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!

Recipe: Tomato Confit

Wish you could store all those ripe roma tomatoes for another day, but the thought of canning repels you? Try roasting them. It's super easy, and so tasty. The roasted tomatoes, or "tomato confit", will keep in the fridge for at least a week, and freezes well.

I used the instructions on the blog Chocolate & Zucchini, but didn't include the chili flakes or herbs. When packing the confit into jars, I layered with roasted garlic since I had it on-hand.

The confit has been incredible in sandwiches, omlettes, pasta, or even on their own. My favourite, though, is using the confit in a caprese salad. One slice of roasted tomato, one slice of buffalo mozzarella, one fresh basil leaf, salt, pepper, a glug of olive oil... there's nothing quite like it.

The Dark Side of Local Food

Like most Canadians, I watched last Sunday's Olympic men's hockey final, and celebrated at the top of my lungs in the company of strangers when Canada took the gold medal from the US in overtime. And like most Canadians, I felt proud to be Canadian.



That feeling was short-lived. Today, I watched a short NFB documentary called "El Contrato" (2003). This film exposes the hardship of thousands of seasonal Mexican migrant workers, who come to the town of Leamington, in Ontario, to work on tomato greenhouse farms. Life at home in Mexico is difficult, so they take the job in Canada through the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP), to support their family. Unbeknownst to them, they enter a contract into slavery:

• Exemptions from basic workers rights --- 10-hour work days, 7-day work weeks, without holiday or overtime pay
• Physical and verbal abuse --- from their employer, and the Leamington community
  
• Poor living conditions
• Heavy income taxes --- over 25% of their salary goes to CPP and EI, even though they cannot access these benefits
• Unsafe work --- such as spraying pesticides without wearing protection
• Threats of deportation
• Humiliation --- their employers call them "little donkeys", and call themselves "their owners"
• Difficulty in accessing health care --- even in cases of severe workplace accident events
• Resistance to organizing --- in Ontario, farm unions are illegal (though this may change soon, see "Fraser v Ontario")
  
• A deaf ear from the Mexican consolate --- they protect the growers, not the workers
  

In fact, the film notes that the workers share something in common: they are all married men with strong family ties and little to no education. These are the kind of workers that won't stick around to become Canadian citizens. Clearly, being separated from their families causes great emotional stress for these workers, and many promise they won't return next year. But still, many of them do return, in the absence of other options.

My concern is that with the local food movement increasing in force, these farms are only going to get bigger, and the issue more widespread.

CALL-TO-ACTION: What can we do to help? Here are some ideas:

1. Contact your MP to demand rights for migrant farm workers. Justice for Migrant Workers has a mock petition letter that you can use.
   
2. Contact Heinz (which uses Leamington tomatoes, and even has a Leamington factory). Tell them that you'll stop buying their products until they support migrant workers rights in Canada.
   
3. Contact the film director and/or TVO (who aired the movie) to show your support. Both were threatened with legal action by the town of Leamington and the tomato growers.
4. Support the cause. Befriend Justice for Migrant Workers, join a rally/march, get educated, spread the word.

How about some human rights to go with those 14 gold Olympic medals, Canada?

Haiku

Sick tomato plant.

What was green and growing is

Now yellow-purple.

Tomato Love

My first tomato ripened last week. One yellow cherry tomato, to be exact. Though it's encouraging to see some edibles flourishing in the garden, I feel like a cheated a little... this tomato was on the plant when I bought it. In my own defense, it was small and green at the time. So I did bring it to maturity, I guess. I took about a zillion photos of the lil' guy... my own collection of tomato porn.

In case you're wondering, the tomato plants I grew from seed are a pretty pathetic lot. Most of them died some way or another, and of the 2 that I transplanted, they haven't grown at all in a month. To give you some persective, they are only about 1 or 2 inches tall as it is.