Holiday Baking as a Locavore

After a two week hiatus from the blog, I am back. I apologize to those of you that check the blog daily (love you!). I was caught up in video editing for a university course I was taking on digital video. Then, a final paper and a whole bunch of early family holiday get-togethers, along with the full time job, my blogging time completely slipped away from me! Now that my crush time has come to an end, I decided to do a little holiday baking on Sunday and that in turn, resulted in me contemplating where I stand on chocolate. As a locavore in Southern Ontario, chocolate unfortunately does not make the cut. But, as you are all aware I am not that strict – I believe large change will occur in our food miles if we all make small changes. I am a strong believer in flexible rules, as I find that people are more likely to stick around to play a game if the rules are not too harsh! Basically, if you want massive change you have to give a little to get a lot. I will not lie – chocolate is an ingredient and an indulgence that I am pretty lenient about. Quite frankly, I am a bit of an addict and cannot bear to think of a world without chocolate. I have read Carol Off”s book Bitter Chocolate and have learned a little about the horrific conditions that the cocoa bean is harvested under. It cannot be denied,the giants who control this stained industry have only recently started to clean up their act – with the Fair Trade industry and anti-child slavery campaigns starting to really raise awareness and make lasting change. As with many industries there are only a few major players,and I have been holding my breath that Kraft would not acquire Cadbury”s over these past few months, and it looks as if this is the case for now - thank goodness – as only a few months ago Cadbury announced that Dairy Milk would become a Fair Trade product and almost all of the other Cadbury chocolates would be following suit in the next few years and I was worried about what Kraft would do with this mandate. The long and short of it, is that you will be hard pressed to find holiday baking recipes that can be all together made of local ingredients, but do not fret, it can be done. I ended up making meringues, which are basically egg whites and sugar. Eggs local, sugar not so much! Eggs can be found year round at Farmers Markets in London and farm stores (I get mine from a farm on Richmond Street north). Local Ontario eggs are also easily found at all of our supermarkets. For instance, the Gray Ridge brand now carries the Foodland Ontario label. McSmith”s Organic Farms is one of the suppliers for President”s Choice Free Range Organic Eggs, so there are many options for local eggs if meringues are what you are after. At the last minute, my meringues became chocolate meringues, which tasted delicious, but made them pretty unlocal. Anyone out there want to share some recipes or ideas for local holiday baking? As I said earlier, I would also love to hear where you all stand on chocolate, is it a big no-no, or are you okay with it? Happy baking,Kelly  Read More