Guest Post By: Shaida K
Born and raised in Waterloo, this little piggy has loved going to the market from a very young age. The weekly adventure gave me the chance to taste delish, locally-grown food, soak up some sun and help my mama bear pick out healthy meals for the fam. Fast forward to 2015 and I’m starting to get really interested in where my food comes from/how it’s grown, so I was super excited to join Farm & Food Care Ontario on a recent tour of Norfolk County as they kicked off Agriculture Week. The region (aka Ontario’s Garden) is bursting with diverse farms and incredibly passionate farmers who are using innovative and unique types of farming to grow local products…
We started our day at Berlo’s Best Sweet Potato Farm, the largest sweet potato farm in Canada. I was really impressed by the state-of-the-art equipment on the farm – some of which was designed and built by Peter Van Berlo’s eldest son. I loved getting a glimpse into the pre-grocery store life of a sweet potato: from harvesting and cleaning to packaging. We got insider scoop about how these delicious root vegetables are grown and also got official confirmation that a sweet potato is, in fact, NOT a yam — in case there were debates in your household.
Next up, we went to Bonnieheath Estate Lavender & Winery. Owned by Steve and Anita Buehner, there is so much great food growing on the property — from apples and grapes to grains. They also operate an on-farm winery and lavender boutique – I can’t wait to come back to stroll through the fragrant fields. But this time, we spent most of our time tasting our way though the local flavours; all the food they prepared was whipped up using ingredients from the beaut Norfolk County itself!
Sprouts for Life Kale Salad Cups (black kale, radish, fennel, candied Kernal peanuts, Gunns Jill Handeck, house mustard and Pristine Gourmet empire apple cider vinaigrette)
Norfolk Caprese Salad (Sovereign Farm heirloom tomatoes, Pristine Gourmet extra virgin canola oil, Fior di Latte and fresh basil)
Caja China Leg of Leg (Schuyler Lamb, pansanella stuffing and lavender lamb jus)
Berlo’s Sweet Potato Casserole (Berlo sweet potatoes, Jensen’s cheddar and toaster Ontario pecans)
Warm Spiced Golden Beets (salt-baked Norfolk beets)
Bonnieheath Lavender Beignet (salted chocolate dipper beignet with lavender pastry cream)
Lavender Ice Wine – didn’t take me long to crack the bottle open when I got home!
What an unbelievable meal! It definitely put a huge smile on my face — there’s nothing like feasting on local eats surrounded by people who are so passionate about food. Stuffed and merry, we headed to our next stop: Schuyler Farm to check out some apple orchards. Did you know 20 different types of apples are grown in Canada? With that much variety there’s absolutely NO excuse not to buy locally! As we snacked on a few apples, we learned about the farming techniques. Ever wonder how farmers perfectly space out rows in an orchard? They program special GPS technology to do the job so it’s super precise.
After the orchard we headed over to their flock of sheep to say hello — this was my favourite part of the day! The eighth generation family farm is all about using sustainable practices so these lovely creatures are used to graze the orchards. Ah, the way mother nature intended…
We had such a lovely day in Norfolk County! I came home with a ton of local treats, inspiration to try delicious recipes and a new-found appreciation of our Ontario farmers. These guys work really hard to produce some of the best ingredients around so I highly recommend heading to your local market or looking for the Foodland logo at your grocery store – Sobey’s & Metro proudly support our farmers. And if you can’t find any Ontario produce or meats, ask a manager – with demand comes supply!
A special thanks Farm & Food Care for hosting me. As always, all reviews and opinions are entirely my own.
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