Your Search Starts Here for Local Food!

 Finding locally grown food in Guelph and Wellington County is becoming easier every day.  It’s being served up at farm stores, farmers’ markets, restaurants, retail stores, and events.

Check out the Online Food Finder to find locally grown food. To search for what you are looking for click here.

NEW! Wholesale Food Map

The wholesale map highlights local farm and food businesses that have the capacity to supply wholesale volumes to foodservice or retail establishments. Click here to bring more local food to your business.

The Guelph Wellington Local Food Map is our communtities guide to local farms, markets, retailers, restaurants and other businesses that feature local.  To find out more about this resource and how to get your hands on one click here.  To view a quick list of our members that feature local food see below.

Pretend cow. Alex Cluff milks a pretend cow that was part of the activities of the annual Guelph-Wellington Local Food Fest at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre Sunday. Tony Saxon/Guelph Mercury Source: Guelph Mercury

Joanne Shuttleworth, Mercury staff

GUELPH — Don’t know how to spend your summer vacation? Let your appetite be your guide.

Guelph Wellington Local Food — an initiative of the Guelph Community Health Centre — is tapping into the culinary tourism trend with its taste•real brand, which was officially launched at the Guelph Wellington Local Food Fest, held Sunday at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre.

“Agriculture is part of our history and heritage and we need to showcase it more,” said Gayl Creutzberg, outreach co-ordinator for taste•real. “There are lots of reasons to come to the region. Great food, locally grown and carefully prepared, is one more.”

The initiative begins with the local food map of member-organizations — everything from farms that are open to the public, pick-your-own places, restaurants and B&Bs that feature locally sourced food, farmers’ markets, greenhouses, and retailers.

Taste•real has linked with Guelph fab 5, a marketing partnership of Guelph’s well-loved festivals: the Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, Hillside Festival, the Guelph Jazz Festival, Eden Mills Writers’ Festival, and the Festival of Moving Media.

Creutzberg said she hopes visitors who are coming for a festival will check out taste•real restaurants and destinations while in the area. Conversely, she hopes those who come following the culinary trail will check out the festivals and other attractions that make Guelph and Wellington unique.

“It’s farms, it’s restaurants, greenhouses, kitchen stores, hotels and B&Bs (bed and breakfasts),” she said. “There’s been a real coming together over this.”

Sunday’s local food festival was testament to that.

Tours of the Ignatius Centre showed food in the field — the outcome of many private and community projects that happen on the expansive property.

A walk through the marketplace featured booth after booth of produce grown at local farms and food-related products sold at local businesses.

And then there were the local restaurants, cooking up delicious, locally sourced food for visitors to sample.

“I care about locally grown, yes, especially since having kids,” said Shannon Noble of Guelph, who attended the event for the first time with her husband and two small children. “We try to eat local, organic food. It’s nice to come to this and find out what’s in the area.”

There were cooking demonstrations and even one on pickling and making jam. There were workshops on agriculture-related topics, such as how to keep a backyard chicken coop, or how to become a hobby beekeeper.

Some 1,800 people were expected to attend.

Maureen Comartin, of Windsor, was visiting family in Guelph and they all went to the food festival.

“We buy local in Essex County and my daughter buys local in Guelph. I think it’s a smart idea,” she said. “It’s certainly a wonderful atmosphere at the Ignatius Centre.”

There is a new website that can help you find you food and help others too! Real Time Farms helps you understand where your food comes from. You can learn about farms in your area, and see where you can get their goods at farmers markets, farm stands, and locally sourced restaurants around you.

Discover.

• Farmers markets and farm stands near you
• What’s fresh near you in real time! Find what produce, pantry goods, and plants are available now!
• Locally sourced restaurants near you

Participate.

• Share pictures of your local farmers markets and farm stands by posting them online or emailing them to share@realtimefarms.com.
• Add and/or edit information on your local farmers markets and farms.
• Send feedback to feedback@realtimefarms.com or online.

How cool is that!

2010 Guelph Organic Conference A Big Success

Guelph, February 17, 2010

January’s just-completed Guelph Conference drew another strong crowd approaching 1800 people. With 155 Expo booths, a wide array of farmers, traders & students foraged the show for organic samples. Meetings, food events, trainings & AGM’s spanned 5 days.

The activity whirlwind included close to 200 guests at the Organic Dinner; a large Keynote guest audience; an estimated 425 Expo booth participants; incredible volunteer efforts; a key Sunday a.m. Organic Trader meeting; several spontaneous organic farmer training & advocacy meetings.

Highlights for attendees included the Food Inc. showing in downtown Guelph hosted by organic yogurt giant, Stonyfield Farm’s Gary Hirshberg. Margaret Webb’s ‘Think Big Canada’ Keynote presentation packed the house.

Vermont success story, Pete Johnson and partner/co-presenter Meg Gardner of Pete’s Greens’ talk on organic market gardens was a sold out workshop of 100+ registrants. The University Centre was vibrant and lively on Saturday and Sunday with a vast array of organic trading companies & non-profits exhibiting at the Expo. The show drew a lot of inquisitive consumers this year, proving that the organic business is really drawing the attention of the mainstream. The trade show is ideal for consumers to meet organic suppliers in person.

One particularly exciting highlight of the day was the presentation of a $5000 cheque to Ann Clark and the University of Guelph’s Organic Agriculture Program by Organic Advocates/Feast of Fields, a non-profit organization of organic producers, environmentally concerned chefs, food professionals, and enlightened consumers.

By far, the most popular workshops in 2010 were the ‘Organic Market Managers’ & ‘New Farmer Panel’. Many attendees and organizers felt that the time allowed was only enough to graze the surface of the depth of the issues.

Referring to the Organic Farmers Market Networking room, a popular multi-booth display and demonstration room, Carrie Ann Watson stated “As a long-time organic market supporter and organizer, this Networking Room was a fabulous idea. I think its popularity was a remarkable example of the booming desire to strengthen the connection between our food, our environment and the people who grow it.”

Everyone involved – the many volunteers, speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, and an extremely dedicated staff, deserve high praise for contributing to a very successful event. Conference Manager, Tomas Nimmo in his humble fashion commented, “Every year this show attracts such an exciting crowd that you know you’re at Organic Central. Guelph 2010 met all my goals.”

A sincere thanks to all the non-profit organizers of the 29th Guelph Conference:

• Canadian Health Food Association
• Canadian Organic Growers
• CSI – Centre For Systems Integration
• Ecocert Canada
• Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario
• International Organic Inspectors Association
• National Farmers Union
• Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs
• OCIA-International
• Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada
• Organic Council of Ontario
• Organic Trade Association In Canada
• ProCert Organic Systems
• Quality Assurance International
• Resource Efficient Agricultural Production
• Society For Biodynamic Farming & Gardening In Ontario
• University of Guelph Organic Agriculture Program

For a copy of the Conference Proceedings including a summary of the 35-workshops and a “guide to organic marketers” trader list, please mail a cheque payable to ‘Organic Conference’. Organic Conference, Box 116, Collingwood, Ontario, L9Y 3Z4. $10 postpaid to Canada or $15 to the U.S.

Watch for news of the 30th Annual Conference, late January, 2011 at the Guelph University Centre.

Receiving a welcome $5000 donation.

Photo Caption: Receiving a welcome $5000 donation. Posing for the photo: students of the Organic Agricultural Program; holding the cheque from left to right Feast of Fields chair Daniel Gilbert, Professor Ann Clark, Conference Manager Tomas Nimmo.

Photo credit: © 2010 Heather Osborn, Crave Images.