Green Living Preview

 

The 2017 Green Living Show is coming up this April 7-9, 2017 at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto and I was invited to have a sneak peek at some of the vendors and new products that will be showcased at this year's show.

I have been to the Green Living Show many times and it's one of my favourite shows because it combines my favourite thing local Restaurants and food producers with a lot of new innovative products that are made to help the environment and not hurt it.  There is something for everyone from baby clothes to cars and all sorts of products for your home and your body.  It's a one stop shop if you care about your purchases being the best they can be for you and the environment.

I will be giving away 2 pairs of tickets on my Instagram page @lindamatarasso deadline to enter will be April 3rd and winners announced April 4th.

Some of the INNOVATIVE products that I previewed included:

Ritual box (thinkahlot.com)  (pictured above),  it's a box with all the things you would use for your legal marijuana.  I don't know much about this but I have a feeling this might be a trendy gift item soon.  There was also Canabis products made and consultations for pain management by Tweed Main Street Shop that are made with specific medicinal strength oils that are meant to be injested or put directly on the skin.

There was also a NutriTower (nutritower.com) planter that is meant to be used inside to grow herbs and vegetables with it's own lighting system.  Grow your own food even in a small space because it's vertical growing.

There were faux rocks and planters made from Recycled Tires.  The rocks look like real rocks even.

Also on hand were:

 Crazy D's All Natural Soda (crazydlabs.com) Yoga Leggings (myinnerfire.com), Lift Bike (revelo.ca), Stainless Steel Containers (dalcinistainless.com) , Healthy Dog Treats (en.wilderharrier.com),, Vita Active Kit (fitglow.ca), The Black Out Bulb (blackoutbulb.com), Vegan Cashew Cheese (zengarry.com)

You will also find out about the new Certification label (CERT CLEAN) that will indicate products tested to be clean for your body with no harm to your health.  The term Organic and natural don't mean anything in Skin Care products so this certification aims to make it easier for consumers to know which products have been verified to be safe.

 There are so many products featured at the show that I can't even tell you about half of them in this post because there are just too many that you need to see to understand the benefits of the products.

There is an area just for food and drink where local restaurants, craft brewers, distillers and wineries sell small samples of their products.

The food vendors will serve flavours from all over the world some of them are:  

• Hawthorne Food & Drink
• Pimenton
• Santo Pecado
• Urban Acorn Catering
• The Magic Oven
• TC's MOMO
• Lavelle
• Karam Kitchen
• B'Saha Restaurant
• De la Terre bakery cafe
• and more.

Show Info:

Green Living Show 2017

www.greenlivingshow.ca

Sunday Apr 7 - 12-9pm

Saturday Apr 8 - 10 am - 8 pm

Sunday Apr 9 - 10am- 6 pm

Metro Toronto Convention Centre, North Building

255 Front Street West

Toronto, ON

M5W 2W6

Tickets: Adults $12 online, $15 onsite

Seniors 65+/ students $10

Children under 12 - Free with an adult

Social @greenlivingpage

#GLS17

The Artisan Tasting Fair - Event

My food adventure today was attending the Artisan Tasting Fair at Wychwood Barns (Christie & St. Clair) in Toronto.  

This event showcases local Artisan Cheese makers, craft beer makers, bakers and sausage makers.   This isn't the big automated huge warehouse manufacturers,  it's the smaller high quality producers.

This event is put on with the Leslieville Cheese Market which is located on Queen Street East.  A tiny little shop in Leslieville that sells quality, meats, cheeses and breads predominantly.


Some of the Cheese makers at the Tasting Fair included:  Upper Canada Cheese Company, Monteforte Dairy, Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Co., Back Forty Artisan cheese,  Mountain Oak Cheese, Glengarry Cheesemaking and  Gunn's Hill Artisan cheese.  I think I sampled most of the cheeses today.  I'm all cheesed out for the day now.  I had so much.  I think most of the vendors sampling were cheese.  

There was also a lot of Pork products at the Fair from Sanagan's Meat Locker, The Healthy Butcher,  VG meats, Speducci Mercatto.

And then there was also Craft Beer to wash it all down by Sawdust City Brewing Co., Barnstormer Brewing and the Granite Brewery.

Other vendors at the market included  Propeller Coffee Co. who I first saw at the Delicious Food Show recently.  Le Dolci who make cupcakes and other desserts, who also seem to be everywhere lately,  EPI Breads who cater to people with different allergies,  ready to cook food company Prepd,  Foodie Pages was there with a draw, Farmer's Pantry with dips, STASIS preserves, Evelyn's crackers, and new to the food world in the city is the Cookery store, a kitchen store that also has cooking demos, and I am probably missing a couple.

 

I tried my first taste of Haggis from the Healthy Butcher today and I am happy to say that it tasted surprisingly good.  It sounds a whole lot worse than what it is.

I think I tried most of the samples.  I skipped the Beer since I am not a beer drinker though.  But I do like to cook/bake with beer because of the yeasty chemical reactions with foods.

If you are gluten free, lactose intolerant, don't eat pork for religious or other reasons, don't drink beer or you are diabetic then this isn't the show for you.. but if you do then knock yourself out on the high quality of foods available and the best part is that you most likely will get to chat with the actual producers of the foods.  They are generally the owners of the companies which are smaller businesses and this fair focuses on Local foods from Ontario and Quebec mostly.


I love to support local food producers because it's a tough go making a living and their care and attention to the quality of their products is the way food was produced more than 50 years ago and seems to be becoming more of a trend to go back to that style of food production.  It can only be a good thing when you support this.  You buy from someone that owns a business in Ontario or Quebec and also lives in the Province thereby supporting the same local economy.  The money isn't going to fat cats with hidden bank accounts in Switzerland or such and each dollar they makes generates a whole community effect.  Shopping at the fair reminded me of the food that I got when I was a kid.  Real food and the stores were a lot smaller.  There was actually an apple farm across the street from my house when I was a kid.  We used to play beside the farm.  Now it's a Church and Ambulance Headquarters... shame it's gone.  Anyway back to the Artisan fair.  It's a small event but if you like to meet the people that make your food then I think it's a good idea to try and get out to events like this.

Some of my favourite things were Sanagan's terrine samples, Le Dolci flourless cake, Leslieville Cheeses and I even liked the Haggis from the Healthy Butcher.

Unfortunately by the time you read this the show will be over for this year. But I hope that you can check it out next year or check out one of the vendors whenever you see them.