Farm to Table, Part II

So, yesterday was my first time on a farm where they measured their greenhouse space in terms of acreage, rather than sq feet.

Floralane Produce is a year-round operation that combines very high-tech methods - color-specific LED lighting, compressed peat, CO2 emission recycled from the boiler stack - with Mennonite family tradition, to produce some of the best-looking tomatoes I've ever seen, and LOTS of them.

​More to come, showing how these little jewels end up on some of the best-looking plates in the region…

Food and TV again....

I love food and TV, and really adore great food TV. I've found three great Canadian examples so far, more to come I'm sure.

Chuck and Danny's Road Trip is a buddy show that features two Montreal chefs, Chuck Hughes and Danny Smiles, as they travel across Canada by RV and discover local (sometimes unusual) ingredients and the interesting (sometimes unusual) folks who gather, prepare, hunt and create them. Kelp Gin cocktail, anyone? 

After two days of exploring the local food scene, they invite all the people they've met back to their campsite for a feast. The show is heavy on adventure and personality, light on traditional "stand and stir" cooking-show shots, and more info about the ingredients and many of the recipes can be found on their website.


Next, imagine a show with many of the features you like about "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" - small restaurants with lots of personality, local charm, great backstories and friendly cooks - and substitute a charmingly nerdy, regular Canadian guy in place of, y'know..... "Guy."  The B-roll entrance shots typically show the flannel-clad host strolling up the sidewalk and walking into the restaurant rather than roaring up in a red convertible with his bleached tips wagging in the breeze.

John Catucci hosts "You Gotta Eat Here!" and the title is basically the theme of the show. Actor/comedian Catucci visits family-friendly eateries and local diners with great dishes and nice people and makes you want to visit each and every one. Fortunately, on the website, you can search by location for the restaurants that have been featured on the show. 

Bonus feature:  Catucci often has to adjust his glasses in the kitchen sequences, so I can relate.



A small startup network called Makeful is the new Canadian home of "Three Chefs, One City." This is a slower-paced, more thoughtful show. Each episode offers an exploration of a major city through the stories of three top rock-star chefs in that area. It's not 'try this at home'- more like a way of touring an exotic destination (episodes feature Rio, Paris, Hong Kong, etc) through its high-end culinary scene. Think Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" but sans Bourdain's penchant for late-night streetmeat. Definitely not as proletariat as YGEH! but thoughtful and accessible in its own way and exquisitely photographed.

Farm-to-Table Photo Project

A few years ago I helped my chef friend John MacPherson develop a pilot for a TV concept - In Season - which featured John going out into the field to hunt, gather, and harvest fresh, seasonal ingredients, and followed him back to the kitchen where he put it all together for a great meal. 

The narrative arc of a chef fishing, hunting and foraging for THAT DAY'S MENU made for good TV with strong visuals and a great payoff at the end. 



For busy restaurateurs, of course, consistently acquiring seasonal, local ingredients is more complicated, and involves a lot of people. 

I've always thought that the real story of how great local food gets from "farm-to-table" - and the people along the way - would make a terrific photo story, but as a lifelong suburban kid I wasn't sure where or how to start.

Now, years later, I find myself in Ontario's Waterloo Region, home to three bustling cities - Waterloo, Kitchener, and Cambridge, and four big agricultural townships. The restaurant scene in these burgs is very robust, and 'farm-to'table' isn't just a buzzword. With 1400+ farms within the Region proper, and over 4500 farms in the greater central Ontario area, "farm-to-table" is a reality even in modest brewpubs and family-friendly eateries.

I also have found some amazing local people who share a passion for the Region's local food and restaurant scene. 

Local Line, a tech business founded by Cole Jones, helps local producers, distributors, retailers, and of course, restaurants, find each other. Cole responded almost immediately to my email with a hearty welcome to the region and offered to help me make connections to get the project started.

Andrew Coppolino is a local food writer for CBC and the creator of Waterloo Region Eats, which has quickly become my go-to resource for local restaurants. Andrew met me for a beer at Abe Erb, and when I asked him "Where would be a good place to start?" he pointed to the floor below us. The owner of this brewpub sources his own chicken and pork from livestock he buys at the start of the season.

FoodLink is a non-profit that advocates for local food and helps consumers find what they're looking for. The site contains a massive amount of content in blogs, recipes,  events and a searchable map that allows users to search by the ingredient they want. Anna Contini responded immediately to my email and we'll be meeting soon to figure out ways to work together.


The first shoots for this project will be happening soon, and I'll be sharing updates as we go. Stay tuned!

How do you know when a move is really real?

When you have a new library card!

😁

You Know You're in Canada When.... (The first in a series)

When you enter a big municipal recreation complex, in this case RIM Park  - you know, field house, fitness, etc, open to the public - and find this:

And then as you walk around the joint, you realize this rink is only the first of FOUR full-size rinks in the building, and all are BUSY (hockey games and practices, figure-skating, etc -no rec skate, no disco music, no foolin around).

Oh, and it's the home of the Waterloo Wolves. GO WOLVES!

OK, The weather and the CRACK

So, a little background…

Some of you know that I drive a 2003 Ford Explorer that I absolutely LOVE. 

My stately 14-year old truck has only 134,000 miles on her, and I have babied her inside and out and under the hood, fully intending to get to at least 250,000.

One small point of pride - the 2001-2005 Explorers have a defect in the material used for the rear lift gate - a hardshell plastic panel just below the glass - that is notorious for developing a crack down the middle with age and rapid temperature changes. My Miss Dora, however, has been crack-free -- until the Canadian winter started in on her.
We had a few days of single-digit (Fahrenheit) nights, followed by a relatively balmy day where the temp got above freezing - so I hit the car wash - and heard an audible pop from the rear of the vehicle as the warm wash started. DAMMIT! I immediately knew what it was….

Found a supplier for a replacement panel, and a video for DIY, and it looks pretty straightforward - but this will have to wait until Spring.

Boxing Day on Port Burwell beach….

In the US, the day after Christmas is a big shopping day, almost as frantic as Black Friday. I've always avoided it.

To many Catholics around the world it's the feast of St. Stephen, almost as holy a day as the Christ Mass itself.

In Canada, as in the UK, Boxing Day (as it's called), seems to be a day for quiet reflection, not a shopping bacchanal, but neither a high holy day.

A good day to walk on the beach, which, in this weather, belongs to the birds. Great squadrons of geese arrive from the north and pause on their way to warmer climes.

Just six months removed from the sandy chaos of BeachFest, and its own squawking cacophony of kids, vendors and reddening skin.

My question exactly!

Just watched a cute and funny documentary called "Being Canadian" written and hosted by Canadian writer and director Robert Cohen, featuring an array of Canadian-born celebrities, such as Mike Myers, Martin Short, Rush, Bare Naked Ladies, Alannis Morissette, Dan Akroyd, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, William Shatner and many more. 


The host and his guests examine the same questions that have intrigued me since my arrival. Actual segment titles include:


*Why do we have such an inferiority complex?

*Why is Canadian TV so bad? (Followed by examples of really, really bad TV. Can we talk about The Beachcombers?)

*What's with the Love-Hate Relationship with the US? (Best response -Jan Brady's lament: 'Marcia Marcia Marcia!')

*Why are Canadians so nice? (Followed by a "Canadian Content" segment featuring all the Canadian celebs saying "sorry" and confessionals describing times they've said 'sorry' to inanimate objects such as Catherine O'Hara relating how she says 'sorry' to her keyboard when she makes a typo.)

*Maybe we're NOT so nice. (Apparently "sorry" can be the passive-aggressive equivalent of US Southerners' "bless your heart")

*What the Hell is "Canadian food"? (Not one respondent mentions poutine or pea meal.)


Worth a watch - btw, none of these questions really get answered. 


There is an interesting pattern to the questions, though, and the film begins with the title-slide statement:

All of this is, sadly, true.

BTW, About SW Ontario being a Photographer's Candy Store

Just a few - I'm shooting too often to keep up.

All taken within a mile of where I now sit….

GREY CUP SUNDAY

I'm a big NFL fan, and unfortunately the games are available only sporadically on our local cable system (Eastlink.)

But screw all that - Today is championship Sunday for the CFL!

The CFL is down to its ultimate showdown, the GREY CUP. The Grey Cup has been around far longer than the Super Bowl, in fact - this is the 104th. The NFL has barely had half as many "Super Sundays."

Befitting that proud history, Grey Cup Sunday is EXACTLY like Super Bowl Sunday…but with a Canadian sensibility.

The glitzy parties include pancake breakfasts:

Celeb appearances at said parties have a local touch:

From the Toronto Star: "Mayor John Tory came by, commissioner Jeffrey Orridge, actor Kal Penn, and retired Stampeder Jon Cornish with the Grey Cup. Great fun. That was terrific."

The media attention is not quite as fawning and feverish:

Unlike the Super Bowl, controversies at previous Cups do not seem to include PEDs or gunfire...

….although the 2016 kerfuffle seems to include poop. Again from the Star:

Well, at least the horse pooped in the lobby of a Holiday Inn…… in 2012 they let Marty the horse in for a second, and then shooed him away. This time, the Holiday Inn on Carlton invited Marty and Calgary’s travelling troupe in, and wouldn’t you know it, Marty did what horses do. Kablooie.

Oh, Canada.

Can We Talk About Food? The first of many…..

OK, a few of the small adjustments were easy, like learning that a grilled ham, egg and onion sammich is simply called a "western" for some reason (no cheese, please, and NO ketchup, thank you.)

Some are a little harder to take - like restaurants that close early if they're slow, well ahead of their posted closing time. Since we like to eat late, a couple of ruined date nights taught us to call ahead.

Some are baffling, like the ubiquitous Canadian chain, Boston Pizza. Can someone explain why a restaurant that started in Edmonton is named after a faraway US city known for seafood?

Fun Fact - though they have expanded into the US as "Boston's Gourmet Pizza, with locations across the country, guess which American city does not have any? 

Right - If you're in Boston and hankering for "Boston Pizza," the nearest US location is near Philly, but the closest is actually in Quebec. Bring your passport.

If this all sounds like I'm being a typical ugly American - unfairly critical, dismissive, and looking for familiar US comforts while abroad, let me just end on this note:

Regular poutine - french fries topped with melty cheese curds and brown gravy - is freakin' great, even at food trucks or fast-food joints like Harvey's.  However - 

The 18-Hour Brisket Poutine at Beertown Public House in Waterloo - poutine topped with shredded house-smoked brisket and truffle aoili - is like someone went to heaven and brought back take-out. Paired with local craft-brewed KW Cider - perfection.

SORRY? Not Sorry!

Just a quick note to confirm - yes, everyone says "Sorry" all the time, and yes, I've started saying it too. I say it pretty much every day now - Without. Meaning.To.

sorrynotsorry

What's most different?

The biggest adjustment has so far hasn't been US-vs-Canada, so much as City-vs-Country. I was born in Washington DC, and have lived in or near a city all my life - either DC or Baltimore. I'm definitely a city mouse.

Since the move, most of the area around me looks like this:

For a photographer, it's a candy store. 

For a self-employed person trying to run a 

creative-services business, it's a….  challenge.

First Things First - It Wasn't the Election

Since we touched down in Canada this summer, the first question everyone asks is whether I and my wife fled to this country in anticipation of the US election results.  To clarify - until November 9 they asked this jokingly - now they ask seriously. 

Either way, the answer, happily, is no.

In 2002 I had the good fortune to marry a Canadian woman, with the understanding that, as much as she wanted to return to her home turf, and as much as I liked Canada, I needed to stay in Maryland, near my kids from my first marriage. We made a pact that when my older kids flew the coop, so would we, heading north to resettle permanently in Ontario, near Kate's family and friends.

Fourteen years later, we have put the plan into action. We found a renter for our house in MD, and started packing. And packing, and packing. We'd crossed the border dozens of times over the years, but on June 21, we went into the administration office at the Peace Bridge and my wife declared herself as a "Canadian citizen, former resident, officially repatriating as of today." And, befitting the occasion, handed over a bunch of forms.

And, the fun begins…..