit of shopping.  So if it's good enough for a Top Chef it's good enough for me.

I am now ready to make some homemade mojito pops and it's all because of my Farmer's Market Inspiration today.   That's something you can't get from a supermarket.   I doubt you are going to bump into a friend at a supermarket and then sit and  have Mojito's under a tree in the middle of shopping.   Gotta Love it.   And that's why I love to go to Farmer's Markets.

For directions to this monday market check their website:
http://westendfood.coop/

We also picked up something I have never seen before - Tokyo Radishes.  

What's great about these radishes other than the cool white color is the fact that you can eat the root part as well as the leaves.  It has a peppery taste and would give you a nice crunch in a salad without having to add a lot of seasonings.

Who and Where does your Food come from?

I saw a Jennifer Baichwal film called PAYBACK last night which is based on a book by Margaret Atwood. What does this have to do with food? Well, the film goes through debts to society in all forms. One of the forms was in the environment. Margaret Atwood said in the Q&A afterward that "YOu CAN'T PAY FISH" meaning when companies like BP destroy the water sources they can't pay the fish to go away and solve the problem. Greed seems to be the thing that is what is destroying our planet. Greed of industries trying to cut back on safety measures to our food sources and the eco systems in the world with the only consideration being their bottom line profits.

One of the other things the film touched on was the farmers in Florida that were fighting to get a PENNY more an hour and the Food Production companies were saying that it was UN American to pay another cent an hour for them and that it would make the food unaffordable to the general public. What do you think? Would you pay an extra penny for a bunch of tomatoes if you knew that it would help farm workers to not have slavery jobs in the U.S.? I thought so.

The other thing that it made me think about which I have been thinking about a lot lately is that we don't actually know where most of our food is coming from and who are the people in charge of farming or picking it in most cases. The only way you can know where your food comes from is to either grow it yourself or buy it from a LOCAL Farmer's Market where you know the farmer, where his farm is and his practices. Is the farmer an organic farmer, does the farmer grow chickens that are caged in small pens and fed hormones to increase their growth? When you go to the grocery store and a product just says "Product of Mexico" or "Produce of the USA" what does that really tell you? Not Enough. You don't know if the production of it was humane or organic unless it says CERTIFIED Organic. It doesn't say Certified Humane does it? So how are we supposed to know what really goes on every time we buy a tomato. These companies keep these practices their dirty little secret by threatening the already underpaid workers with losing their jobs or in some case the threat of deportation as most are migrant workers that are doing the jobs that other people don't want to do. Farming is hard work. You have to work fast and in hot conditions and usually back breaking ways. I love the Food Network show "Pitchin In" because Chef Lynn Crawford goes to farms across the US and Canada and learns about how their food is produced. But those are always the good farms because there is no way that the offenders would open up their practices to a Canadian tv show.

Do we have to find out by watching investigative Documentaries like Food Inc. and the new film Payback? There are so many more cancers in the world now than there was 50 years ago. My thought is because of the push to make money for a select few who are willing to do anything to make it without a thought to the ripple effect on the planet. The instant gratification of the Greedy who want their money now and don't care who dies because of their actions. It is a scary world where you have to think twice before you eat a Tomato. Where a penny can make the difference between slave labour and ethically produced food.

Things need to change or their won't be any food left on the planet that won't be Genetically modified or just a toxic soup full of chemicals that will kill off the planet.

A few people are basically strangling the planet and it needs to change or we will destroy it permanently. Buy CERTIFIED Organic when you can because it is more expensive because of the strict growing practices. Grow your own vegetables when you can so that you can show the supermarkets and food producers that you aren't willing to buy their toxic produce. Buy directly from ethical farmers and skip the greedy middle men.

If you know the Source you can make informed decisions. This sounds easier than it is to practice unfortunately but it shouldn't be.

Because of the documentary I am working on we plan to visit many farmers markets and farms this spring and summer and I will try and post a list of the places we visit that are doing the right thing.
Get Smart, Buy Smart, Save lives.

Savour Stratford Festival

Thanks to Twitter I was able to win a Free Weekend Stay in Stratford for the Savour Stratford Festival. I entered this twitter contest for a few reasons. 1. A cool food event to check out and blog about on this page. 2. Chuck Hughes from Chuck's Day Off was there. 3. My friend lives in St. Mary's and a free weekend stay to visit with her would be a bonus. So what did I have to lose??? nothing so I clicked...and I got lucky and won the free weekend stay at the Festival INN and along with that I got tickets to Beerology101 but I am not a beer drinker so I passed on that but I did attend BBQ, Blues and Beer..but the BBQ was limited and extra so we didn't stay long. But the best part of the package was vouchers for something called the Chocolate Trail. The chocolate trail were businesses on the Stratford main strip that had all things chocolate and had chocolate items that were given out free in exchange of a voucher. I split the vouchers with my friend but I was able to get 2 bars of chocolate, 1 milk and one dark, some Chocolate Ginger Tea, Chocolate Mocha sauce and my friend got a chocolate sundae too. YUM.
On the kickoff day I watched Paul Finkelstein (Fink) orchestrate a Pass it On session to teach a bunch of kids how to make an egg wrap. Something Jamie Oliver does as well. The idea being teach a kid who will then pass on the recipe and become self sufficient in the kitchen.

Another fabulous thing that was a part of the Festival was their great Farmer's Market. I have been to many Farmer's Markets in Toronto but this one was exceptional. The range of food and the freshness was amazing. I picked up things that I am sure most people don't ever find in their grocery stores. I got yellow and candy beets, purple fingerling potatoes and some purple peppers. I have already cooked up the potatoes and beets...great and the colors are amazing.

The Most Fun I had that weekend was seeing Chuck Hughes (chuck's Day Off) do a Cooking Demo. He was trying to talk over a steam whistle and music playing all over and the odd passerby but handled it all with humour. He made some sashimi/ceviche style fish with pickled radish and also caramelized peaches for dessert. Chuck is a great chef but he is also down to earth and entertaining when he does these cooking demos. Chuck's Day Off was already one of my favourite shows because Chuck always cooks things that are accessible to most people and sometimes he puts his little spin on his food which keeps it fresh. I am not a big tattoo person but Chuck has food related tattoos that all have special meaning to him which adds a lot to his character.

Overall the Savour Stratford Festival is a great event and was voted Ontario Event of the year last year and I can see why. It's a foodie's heaven. People that love fresh, local, good food congregate in a small and friendly community where everyone says Hi and wants to share their food with you. What could be better? I hope to return again next year and savour more of Stratford.