A Slow Taste of Town & Country is a success!

Slow Food London Table | Photo: Kelly Hunt Today I heard that there were over 300 of us turn out for the Slow Taste of Town & Country event last weekend. That is great news to all of us foodies, as it means they are already in talks about repeating the event next year – yay! If you missed it, the Slow Taste of Town and Country was a fantastic event – from  foodies to farm nerds, people turned out for this fall event to taste some of the best that London and area has to offer. Even though both my dates canceled, I wandered around shoving great tasting foods into my mouth, swilled some local organic wine, knocked back a mini beer and had a lovely afternoon all at the Ilderton Fairgrounds. I was happy to finally meet Dallas who also runs a food blog about eating in Southwestern Ontario which can be found here: http://southwesternontariofoodie.blogspot.com/ and I saw our fantastic members of Slow Food London, Ecoliving London as well as chefs from London, Port Stanley and Ilderton restaurants and my good friends Peter and Karen of Eatwell Foods at Duenk Farms. Here are some photos of what you missed, or if you were there, see if I managed to capture you on camera! Carolinian Winery Eatwell Foods Berkshire Pork on Honeycrisp Apple Smith's Cheese Savvy Mustard Iron Spike Brewery Duenk pasture-raised Angus beef with Savvy Mustard on crostini Pavillion view Chow down outside Braise Restaurant Pork Charcuterie, Pickled golden beets, chicken terrine Windjammer Pork Belly BLT Fresh radish on ravished table from Braise - very popular spot Three Cute Chefs from Braise Restaurant, London  Read More

Five Great Reasons to Eat Local

Eating Local and it”s effect on our environment.By choosing to eat local, you are saving the world”s lungs of up to 17 times the oil and gas that would usually be consumed just by getting the food to your plate. In the average North American home, when we sit down (or stand!) to eat, each ingredient has typically travelled at least 1,500 miles. That is a heck of a lot of carbon! Wake up your tastebuds – Taste Matters!When you shop at the Farmers Market, or your local grocer and choose to buy Ontario grown produce over imported produce that may have been shipped in from Mexico or California, you are eating food that has been picked at it”s prime, inside of 24 hours. You will find that this food is superior in taste, it has not been bred to withstand long, rough truck or ship rides and it has not been picked weeks (sometimes months!) early. This makes locally grown and harvested vegetables and foods better tasting, and all around nutritionally better for you. Get a Food EducationBe aware of what you are eating. It is much easier to find out if the farmer sprays his/her foods with anything or if your corn is a genetically modified product (GMO) if you decide to eat local. Less travel means that it is easier to get to the source of your food. Find out how it is actually grown. There are many reasons that sometimes locally produced food may be a tad more expensive, but these reasons are generally well justified and worth the extra cost involved. You will also have a new found respect for why an ontario strawberry tastes so much better in June,than a shipped strawberry from a far-away land in the middle of February. Get SocialBring back community. Talk to the people that grow your food. When you shop directly from the farmer,there is a wonderful benefit of a food and social education. You will find out about how your food grows, why it looks the way it does, who grew it, the history behind a certain variety of vegetable that may have deep roots within our community of London. Shopping local will connect you with the people around you in ways that benefit our community financially as well as socially. Being a locavore also makes you a local-tourist. Searching out your local suppliers and visiting them makes for some very reasonable mini-getaways with added food benefits! Drink Great Wine and Spirits!We are lucky enough to be within 100 miles of many great breweries, and wineries right here in Southwestern Ontario. This is a major bonus in the eating local challenge. Make sure to check out your 100 miles, you will see that it is alot farther and includes much more than you may think.  Read More