I went to Loblaws...

[3Dementia]

To buy a Niagara fruit-belt Macintosh apple.

South Africa, BC, Chile, various US states and 4 or 5 other countries offered me apples.

Not one Ontario apple was available. But no Ontario fruit of any kind were available so I'm just being picky...

Good things grow... everywhere else.

 

[Urban Shocker]

California produces some fruit - strawberries for instance - all year round, so large businesses like Loblaw have no reason to interrupt that arrangement for one month a year in order to source it locally.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Isn't it too early for apples? Niagara and the Holland Marsh can't provide all the fruit and vegetables Toronto consumes, but where does the stuff that does grow there actually end up?

 

[CDL.TO]

It's too early for apples. My local Loblaw-group-of-companies grocery store just a few weeks ago finished selling Ontario bagged Macintosh apples... from last year's crop (apples keep for a long time if stored properly). Now it's a matter of waiting for this year's crop this fall. Apples are more likely to come from Brampton than from Niagara fruit country anyway.

The same store is now carrying Niagara peaches, plums, and cucumbers (and more, I'm sure). The season for Niagara strawberries and cherries has already passed, so it's back to California for those items. They just got some local corn, but it's still too early and doesn't compare in quality to the US stuff.

The selling of local produce hasn't gone away, but people's expectation to walk in to a store 52 weeks a year and see the same products has distorted perceptions. Previous generations would have known the 3 or 4 weeks of the year when they could get strawberries or cherries or whatever, and frozen or preserved a supply for the rest of the year. These days consumers have no concept of "seasonal produce".

From what I understand, the biggest problem is the Ontario suppliers simply cannot reliabily supply the volume of product that major retailers demand. Loblaw National Grocers could order (I'm guessing here) tens of millions of pounds of blueberries over the course of a year from an American supplier who has thousands and thousands of acres of farms throughout the US and can supply year-round. Or they could get it from an Ontario supplier for a few weeks out of the year, who is counting on weather to determine when the product will be ready or if it well ever be ready at all and still have to deal with that American supplier for the other 46 or so weeks of the year.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Too bad Britain couldn't keep the Oregon lands...we could have domestically supplied all the berries and apples we could possibly eat.

 

[Jayomatic]

I did see some fresh Ontario strawberries at the Loblaws at Jarvis & Queen Quay a couple weeks ago. But i'm sure they are mostly gone now.

 

[Urban Shocker]

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the market gardeners of Leslieville and the east end supplied much of Toronto's fresh produce.

Parks and Recreation rents allotments to anyone who want to grow their own fruit and vegetables ( or, I suppose, anything else ), for a small fee. These gardens are located in different parts of the city. It isn't a new idea and has been around for generations. Any apartment dweller, or a group of friends who want to grow their own, can do so. Fruit and vegetables can be frozen for months, or made into jam or jelly. Growing your own, rather than having it trucked in from California, has obvious environmental benefits.

The Saturday Farmer's Market at the St.Lawrence Market North has a great selection of fresh local produce.

 

[afransen]

I seldom bother with California strawberries since, after becoming accustomed to Ontario berries, they just don't compare. It's not just a matter of the fact California berries are truck-ripened, apparently Ontario berries are a superior genetic.

There are ever-bearing varieties, allowing strawberries to be supplied all summer (and even year round with greenhouse production) using domestic production.

 

[adma]

To buy a Niagara fruit-belt Macintosh apple.

South Africa, BC, Chile, various US states and 4 or 5 other countries offered me apples.

Not one Ontario apple was available. But no Ontario fruit of any kind were available so I'm just being picky...

Good things grow... everywhere else.

If you don't like it, give Galen Jr. a knuckle sandwich. And if he says "you wouldn't hit a guy with glasses", tell him you're not hitting him with glasses, you're hitting him with your fist. Simple

 

[EnviroTO]

I'm thinking of renting a car and hitting the road side stands for tomatoes sometime soon. Summertime is the only time of the year you can get large tomatoes with real flavour.

 

[Hydrogen]

And they are so damn good!

 

[Admiral Beez]

Too bad Britain couldn't keep the Oregon lands...we could have domestically supplied all the berries and apples we could possibly eat.

The British certainly sent their B-team negotiators to deal with the Americans at the end of the revolutionary war. Had the A-team (not that A'team, I pity the fool) negotiators been sent, most of Maine would have remained British, along with Florida.

This earlier failure of British negotiation certainly resumed during the negotiations over Oregon and Michigan. The latter was part of Upper Canada until the early 1800s, and not part of the USA until about 1845. I've always believed that the British win most of their wars, but generally lose the subsequent peace negotiations.

 

[Urban Shocker]

This morning I slaved over a hot stove and made almost 4 litres of raspberry jam from the teeming produce of my garden.

I've created a "jam lake" worthy of the European Community: 4 litres of gooseberry, 4 of redcurrant/raspberry/mulberry, the aforementioned raspberry, and another 4 of blackcurrant/redcurrant planned for next week.

Next year I'm thinking of growing veggies. I hope to get seeds for heirloom tomatoes, or buy them as small plants. They're sold at the St Lawrence Farmer's Market sometimes - hideous to look at but tastier than the perfectly-shaped varieties in supermarkets.

 

[interchange42]

I saw recently that there are heirloom varieties of carrots too - specifically ones that come in colours other than orange! I'd love to know how a purple carrot tastes, if any different...

42

 

[Hydrogen]

This morning I slaved over a hot stove and made almost 4 litres of raspberry jam from the teeming produce of my garden.

If you keep publicising it like this you are going to have to start selling it. It's only fair.


Remember the UT discount, though!