Cooking with local ingredients

Eating food that you are aware of where it comes from is increasingly something many are aspiring to.

At least that was the contention of Bev Yaschuk who gave a series of demonstrations at the Grain Millers Harvest Showdown under the common theme of ‘Cooking with Local Foods’.

“It’s all the rage right now,” she said. “People want to kno w where their food comes from, where it’s produced.”

Yaschuk said there are many options for consumers to connect with local producers directly or to find locally processed foods to ensure “you’re taking home the best possible products.”

That said the onus is on the consumer to build the connections, said Yaschuk, encouraging those taking in a presentation Friday to “find a local producer you really like.

Such relationships provide the consumer with direct knowledge of where their food comes from, but also provides farm producers with a local market.

“They, (producers), depend on us,” said Yaschuk. “… So shop around where you live. You’ll be surprised by what you find.”

The trend is often referred to as Farm-to-Table, and Yaschuk said the closer to the farm-gate one can purchase their food the less likely the food to have had preservatives added.

“If you’re taking time in the kitchen … You should be working with local producers,” she said.

Yaschuk said producers take pride in what they grow.

“They’re very proud of what they do, and we should support that,” she said.

The same philosophy in providing food to the table that the consumer knows where it comes from has meant more people getting back to gardening. Yaschuk said having spent some time this year in Toronto she said saw the trend first hand.

“People there are really into this movement,” she said, adding tomato plants growing in pots, and small herb gardens on windowsills are all over the city.

Yaschuk said locally she has found sources of a number of foods direct from producers, or processed locally, ranging from unpasteurized honey, rolled oats, mustards, flax oil and meal, and dry peas.

In addition to being locally available, Yaschuk said they are often healthy choices as well.

“The benefits of flax, the list is long,” she noted as an example.

And in the case of raw honey no enzymes are killed by the pasteurization process, said Yaschuk.