Orange you glad it's Tuesday?

~Happy Tuesday Friends!~

Harvest Picnic 2011

The impetus for Harvest Week here at Rural Revival,

The Greenbelt Harvest Picnic 2011.

A celebration of local food, local farmers, local love.

We hope you've enjoyed our celebration of local food this past week but more importantly, 

we hope it has inspired you to seek out all that is good in your own neck of the woods. 

There is much to reap, go forth and seek 

and enjoy.

~~~~~~~

Some scenes from yesterday's picnic.

 

Daniel Lanois, music producer of such names as Emmy Lou Harris, Bob Dylan, 

Peter Gabriel, Robbie Robertson, and, ahem, U2.

A stream of lanterns floating through the sky is the definition of enchanting.

Ray LaMontagne, his voice is richer and incredibly wonderful heard live and was the highlight of my evening.

~Be LOCAL friends!

Harvest Week from the Country and the City

 Whew! Can you believe we've reached day 5

of Harvest Week already?!

 

Today I am extremely excited to introduce two special guest bloggers. 

That's right, you're getting two for the price of one today! 

~~~~

As I prepare for our first chicks, continually expand our gardens and dream about raising my own meat and dairy supply, as I look for more interesting ways to prepare all those veggies we grow each year, I yearn for one more a thing. A mentor. Someone to show me what's a sucker on a tomato plant and what isn't. Someone to guide me as I figure out how to raise turkeys. Someone who will share eggplant recipes. I haven't found that mentor yet, but I've come pretty darn close. The Harvest Kitchen Sisters, one reporting from the country, the other the city, provide just such useful information and really, what more can a wannabe farmgirl ask for? Although, I have already warned Laura I may show up at her door one day, just so she can put me to work! 

So please, read what local means to Laura and Amelia and then pay them a visit at The Harvest Kitchen Sisters. You won't be disappointed.

 

 ~~~~~~~~

 

From the Country…

Local is as fortunate for us as opening the front door. Where enduring an aching back and some brow sweat, we can harvest, eat and preserve our produce all in one day. Where in the early days of spring we forage the forest floor for wild edibles and eat greens by the bucket full. Where in the hot summer days we enjoy watermelon lunches, and cool cucumbers in vinegar. Where in fall, our skin is a glow with the richness of the squash harvest. And in the dead of winter we hunker down to rich meaty stews and storage vegetable soups with a quick trip to the pantry, freezers and cold storage.

Local is pining away for something all year and literally bathing in all its ripe glory the very day it comes into season. Local means late summer dinners with multiple vegetables cooked in the many, many ways that you can prepare them. It is a time of year when you can enjoy the most delicious meals of the season because everything is at its peak ripeness.

Local also means to us growing and harvesting our own meat and eggs. Baskets full of warm eggs are brought in for breakfast from our own hens and a turkey on our holiday table from our own brood of heritage turkeys, all grown sustainably and humanely, pastured on our lush acres. Local is enjoying deer meat in the fall, grass fed beef from our Amish neighbour, and pork from our own hogs.

Local is meeting fellow vendors at market and bartering for our fruit, cheeses, mushrooms, and artisanally prepared foods. Meeting other producers with which we have such mutual respect, and to be able to value the demanding work that it takes to grow, prepare, harvest, transport and sell their products.

Local is ingrained in my heart and in my soul. It ties me to the past, when local was the only option and where there was such joy when the harvest was in. Local to me is this very farm, where as a child summer days were spent playing in the fields with strawberry stains on my knees and face. Agriculture is not only a job for us but a tangible life style where family can be together. Where you can watch your children play, eat and learn while you are tending to the crops. 

In the fall I am often tired, bruised and in need of some hibernation time, but every winter, while flipping through the seed catalogues, I am once again recharged. I am once again electric with the vigor of growing, harvesting, bartering, eating, and preserving- all in the name of local.

From the City…

I have been lucky to grow up consistently surrounded by good locally grown food, from strawberry fields in my childhood to garden tours and farm dinners as a youth.  But as I am now embarking on my fifth year as a Torontonian, I am reflecting on my own relation to what I deem local here in the hustle and bustle of the big smoke.  

I live in a city that sustains roughly 28 successful farmer’s markets and over 40-community gardens.  Of these markets, I try to hit up at least two a week. I also have a balcony that has successfully grown an abundance of herbs, salad greens and tomatoes for my partner and I all summer long.  We support a small family run butcher shop that sells only locally sourced Mennonite raised meats and a cheese shop and bakery a mere 3 minutes from our house.  Every time we go to our butcher shop the father is yelling at his sons and cursing in Italian underneath his breath while the sons often take your order with a “Yeah, what do you want?” but we love it. It’s all part of the experience.

Five months ago we welcomed our son Theo and as we raise him here in Toronto, we are working hard to ensure that he understands the importance of local living.  But our local isn’t necessarily just supporting those who grow our food, we also believe in spending our money at good quality restaurants, supporting the arts, shops, festivals and community events that make Toronto the unique metropolitan place that it is.  

~~~~~~

 

I'm Laura.  I blog from my family farm in the beautiful Kawartha Lakes in Ontario Canada, where I live with my hardworking partner Mark and our children.  When I'm not chasing flying heritage turkeys, collecting eggs, tooting along in my old tractor, tending to my crops and peddling my produce at a farmers market, you'll find me wrestling my brood into the bathtub, hanging copious amounts of laundry, cooking/eating all that the Kawartha's have to offer or stocking up for the winter months. 

I'm Amelia and I blog from Toronto Ontario where I work for a food based non profit. I live with my partner Simon, son Theodore and dog Ruby.  Our city life involves farmers markets, balcony gardens, amazing restaurants, live music and home cooked meals.  Our newest, and best adventure yet, is raising Theo, in the hustle and bustle of the big smoke as naturally as possible.  

 

 Amelia (L) and Laura

The Harvest Kitchen Sisters

Now it's your turn! Share with us what local means to you. 
Either with words or a photo or both. It's time to celebrate all the goodness
that is unique to all the different corners of the world!


Feel free to grab a button and spread the word.
Eating local shouldn't be a trend, it should be a way of life.

 

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Harvest Week from Moncton, NB

 Here we are...already at Day 4 of Harvest Week.

 Today's guest writer is Lori from Moncton, New Brunswick.

After reading what local means to Lori, you'll be left dreaming of fall and Thanksgiving. 

If you're not already. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Eating local means different things to different people, whether you buy only local products at your supermarket, shop you local farmer's markets or even by supporting your local family run bakery. To me eating local encompasses the joy of friends as we enjoy food together. I love to cook, so using the freshest ingredients to create my dishes is always a must and that means using local supplies as much as possible.

One of my favourite ways of integrating local ingredients into my cooking is by visiting the local pick your own farms. There are certainly a few favourite haunts I love to visit each year. Each September, a few friends and I head to the local apple orchard to pick a few baskets of apples.

It's a great adventure where we meet up in the local Tim Horton's parking lot and decide who's driving that day before we hit the road to our orchard of choice.  When we get there it's all business. We prefer to use our own wicker baskets, so we have them weighed before start. Then we're off to the races! Of course, before we actually begin picking there is the usual debate of who is going to climb the rickety wooden ladder leaning up against the tree. I'm not sure why though, as it's usually me.  It's all good since this gives me the pleasure of enjoying bragging rights about being the only true apple picker of the group. We're all friends, so as the jest and taunts ensue until we're all laughing so hard we could pee our pants! 

It's usually around this time that we realize our baskets are full and our work is done.  As anyone who has picked apples before knows, it doesn't take long. Within 30 minutes our harvesting is complete, but its the best thirty minutes of the entire weekend.  For me, this is all part and parcel of eating local, sharing good times and laughter with friends and together enjoying the good food that follows.

Also since all our apple picking adventures end with a homemade apple pie I thought I would pass on my favorite recipe, takes from the Purity Cookbook published in 1967.

Apple Pie

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Prepare pastry and line a 9 inch pie plate with the rolled pastry.  Roll out the top crust; make slits in the center.

Peel and core apples, cut into thin slices to make about 6 cups sliced apples.

Combine:

2/3 to 1 cup sugar (depending upon tartness of the apples)

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or Nutmeg (I normally use both and up the cinnamon since my friends love it)

1/8 teaspoon salt

Please one half of the apple slices in the pastry lined pie plate.  Sprinkle with half the sugar mixture.  Add remaining apples, heaping them in the center.  Sprinkle rest of the sugar mixture on top.  Dot with:

1 tablespoons butter or margarine

Moisten edge of pastry.  Place top crust in position.  Seal edges and flute.  

Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until pastry is golden brown and the apples are tender.

Lori describes herself as a single, hard working girl who loves to cook, socialize and travel and she has an infectious laugh that just won't quit. She also enjoys the finer things in life like chocolate and chocolate.


Now go make that apple pie and be sure to come back and tell us how good it was.

~~~~~

Tomorrow our finale post will be up with two amazing and inspiring 'locavores'.

We do hope you'll share with us what local means to you!

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Harvest Week from Alaska

 Welcome back to Harvest Week!

Day 3 of our Eat Local Tour takes us to Alaska. 

Please welcome today's guest writer Jenn, who proves that anyone can eat local.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Snow on the ground from late September thru mid-May; temperatures ranging from -20*F to -50*F at least four months out of the year; four months of very little daylight where the sun just barely slips above the horizon before slipping back below…not exactly an environment conducive to growing a bounty of fruits and vegetables to sustain your family through the year.  Or is it?

I live in a region of Alaska called the Interior.  Winters are long; summers are short and sweet!  Summers are packed with hunting, fishing, picking berries, and harvesting gardens.  Eating local is very much a way of life up here. Grocery stores charge CRAZY prices and the food, especially fruits and veggies, are anything but fresh.  So, we roll up our sleeves and get busy!

Most people I talk with wonder if we can grow a garden at all up here and they’re surprised when I tell them we can!  The reason we can grow gardens in such a short time, about 3 ½ months, is that the cold, dark days of winter quickly give way to warm days and 24 hours of sunshine!  I have watched green beans sprout and grow to be 2” tall in a matter of 8 hours!  Gardens don’t go in until quite late, often the beginning of June, but they’re ready to harvest in July and early August.

So, what kind of veggies can we grow in such a short period of time?  Lots!  Most are things you would expect to see in a “typical” garden…carrots, potatoes, radishes, onions, lettuce, pumpkins, squash, and cucumbers, green beans, and sweet corn, just to name a few.  For those of us who are not able to grow our own produce, there is a local Farmer’s Market every Wednesday and Saturday through the summer months.  You can find all of the produce listed above plus a wide variety of jams, jellies, and other homemade products.  

Wild blueberries, strawberries, and salmonberries, highbush and lowbush cranberries are plentiful and many people freeze them or make them into jams and jellies.  Driving down the highway you always know where there’s a good patch because you’ll see people scattered out on the hillside or tundra.  If you’re up for a bit of a hike, the best patches are found away from the road where not many people visit.  The only “visitor” you’re likely to have is a grizzly bear trying to fatten himself up for winter!

Freezers are filled with caribou, moose, salmon, halibut, and other fish.  When the salmon begin running, fishing is at its best!  There are all sorts of government imposed regulations but you are still able to catch a good number of fish.  With our family of 5 we are able to harvest 6 salmon each person, per day, when they run…that’s 30 fish per day for our family and the last time we went out we were able to bring our limit in about an hour!  As fast as you can cast your line, you’ll have a fish. The kids are so proud to be able to help supply food for our family.  Whenever we eat salmon through the winter they always ask “Who’s fish are we eating?  Is it mine?”

Not everyone wants to hunt or is physically capable of hunting, yet they need meat for their families. Alaska has a program that allows non-profit organizations to harvest a moose that has been injured or killed in a collision with a vehicle on the local roadways and pass it along to local families in need of meat.  The first winter we lived here we were blessed with a small moose and I use the term “small” lightly! The organization dropped the moose in our yard and it took us 3 days to process all of the meat, package and freeze it!  We had moose burgers and moose roast all through the winter.  

While we live in a small community with grocery stores like you would find in any small city, many Alaskans live in villages that are off the road system. This means there are no roads that connect them with the outside.  For many of these people, subsistence fishing and hunting is a way of life.  Grocery stores do not exist in some of these villages, so the people are on their own.  Eating local isn’t a choice, it’s a way of life necessary for their survival.  The people of these villages spend the summers picking berries and fishing to get enough to last through the winter.  The meat is either frozen, smoked, dried, or turned into jerky.  I spoke with one Native Alaskan who told me that many of them store the berries in seal or whale oil and it keeps them from spoiling.  They take the berries and some of the oil, freeze it, and turn it into some type of frozen dessert similar to ice cream in the winter.  I have not been brave enough to try that yet!

Busy summers give way to winter and before we know it the snow arrives again.  As we settle in for the long winter it’s a great feeling to know that we have a freezer full of healthy, locally grown and harvested foods to see our family through the long winter ahead.

~~~~~~

Jenn is a homeschooling mom to her three children, and proud wife to an Alaskan police officer. She loves to cook and bake as can be attested by the officers she feeds regularly. 

One of Jenn's favourite quotes is "Live  your life in such a way that when your feet hit the floor in the morning Satan shudders and says, "Oh no! She's awake!!"

When she isn't busy keeping him on his toes, she enjoys crocheting, reading, playing the piano and hiking, camping and fishing with her family in the beautiful Alaskan countryside she calls home.

Don't forget to share your local food experience with us on Friday!

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Harvest Week from Salt Spring Island, BC

Welcome to Day 2 of Harvest Week.

If you've missed Day 1, please scroll down

to learn about the local diet in Southwestern Ontario. 

Today's guest writer is Kelly Jean from Salt Spring Island, BC. 

Enjoy!

~~~~~

Hello Rural Revelers,  I am pleased to share with you my local, organic food experience!

I live on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia at a Yoga Centre where I am blessed with plenty of organic local produce. Most of our meals come right from our garden and are of course made with much love. 

Our lovely farm Yogis work so hard to make the garden flourish and can usually be found in the dirt in their lovely sundresses, laughing and dancing. It is a joyous sight to behold! It is incredibly wonderful to see the amounts of fruits, vegetables, grains and flowers that are produced right here. 

We also sell some produce at the local  farmer's market in town each Tuesday along with all the other beautiful farms on the island. It is incredible to walk through that market and enjoy tastes  from all over the island.

Everything is grown with love and good intentions to nurture our bodies and keep the community healthy. While the centre strives to be as self-sufficient as possible, those foods that are not produced here still come from the island with only a very limited number of items brought from far away. It is a rewarding experience to be able to contribute to the community here and be rewarded with local, healthy food.  For me, I find it so important to eat locally and to support our communities that we live in, no matter where in the world we may live. The earth would be so much healthier and happier if we all learned to grow and eat locally. 

 Ganges Market

With the ease of accessibility in our supermarkets, we have really lost touch with how food is grown while not even aware of the contents of the packaged foods we consume regularly because it is simply more convenient and easy, not to mention the impact on the earth with transporting foods half way across the world! 

Today many live in such a fast paced lifestyle and dread making the food to nourish their own bodies because perhaps they have had a long, tiresome day, not aware of those emotions going right into the food they are about to eat. Set aside time to prepare your food with your family and enjoy that time together, enjoy different cooking ideas and what you discover in the process may take you by surprise!  We should all take a step back and think of how important it is to take time and be mindful of what goes into our food. Support your local farmers for all their hard work and be rewarded with delicious and nutritious foods. Find out what is currently in season and stock up! Learning to can your food to provide for the off season is a worthy skill that had until recently almost seemed lost.  Help spread the awareness of local eating, the benefits are numerous but most of all the earth, your bodies and your soul will thank you!

 ~~~~~

Kelly Jean currently calls Salt Spring Island, in beautiful British Columbia, home after moving from Ontario almost 4 years ago. She is amazed by how much she has learned from traveling though out British Columbia and has fallen in love with the self-sustaining lifestyle found there. Kelly enjoys exploring a mountain on her snowboard in the winter and soothing her soul on the sea in a kayak during summer and in her spare time makes  jewelery, loves the hula hoop and plays the didgeridoo.

She takes great passion in taking care of her body, mind and spirit with yoga, meditation, healthy eating and feeding the heart with friendships.Someday she hopes to live a completely self-sustaining lifestyle with her own cob house and if  you're not sure what that it, she suggests you look it up and get inspired!

Kelly Jean wishes everyone much love, sunshine and gratitude for stopping by today. Om.

Remember to join us and share what local means to you on Friday!

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Harvest Week from Aylmer, Ontario

Welcome to Harvest Week at Rural Revival!

I have invited women from far and wide 

to share with us what 'local' means to them, 

and on Friday, we invite all of you to join us in a local celebration,

by sharing your local experience with us.

Without further ado, here is today's first guest post from Kerry.

~~~~~~~

Who wouldn't choose to buy local this time of year in Ontario? After all...'Good things grow-ow-o in Ontario-o-o!'. Call me biased, but food grown in Ontario dirt just tastes better! Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the imports we get during the winter months but they have a distinctly different taste.

For Ontario travelers, Highway #3 (aka the Talbot Trail) stretches from Windsor to Niagara Falls and has an abundance of produce available at homemade stands and markets along the highway this time of year. Tidbits along the way include the ever popular Leamington tomatoes (yes, the extras head to the Heinz factory for your ketchup!), the village of Shedden. known as Ontario's rhubarb capital, for fish lovers we have fresh markets along the shores of the Great Lakes (my favourites are Pickerel and Yellow Perch) and our maple trees provides us with sap for maple syrup and of course the Niagara region which is best recognized for its grape production for award winning wines and juices.

Buying local also brings back many childhood memories. Growing up, every year mom would plant a huge vegetable garden in our backyard, as did a lot of the neighbours. There was the tending to the soil to get it ready, and going out to buy seeds and plants that were to be nurtured. This is when the race started between the neighbours, who would be the first to get their garden planted?  Whose seeds would sprout first? Who would have the largest plants? All was fair in gardening until the next door neighbour decided to start her seeds inside!  Last but not least, who would be the first to harvest and have the greatest yield? It was fun to search the plants to see what was ready for picking.

Mom always prepared the extras for the freezer to see us through the winter months. Corn was the only vegetable that was bought from a local farmer and dozens upon dozens of cobs were always dropped at my feet to husk. Today I thoroughly enjoy passing that task onto my own girls! They've been fortunate enough not to have found any corn borers so far!

I'm convinced, though, that it was a top secret mission created by my parents to get me to eat vegetables! I admit as a kid, I wasn't a big vegetable eater. Carrots, corn and potatoes rounded out my limited repertoire while my motto was 'if it's green, I won't eat it.' Many times I was left sitting at the dinner table not allowed to leave until I had eaten that spoonful of a veggie that my taste buds wanted nothing to do with. My argument was that Canada's food guide listed fruits and vegetables together and since there wasn't a fruit I didn't like, I was covered. Since then, I have expanded my liking for some of the green veggies so, another amen to matured taste buds!

For a few years in my teens, summer jobs included picking strawberries and blueberries at local farms but picking raspberries was my favourite; I think I ate as many as I saved. Making homemade jam was always a must. Fruits were usually purchased at local farm stands or at the local sales barn where local farmers would gather once a week to sell their produce. A large number of these retailers were from a nearby Old Colony Mennonite settlement. It's quite something to drive through this area, watching how things are still done the old fashioned way. Here, you can find lots of fresh eggs and produce for sale, handmade wooden furniture and close ups with their magnificent animals. 

While living in different areas in this province, you meet lots of great folk, with many different ideas and uses of their gardens. It was one particular neighbor that introduced me to the use of fresh herbs. Wow, what a difference! Before then my only experience with herbs had been the sage my mom grew and dried each year. Those same neighbors also taught me how to make homemade stuffed jalapeno peppers....the trick, make sure ALL the seeds are out; they were absolutely delicious! But to this day, when these are mentioned, I find myself still profusely apologizing to my husband for a couple of seeds that were missed!

We always knew that fall was just around the corner when the apples were ready. The bushel basket would be loaded in the trunk of the car and we'd head off to the local orchard to pick our own. There was no missing their roadside stand at the orchard entrance. It was the shape of an apple that had been partly eaten. It was often the talk of travelers.  Another apple orchard on the other side of town consists mainly of juicing apples and is made into Martins apple juice sold in stores. They also provide the Boy Scouts their apples for fundraising.

But for some foods, we must give thanks to the bees that help pollinate the trees and bushes and of course provide fresh honey! The small town of Aylmer, ON is the home to a 3^rd and 4^th generation of beekeepers, who have continued their passion of beekeeping into the family business called Clovermead. What was once started as a small business of selling honey out of the back garage is now a full adventure farm, offering tours, kids’ activities and includes a gift shop, selling everything from beeswax candles to many different types of honey, spreads, pollen, propolis and royal jelly.

Our final local farmer purchase is the great pumpkin. It was always fun to go hunting for that perfect shape that would play host to our jack-o-lantern. This is a local field currently maturing, how many pumpkins can you spot?

Travelling through a local corn maze is our family's last salute to another great Ontario harvest year. Until then we dream and wait for spring to arrive again! 

 ~~~~~

 

Kerry is a wife to Michael and mom to two amazing teen girls and four guinea pigs who believe their presence is just as important as everyone else. She has a love for the simple things in life. Pleasures can be found in unique places even if you're not looking for them!

And as a youngster, Kerry perplexed her slightly older cousin, Andrea by putting ketchup on everything she ate. And while Kerry no longer hogs the ketchup bottle during family dinners,  Andrea still manages to perplex Kerry with always closing her eyes whilst having her picture taken.

Andrea (l) and Kerry in the famous Aylmer veggie garden,

sometime in the late 70's.

Photo and gardening inspiration courtesy of 

Aunt Linda (Kerry's Mom).

Please join us on Friday! 

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The Age Old Dilemma

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Question no more, for I have it all figured out.

The answer is neither. No chicken. No egg. 

What came first then, you ask?

The coop, I say. 

The coop.

And I'm still waiting for mine.

~~~~~~

The Portuguese rooster, or "Galo de Barcelos," as is commonly known among the Portuguese people, is a symbol of honesty, integrity, trust and honor and also recognized as an unofficial symbol of the country. 

~~~~~~
Don't forget, Harvest Week begins tomorrow!

 Go here for details.

 

~Bee well friends~