The OCB is a passionate group of 29 brewers members who are dedicated to making great tasting, superior, local beer with exceptional ingredients from throughout Ontario. There are over 150 premium beers handcrafted around the Ottawa Valley, onward to Muskoka and though to Niagara and Waterloo.

Craft Beer Week will focus on the theme “Your First Time” and encourage the new explorers of craft beers to try the many local beer flavours that are available through the 29 member strong breweries. There will be of beer themed festivities including; a Father’s Day celebrations, BBQ’s, education sessions, Meet The Makers series as well as several tasting opportunities at various pubs and restaurants throughout the province.

If areas or individuals have additional event ideas, they are encouraged to email
the Ontario Craft Brewers or contact their local craft brewery.

The first round of events listings will be posted on the ocbweek.ca beginning May 1, 2012.

Upon arrival, I was pleasantly surprised to find the Harbour House offered free underground parking (I arrived in the rain). Their guest lobby felt like I had walked into my parents living room – a fire blazing, bookcases filled with literary treasures, a computer station, big comfy couches and, wine and cheese. Correct – wine and cheese! Every evening (4pm to 6pm) guests at the Harbour House are treated to complimentary wine and cheese. The hotel partners with a different winery each month to showcase the wines of the region – brilliant!

I was escorted to my room and given all the details I needed to know on how to use my jacuzzi tub, turn the fire on and use the clock radio with my iphone docking station – standard amenities in all 31 of their guest rooms!

At 6:15 I met my colleague in the lobby where the hotel’s concierge shuttled us over to their sister property the Charles Inn for our 6:30 dinner reservation (how much do I love that they have a shuttle service!). The dining room at the Charles Inn is beautiful – high ceilings, original wood work, several fireplaces – cozy and intimate. Our server, Allen, recommended the tasting menu and we quickly decided that it was the way to go – we also opted to take the local wine pairings.

Dinner was delicious – the six courses were perfectly portioned. We started with a glass Konzelmann’s Sparkling Riesling – a lovely pairing with the jerusalem artichoke soup amuse. The first course was a roasted beet salad with Woolwich Diary Goat Cheese – always a favourite of mine! It was paired with a Megalomaniac Riesling. Chef Steve Sperling infused a taste of Canada into the menu with a seared Quebec fois gras dish that was paired perfectly with a Daniel Lenko Late Harvest Vidal. A fricassee of white beans with chorizo sausage was the base for the halibut dish that was paired with Stoney Ridge Chardonnay. My favourite dish was the Lewis Farm roasted loin of lamb paired with Southbrook ’07 Cabernet Merlot. With little room left for the cheese course I had a nibble and saved myself for the chocolate volcano dessert paired with Between the Lines Cab Franc Icewine – it was a delightful finish to a fabulous meal!

The next morning, after a restful sleep in my king size bed (always a treat to have so much space) and a good soak in the jacuzzi tub, I started my day by having breakfast with Sales & Marketing Director for Niagara’s Finest Inns – Ian Shulman. Much to my delight (and theirs) they received the Company of the Year award the night before at the Spirit of Niagara Awards Ceremony. The breakfast buffet (included with every stay) was delightful – they offer fresh fruit, preserves, homemade granola, a sausage and egg casserole, smoked salmon, cheeses and a variety of breads.

While the Harbour House boasts the title of one of Canada’s top 25 places to stay by TripAdvisor, the property and it’s services really does speak for itself. They’ve thought of everything little thing you need to enjoy an escape from the everyday. They have the Shaw Spa with Vinotherapy services, great getaway packages includes the “Just say yes” package and “A taste of the good life” and they are pet friendly!

I look forward to coming back to Niagara-on-the-Lake and discovering more – I’ll definitely be back to Niagara’s Finest Inns – indeed!

Since opening in 2002, King Brewery has been enjoying great success with critics and beer lovers alike with their old world brewing nature and local practices.  It offers an unprecedented combination – the craftsmanship and heritage of Old World brewing, combined with the freshness of a local product. With it’s leading edge thinking and technology, King continues to produce beer that rivals the best imports in both taste and quality.

To find out more about King Brewery, visit: The Beer Barons Website!

 King Brewery is a Proud Ontario Craft Brewer!

Culinary Tourists are motivated by authentic experiences when traveling. This is true whether it’s a tourist within our own Province or from the other side of the globe. One of the most powerful contributors to a truly authentic travel experience is local food and drink. They tell the local story with incredible depth, engaging all of the 5 senses. That is what makes it so memorable.

The study just released by the Wine Council of Ontario, “Study of the Ontario Economic Impact of Ontario VQA Wines”, demonstrates the growing love for Ontario Wines and its positive effects on the economy.

In just 4 years VQA Wine sales in Ontario have increased by 50%. The economic value-added generated by the Ontario VQA wine industry was estimated to be approximately $191 million. This growth has led to the creation of 1300 additional jobs in the last 4 years.

Those outside of the Province are enjoying our wine as well. Exports of VQA wines from Ontario have grown by 30% during the past decade and generated $37M in sales in 2010.
Ontario’s VQA wine industry now exports to more than 20 countries around the world.

Not surprisingly, wine tourism is becoming an increasingly important factor in the economy. Wine tourism in Ontario is expected to grow by 20% in the Canadian market and 28% in the American market by 2025.

Over 1 million people visit the Province’s wineries each year.

Let’s raise a glass of Ontario VQA to that!

We welcome contributions from scholars, activists, artists, advocates, government staff and food and agriculture practitioners and expect the meeting to have wide appeal across the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Abstracts due: March 16 2012

Click HERE for online submission of abstracts and registration!

Please join us for the 2012 Annual Conference of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, University of Toronto

Thursday October 4 – Sunday, October 7, 2012

Join them on Facebook  HERE! or Follow them on Twitter – #DiasporicFoodways

Description:
This conference seeks to address questions surrounding the dynamics of the food ‘we’ eat, the ways in which ‘we’ eat, the meaning ‘we’ give to eating, and the effect of eating in a transnational world. Recognizing that culinary culture is central to diasporic identifications, the focus is on the place of food in the enduring habits, rituals, and everyday practices that are collectively used to produce and sustain shared senses of cultural identity. Yet even as it does this work, food and the practices of production, preparation and consumption that revolve around it, cannot help but be drawn into wider cultures and cultural politics of consumption increasingly grounded in the pursuit of qualities of difference, acts of distinction and questions of justice. This focus on food, cooking, and eating in diaspora and its role in connecting and changing peoples, places, tastes, and sensibilities around the world yields insight not only to substances that people consider essential to the maintenance of identity, but to the production of new cultural political formations in a transnational world and to the role of cultural (re)production in the expansion of consumption under contemporary capitalism. A focus on food also reveals the dynamic role of historical pathways in understanding cultural formations as they have existed through time, and in positioning the present as a moment in a continuing process of structured mobility that directs the movement of people, what they eat, and how they understand themselves and the world around them. It also yields insight into the multiple places and ways in which food assumes value and how that value is often reliant upon the continued reproduction of ties that bind people, place, and practice across space and time. A great deal of academic work explores this interplay of food, practice, identity and subject formation, much of it bound together by a commitment that through a fuller understanding of those relations, we better understand ourselves, our pasts, and the complexities of the spaces and lives we inhabit and enact in a transnational world. This conference seeks to enhance that understanding.

Contact and More Information:
More information on the conference can be found on the Diasporic Foodways blog.

Please address organizational questions to rebecca.oneill@utoronto.ca with the subject line “Food Conference”

Submitting abstracts:
We welcome contributions from scholars, activists, artists, advocates, government staff and food and agriculture practitioners and expect the meeting to have wide appeal across the Humanities and Social Sciences. Suggestions for papers, panel proposals, roundtables, posters and workshops should speak directly to the theme of the conference and can align with, but are not limited to, the examples of potential panels provided below.

To access the submissions page, you need to register for an account. Click on ‘Log In’ in the menu bar. This will prompt you to create an account. After you create an account you will be able to log in, submit abstracts, register (beginning late April), view accepted abstracts, and access the conference program.Abstradt will be reviewed and notifications of acceptance sent out by mid-April.

a.) Paper Panels: Panel proposals should consist of four papers addressing a common theme. Panel abstracts should include title and a 250 word (max) description, the names and affiliations of presenters, titles and abstracts of papers in the panel. Individual panelists are also required to submit their abstracts separately. They should indicate in a supplementary statement that the paper is attached to a panel and the title of the panel.

b.) Papers: Abstracts should be 250 words (max). If the paper is part of an organized panel, please indicate that and include the name of the panel in a brief (50 word max) statement. Each paper is allowed 20 minutes for presentation and discussion.

c.) Round Table Panels: We welcome proposals for round table discussions with a maximum of five participants. These should be oriented around a common theme and may include substantive audience dialogue. Abstracts (350 word max) should describe the theme of the session, the names and affiliations of participants and the format of the panel.

d.) Posters and Visual Exhibitions: Sessions should consist of visual material (posters, art, photography) displayed for viewing with opportunities for individual discussion with the authors/artists. Abstracts (250 word max) should include a description of the work and its relevance to the theme of the conference.

e.) Workshops: proposals (400 words max) should describe the theme of the workshop, its relevance to the theme of the conference, the intended duration (90 minutes or 180 minutes) and equipment/space requirements.

f.) Films: Abstracts (250 words max) should describe the film, its relevance to the theme of the conference, include the film length, and identify any special screening requirements.

g.) Other: This category is for types of presentations that are not covered by the above. Please submit a 250 word description of what you envision under the category “Other”.

Submitting Papers: We anticipate that a number of publications will arise from the conference in the form of an edited volume and special journal issues. Following the reviw of abstracts, participants interested in having papers considered for inclusion in conference related volumes will be asked to submit full papers online, before Sept. 16 at: http://ocs.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/CDTS/foodways/.

Registration: Please note that online registration will begin in late April, following the review of abstracts.

Possible Topics and Areas of Interest:

• The Transnational Kitchen: the role of food ‘professionals’ as transnational agents in shaping new foods, sourcing new ingredients, identifying and incorporating new ingredients and trends in preparation.

• The Syncretic Pot: Cooking in Transnational Spaces. The dynamics of foodpreparation in transnational spaces and the place of cooking in negotiating shared senses of diasporic identity.

• Transnational Food Spaces: A consideration of the kitchen, the dining room, the grocery store, the garden, the café, the restaurant, the school and the workplace as sites of transculturation, spaces in which disparate representations of ‘the other’ (and ‘other foods’) are encountered, and the reconfigurations of food, eating and identity that result from these encounters.

• The Diasporic Garden: explorations of the various modes and mechanisms of production and distribution required to supply the products integral to the social and commercial production of foodstuffs for diasporic communities; including the often-invisible spaces of backyard gardens, community farms, ethnic markets, etc.

• Am I What I Eat? Transnational Flows, Food and Constructs of Authenticity: Questioning the role of authenticity in sanctioning foodstuffs and how constructs and conceptions of ‘the authentic self’ change as people strive (and often fail) to reproduce ‘authentic’ cuisines.

• Affective Bodies at the Transnational Table: Considerations of the relations between the senses, affect, food, manners and etiquette and the disciplining effect of eating in embodying and performing the qualities integral to diasporic identifications.

• Culinary Foodways: Charting the adaptation, substitution, and indigenization of ingredients, foodstuffs, and methods of preparation across time and space.

• Food Memories: Considering the work performed by food in the reproduction of sociality, myth and ritual and practice that are core to maintaining the boundaries of diasporic communities and constructs of ‘home’, ‘away’, and ‘return’.

• The Food Dialogues: Exploration of the various channels (e. g., personal correspondence, popular culture, media, professional associations, social movements) through which the transformation of diet becomes a spatially iterative process.

• Enclave Eating and Cosmo-Multiculturalism: questions of the degree to which the ready availability of diasporic foodstuffs encourages or permits a ‘lazy’ engagement with multi-culturalism in which eating ‘the foreign’ or ‘the exotic’ is focused on the production of a distinctive self and displaces other more substantive or productive forms of engagement with difference.

• Fixing Food –In what ways are diasporic foods essentialized and does the necessity of maintaining “exotic” or “authentic” foodscapes produce a distinct diasporic burden, acting to fix migrant culinary cultures – with what outcomes and effects for foods and the creativity of their makers?

• A Doner Kebab with ‘the Works’ – identifying why and through what historical processes food becomes a mediator of ethnic identities produced in diasporic contexts.

• Where’s Little India? – a consideration of the role of food in the development of distinct “ethnic quarters”, the historical conditions in which such enclaves are produced and with what consequences for peoples working and living in those enclaves?

Local Arrangements and Organizing Committee (University of Toronto)

Ken MacDonald, Chair (Geography, CDTS)
Antonela Arhin ( CDTS)
Dan Bender (History)
Ben Liu (Centre for Community Partnerships; Geography)
Alexandra Guerson (History)
Rebecca O’Neill (History)
Kevin O’Neill (Religious Studies; CDTS)
Ato Quayson (English; CDTS)
Anna Shternshis (Germanic Languages; Jewish Studies; CDTS)
Nick Terpstra (History; CDTS)

Advisory Committee

Lauren Baker (Toronto Food Policy Council)
Simone Cinotto, (UNISG, Pollenzo, Italy)
Ian Cook (Geography, Exeter)
Michaeline Crichlow (Sociology, Duke)
Harriet Friedmann (Geography, Toronto)
Rick Halpern (History, Toronto)
Josee Johnston (Sociology Toronto)
Minelle Mahtani (Geography and Program in Journalism, Toronto)
Sidney Mintz (Anthropology, Johns Hopkins)
Jeffrey Pilcher (History, Minnesota)
Krishnendu Ray (Food Studies, NYU)
Eleanor Sterling (Director, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History; Columbia University)
Penny Van Esterik (Anthropology, York)
Rick Wilk (Anthropology, Indiana)

Photo: Jesse Milns for BlogTo

Well, let’s say you enjoy a banana a day for breakfast. This banana makes its trip from warm climate countries like Colombia or Costa Rica to your very own table. As the price of oil rises, it becomes increasingly more expensive to ship that banana to your home; add this to the amount of people in the rest of the world bidding for that same banana, and the political instability surrounding many countries in the global south and the result is: a very unstable, expensive, and unsustainable food supply system.

Before you begin to defend your position and, no pun intended, ‘go bananas’ about it, let’s put our discussion into context. The purpose of this post is not to convert you into a ‘locavore’, but simply to inform you about issues affecting you and people that live within 100 miles from you (this applies to every urban dweller around the world).

You don’t eat bananas? How about drinking coffee? How about those delicious mangoes in your fruit salad? The list can go on and on. Food scarcity is a reality that afflicts the whole world, particularly in urban areas where ‘urban sprawl’ has had severe consequences on the portion of land destined for agricultural processes. As cities expand beyond their borders due to their increasing population, agricultural development loses territory against urban development.

When urban concentrations grow, so does their demand for food supply and given the limited availability of available fertile land for food production, the only choice is to import produce and other food ingredients. While many times this might seem like the ‘right thing to do’ from an economic perspective, this decision carries several consequences, such as: the loss of employment opportunities for locals, the loss of opportunity to develop healthy local industries, degradation and/or neglect of conservation areas and green belts, lack of education on the importance of local farming initiatives, and loss of recreation and tourism opportunities (such as agri-tourism and ecotourism).  The magnitude of the negative economic, social, and environmental impacts of a non-local food supply chain is immeasurable.

The Greater Toronto Area Agricultural Action Committee has prepared the Golden Horseshoe Agriculture & Agri-Food Strategy. Part of that strategy is the Food & Farming: An Action Plan 2021. This plan envisions the fastest growing region in Canada: the Golden Horseshoe, creating a healthy and sustainable agricultural industry and branching sectors. The success of this plan and its goals are directly related to the level of public awareness on this issue.  You can be part of  this plan by supporting local farmers and producers in your community.

The Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance is strongly committed to being a resource for food policy and a sustainable culinary industry.

Stay tuned for more thought-provoking posts!

For more information on the Greater Toronto Area Agricultural Action Committee, please visit their website: http://gtaaac.ca/

Chefs Jason Parsons and Frank Dodd

Set up in the pressing facility on the farm, incredibly talented Chefs Jason Parsons of Peller Estates and Frank Dodd of Hillebrand transformed the Icewine into sumptuous dishes.

Imagine French toast made with Icewine infused into the homemade dough, freshly baked and finished with Peller Reisling pears.
Gorgeous cassoulet, pulled pork and salmon were also on the menu, all of which incorporated Icewine into the preparations.
All were perfectly paired with Hillebrand’s Truis Brut Sparkling Wine as well as the Showcase Reisling Icewine.
Most certainly a meal to remember!
Many of the dishes that I enjoyed are available at Hillebrand and Peller Estates Wineries year round. There may be some seasonal adjustments as both chefs are highly committed to the freshest, seasonal and local products.
Explore the many joys of Icewine yourself with tastings, tours and most definitely the food throughout Niagara on the Lake.
Of course there’s always something delicious happening in the Niagara region. The Wineries of Niagara on the Lake and Wine Country Ontario are just two great sources for information in the region.

Selected as the Gold Metal winner at the 10^th annual Pinot Noir Shootout in California, Dan Sullivan was gracious to sit down with me to talk about his most recent achievement, his 2009 Pinot Noir, Prince Edward County’s terroir and his goals for the future.

OCTA: Including this great win for your vineyard, you’ve also been invited to San Francisco, California to present your wine and to moderate a workshop there. Congratulations.

DS: Thank you. The gold is being awarded through Pinot Noir Shootout. There were approximately 450 entrants with 40 wineries invited to pour at a blind tasting in San Francisco.  It’s a great opportunity to get feedback on the wine’s flavour profiles as well as talk about the Prince Edward County wine region.

OCTA: Could you help describe the terroir of the Prince Edward County wine region?

DS: The Hillier area specifically has the Hillier Clay Limestone Soil. It’s calciferous. The limestone decomposes into the clay leaving nutrients and good drainage.
Something that Pinot Noir loves.

OCTA: There are many areas around the world growing Pinot Noir can you help to explain what is making Ontario and most specifically Prince Edward County such a special region for this variety?

DS: Along with the soil, the region is in a climate temperate band. We are close to the lake and Chardonnay and Pinot Noir stands up very nicely. Full of ripe, fresh fruit and mineral, the cooler climates creates less alcohol for elegant flavour development.

OCTA: Even with perfect conditions, winemaking is a true skill; can you share any of your secrets that go into your award winning Pinot Noir?

DS: This was my eighth crush at Rosehall Run but I’ve been making wine since 1995 with other wineries. Being in the County for over a decade, I’m getting a good handle on the region. I don’t impose on the wine, letting the terroir through.

OCTA: You were one of the earlier settlers in the County. How did you first discover the terroir and decide to plant there?

DS: After originally looking in Niagara, I visited Prince Edward County when I’d heard that there were people growing grapes. I looked at the soil and noticed that the qualities were like that in France. My wife Lynn and I put an offer in on our property in October 2000 and we never looked back.

OCTA: Prince Edward County is still a young region. What’s making the area stand out and get noticed so quickly?

DS: I make wine that shows it’s authentic expression. Wine that shows where it came from and who made it.  I am part of a passionate group of wine makers. We all offer the same thing and that’s the greatest wine we can possibly produce to showcase the terroir of Prince Edward County.

OCTA: Now that you’ve achieved this honor of Gold, what are some of your goals for the year ahead?

DS: My goal is to continue to present what Rosehall Run is capable of. I would like to create more exposure for the County as an international region.

Prior to winning the Gold, Rosehall Run’s Pinot Noir has been described as one of “Six Wines that Define Canada’s Future”. The ‘07 Pinot Noir Rosehall Vineyard was the first Canadian Wine Access Gold Medal for a Prince Edward County Pinot, and last year the 2008 Pinot Noir was awarded Silver at the Pinot Noir Shootout in California.

On February 25^th, Dan will be presenting his award winning 2009 Pinot Noir and moderating a Pinot Noir workshop at the Shootout Summit, focusing on Appellation. Dan will describe the distinct terroir and unique wine culture that has blossomed in Prince Edward County in the past 10 years.

Start it off right at The Fairmont Royal York Hotel!  As Part of Social Media Week Toronto (#SMWTO), join OCTA Executive Director Rebecca LeHeup, Spotlight Toronto’s Duresh Doss, Jamie Drummond of Good Food Revolution and Moderator, Melanie Coates for a breakfast and panel discussion.

How to ‘steak’ your claim as a real #foodie!  This aphrodisiac breakfast Valentine’s Day breakfast introduces the Fairmont Royal York’s new Executive Chef, Collin Thornton–plus features a delicious panel of Toronto Food Influencers!

The Menu:

APPETIZER
Mingle over foods of love

AMUSE BOUCHE
Introducing
Collin Thornton, Executive Chef
The Fairmont Royal York
@chefcthornton

MAIN
Panelists: how they’ve carved their
own #foodie niche

SWEETS
TWEET Challenge:
Valentine suggestions and
romantic breakfast tips

Tuesday February 14, 2012 from 7:30 am to 9:00 am in Ballroom, C Floor of the Fairmont Royal York Hotel
100 Front St. West, Toronto
www.radioroyalyork.ca
@fairmontRYH

Excitement junkies can ski, snow shoe or take a ride on The Ridge Runner–a brand new coaster weaving through the woods up and down the mountain.  The rider controlled coaster can reach up to 45km an hour if you let it! Nature lovers can escape to Metcalfe Park or the Scenic Caves on snow shoes, casing deer tracks amongst frozen apple trees with Free Spirit Tours.  Discover local stories like I did by stopping your trek on the ridge look out, 1800m above see level, for a cup of local hot apple cider with your guide.  Did you know that some of the white cedars growing on the ridge are over 1600 years old? Or that skunks walk differently then squirrels, making for completely different and recognizable tracks?

For those of us looking to slow down, there’s The Scandinave Spa or the cornucopia of Trail restaurants like Oliver & Bonacini Cafe Grill serving up apple treats.  Sit in steam rooms or hot baths and finish off with mugs of spicy hot apple tea at the spa.  Discover one of the hundreds varieties of apples in local baked goods–like pie! I personally recommend the Ravenna General Store’s baked goods.  Apple tart or butter tart may have been the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make!

After your explorations, head to one of the local vineyards or cideries. The Georgian Hills Winery tasting room is nestled perfectly at Victoria Corners with a view of their vineyards and the surrounding hills.  Look out their window and you can glimpse of Georgian Bay to the north.  As the perfect ‘apres’ to snow shoeing, they offer a special tasting called “Perfect Pairings”–5 wines paired with local cheeses, pate, and fruits.  Their Ida Red ‘Frozen to the Core’ wine perfectly paired with spicy curried nuts from Cafe Chartruese is an apple-y experience definitely not to be missed.  Sweet, but fresh with that acidity unique to the regions apples.  It’s brought even more alive paired with the spicy yet savoury nuts!

Not to be over-looked as well is The Village at Blue Mountain Ski Park.  Restaurants, shops, skating ponds and cozy fire pits begging for marshmallows bring the experience to a new level just outside the Westin Blue Mountains.

So now you see, The Blue Mountains are more than just a ski hill or a pie shop.  The Apple Pie Trail is a collection of unique and special experiences, unlike any other in Ontario.  Whether you actively search for unique flavours or enjoy stumbling upon them accidentally, The Apple Pie Trail should be your next secret to discover!

To find out more about the Apple Pie Trail and the bushel of experiences it has to offer, visit: http://www.applepietrail.ca/

Before visiting, discover something delicious at your neighborhood grocer by trying some Red Prince Apples–a variety unique to the region!