The Great Canadian Bacon Festival

  The Great Canadian Bacon Festival This is going to cause a stir. It’s bacon, it’s Canadian and it is happening on Canada Day! Oink, snort and grunt your way to this festival which is being held on Friday, July 1st at The Arva Flour Mill. Organizer Sarah Reynolds wants you to know: “Canada’s first ever bacon festival is a showcase of bacon delights to help raise funds towards the Arva Flour Mill Restoration Project. Each bacon enthusiast pays $5 for a wristband at the door (kids enter free) and then has the chance to sample treats directly from local pork producers/butchers. Even though we have the word festival in our title, we’re nothing like other food festivals. Our only focus is to invite bacon lovers to share a great meal with us and celebrate what Canada Day stands for, community culture and great food. Doors open at 11 am . The festival provides free parking, free educational arts & crafts for children, a silent auction table, some fantastic music and a shuttle bus from the Masonville Farmers Market every half hour. We’re also providing a full vegetarian menu with gluten free items for those who want to check things out but may not wish to consume meat products.” Thanks Sarah! I have told you all about The Arva Flour Mill before. It is one of my all time favourite, locavore destinations. If you still have never been – this is the perfect opportunity to go and check it out while the festival is on. If you are an ole’ regular of the mill – it is a great time to go and see some changes that have happened there. For instance, there is a new sign and a super fancy truck (see below), which I was able to snap a photo of one day as I was walking past the Mufflerman in London. The proceeds of this festival are actually going to a Restoration Project for the mill, so I am sure there are big plans to bring this ol’ beauty back to her original glory. I love the mill, I love the mill! You should love the mill too. It is a real gem to have a historic mill that is producing organic, local flour right here in our city, let’s show them we love them (and bacon!).   Arva Flour Mill Truck Baconfest, Canada Day. Will you be there? I will. See that poster up at the top? It’s printed on meatpacking paper, how cool is that? I am going to eat bacon, get a t-shirt and love my mill. Will you join me?    Read More

Sarah Elton – The Locavore

Last night I was at London Public Library to see Sarah Elton author of Locavore: From Farmers’ Fields to Rooftop Gardens, How Canadians Are Changing the Way We Eat. There was a huge turnout for this event and in my opinion it was a massive hit with Londoners. Sarah took the stage right around 7 pm, she spoke of her book, her travels, the latest trends in local food and agriculture and she shared many stories from the book. I found her informative and knowledgeable all around – she seems to have this unique and overall view of the food system in Canada, from coast to coast she had traveled the roads of Canada, learning what is going on in this huge country of ours and taking the pulse of the Canadian Locavore movement along the way. She was interesting and entertaining and above all, Sarah Elton was refreshingly hopeful. After she spoke she took questions from the audience. There were many people from our local food scene there. Gardeners and urban farmers from some of our community garden projects, members of Slow Food London, local area chefs, farmers, members of Green Drinks London, CBC Radio fans and food bloggers. Many of these people were passionate about some of the hot issues the local food movement faces right now and the discussion was engaging. The debate on urban chickens, the closing of small abattoirs and the latest in “Land Grabbing” were all brought up and discussed. Sarah brought it back to the issue at hand, and reminds us all that we as final consumers, hold the power of change. If you have not picked up this book yet, I recommend it to you. I was happy to learn of so many things that I had not heard about yet that are happening this very minute across Canada – it was inspiring. For instance, Sarah speaks of tropical fruits being grown year round in greenhouses for niche markets and a fascinating new trend in farming fish and vegetables together called Aquaponics – with the only product being added to the equation being sunlight. Learn more about Aquaponics in the video at end of post. I was one of the lucky ones invited out for a drink and a bite to eat after the event, I did not get much a chance to speak directly to Sarah as she was constantly engaged in conversation at the other end of the table, but if you have questions for her or would like to shout out a hello to her and give her feedback on her book she has a blog thelocavore.ca and she can be found on Twitter @thelocavore Thanks for stopping in London Sarah! You make this Locavore proud to be Canadian. What is Aquaponics? from OrganicNation on Vimeo.  Read More