 Shop Locally
by Lindley McPhail
Here’s something to think about the next time you are writing up your grocery list. Where does all the fresh food you are buying come from? When you’re in the grocery store have a look at the tags and you’ll find that the fresh produce can come from far away places like the United States, Bolivia, and Chile. Think of the amount of money that goes into fuel to bring this produce here when so much of it can be purchased locally. Locally grown food arrives to us fresher and varieties can be grown whose main claim to fame are “flavour” not “shelf life”.
But you want selection you say. Well have a look at this list of produce that can be grown locally: All the regular non-tropical vegetables like asparagus, asparagus peas, beans - green beans, yellow beans, string beans, stringless beans, fava beans, Jacobs Cattle beans, lima beans, kidney beans, pole beans, beans for using fresh, beans for using dried; beets - round, cylindrical, purple and white stripe, golden; broccoli, brocoflower, brussels sprouts, cabbage - summer cabbage, winter cabbage, red cabbage, savoy cabbage; carrots - long, short, orange, red and purple; cauliflower—white, lime green and orange; celery, celariac, corn - yellow, bicolour and white, not to mention blue, red and multicoloured ornamental corn; cucumbers -long, English, pickling, round yellow; eggplant - striped miniature, big smooth deep purple, white; garlic - do you know there are about a g-zillion varieties; kale; kohlrabi - purple and green; leeks, lettuces - green, red, smooth leafed, toothed, oak-leafed, freckled, Vulcan, radicchio, arugula, head lettuces, romains; okra, onions - yellow, green spring or bunching, red, white, winter keepers; shallots, oriental vegetables like pak choi, Chinese radish and Chinese cabbage; parsnips, peas - shell, snap and snow, not to mention peas for drying; peppers - sweet peppers, red, yellow, green, orange and purple, peppers hot enough for anyones taste; potatoes - red, white, yellow and blue, potatoes for keeping, frying, baking; radishes - round red to long white, pink, lavender, scarlet, mild or hot; rutabaga - white summer sweedes, purple and yellow winter keeping; spinach - eat it raw or cooked; squash - summer (eat the fruit and the blossoms) striped, yellow or green zuchinni, Papaya Pear, Flying Saucer, Horn of Plenty, spagetti, winter keeping, buttercup, dumpling, butternut, acorn; Swiss chard - light green, dark green, red, pink, orange and gold; tomatoes - some that need to be staked, some that don’t, great big beefsteak varieties to tiny cherry varieties, paste tomatoes for sauces, colours from pink, red, maroon, orange, green, stripes, yellow and bicolour; tomatillos to use in your Mexican dishes; sweet potatoes.
Fruits like apples, pears, cherries - sour and sweet; apricots, strawberries, raspberries - spring and fall bearing, red, black and yellow, blueberries, saskatoons, cranberries - highbush and bog, rhubarb, grapes - green and purple, ground cherries, quince, plums - yellow, red and purple, gooseberries, currants - white, red and black, melons - yellow, orange, red, watermelon, cantaloups, seaberries, honeyberries, kiwi, mulberries, pawpaw, goji, nut trees - walnuts, heartnuts, butternuts, chestnuts and hazelnuts.
Don’t forget eggs, chicken, turkey, duck, goose, pork, lamb and beef.
You can grow your own or shop at some of the local Market Gardens (two in Russell; Russell’s Market Garden on Craig Street and The Vegetable Market on North Russell Road; Connaught Acres between Chesterville and Moorewood) or at a Farmer’s Market (Metcalfe Farmer’s Market and Chesterville Farmer’s Market).
There are local Apple Orchards like Chevin (where you can choose from 13 varieties); you can buy strawberries from one of several growers; you can buy blueberries and raspberries just outside of Embrun and just between Metcalfe and Edwards; you can buy raspberries and saskatoons just outside of Osgood.
Some facts that may surprise you, they surprised me:
- there are local wineries near Navan, Moorewood and Cornwall
- there is a microbrewery in Navan
- there is a company in Mountain that mills locally grown grain for flours.
For all these reasons, try shopping locally for your fresh produce. You’ll be glad you did. (2007-11-28) |
|
|
