Posted by Sheryl Kirby in news and media, what's cooking on October 3, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Gobble, gobble gobble!
That's the sound of food writers across the land as they try and come up with something new and innovative for their annual "roast the turkey" article for their Thanksgiving column. It's times like this I'm glad my "turkey" is soy.
At the Toronto Sun, Rita DeMontis brings in the big guns; a spokesperson from the Canadian Turkey Marketing Agency. DeMontis also has a piece on cranberries (didn't see that coming, did ya?).
According to Ocean Spray, cranberries also represent a great Canadian heritage, thanks in part to a powerful, North-American wide co-operative founded 75 years ago.
In fact, Canada's an important growing area for cranberries, with cranberry bogs (an area of soft, marshy ground), located in BC, Quebec and New Brunswick.
This hurts my head just the teensiest bit (and not just the part about how a US company speaks about Canadian heritage), since most of the commercially available cranberries we find here in Toronto are either Ocean Spray brand from Cape Cod, or Sun Valley from Nova Scotia. If you want Canadian berries, I found Sun Valley cranberries at Price Chopper (a subsidiary of Sobey's, which is based down east), and if you're all about getting as local as possible, many vendors at the Nathan Phillips Square farmers market this morning had Ontario cranberries, so they may show up at other markets between now and the big day.
At the Toronto Star, Jennifer Bain looks at not just turkey, but leftovers, and has a host of recipes for everything from enchiladas to turkey hash. Mmmm... hash. Bain's also got a great piece about community gardens in poor communities that is sure to make every reader a little more thankful for what's on their table this weekend. Susan Sampson writes about one of my very favourite foods in the whole world - sweet potatoes - with a couple of recipes, and not a mini marshmallow in sight. And in the News section, environment reporter Catherine Porter looks at the deal between Local Food Plus and supermarket Fiesta Farms to carry sustainably-grown products.
There's more turkey at The Globe and Mail (I'm getting sleepy from the dopamine) where D. Grant Black takes a cross-country look (of everywhere except Toronto) of where to get happy, organic, free-range turkeys. Also in the Globe, Tralee Pearce looks at supplements for seniors, and Heather Sokoloff profiles two chefs from Quebec.
FYI - In the premier issue of new local-eating mag "Edible Toronto," there's some good info about local cranberries in the intro to a recipe for Chicken roasted with apples and cranberries.
Editor Gail Gordon Oliver writes, "Many Ontarians are unaware that there is a large cranberry-growing industry in the province. Try to source your cranberries from local growers. The Wahta Mohawks in Bala own and operate Ontario’s largest cranberry growing operation, Iroquois Cranberry Growers (www.iroquoiscranberries.com). Also located in Bala is Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh (www.cranberry.ca). Check out the websites for these two cranberry marshes and head up Highway 400 for tours and festivities that take place every year during harvest time, from mid-September to mid-October."
I've seen the Edible Toronto piece, and I did actually know there were plenty of cranberries in Ontario - I've just never seen them available in Toronto.
As someone who is pretty anti-car, I'd be against taking a roadtrip just to get local cranberries - sort of defeats the purpose of conserving food miles and eating locally if everyone takes a drive up north for something they can get closer to home.
But as I mentioned, I did see a number of farmers with cranberries at market yesterday, so Ontario cranberries are definitely available without having to go out of town to get them.