Introducing the launch of http://www.greenbeltfresh.ca

by Kimi Abdullah

Whether you’re the weekly nutritional menu planner or the queen of convenience store grocery shopping, I’m sure you can appreciate fresh fruits and vegetables. Everyone goes ape shit for sun-kissed strawberries in June and tooth-chipping crunchy apples in September.

This summer, to my delight, I stumbled upon a farmers’ market in my neighbourhood on my walk home from work. I was giddy at the sight of fresh lettuces, heirloom tomatoes, sugar baby pears and organic berries. I then went into a type excitement overload that should really only be reserved for a Williams-Sonoma clearance sale when my eye spied some artisanal cheeses, real honey, fresh eggs and homemade bread. For all my self-proclaimed so-called food expertise, I have to admit that I was, and still am, quite ignorant about the bounty Ontario has to offer. But all of that is about to be fixed.

Toronto is a part of Ontario’s Greenbelt, a protected region that is 1.8 million acres that includes the Niagara Escarpment, the Oak Ridges Moraine, Rouge Park, hundreds of rural towns and villages and some 7,000 farms. The list of what is grown in the Greenbelt is long – asparagus, apricots, cabbage, cauliflower, corn, green beans, grapes, leeks, melons, pears, kale, swiss chard, zucchini, and it goes on . . .

On October 1st, Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation launched Greenbeltfresh.ca, a website that can not only tell you what’s in season (October: apples, pears, plums = PIES!) but also provides some delicious recipes and interesting reads about the benefits of eating locally-produced food. And should your visit to the market inspire you to become a localvore, the website includes a listing of local foods restaurants – it just doesn’t list which ones deliver.

Although, some of the markets stop running during the fall, there are a few that run year round like the Dufferin Grove Organic Farmers’ Market and the St. Lawrence Farmer’s Market. To find out which market nearest you is open, you simply need to enter your postal code.

Don’t let the end of summer be the end of your kitchen inspirations. Log on and get out to your farmers’ market!