Yes Virginia, it is possible to Eat Local in Canada. In April, no less.

by Sara Zoë

The National Post of Canada gave four of its food writers their own Eat Local Challenge: serve a meal in which every ingredient is from within 100 miles of the authors' home. The four articles hail from St. John's, Toronto, Alberta, and Vancouver, and cover a range of food offerings (seal flipper pie, anyone?). I found good inspiration and great substitution ideas - for example, using honey mixed with tart berries as a salad dressing, or for a different kind of salad dressing, local yogurt with minced herbs (clipped from the plant on your sill, perhaps?). The drying and grinding up of seaweed to use as salt I may leave to the more dedicated. I also found the writing witty and funny, chronicling the sourcing travails of professional foodies new to the eating locally thing. And I got some hints about what sort of foods I can be looking for at this time of year, up here in the not-quite-Canada-but-close regions of the US.

Comments

[Birdsong]

What a wonderfully informative series! I figure if the gourmet chefs can make it happen, I can, since I am nowhere near as picky. Thanks for sharing with us.

[Vanessa]

you've completely just made my day. i'm doing elc from toronto and am trying to get into it as much as possible. i have a glut of organic produce left from organic delivery that i'm allowing myself because i don't think the point of this endeavour is to let things go to waste.

i've given myself the concession for salt and pepper, but traded it in for sugar. my new sweetness now comes from fruit, maple syrup or honey.

very helpful :)

[Liz]

Love it. While this time of year is difficult for those of us in more northerly climes, I think I'll stay away from the seal flipper. But I could defintely get behind dressing my salad with berries and honey.

[Chiara]

Thank you for the inspiring blog. Did anyone try eating locally in Canada all year round? I live in Finland, which has a similar climate to Canada. I have decided to try and eat locally for a month (to start with) but I am puzzled about how to have a balanced local diet in winter. Any suggestions? Best wishes.
Chiara

[plentyofmoxie]

J.B. MacKinnon and Alisa Smith did the local thing for a year in Vancouver, Canada - a lot of info about it here: http://100milediet.org/ including details about what they ate to remain healthy in the winter. They also have a book coming out - soon, but I'm not sure exactly when - which I'm hoping is even heavier on details. Good luck in Finland!

[Storme Van Rassel]

We live in Northern Ontario in a small farming community east of North Bay. During the growing season our two gardens are in full swing and we have learned the meaning of preseving food through first hand experience. We buy our beef, turkey, chickens and eggs from the farmer down the road. We also try to grow those herbs that we will use for seasoning however, we will look at growing others next year. There is a farmer's market in North Bay, about 20 miles fromhere, from May until middle of October where local artisans and farmers get together and sell their wares. We buy what is not yet grown in our gardens for preservation and go every week to supplement our freezers and cold storage. What we will try next harvest season is a food dehydrator. We may have frosts in June or July and the first ones have been known to strike inmid September so we do have an extremely short growing season. Right now we are on the loook out for local farmers within 100-miles.