CSA and the Agriculture Support Collective: Remembering the Times

October 28th was our last Plan B CSA box delivery date. Actually, Oct 14th was the official end date for the summer share, but because it came on so suddenly and unexpectedly, I ordered one fall share to soften the blow.

The program went smashingly. Many people were interested in participating, but for 5 of us, our curiosity and appetite took us further, and we formed an Agricultural Support collective and signed up for CSA summer share program. It took a few weeks to figure out the delivery system, having some complications due to the fact that we live in an apartment building that does not have a live person on-site to receive shipments. But with some cooperation and coordination, we all made it work. In the end, we received a summertime's worth of fresh, local, organic fruits and vegetables; the ingredients for an endless number of great meals and memories.

My final CSA box contained tomatoes, red onions, broccoli, boston lettuce, arugula, shiitake mushrooms, apples, shanghai bok choy, leeks and butternut squash.

This transformed into:

Kimchi noodle soup with steamed bok choy
Arugula, tomato and shiitake mushrooms with pasta
Boston lettuce and avocado salad with lime dressing
Tomato and cheese sandwiches
Broccoli, leek and smoked cheddar cheese penne casserole
Vegan, gluten-free apple pancakes
Leek and butternut squash soup (photographed with freshly crocheted red baby booties, *ahemshamelessselfpromotion*)

Thank you, Plan B and Agricultural Support Collective, for making this happen!

Les Pommes de Nuit Blanche

This past weekend was Toronto's 5th annual Nuit Blanche event. Being a night-owl and creative type, the idea of a dusk-to-dawn massive public art-party event naturally excites me. And when I received Not Far From The Tree's call for volunteers for their "Cider Making Spectacle" as part of the event, I couldn't help but join in on the fun.

I showed up at 3:30am at the Gladstone Hotel's Art Bar, along with 3 other volunteers. For the event, Not Far From The Tree brought in 400 lbs of apples, which was a small portion of the thousands of pounds of fruit they collect from trees around the city each year. For the last 3 hours of the event, we turned these unloved apples into steamy hot cider, which sold for $2 per sample.

The cider-making process was simple, but labour intensive:

Wash apples. Peel-off skin (using neat-o peeling device). Slice into quarters.













Crank slices through manual grinder.















Press. Collect cider (i.e. unfiltered juice).






















Heat with cinnamon sticks. Pour into little cups, and sell.






















By 6:30am, our little operation/performance/installation served out many little cups of cider, and a little cider-making know-how, to many happy people.

Apple Lifesavers

Eating locally in Toronto means a helluva lot of root cellar fruits and vegetables in the winter. I order at least one Good Food Box every week, and each week since late last year, I receive a bag of apples in my box. Now don't get me wrong... I love me my Good Food Box, and I have nothing against apples. But an apple a day, sometimes even 2 apples a day, make me go crazy. Especially those soft, crumbly apples. Gross.

I've been trying to think of ways to eat apples in everything. Apples in salad, apples in soup, apples in breakfast porridge. But still, the apples kept-a-comin', and I just couldn't eat them as fast as I was getting them. But then...

I took a trip to the Plan B farm in Hamilton, and it seemed they had the same "problem". But they thought of one idea that I hadn't: dried apple rings.

I cut up a dozen apples into crosswise, even slices, and removed the cores and bruised parts. The slices were laid out on baking sheets, and were placed in the oven on 150-200F for several hours. The drying process lasted about 3 days, since I didn't want to have the oven on when I wasn't at home, but it could easily be done in one continuous drying session. The slices were checked every now and again to get the right dryness.

After I had my apple rings, eating 2 or 3 apples a day was a walk in the park. Hey apples, is that all you got?