Food, Inc. is Screening in North Bay!

If you are a person in Northern Ontario that is concerned about food and farming, you definitely won't want to miss this!

Food, Inc. is going to be screening in North Bay's Galaxy Cinema on Wednesday October 21st, 2009 at 7:30 pm. The show is being hosted by North Bay Film {go check out their webby for other awesome movies coming to town!}.

This blurb is from North Bay Films info page about Food, Inc.

In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

And here is a trailer:

Harvest Festival at the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market!

Woman Harvester by Kanuty Rusiecki, 1844.

This is a press release from the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market:

Well folks, we are drawing close to the end of another North Bay Downtown Farmers’ Market season...

WAIT! IT’S NOT OVER YET!!

This coming Saturday September 19, the Downtown Farmers’ Market will be hosting

their Annual Harvest Festival. Friends & family are welcome to visit the

same great location – the parking lot on McIntyre St. East – across from City Hall.

This Saturday only from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, kids can stay & play awhile at the FREE

Activity Centre. There will even be pumpkins to decorate!! There are a limited number of FREE

giveaways, so get there early to claim yours! Kids are also welcome to enter the

Harvest Festival Colouring Contest and prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

Participation at the Activity Centre including the colouring contest is FREE!

All kids will receive a Certificate and goodies for joining in the fun.

There is lots of free parking, and the Market is OPEN until Thanksgiving weekend (October 10th) “rain or shine”, every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.

See what your North Bay Downtown Farmers’ Market, has to offer you!

For more upcoming Special Event dates & information, or to learn more about the Market’s vendors please visit the NEW Market website at: http://www.northbayfarmersmarket.com/

An Inspiring Story from Cache Bay

Cache Bay woman experimenting with exotic crops
source

Greenery from around the world is sprouting in Cache Bay.

Jeanne Labonte's garden on Anderson Road features purple corn from Peru and a Russian sunflower that towers at three metres -- and it's still a baby," she says.

I look for different exotic things that normally don't grow here," says the 45-year-old, who bought seeds online from around the world.

Her purple corn from Peru surprised her.

I didn't think it would grow here," she says, pointing out a corn stalk that has grown to the roof of her garage.

And with Mother Nature being less than giving this summer, it leaves Labonte to wonder what would happen in a better growing season.

I am sure everything would be a lot bigger."

Monica McLaren, a master gardener with the North Bay's Heritage Gardeners, says it is not uncommon for different seeds to take in this climate.

It depends on the length of the season and how many days are required for the plants full length of maturity," she says.

Seeds can also be started indoors giving those who would like to experiment a leg up on growing.

In Labonte's numerous garden boxes, she has corn of all colours including ruby red, red stalker, strawberry, blue, baby ear and peaches and cream.

And her bean collection -- featuring European Helda, Big Mama lima beans from New Jersey and French purple pole beans -- would put some markets to shame.

Adding to the rainbow are chocolate cherry tomatoes and purple tomatoes.

Her scores of gourds include a batwing pumpkin which is orange on top and black on the bottom.

This year it is kind of like a test garden," she says. Next year, I will actually plant rows of purple corn and stuff I have experimented with this year because I know it will grow in our climate."

And that is the best part. What excites me the most is

seeing what I can produce from a seed and to see if it will grow."

A Great Video on Local Food from Northern Edge Algonquin

Near North Locavore member and kitchen and garden manager at Northern Edge Algonquin Greg Waters talks with Todd Lucier (also of Northern Edge) about local and organic food, and
gives a tour of the garden at Northern Edge and local farmers' markets. This video was shot last summer.

Enjoy the video!

Farmers Market Season Starts!

This is a photo of our booth last year at the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market. We will be there again this year!

Here is an article from the North Bay Nugget giving details about various farmers' markets in the Near North region. Many open this Victoria Day weekend, including the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market on Saturday and we will be there!

Farmers' market outgrows its home
By MARIA CALABRESE
Source found here.

The buzz around buying local is taking the sting out of trying to find a place for producers to market their goods.

Board’s Honey Farm has been selling its golden nectar at the North Bay Downtown Farmers’ Market since the venue opened eight years ago when there was less noise about leaving a carbon footprint.

“It’s about food value, quality and taste,” says Ann Board after tapping some honey at the farm nestled in Restoule, about 65 kilometres southwest of North Bay.

The market gives the public a chance to buy direct from the producers and build a trust that the food is safe, Board says.
“It’s bringing the country into the city.”

The busy beekeepers have a dozen hive locations and a menu of honey flavours depending on what flowers are in bloom, like wildflowers, meadow blend, basswood and buckwheat.

There’s scores of value-added goods like skin products, candles, creamed honey, and there’s relish and salsa made with their sweet yield instead of sugar.

The North Bay Downtown Farmers’ Market opens for the season Saturday with small business owners, crafters, artists and producers selling locally grown and handmade products.

While market manager Ron Warman is pleased to see the explosion of interest from vendors and buyers, he’s frustrated to cap the number of vendors at 30 and turn away 17 others who are interested in joining this year because there isn’t enough space for them at the current location on McIntyre Street across from city hall.

He won’t bump crafters who have supported the market in its lean years in favour of new producers who want to plant their roots now that homegrown, handmade goods are hot commodities.

“That’s our problem right now is trying to accommodate this new interest,” says Warman, adding seniors and young families prefer that central spot with free parking and within walking distance for downtown residents. “We’re hesitant to move, but we can’t grow in that location.”

Friends of the Waterfront offered an area in front of the Discovery North Bay museum, but it’s too small to fit the growing market, Warman says.

It needs an area that’s at least 30-by-60 metres to accommodate 40 vendor spots — some vendors need more than one spot — with access to electricity, parking and washrooms, although Warman would like to see a bigger space so the market can bloom.

Warman would also like some kind of covering, whether it’s a tent or permanent structure, when the weather isn’t on their side. Exposure to biting wind and blowing sand is the main reason the market abandoned its first haunts on Oak Street.

“I’m not going to move unless it’s a step up,” he says.

The cost and global impact of transporting foreign foods to grocery stores and a push to eat local has even spawned a reality TV show with six families from Mission, B.C., volunteering to only eat food that has been produced within 100 miles, named after the book of the same name.

This year’s farmers’ market will offer a new baker and steady favourites, with maple products, perennials, jewelers, crafters, handmade soaps, woodworking, fresh-grown produce and other goods.

There’s also a booth with hot drinks and a new coffee club to reward repeat customers.

Also new this year is a pancake festival May 30 with syrup provided by vendor Matthews Maple Syrup of Powassan.

The market is open every Saturday rain or shine until the Thanksgiving weekend.

On the web: northbayfarmersmarket.ca

mcalabrese@nugget.ca

An Article About Our Community Garden Partnership

This is an article written last week in a local paper about our project partnership with Artan Gardens to start a non-profit community garden.

Locavores to grow produce for not-for-profit organization
From the North Bay Nugget

By Jenny Potter on April 15, 2009

Zel Artan has big plans for the 1.2-hectare patch of land her parents have been growing vegetables on for the past 20 years.

The Artans are turning some of the weeding and watering over to the public this summer, opening up 464 square metres of garden to members of the Near North Locavores, who plan to grow produce and donate it to a local not-for-profit organization.

For many years, Artan’s Turkish-Canadian parents have lived off the produce grown from their garden near the Laurier Woods.

Excess produce is sold to the community at the North Bay Downtown Farmers’ Market each Saturday in the summer or preserved for the winter.

But as time wears on, maintaining the large garden has become difficult for the couple.

Last summer, Artan, who splits her time between Toronto and North Bay, picked up the shovel and continued in her parents’ footsteps working the garden with the help of friends.

“I got involved with it last year and fell in love. It’s like a vegetable Sweetman’s Garden,” she said of the lot on McIntyre Street West that has offered a floral oasis for visitors for many years.

This summer, some members of the Near North Locavores plan to revitalize an overgrown part of the Artans’ garden, growing fresh organic produce that will be donated to a not-for-profit organization yet to be determined.

The area will also be used to demonstrate how people can grow some of their own food.

Next summer, the group hopes to establish community allotments, allowing people to grow their own vegetables.

Laurel Ronan, a core member of the Locavores, said they are excited to be able to use the land and expand an already beautiful garden.

Opening the garden to the public is just the starting point for Artan. She has many campaigns and challenges planned for the city.

The Seed to Feed Earth Week challenge kicks off Wednesday, with a goal of raising awareness of the importance of collecting and keeping seeds year after year.

“Planting vegetables is one thing,” she said. “It’s about making people aware of protecting the heirloom seed varieties.”

Along with the campaign, her personal goal is to educate herself and her family on being self-sufficient, starting with feeding her family at least one meal a day from food they produced.

She hopes other families in the city will take up the challenge as well.

“My kids understand that organic produce tastes better and is better for you,” she said.

She also hopes to pass on gardening skills to a younger generation through a children’s day camp this summer.

The long-term goal is to make the garden an educational facility, and Artan hopes government grants will allow them to add a horticultural ecology centre.

There is also a documentary planned on the garden, and she hopes the interest will garner them a television show.

In the meantime, volunteers will start turning the earth later this week, preparing the garden for planting and building a water-retention system to collect rain water for the garden.

“I think North Bay needs this,” Artan said.

jpotter@nugget.ca