Purple Daze Farm

July 15, 2012agriculture, bakery, breakfast, Canadian food, cooking, cuisine, dessert, facebook, farm, farm fresh food, farmer, Farmers' Market, food, gourmet food, lavender, local crops, local food, lynn ogryzlo, RecipesLeave a comment

A former tobacco farmer, Robert Koprich now grows 17-acres of French Provencal lavender and English lavender on his 150-acre farm in Delhi in Norfolk County. From the beginning of July to mid August the field is a beautiful blanket of billowy purple. Robert planted a large section of sunflowers in the middle of the purple to give his farm that “Monet look” as he calls it. I say it’s simply beautiful. Like many other agricultural crops, there is good news and bad for this years harvest. The winter was very warm and the bushes didn’t get the blanket of […]

Maple Syrup – as luscious as Italian Truffles?

July 13, 2012agriculture, black truffles, butter tarts, Canadian food, cooking, cuisine, culinary tourism, Dining, facebook, farm, farm fresh food, farmer, food, food obsessions, Italian Cuisine, Italy, Le Grotte del Funaro, lynn ogryzlo, Maple Syrup, Niagara local food, Ontario local food, seasonal food, social media, The Ontario TableLeave a comment

In the Umbrian hillside there are pigs that are trained to sniff out the ripest, most delicious truffles. They’re special pigs with long noses that unearth the prized tartufo. Truffle farmers wrestle the pigs to the ground and pull the big black orbs out of the pigs mouth – you see, pigs love truffles as much as humans do – why do you think their so eager to dig them up! Truffles are cherished all over Italy, prices are as high as gold, truffle crimes are punished with real jail time and dishes made with tartufo are embraced with […]

Italy’s Best Cuisine in Orvieto

July 1, 2012black truffles, farm, farm fresh food, Hostaria Nonnamelia, Italian Cuisine, Italy, Le Grotte del Funaro, local crops, local food, lynn ogryzlo, Trattoria La PalombaLeave a comment

The Tuscan countryside can’t hold a candle to the beauty of the Umbrian hills with their checkerboard wheat fields dotted with tightly wound bales of hay, the polka dot olive groves, corduroy vineyards and vast expanses of natural forest – this is where they hunt for their prized black truffles. Perched on top of one of the highest mountaintops in Umbria was a great fortress, dominant and all powerful. Today, the ancient walled village of Orvieto is romantic and charming with a great imposing white mosaic church that centres the village and its now the cuisine that is all […]

Happy Birthday The Ontario Table

June 22, 2012Blog1 Comment

Today is the big day! The Ontario Table is one year old. Happy Birthday! On June 22, 2011, The Ontario Table launched at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. It was a Wednesday and Wednesday is market day. The book was a tool for eating local and our message was the $10 Challenge. It goes like this… If every household in Ontario spent $10 a week on local food, we’d have $2.4 billion in our economy at the end of the year. When those dollars circulate in our communities, they grow to $3.6 billion and create over 10,000 new jobs.* Pretty compelling […]

The Ontario Table-Cloth Dinner

June 15, 2012$10 challenge, agriculture, Blog, books, Canadian food, cookbooks, cooking, cuisine, Dining, farm, farm fresh food, farmer, food, gourmet food, local crops, local food, lynn ogryzlo, Niagara, Niagara College, Niagara local food, Ontario local food, seasonal food, The Ontario TableLeave a comment

It was one of those perfect July days, only it was June, mid-June to be precise. The scene was a well manicured vineyard, a long, 50-foot table ran along side the rows with 80 chairs flanking each side. On the table was a very special tablecloth. The Ontario Table is a project to promote local food. The project leads with the $10 Challenge. It’s a challenge to all consumers to spend $10 a week on local food. If we all did this, there would be an additional $2.4 billion in our local economy and would create $10,000 new jobs. […]

Queens Park Farmers’ Market

June 12, 2012agriculture, asparagus, cookbooks, farm fresh food, farmer, Farmers' Market, food, food obsessions, Foodland Ontario, herbs, honey, local crops, local food, Ontario Farm Fresh, Ontario local food, strawberry, sweet corn, tomatoes1 Comment

It’s farmers’ market season! Just last Tuesday, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Ted McMeekin opened a celebratory farmers’ market on the beautiful grounds of Queen’s Park in Toronto. It was like the kick-off, the firing pistol, the waving of the flag that starts a glorious, new season of farmers’ markets opening across the province with the harvesting of the best food grown and raised in Ontario. Following the Minister’s greetings, hundreds of attendees roamed the market sampling foods from farmers and some of Ontario’s most delicious commodity groups. First stall at the market was Farmers’ Markets Ontario. […]

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