Columnists

According to an Ipsos Reid and Dietitians of Canada survey, which polled 2201 Canadians, local food preferences vary across the country.

British Columbia: fresh vegetables
Alberta: beef
Saskatchewan & Manitoba: corn
Ontario: apples
Quebec: cheese
Atlantic Region: lobster

Although I’m an Ontarian and do like apples, for me Niagara peaches are the local food that makes me weak in the knees. Ditto for wonderful Fifth Town and Monforte cheeses. What local food do you love most?

Photo credit: James Tse

Last night I made a dinner that I was really proud to serve. My son liked it, too. In fact, we were just tucking in, enjoying our beet salads and talking about how great the beets have been this year when in walked Kayne West. He swept the salad bowl off the table and as it crashed to the floor in a million pieces he declared that while the beets had been good this year, the potatoes were the very best they’ve ever been! He said we could finish the beets that were on our plates but we just didn’t have the heart to continue. Truthfully, the moment was gone.

Now of course, this didn’t happen, but I do feel like I’ve been swooning over the very deserving beet crop an awful lot lately. Maybe it’s time that I shine the spot light on another root vegetable? So, without further ado, here goes….

Did you notice how great the potatoes are? Although we didn’t have the great summer weather that makes vacationing in Ontario a treat, somehow the potato crops have been fantastic this year! The corn has been great, too. In fact, I combined these two starchy veggies in a potato salad for a party weekend before last and it was a tremendous hit!

How do you like to prepare farm fresh new potatoes? Do you leave the skins on or peel ‘em first? And, almost more importantly, how do you think Kayne would like his potatoes prepared?

I am sad. I’ve been sad for two weeks since I went outside to check my garden and discovered that vermin (likely raccoons) had knocked down my corn and ate unsightly gouges into every cob.

The picture above was taken just days before the massacre and, as you can see, the ears were forming nicely. Visions of melted butter were dancing in my head. Times were good.

Sigh. The corn part of my big gardening adventure was a partnership between my son Oliver and I; so the loss is doubly felt at our house. That said, we’ve picked ourselves up and visited a farm stand to purchase corn. It was very good and our bellies, none the wiser, think they’ve had our homegrown kernels. It’s a subterfuge, I know. But I’m just not strong enough to break the news to my digestive system yet. Perhaps, in time, I’ll heal.

What we learned: it isn’t thumbs that separate us from other members of the animal kingdom, it’s the ability to eat corn in an orderly, sequential linear fashion that makes the difference. I’m sure of it!