Queen’s Park Celebrates Ontario’s Greenbelt Harvest

Preserving agricultural lands means preserving our priceless Greenbelt -- well, not quite priceless. A report published this fall by The David Suzuki Foundation attests to the fact that the Greenbelt contributes $2.6 billion to our economy.


(Toronto) – The Honourable Steve Peters, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, hosted the Queen’s Park Plate on October 29, where MPPs and Mayors along with farming and environmental advocates celebrated a Greenbelt-grown harvest. Top chefs, vintners and brew masters from various Greenbelt regions tempted taste buds with delicious local food and beverages.

“We support Greenbelt agriculture from the ground up,” says Burkhard Mausberg, President of the Greenbelt Foundation. “The Queen’s Park Plate celebrates the restaurants, wineries and breweries that use local food. It is a fantastic way to share the bounty of Ontario’s Greenbelt.” The Foundation is dedicated to supporting farming and has committed some $8 million to local food initiatives. Grantees and projects include everything from environmentally friendly farm practices, to establishing new markets to improving public awareness of and access to local food. The Foundation also launched a new website recently, Greenbeltfresh.ca, where finding a local farmers’ market is as easy as entering a postal code.

Possibility grows in the Greenbelt. Wrapping around the Golden Horseshoe, the Greenbelt is 1.8 million acres of potential to make Ontario, and the earth, a better place. Encompassing the Niagara Escarpment, the Oak Ridges Moraine, Rouge Park, hundreds of rural towns and villages and some 7,000 farms, it is home to some of the most valuable agricultural land in Canada.

With files from The Greenbelt Foundation.

Farmers' Markets Go Futuristic

Could this be an answer to the local food distribution dilemma?

Inspired by permaculture concepts, a new system for online farmers market for families, retailers and bulk buyers is now a reality. As the company's website declares:

LocallyGrown.net gives the internet's advantages to
Farmers' Markets. Whether you manage or sell at a traditional farmers'
market with many other vendors or use a small email list to market produce
off your farm, LocallyGrown.net is for you!

The cost?
It's completely free to start your market, and from there I'll be asking for 3%
of your completed sales to cover my hosting costs and development time. I've
give you a paypal link or a mailing address to send payment, and you can pay on
your own schedule. You'll find it to be much cheaper than trying to host your
own online ordering system!

You can see what we’ve done with our market
at athens.locallygrown.net -- feel free to look around,
"tour" our member farms (They’re used to me doing everything for them, but I’m
walking them through uploading photos, etc.), and browse our product
listings. Some other markets have already begun putting their markets
together using what I have in place so far. Cumberland Farmers' Market in
Tennessee is the farthest along -- you can find their site at sewanee.locallygrown.net.

Feel free to create a site
for your market to get the ball rolling and see for yourself how it works.

Visit the site at locallygrown.net and see the video that sums it all up.

Mother Earth - Terra Madre: A Slow Food Celebration of The Harvest

SLOW FOOD Halton-Peel, SLOW FOOD Hamilton and Hamilton EAT LOCAL
present
Mother Earth - Terra Madre

SATURDAY OCTOBER 25th, 2008
7 – 11 PM

AT GREEN VENTURE’S ECOHOUSE - 22 VEEVERS DRIVE

A food gathering celebrating our local bounty of Mother Earth, featuring gardener, seed saver, speaker and television personality, KEN PARKER Jazz guitarist Nick Bastian will provide dinner music.

Ken is the co-founder of Sweet Grass Gardens, the first Native North American nursery dedicated to native plants. Ken and Linda Parker were part of the Canadian Delegation to Terra Madre 2006 in Turin, Italy, proudly representing the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation community. This amazing experience organized by Slow Food International brought together almost 9,000 people with food producers from 1,583 food communities and 150 nations. Terra Madre is celebrated in Turin, Italy every two years and our celebration coincides with Terra Madre 2008, which runs from October 24-27.

OUR “BOUNTIFUL BASE” MENU

Potato Onion Crunch

BBQ Grilled Free-Range Chicken Wings

Poached Pears with Cinnamon Caramel Sauce
Apple-Cranberry Ginger Crisp

Tea and coffee

Add to this the delicious dishes from our home kitchens that make our potluck events so special!

$25.00 per person OR $10.00 per person bringing a potluck dish for 6!

***Please RSVP to kburson.eatlocal@environmenthamilton.org – SEATING IS LIMITED***

Donations of non-perishable foods will be accepted for
Hamilton Food Share

photo by *karen b

What a Wonderful World Food Day!

Clear crisp October air, fresh locally grown organic produce, apple cider, smiles on faces young and old. If you weren't there you should have been! If you were there, then thanks for your support! We hope to see you at the next Hamilton Eat Local Mid-Week Morning Market... for now, we hope you'll enjoy the slide show. photos by *karen b

A Westdale Village World Food Day Farm Market - this Thursday only!

Join us for a one-day World Food Day Farm Market presented by Hamilton Eat Local, Slow Food Hamilton & My Dog Joe

Thursday October 16th, 2007 - 9am to NOON in the parking lot near 1020 King Street West, rain or shine!

Visit My Dog Joe for:

· Home-made Muffins, Soup and More

· Superb-tasting Organic/Fair Trade Teas, Coffees, Espresso and Cold Drinks

Live Acoustic Music by riot nrrd 10–11 am

Fantastic Fall Farmers’ Market:

ManoRun Farm, Carluke Orchards, Bestow Bakery & Farmer Joanne Feddes

Field fresh flowers, pumpkins, cider, loads of organic potatoes and more!

Food Donations will be accepted for Hamilton Food Share, so see you there!


The IYP Mission: Celebration of the International Year of the Potato (IYP) will raise awareness of the importance of the potato - and of agriculture in general - in addressing issues of global concern, including hunger, poverty and threats to the environment.

Hamilton Eat Local appears on CH Morning Live at Lindley's Farm!

We're not the only ones who find the "Eat Local" Logo Five Acre Corn Maze to be truly amazing... CH Morning Live sent a correspondent to talk to farmer Joe Lindley about all the fun going on at his family farm this season, and naturally Karen and Juby just had to be there!

photos by *karen b

Thanks, Joe, we had a great visit. You'll find Lindley's Farm & Market at 900 Fiddler's Green Road, Ancaster, Ontario 905-648-4212 and there's information at http://www.lindleyfarm.com/. They're open daily from September 20 - October 31. "Solve the puzzle... win a prize".

If you're running a special event on your farm and you'd like us to know about it, don't hesitate to contact Karen Burson (Project Manager) at kburson.eatlocal@environmenthamilton.org or Juby Lee (Communications Manager) at jlee.eatlocal@environmenthamilton.org .

Heartfelt thanks to The Ancaster Old Mill for our Third Annual "Buy Local, Buy Fresh" Map Fundraiser!

Sunday Supper at The Ancaster Old Mill: Scenic, Sensational, and Satisfying!

In attendance were Environment Hamilton's Vice Chair Mark Sproule-Jones and Sherry Revesz, a Director-At-Large (center and right).

A specatular meal spotlights the region's seasonal bounty... thanks to Executive Jeff Crump, but especially Bettina Schormann and John Bullock for putting their hearts and their energy into making this important fundraiser a memorable and important event for Hamilton Eat Local.

photos by *karen b

Hamilton Eat Local Project on the Road - Late September

Straight from The Garden
A Fall Fair on Dundurn Castle Grounds -- Sunday September 28, 2008

photos by *karen

Sunday Supper at The Ancaster Old Mill -- An Art-full Fundraiser for Hamilton Eat Local

ON Sunday October 5th, Sunday Supper guests at The Ancaster Old Mill will gather for a dinner set in the comfort of its stunning main dining room. Executive chef Jeff Crump will prepare an abundant meal inspired by locally grown, sustainable foods that highlight the finest of the Greater Hamilton Region. The featured farms include Monforte Dairy, Shady Lane Farm, ManoRun Farm, Blackbow Farms, and Carluke Orchards.

There will be a small art exhibit by, Guennadi Kalinine. The Ancaster Old Mill commissioned Kalinine to create an original painting especially for this event. This past summer, the children’s mural painting class at the Dundas Valley School of Art produced four outstanding Earth to Table murals. These paintings are also for sale by silent auction.

All proceeds raised by this convivial evening will be donated to Hamilton Eat Local, for the 2009 production of the organization’s much-loved “Buy Local, Buy Fresh!” maps – an important way that Hamilton Eat Local brings together food producers and appreciative consumers. For reservations or information please call Bettina Schormann at The Ancaster Old Mill: 905-648-1827 - www.ancasteroldmill.com - info@ancasteroldmill.com

photos by *karen b