The panelists:

• Hannah Jacobs of Matchbox Garden and Seed Co.
• Brooke Ziebell of Foodshare
• Paul Decampo of Slow Food Toronto
• Margaret Webb, author of Apples to Oysters

Musicians Michelle and Nick kicked things off with a Dylan tune.

Margaret placed a prop mid stage, a canvas Everdale Farm bag that bore the words “Know your food, know your farmer.” Nice slogan.

People are afraid to grow their own food.

Hannah was first to speak and talked about the history of Matchbox Garden. I’ve been in Matchbox’s neighbourhood. Matchbox is on FarmStart land, neighbour to The Cutting Veg, where I picked vegetables two months ago. Matchbox Garden & Seed Co. was established in 2006 in the city as an urban organic kitchen garden experience. Hannah said, “People are afraid to grow their own food.” and recommends an answer to a quandary that many of us have: If we have to choose between organic but imported and local and conventional, buy local over organic to sustain communities and support farmers. She said that food is unsafe because food systems are too big. Buying from farmers is safer.

I felt like when I stepped off the plane the food movement hit me in the face.

Brooke from FoodShare has an interesting story. She used to be a dietitian in Australia. After she moved to Canada a year ago her life took an unexpected turn and she ended up working at FoodShare. “I felt like when I stepped off the plane the food movement hit me in the face.” She credits Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food for an “ah ha” moment. Now she teaches children and youth about healthy, sustainable food. She reiterated what her boss Debbie Field said the previous week about food literacy in high schools and repeated Debbie’s “public food system” idea.

Think beyond the hundred mile diet

Paul talked about the Slow Food movement and stated that human action can change society. “Think beyond the hundred mile diet to the hundred year diet”. Corporations look at short term. Small farms look at long term. Organic farming improves soil.

When we import cheap food we’re importing human degradation

According to Margaret, farmers are on the decline. She pointed out that if it were any other profession on the decline – doctors, lawyers, etc., – people would freak out. There’s a food policy in almost every country. Canada and the U.S. are among those without food policies.

Here are Margaret’s proposed three actions to “be the difference”, her solutions:

1. Get off the grid. Don’t shop at supermarkets (or avoid it as much as possible)
2. A couple of supermarket chains in the Canada control 75%. Shop at co-ops, organic markets, CSAs, etc. as much as possible. Share a cow. Support the farmer’s directly.
3. Get food policy of the political agenda.

What about the high cost of food? Often a lower price means that workers aren’t being fairly paid. It’s akin to slave labour. “When we import cheap food we’re importing human degradation.” There’s value on food production.

I learned that the City of Toronto has a Food Policy Council. Good to know.

The nature of the event was to be solutions-focused. I think that in order to get to the heart of solutions more time is needed, but that the panel made a good start.

I look forward to seeing what’s next in the Be the Difference series.

Last Thursday I volunteered at The Cutting Veg, an organic farm in Brampton, Ontario. I’m on their mailing list and for weeks have been wanting to volunteer but without a car I didn’t think it was possible. Another volunteer offered and to the farm I went. 7am pick up.

What images go through your mind when you think about farmers? Farm houses with rows of corn and livestock in the “backyard”? Silos? Country folk? Personally “Jewish farmer” always seemed like an oxymoron to me although I don’t know why (laugh at me if you wish, we all have preconceived notions).

Daniel Hoffman of The Cutting Veg lives in mid town Toronto (a few blocks from me) with his wife, who I met a couple of weeks earlier in a separate context and without her husband (the Jewish world is small). Every morning at 6am he drives to his farm, a large plot on McVean Incubator Farm, leased by FarmStart. At McVean Farm/FarmStart, new farmers receive access to the land, infrastructure, and equipment they need to raise crops and to process and market their products. By granting access to land and equipment at reasonable rates, FarmStart’s farm facilities allow new farmers to postpone major investments in land and equipment until their businesses start generating profit. The incubator model also helps participants to build the skills and knowledge that they need in order to make sound investments.

Other farmers who occupy land on McVean land include Matchbox Garden and Seed Co. and a beekeeper (you can see the hives in the middle photo of the bottom row).

There is no farm house. No toilet facilities either, except for an outhouse (nauseated by the smell the first time I used it, I chose to er, relieve myself hidden among the corn rows – harvest complete – the second time because when you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go).

Immediately beyond the farm and across the street are housing developments. Imagine living in your cookie cutter home with bee hives and rows of crops behind you. It’s picturesque. If it weren’t for the cookie cutter housing development – and the fact that I couldn’t live in the ‘burbs – I’d think that it was downright idyllic.  Row upon row of crops planted in phases. Crops such as cucumbers, kale, potatoes and carrots grow in multiple rows, planted at various times to mature and harvest at different times.

The biggest crop for The Cutting Veg is garlic. Their “Global Garlic Project” includes 10 different international varieties of garlic and they have over 10,000 garlic plants. They currently have 6 varieties of Organic Garlic available for order: Italian, Korean, Persian, Sicilian, Ukrainian, and Yugoslavian. I’ve bought a couple of these at the farmer’s market. As I learned from Daniel months ago, garlic can last for months stored in a paper bag (I keep mine in a cupboard and have started storing my onions in a cloth bag in a dark cupboard). Check out the the Cutting Veg’s garlic varieties and their characteristics here.

On the day I visited, we were picking vegetables for the Tikkun Adamah CSA, a joint project of the Cutting Veg Organic Farm and the Kavanah Organic Community Teaching Garden in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Upon arrival I was assigned to cucumbers, which are surprisingly spiky. The spikes rub right off with light finger pressure. I guess that when you buy cucs at the store they’ve been rubbed of spikes.

Next was tomatoes – four varieties – and then two kinds of beans (see photo four rows down on the left). I sampled a couple of each as I picked just to taste. Along the way I asked many questions and hoped that I remember the answers. I learned that the orange flowers that I see packed in my salad greens serve the purpose of repelling insects and that the pie plates hanging from strings at the end of crop rows are to repel dear.

On a farm tour after completion of our pick I learned that buckwheat (left photo, second from bottom) is a natural fertilizer. We were allowed to sample purple kale, basil and other crops that weren’t being picked that day. Volunteers were then offered produce to take home: Anything too “ugly” to go to the CSA. Tomatoes, carrots, squash, garlic. Daniel also allowed us to go through the corn stalks and pick anything that was left over. I picked an ear of corn, stripped it, and ate it right on the spot.

Corn picking season is over. Garlic scapes are long gone. Pumpkins are coming up.

I learned a few things about organic farming. It felt great to be down in the dirt working. When my thighs got sore from squatting in the fields I sat cross legged as I plucked beans, shuffling to the side as I went. I also learned that while I was prepared with pants, sunhat, sunglasses, sunscreen and camera the next time I need to pack more water (a couple of brief dizzy spells in the heat reminded me to drink) and a canvas bag for my haul.

Want to sample some of The Cutting Veg yourself?

On Saturdays you can find their booth (minus Daniel) at Wychwood Barns farmer’s market. On Mondays he’s at the Sorauren farmer’s market.

Interested in volunteering? The Cutting Veg is always looking for volunteers. If you can spare just a few hours at least once a week during the day contact Daniel (647) 388-7444 or daniel@thecuttingveg.com.

The Cutting Veg has a blog.

What others are blogging about The Cutting Veg:

• BlogTO: On The Cutting Veg of Urban Farming (I’d have used a headline like theirs if they hadn’t).
• Breastfeeding Moms Unite: Foodie Fridays: Not Your Mama’s Green Beans

(I did take more. When I first started on the cucumbers I didn’t want to take my big camera out so I used my phone’s camera. None of those photos have been moved to my computer.)

Have you seen Google’s Earth Day logo? Ecorazzi has a cute Earth Day cartoon.

Yesterday, I came across a post on The Jew and the Carrot that directed people to The Portland Yiddish Hour‘s recent show called  Jews, Food and Ethics (audio RSS feed and iTunes podcast available). A 50 minute show, I listened in chunks over a couple of days.

What I’m up to:

Well timed on Earth Day, which may or may not be a coincidence:  This evening begins a six week series called Eating Jewishly – Eating Ethically: Exploring Judaism and Food in the 21st Century at one of my synagogues. Lead by my buddy Rabbi Aaron Levy, it’s a text-based study series examining six of our relationships with food: spiritual, ethical, communal, ecological, animal, and physical. Aaron told me about it months ago. Due to my own procrastination I almost missed it. I got the final spot.

That same synagogue is involved in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture program) with Everdale Farm. I participated two years ago during its inaugural year but opted out part way through because it wasn’t meeting my needs and I didn’t participate last year. I’m trying again this year and look forward to it. One of the challenges I encountered was finding the right size: With the small share recommended for single-person households, I would often run out of stuff then I’d have to decide whether to wait until the next CSA pick up, go to a farmer’s market, or buy at the grocery store. Pick up day used to be on Thursdays. This year it’s on Tuesdays. The closest farmer’s markets to me are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I’ll see what happens. If I must I’ll upgrade to the medium share, which is recommended for families of 3 or 4. I could always share the product with friends.

Another challenge was our limited selection in Ontario (see Foodland Ontario’s Availability Guide for Ontario fruits and vegetables). This year I’m going to look at that as a fun challenge and even try kohlrabi again. I didn’t like it when I previously tried it.  I look forward to the two-month asparagus season, which starts next month even though farmer’s markets don’t open until June. Strawberries are only in season during June and July so I think I’ll be buying a ton of them for freezing. Might even go strawberry picking this year.

I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to say about my enthusiasm for produce and farmer’s markets in future blog posts.

Final note:

Before I end this post, an earth day tip that I got from a former neighbour. This works in the City of Toronto where we have the Green Bin Program and should work in cities with similar programs:

Even if you live in apartment building without a green bin, you CAN collect organic waste for compost. Collect scraps in a bag in the freezer and occasionally dump them in restaurant green bins. This might not be convenient to you if you don’t have any restaurants near by, but most people have restaurants near work or can get to one.  I keep a container on my counter for scraps collected while I prepare meals and dump them in a bag. I live by a major street so I have many restaurant green bins near by. I try to remember to do it BEFORE pick up day because I feel a little odd dumping my bags into bins that have just been emptied by city collectors.

Happy earth day, and don’t forget to treat the earth well every day, not just today.

Peace out
(Or as my friend who authors the blog “In the Weeds” ends all of his posts, “A la prochaine”. I need a snappy sign off. On to the website “to do” list it goes.)

On Wednesdays the Toronto Star’s food section appears. Here are two stories from this week:

• Eating a pig from head to tail. Apparently Montreal restaurant Au Pied de Cochon makes a foie gras that’s better than sex. I may be off meat but even I’d admit that you can’t say that about tofu.
• Attuned to fiddleheads. I already decided to try them this year. I’ve started to see them in stores.

Taste T.O takes the Great Gelato Taste Test.

Ed Levine on mangosteens. I almost bought one once. The inside sort of looks like a brain, or flesh-coloured orange (the fruit) sections.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s new legislation on food labeling in Canada. Food items labeled as a product of Canada or made in Canada will now have to ensure that nearly all of their contents are Canadian in origin and processed in this country.

This is gross but I have to: Milk chocolate covered bacon. Thank you, Marisa. It almost disturbs me as much as the link to the chocolate anus (that’s not a typo) that Chris posted yesterday, which could have been a follow up to – but wasn’t – Rob’s comment on Sunday that particular chocolates resembled a female body part. I still don’t see it.

The Appetizer’s Gadget of the Week: Oxo’s Mango Slicer. Turns out The Kitchn reviewed this gadget in 2006. Looks useful if you eat a lot of mangoes and have the space, and if you don’t mind spending a few bucks on such things. I have trouble slicing mangos, and yet I rarely buy them and I don’t believe in using gadgets for tasks that should be easy. My small kitchen can only hold so many useless or single-use gadgets. My microplane and tongs hang on a wall. As I’ve said before the microplane is my favourite. I rarely find use for tongs or remember to use them but they’re good to have for tonging tossing things. I don’t slice mangos with grace, but I do it gadget-free. I’ve tried the technique that involves scoring the fruit into cubes but in the end I just slice around the pit. The Appetizer’s article reminded me of Michael Ruhlman’s blog post from April about his favourite kitchen gadgets. He too mentions the microplane. I don’t own most of that stuff and some of which I do I rarely use. I do keep a Sharpie – and adhesive labels – in my kitchen. I need a really good knife set.

Burger King U.K. brings the “party sized pizza” idea to burgers. Read about it here. At first glance I thought that they were trying to replicate White Castle’s sliders. (*Which reminds me, if any of you have my Harold and Kumar DVD please identify yourself.)
Links to posts/stories that aren’t directly food-related:

• A Truck That Runs on Coffee Grounds – I know some people who go through enough coffee to fuel a truck.
• Today, Canadian Geographic will release an issue printed on paper made from wheat. Wheat is food. I think that this is a great idea. “The magazine says adding agricultural waste to pulp from trees could offer farmers a new source of revenue and cut the demand for pulp from the continent’s boreal forests.” Rock on.

And one that’s not related to food at all, but CBC radio’s been running it all day:

CBC reports that Canada’s top court is expected to rule Thursday on the case of a man suing a company for psychological damages he says he suffered after finding a dead fly in his water bottle. The man claims that the discovery of a fly in the water bottle triggered depression, phobia and anxiety that affected his work and his sex life. If a dead fly triggered all that, I’d guess that he had some underlying anxieties and phobias to begin with. Update: It was thrown out of court.