Having trouble figuring out local replacements for cane sugar and olive oil? Here’s a quick tipsheet for tracking down the basics.
SWEETENER Who needs white sugar from sugar cane shipped in from South or Central America when we’ve got tons of local honey (like organic Hockley Honey or Dutchman’s Gold, both from under 80 kilometres away)? Or tasty maple syrup like Voisin’s from Formosa. Just stay away from corn syrup – it’s totally GMO.
FLOUR/GRAINS For Ontario-grown flour, barley, oats and cornmeal, see Oak Manor Farms (even Loblaws carries it). Hempola has flour, too.
OIL/VINEGAR Need a little something to dress up a salad or sauté your greens in? Check out cold-pressed Hempola oils, Niagara Vinegar’s grape seed oil and Pristine Gourmet’s all-Canadian field-to-table wine vinegars, tamari and cold-pressed oils.
SALT Did you know that the world’s largest salt mine is in Goderich, Ontario? Sifto runs it. Okay, so basic table salt is way more refined than sea salt and lacks the trace minerals, but, hey, it’s 100-mile.
TEA/COFFEE (sort of) If roasted dandelion coffee doesn’t appeal to you, check out the Algonquin Tea Company, which hand-harvests wild-crafted herbs, often by canoe or via organic permaculture forest gardening at the gates of Algonquin Park.
JUICE Forget Tropicana – go for Black River’s fresh-pressed Ontario pear, cherry and organic apple juice and Filsinger’s Organic apple cider from Ayton.
NUTS Kernal, the largest peanut grower in Canada, is about 150 kilometres away, in Vittoria. The company sells its low-spray, GMO-free nuts and nut butters to Culinarium on Mount Pleasant and Fresh From the Farm on Donlands. You can also chomp on Kernal’s nuts at places like the Gladstone, the Drake and the Ceili Cottage.
