Local Food Map "People Are Craving This
Info" By Sharon Hill - Windsor Star - Published:
04/15/2009
The Essex
County Federation of Agriculture is getting 10 calls and e-mails
a day as consumers wait for the area's first local food map to
be printed. The highly anticipated brochure should be available
May 1 and will give consumers a way to find local fruits,
vegetables, meat and more.
The hunger for local food is so strong,
you can almost hear stomachs growling. The Essex County Federation of
Agriculture is getting 10 calls and e-mails a day as consumers wait
for the area's first local food map to be printed. The highly
anticipated brochure should be available May 1 and will give consumers
a way to find local fruits, vegetables, meat and more. Consumers may
discover there's also locally produced flour, popcorn, cheese, milk
and honey.
"It's a time in history when people are
talking about the 100-mile diet," says map co-ordinator Antonio Gomez.
"People are craving for this information.' Gomez says the map comes at
a perfect time. Consumers can distract themselves from the economy by
taking a drive out to the county to pick up fresh food. They'll know
where their food comes from, could save some money and will be
contributing to the local economy, he said. With Easter sales off 20
to 30 per cent, Jason Fuerth of Ewe Dell Family Farms is ready for
that. "Any bump in business would be good right now."
The Lakeshore sheep farm is used to
taking calls from consumers. Ewe Dell Family Farms has depended on
selling directly to meat shops and consumers for the last 25 years.
The farm sells about 5,000 locally raised lambs a year. Since 1994,
they've had someone from the Muslim faith conduct Halal slaughters at
the farm. And in the last year and a half, the farm has been selling
lamb chops, sausage and shishkabobs from the farm.
"We've never advertised. All of our
growth has come through word of mouth," Fuerth says. Now farms and
agriculture-related businesses are advertising through the map. The
federation knew people wanted to buy local food. They just didn't know
where to get it. Jagir Chana of Chana Foods in Tecumseh said the flour
mill wants to attract locavores, people in the growing local food
movement. "People do come and say I didn't know you guys existed."
Chana Foods is one of two flour mills
on the map. The Chana family's business makes stone ground, whole
grain flour including corn and soft white wheat flour that's grown in
Essex County. By May when the first local food map is available,
asparagus should be ready to whet the appetite of local food fans.
Although some businesses such as wineries and livestock producers are
ready to welcome shoppers, locavores will have to wait until fruits
and vegetables are in season. Once they are, the map will help people
find pick-your-own farms, fruit stands and even spots offering baked
goods, jams, hayrides, a petting farm and tours. The map has 52
producers and four agriculture-related businesses including the flour
mills, a cheese company, an abattoir and Essex County's last dairy.
The federation asked for farm business registration numbers from farms
so it didn't get resellers of local food but producers.
The $100 charge per producer covered
the cost of the map. The Essex County Federation of Agriculture is
having 20,000 brochures printed with the map, a listing of farms and
businesses and produce availability. The information will go on the
federation's website (www.ecfa.ca) and brochures will be available at
participating farms, in libraries, town halls and Windsor's tourist
information bureaus. If needed the federation could reprint the
brochures next year but isn't planning on redoing the map until two
years from now. Some locations don't have Sunday sales and most
suggest you call ahead.
