market mob!

I am so proud of Slow Food Edmonton and the initiative of some determined members. Amanda VanSpronsen came up with a great idea...a market mob! The very first ever Slow Food Edmonton Market Mob was held last Wednesday, June 19th at the SW Edmonton Farmers Market. What a great idea and a remarkably easy way to become more involved with Slow Food here in Edmonton.

The very first Slow Food Edmonton Market Mob gang!

I would like to encourage everyone to get involved with this remarkable organization and help promote slow food across the globe!

Terra Madre 2012!

We are incredibly excited to have been nominated, and won, the award of Terra Madre 2012 delegate for Northern Alberta! Terra Madre is an annual event by Slow Food, an organization of more than 100,000 members in 150 countries worldwide. It is a time for people from across the globe to convene and share thoughts and knowledge about local, sustainable food production. It is a prestigious honour for us to have been selected and we are extremely proud. This year's Terra Madre is being held in Turin, Italy so Cindy and I are brushing up on our Italian and learning all that we can about the event. We will be part of the Canadian Delegation and will participate in manning the trade show booth as well as attending meetings and conferences. Of course, we will be in Italy...so there will be some touring and eating as well. A sneak peek at 2012 Terra Madre.


Slow Food

stop eating wheat? how about Stop Eating Modern Wheat!

"The Bible says, "Give us this day our daily bread." Eating bread is nearly a religious commandment. But the ancient wheat of our ancestors is something modern humans almost never eat.

Canada's first commercially viable wheat
from 1909 not ancient, but heritage.

Instead, we eat dwarf wheat, the product of genetic manipulation and hybridization that created short, stubby, hardy, high-yielding wheat plants with much higher amounts of starch and gluten and many more chromosomes coding for all sorts of new odd proteins. The man who engineered this modern wheat won the Nobel Prize -- it promised to feed millions of starving around the world. Well, it has, and it has made them fat and sick." 

  An excerpt from Mark Hyman's article in the Huffington Post.

The entire article can be accessed here.  This article by Dr. Hyman closely mirrors findings as outlined in Dr. Davis' book Wheat Belly that I am currently re-reading.  I only find it troubling that not enough emphasis is placed on the ancient varieties of wheat vs. modern. Dr. Hyman has spelled it out more clearly and I appreciate that.

Here's my view on the subject from a post I did a few weeks ago. 

upcoming events

I have been invited to present and lecture at the South Edmonton Vegetarian and Gardening Club's potluck supper on Sunday March 25th at the Pleasantview Community Hall. The event starts at 5:00 pm. I will be talking about organic crop production and how folks can apply these principles to the backyard garden. I will also talk a little about our adventure in building and living in a strawbale house. It should be a fun evening. Here is a link with some details on how to attend.

We have also been invited to participate in the Slow Food Canada's National Fundraising Gala on May 5th at the Enjoy Centre's Prairie Bistro. The gourmet dinner will feature our heritage grain flour along with other local fare.

And the event that we will be involved in very soon is Brittany Watt's Market Brunch at the Old Strathcona Farmers Market on Sunday March 4th. At this lunch event, I will be talking about our flour production business along with how we produce heritage and ancient grains organically. There are only a couple tickets left for that event and they are available at the market concession each Saturday. Here is the link to that event!

Seedy Sunday and Beyond the Supermarket

I just had such a great day yesterday. First, I stopped off at Alberta Avenue Community Hall to visit the Seedy Sunday festival. It was wonderful to see so many other people concerned about seed security and food safety. Also, just plain old gardening fun during a period of weather where Spring just doesn't want to arrive.

I made a bee-line over to see Lola Canola first. Patty was giving a talk about planting for pollinators. I couldn't stay to listen. Did anyone get a chance to hear her speak? I am sure it was entertaining and informative.

Next stop was to see Jim Ternier from Prairie Garden Seeds. I admire Jim's work and I've talked to him a few times about heritage grains. This was my first face to face with Jim and we got to chat about Kamut and Red Fife for a few minutes. I managed to buy the last pack of Red Fife and a packet of Medora Durum Wheat. Those were two good scores for my collection.

Jim Ternier from Prairie Garden Seeds

The real reason I was in the area though was to present and attend the Beyond the Supermarket event at the Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts. This was a cafe style 'tradeshow' where customers and producers could intermingle and exchange ideas and present their businesses. I found it to be a tremendous venue to really connect with potential customers and other producers. I certainly appreciated the chance to be there and say a few words about our farm and heritage grains. It was attended almost to capacity and I suspect that next year the venue will be a little bigger. Still though it was very comfortable and cozy. It was very easy, and encouraged, to eavesdrop on conversations and learn about other businesses providing local food to Edmontonians.

The very best thing about yesterday though was meeting with all of my new friends and customers. I saw a tweet from Super_Su and I sure appreciate her support all the time. All of the conversations are so enjoyable...from talking with people who are planning their new self-sufficient lifestyles to bakers and restaurant professionals to small-holding future farmers...it was a very good day.

John

eat alberta

Slow Food Edmonton is hosting what appears to be a marvelous opportunity for folks to be able to resource local food more effectively. On April 30, 2011 there will be an event called Eat Alberta: A Celebration of Our Local Food Heroes.

Now you have the link, you can go ahead and give it a look. It will be a wonderful way for people to get to know where to source local food of all types including Yvan Chartrand of Treestone Bakery! Treestone Bakery has been a customer of Gold Forest Grains for three years now. We are very proud to supply Yvan's bakery with our local Hard Red Spring Wheat (Park variety).