Ontario foodies be advised: Monday June 1 marked the official start of Local Food Week. For the next six days, people in communities across the province will raise their plates in celebration of good things grown, picked and processed in our region.
~July~
Sunday, May 11 is Mother's Day, a day reserved for showing appreciation to the maternal figures in our lives. I would suggest that each of us can find countless ways that we 'mother' and are 'mothered' within our own communities. We provide many forms of care for those we birthed, adopted or raised, those we love, those we know and often those we don't know. We 'mother' each other as well as our non-human companions, our communities and our gardens. We nourish bodies, minds and souls, spaces and sprouts. And in return, we can be 'mothered' in so many ways by so many others.
Here is a new post submitted by Nourish County Connections staff member, Leni Rautiainen.
One of the newest farmers' markets to sprout this season is in the award-winning farm community of Otonabee South Monaghan.
Nestled in the agricultural heartland of Peterborough County, the Keene Farmers' Market is running as a pilot project on long-weekend Fridays, 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm at the Lions Den, 1137 Heritage Line (just north of the four corners).
Tomorrow is May 1st. Labour Day, where I am from. I have memories of having no school that day so we could participate in political marches and/or festive outings. One lesser known tradition, the one I remember most fondly, was the practice of offering a sprig of lily-of-the-valley to friends and loved ones, as a good luck omen for the year. Something in season, something local that expresses our best wishes for hope and happiness.
Kitchen Literacy illustrates that our relationship with food has undergone radical changes in the past 150 years. Nothing is static... which means that everything can always change. Indeed, we are seeing lots of new changes taking place in the food system. By joining community gardens, shopping at farmers' markets, enrolling in CSAs or food box programs, people are starting to alter how they consume food or connect to it.
It all started rather innocuously. Pawlick wanted to make a very simple salad. He bought four attractive-looking tomatoes at the supermarket and discovered, once home, that they were too hard to slice. So he decided to place them on the counter, to let them ripen. They didn't. After several days, out of curiosity, he picked one tomato up, took it outside and threw it against a fence, to see how it would fare. "It bounced off, undamaged, like a not-very-springy, red tennis ball." (p.2) Why was it so? Pawlick was hooked on finding out how the answer.
I've been asking people to tell me where they go to get local food. Overwhelmingly the answer is: the market! We have more and more farmers' markets available to us, particularly during the growing season, from May to October. The County is teaming with markets: Millbrook, Mount Pleasant, Lakefield, Warsaw, Buckhorn and Apsley provide their residents with an opportunity to access delicious food from the area. For detailed information about these markets, check the following link from
Today is already the last day of the season for the downtown farmers' market! Can you believe it? Don't miss out this last opportunity to celebrate the harvest, purchase lots of delicious local food and scrumptious dishes while sipping some unique coffee.
The market is a hub of activities. Today, the guest chef comes from the Night Kitchen and will be presenting a new wood fired oven pizza.
