Seasons changing...

Cell phones are ringing, coffee beans are being grinded and the newspaper stands outside are trying to appeal to Canadians interested in the sensational US vice presidential debates as well as the less exciting political race in our own country. I’m in Toronto on a beautiful fall morning – squirrels avoiding traffic and leaves just beginning to turn (pictured above is the lake I live on, where the colours have peaked and leaves are already falling). Over the last couple of weeks, my trips to the city have been numerous, as has my patronage to restaurants. I have struggled with consistency in eating locally and I am feeling somewhat disappointed. Work and school has created an environment that fills my waking hours – food, to an extent, has been put on the backburner. And my quest for knowledge of all things food has been temporarily replaced by just keeping my head above water, or so it feels.
There have been, however, some moments to smile about:
A delicious batch of butternut squash soup that has warmed me on these cool autumn days…
A reawakening of sorts about the spiritual side of food and the importance of giving thanks…
The appreciation I saw from a friend towards her dinner salad…
The genuine support from friends and family towards my local food adventure…

My sister and her husband just had a baby boy… Dylan is his name!
I wish them the best of luck in their new adventure.

Changing the World...

In the first few days of starting school out west a month ago, we were asked the question, "As environmental educators, how are you going to change the world?" It was a daunting question, but it has stuck with me, so I end up thinking about it every day. And the answer that I keep coming back to is food!
I have met some incredible people over the past month and I keep meeting more. Last week, 220 private school boys came to our Centre to kick off their school year for 4 days, learning how to canoe, kayak, conquer their fear of heights and become a cohesive team - a group that will rely heavily on one another throughout the coming year. A few new staff joined the team for this group and within the span of 4 days, I had 2 new best friends!
Katherine lives in Toronto and serves at a Jamie Kennedy restaurant downtown - the restaurant serves local, organic food that will leave you never settling for an ordinary restaurant again. She is passionate about food and relayed stories to me about not clearing customer's plates until they had eaten the organic carrots that were seemingly a garnish... ("Are you sure you are done with that? Do you realize how much love has gone into growing those carrots?!?") She's amazing.
I also met Sarah, who seems to have many titles, but the only one that has stuck with me is 'holistic nutritionist'. We connected immediately as I shared my vision of starting school food gardens across Ontario. And although moving to Denmark, she promised to play a role from a distance! She too has a blog about food and health, and has some incredible photos and recipes... here's the link. She is truly an incredible individual!

mynewroots.blogspot.com

Paul Hawken is an environmentalist and author who's most recent book is called Blessed Unrest. He writes about a growing movement - upwards of 2 million organizations - who are working towards ecological sustainability and social justice. He is in awe of this movement - the passion that people have and the commitment that they are making to help change the world. Katherine and Sarah are two such women in my growing list of people I meet on my day to day journey of finding optimism on a planet that seems to be suffering so much.

Blanching...

The past couple of days have been interesting... I acquired a chest freezer, went to the market and bought $200 worth of veg, husked 60 cobs of corn tonight and am loving every minute of this experience!
So let's catch up...
I bought 10 heads of cauliflower, 10 heads of broccoli, 6 quarts of green and yellow beans and 7 dozen cobs of corn. I have spent the last two night blanching. Likely anyone else reading this would know what that is, but I had no idea! It was boiling a huge pot of water and immersing the veg for just one minute - then dunking it in cold water so it stops cooking - letting it dry and then bagging it for the freezer. For the amount of veg I now have in my freezer, I don't even think it took a lot of time or effort. Cutting the corn of 60 cobs got a bit repetitive tonight, but even that was fun! I'm curious to see how long some of this will last through the winter. I'm tempted to buy the same amount next week and stock up even more!
I aslo bought a bin of blueberries which I have frozen and 6 quarts of strawberries - which I also froze after removing the stems. So my freezer is on its way to sustaining me throughout the winter months.
My base of knowledge in the area of food is slowly growing and I am constantly eager to learn more. Food gardens in schools has become my new project which I will speak more of in days to come.
Pictured above is the great dichotemy between traditional food and industrial agriculture.
On the right is my first heirloom tomato (that I bought at the market!) - in stark contrast to the more nicely shaped and coloured tomato that we all know well on the left! I ate my first heirloom tomato today with a bit of feta on top. Words are inadequate to describe the explosion of flavour in my mouth! Who knew a tomato could taste so rich and meaty?!? It may be the ugly duckling of tomatoes, but it has definitely won me over!

Back in Ontario...

I'm slowly making the readjustment to the daily routine of work and life here in Haliburton. It's good to be home, yet I have come home with some new perspectives and a renewed inspiration that is causing many questions to come to light. Change is good, and I am excited to implement some of the learning that I have taken in over the last 3 weeks.
When I started this journey, it was focused primarily on food miles - that food traveled too far leading to an increased negative impact on the environment. A local diet would help alleviate some of those food miles.
But as I have begun reading Michael Pollan's new book In Defense of Food, I'm seeing a different side to this issue. Pollan argues that the food that we are buying in grocery stores is not really
food - he refers to this as nutritionism. Basically, scientists have removed individual nutrients from whole foods and made them food in and of themselves. (this description might be a little off, but I'm still reading the book!) Anyway, we're basically consuming nutrients now instead of food. The danger in this is that we've extracted and added so many things into the processed food we eat, that we don't fully understand the affect this may be having on our health. what we do know, is that obesity is on the rise, diabetes is on the rise, and food-related cancers are on the rise as well as heart disease. His rule of thumb is that if there are names on the ingredient label that you can't even pronounce, you're in trouble.
He suggest we eat by 7 simple words...
Eat food. Not a lot. Mostly plants.

Back to Ontario...

It has been awhile since my last entry, as I have been out in Victoria for the last 3 weeks starting my Masters in Environmental Education and Communication. It has been difficult to stick with a local diet out here because of the hectic pace of school, but I have managed to find local honey, lots of fresh veggies, and best of all, wild pacific smoked salmon! So it's been a fun experience.
As I have started this program, food has played a prominent role in conversations surrounding the environment. Within our first few days, we chose a topic that we wanted to explore more in depth, and four of us chose food... specifically, attempting to implement a nation-wide organization that helped put food gardens into schools across Canada. We tailored it in the end to focus on Ontario, but a couple of us would like to pursue this further to see what kind of grants are out there to actually put this into practice. Fritjov Capra, who works for the Centre for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California, sums it up well.
"Learning in the school garden is learning in the real world at
its very best. It is beneficial for the development of the individual student
and the school community, and it is one of the best ways for children to
become ecologically literate and thus able to contribute to building a
sustainable future."
I am looking forward to coming home and eating some fresh Ontario produce!

Sex sells... apparently, so does food!

When you purchase a car, don't you find that it suddenly seems as though your type of car is everywhere around you? You notice it all around. Such is the case for me with this diet. The more I immerse myself into this subject of where food comes from, the more I seem to hear about it, particularly in the media. To me, it seems to be everywhere. Granted, I'm a bit of a geek for my love for all things CBC, but it's crept up in other places as well. I was in Hunstville a couple of weeks ago, and there was a store that focused a bit on local foods. There was a magazine in the store that was talking about everything I was trying to do. And I came to the realization that I'm not alone in this. (I knew I wasn't, but sometimes I do feel like a bit of an oddball) There are many more people than I could have imagined who do care where there food comes from. A family in Edmonton who just completed a very strict year of the 100 mile diet. A documentary on CBC Radio 1 called Diet for a Hungry Planet. Tonight I was listening to the radio and a show called The DNA Files, where they were exploring some of the benefits of modified food. A gentleman in my program who I have yet to meet, lives and works on an organic farm out in BC. A show on tv recently that entailed a feast for 50 people with chefs using just local ingredients. Restaurants in Toronto and elsewhere that are committed to serving local food on their menus. A lot of this stuff seems to be coming to the forefront. Or perhaps I'm just noticing it more because I'm immersed in the subject.

Regardless, I feel encouraged that where our food comes from has had more coverage in the media. My good friend George who hosts the Hour on CBC had Michael Pollan as a guest and I just came across the interview clip. I just bought his newest book called In Defense of Food, but this attached clip is worth watching (only 11 minutes!)

www.cbc.ca/thehour/videos.html?id=729498103

I realize it's common to blame the government for everything, but they make a point of chatting about the tobacco industry, and how after years of reaping the benefits of taxes from cigarettes, the government finally had to put a halt to supporting it because of the health-related issues it was causing. Will the government be proactive to help support healthy eating, or will they be content footing the increasing bill for heart disease, certain cancers, obesity and diabetes?

Falling behind...

Although my "diet" is still plowing along, my writing seems to have taken a brief hiatus! I have recently started some more schooling, and have felt the crunch of a few assignments and readings.

I am in the routine of going to the market on a weekly basis, but am getting frustrated still with the grocery store, and the lack of food I can buy there. Although, today I was in my local Foodland, and there was quite a bit of produce from Ontario, which was encouraging. It's good to know that if I miss a market, I will at least have some veg to eat!

I have tried to give some pertinent information in previous blogs, and today, it's not going to happen. But I've been harassed to get a new entry up, so as weak as this is...

My creativity is suffering a bit... I've had chicken and potatoes 3 times this week.
But I must admit that every time time I finish my dinner, I feel satisfied.
Breakfasts consist mostly of toast with honey or fried eggs and toast.
Lunches are grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato or a turkey sandwich with tomato.
Oh, and lots of fish for dinners too. Foodland has rainbow trout fom Manitoulin Island, so I have been enjoying that cooked on the barbeque.
More soon...