Bailey's Buying Club - Ordering is now open for Friday, August 6th 2010

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order. Ordering closes at 8:00 pm on Tuesday, August 3rd.
Please be sure to read the wavier on our website when you log in. It reminds you that items placed your shopping cart are automatically saved (there is no 'checkout' button).

Items you order this week are to be picked up at First United Church on Friday, August 6th between 3:30 PM and 7:00 PM. Ordering will end on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 at 8:00 PM

*** Mark Sunday, August 15th on you calendar for Bailey's Picnic Pot Luck in Waterloo Park! We have reserved the Servery by the Bandshell for our group! More details to come!

Message from Rachael:

I've enjoyed a week at a lodge with my family, and am finding Internet in the woods to send this message. We have enjoyed wild blueberries from the fruit stand and the last of the cherries from palatine, and lots of green beans this week. We're looking forward to seeing more of Andrew's family tomorrow before we head home.

We're in the Kawartha Lakes and have been enjoying ice cream from the local dairy, Yum!

Have a great weekend,
Rachael

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Message from Nina:

Green Beans
The green beans are ready! I picked our family's first harvest on Saturday and they were gone within a couple hours. They went into a sauteed sausage and vegetable dish. Now I'm craving them steamed and tossed with salt and toasted almonds. When you're looking for them on the order form, they are under "Vegetables" and then the sub-category of "Beans".

Cream of Back-yard Soup
I do love summer meals in the backyard. Everything tastes better outside. Tonight it was Cream of Mushroom Soup (with asparagus thrown in the mix), a broccoli slaw, bread and our friends brought blueberry pie for dessert. I'd been hankering for cream of mushroom soup since being served a bowl at a wedding reception recently. Now I know why so many people buy it in a can. It does take several steps. First make the broth, then make a white sauce, next cook and puree the mushrooms and vegetables - finally combine and serve. It wasn't complicated, it just wasn't a one-pot-meal. It was worth it. It tasted way better than the canned stuff - but not quite as good as the wedding soup. I wonder what recipe they used.

Eggs
Have you ever wondered why a dozen eggs at Bailey's Local Foods costs $4.00? Noah of Traditional Foods has broken down the costs for us so that we can understand where our money goes. The farmer gets $1.70 for a dozen (only if they are large or extra large - not for the smalls and cracked ones) but only $.50 of that is profit. The farmer's costs per dozen eggs are:

$0.20 Pullet purchase (cost to buy the bird)
$0.84 Feed
$0.16 Labour, building, interest, misc. supplies
$1.20

Then there are other expenses to get the eggs to us in the city:

Per Dozen
$1.20 To the farmer (as explained above)
$0.28 Egg board levy
$0.23 Grading the eggs
$0.30 Egg carton
$0.06 Cases for the egg cartons
$0.65 Transportation to grading station and back
$3.22

$3.20 Sold to Bailey's
$0.80 Bailey's Mark-up
$4.00

As it stands, Traditional Foods does not receive any money for transporting the eggs to the city or for the labour of serving customers on Friday afternoons. Noah's question is: "How do we change it so that it is sustainable?"

Why I Pay More for Good Meat
If you're wondering why the meat from Traditional Foods is better than meat from the grocery store, I'll tell you my opinion and then direct you to the website of the special high-quality feed that they give to their animals (From Bio-Ag in Wellesley see www.bio-ag.com). The reasons I pay extra to buy meat from Traditional Foods are:

• They feed their animals an exceptional mix of grains that are not just free of bad stuff (antibiotics, GMOs, animal byproducts) but are nutritionally rich with micronutrients and such that I don't really understand.
• The chickens have access to pasture.
• The beef spend most of their days on pasture.
• I'm supporting small family farms.
• It tastes really good.

Noah is apologizing that they need to raise their prices. Similar to the chicken scenario described above, the true costs of the food are not yet being passed on to the customer so the farmers cannot continue to farm with high quality feed (which is more expensive). So either the farmers cut costs and feed the animals cheap feed or we pay a bit more so that they can keep raising animals well.

Big Bags of Peas
Well, the mud and lightning meant the farmers could not pick the peas to send us our big bags of shelled peas. So sad for us - and the farmers. Now we are waiting for the next crop of peas to be ready sometime in August.

This week look for:

• Notes next to bulk boxes of meat from Traditional Foods that tell you how much you save by buying in bulk
• Six slicing cucumbers for a deal from Lester and Irene Brubacher
• Cauliflower is ready from Lester and Irene
• Mushrooms for cream of mushroom soup?
• Blueberries for blueberry pancakes
• Fresh beans - green, yellow, or fava. Bulk beans now ready to freeze or can or dry.
• 10 lb bag of carrots so you can steam them and serve them with butter and salt. They are a great snacking/travelling food.
• Okra from Paul Bowman will be smaller now (he didn't know what size to pick them but now he does)
• 2 lb bags of garlic are ready now
• Paul has a few watermelons for us!
• Bulk zucchini is now only $25 for a half bushel
• Bulk beets now ready from Paul for pickling
• Get them before they're gone: bulk pickling cucumbers for making raw or hot water bath pickles

I'm bonding with long lost relatives this weekend and sharing the bounty of Ontario's fields. I hope that you are finding love and good food where you are.
Thank you for building the world you want by buying local food,
Nina
Bailey's Local Foods
www.baileyslocalfoods.ca

P.S. We can use your fruit boxes, baskets and jars from preserves again if you return them.

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Bailey's Local Foods ordering ends at 8:00 pm on Tuesday July 20th + BULK shelled peas for freezing!

This is your reminder that you should place your order before 8:00 pm Tuesday, July 20th for pickup on Friday, July 23rd.

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order.

*** Mark Sunday, August 15th on you calendar for Bailey's Picnic Pot Luck in Waterloo Park! We have reserved the Servery by the Bandshell for our group! More details to come!

Items that you have placed in your shopping cart will be ordered on your behalf on Tuesday at 8:00pm. There is no checkout button. If you do not intend to order, please ensure that your shopping cart is empty.

Message from Rachael:

Please be sure to order enough for two weeks as we will not have a pickup on Friday July 30th (before the long weekend). Get enough for your outings and parties!

This afternoon we got word that there will be 10 lb bags of shelled peas available on Friday! These are not grown with any sprays and brought to us by Jan and Mary Jane who bring us the lovely fruit from Palatine in Niagara.

A reminder of the best way to let your peaches ripen without spoiling (from previous years): To prevent bruising, peaches are not completely ripe. Spread them out on newspaper on their side or bottom (not stem down) and they'll ripen over the next few days.

A few notes from Mary Jane:

Available for Friday July 23rd are APRICOTS, PLUMS AND PEACHES!!

 

The apricots are gradually increasing in size as we progress further into the season! The secret to a good apricot is to let it ripen on the tree (tough to do when it is coming from California!). Rene said they have to be very particular when picking the apricots because you just have to know the right 'feel' to know that it is ready. Rene and another trusted worker are the only two allowed to pick the Apricots on their farm!

 

We have yellow plums available. The plums may still be the Early Golden plums but we may also move into the Shiro plums. We are just in between the two varieties of plums.

 

This week we have a peach called Garnet Beauty. The Garnet beauty is a medium-large, semi-freestone peach with red blushed, yellow skin and yellow flesh with red streaks. It is a very good eating peach!

 

Just a reminder - All the fruit we get from Eva and Rene are 'tree run'. We do this to avoid the sorting station that insists on fungicidal baths, fuzz removal (peaches) and paraffin wax coatings!. This means some fruit will be larger and some smaller, some more ripe and some less ripe all in the same box. Eva and Rene let our fruit ripen on the tree much longer than if they were to pick it for the shippers! The shippers want green fruit and we want tree ripened fruit!!

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I just got a phone call from the farmer of the peas! He said the peas will be available this week!!

 

Many of you have been patiently awaiting word on when we will have peas this year...here they are! The peas are organic (not certified) and have no sprays. They come in 10 pound bags (they do not come in a smaller size). They will be picked, shelled and packed on ice on Friday so they will be VERY fresh! Please remember the shelled peas spoil easily so they need to be eaten or frozen as soon as possible.

 

Peas are very easy to freeze so you can have them all winter long. If you spread them on a cookie sheet to freeze them, they come apart easily and can then be put into smaller portions to meet your families needs!

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Nina says that you can even freeze the peas as they are in the bag and then whack them on something to release some tension and the peas you need for dinner throughout the winter. We hope to offer these once more this summer, but this may be our only chance!

A few notes regarding items for Friday:

• BULK shelled peas available this week!!!
• There will be no bread from Polestar, baked goods from Magnolia or food from Meals That Heal this week. Meals That Heal (who delivers the bounty from Guelph) will be super busy at the Hillside Festival this weekend! Visit them and say 'hi' if you are there too!
• Lester and Irene's lettuce heads are not well. They hope to have more lettuce for September, but for now Julia and Shane from Under Ground Organics will be growing lettuce for us!
• Oak Manor items are not available this week. Sorry that a few items stayed on the order form in error.
• We will be ordering from McKechnie Foods, J&D Peters and Barrie Brothers this week. Stock up on soft tortillas, chips, pasta and noodles as well as the new pickled products from Barrie Brothers. The Asparagus salsa got rave reviews last week!
• Zach who is picking for Walker's organic blueberries is giving us a deal on flats of 12 pints! Check it out if you like blueberries!
• Pickling Cukes are available in half bushels with and without dill!
  

Have a great week
Rachael
Bailey's Local Foods
baileyslocalfoods.ca

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order.

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Read more at baileyslocalfoods.blogspot.com.

Bailey's Buying Club - Ordering is now open for Friday, July 23, 2010

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order. Ordering closes at 8:00 pm on Tuesday, July 20th.
Please be sure to read the wavier on our website when you log in. It reminds you that items placed your shopping cart are automatically saved (there is no 'checkout' button).

Items you order this week are to be picked up at First United Church on Friday July 23rd between 3:30 PM and 7:00 PM. Ordering will end on Tuesday July 20th, 2010 at 8:00 PM

*** Mark Sunday, August 15th on you calendar for Bailey's Picnic Pot Luck in Waterloo Park! We have reserved the Servery by the Bandshell for our group! More details to come!

Message from Rachael:

Be sure to order enough tasty food for 2 weeks! We will not have a pickup on July 30th due to the loooong weekend and will be back to our regular schedule on August 6th.

After this week the ordering window will be from FRIDAY at 11pm until Tuesday at 8pm. The next order will start FRIDAY July 30th at 11 pm and will remain open until Tuesday August 3rd at 8pm.

Cheers,
Rachael

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Message from Nina:

Dear Lovers of Local Food,

I will not write again about our delicious sausages over the fire for supper last night. What I will tell you about is the amazing cream of green soup Matthew made on Tuesday. He said he took everything green out of the fridge that needed using (shelling peas, zucchini, spinach) cooked them until soft and then blended them with milk, salt and pepper. It sounds bland but it was not. Our two year old even ate it after we gave him a straw with which to suck it up. Not a quiet meal, but they never are.

Gratitude caused me to make two big pans of lasagna on the weekend. My parents took our kids so we could go to a friend's wedding reception - and stay late. I've had sheets of pasta dough in the freezer waiting for me from when I made noodles this Winter. I didn't boil them first so I didn't
know if they would work but they were perfect! For the cheese I used ricotta cheese and cottage cheese from Local Dairy mixed with Old Cheddar from Millbank. In the tomato sauce I combined extra lean ground beef from Traditional Foods and canned Aylmer tomatoes (from Valumart).
Next I steamed a big pile of kale and chopped it fine for a layer of greens. It turned out lovely. Pretty much gourmet, I'd say. I think lasagna is all about the cheeses and the cheeses I used were primo so
the lasagna was primo. Now I still have one lasagna in the freezer waiting for an emergency - or company, whichever comes first.

Tomatoes
Tomatoes are coming! The first cherry tomatoes are ready this week. Soon we'll be able to offer you a wide variety of tomatoes including heirloom slicers for those toasted tomato sandwiches that I overdose on every August.

Blueberries
I'm so happy it is blueberry season. Did you know that from Waterloo you have to drive an hour to get to a blueberry patch (near Simcoe)? The only exception to this that I know of is Walkers near New Hamburg. There, next to a small forest are the friendly rows of blueberry bushes all standing from 6-10 feet high. And they're even organic!

Blueberries are tricky to grow as they require acidic soil and the birds can pick a bush clean before the farmer has a chance to harvest them. Blueberries are also one of the most pleasurable fruits to pick because you do not have to bend over or climb up anything. They're also one of the easiest
fruits to freeze. Just throw them in the bag and freeze them.

Here is a message from the folks at Little City Farm:
Greetings from Little City Farm in Kitchener!
These days, our garden is in full production and herb harvest is at hand. Our dehydrator is going day and night, our kitchen seedling rack has been converted into a screened herb drying rack, and our greenhouse has turned into a solar herb drying facility. We've hung up a tarp to block out the sunlight, and have herbs drying in neat rows on our shelving, plus hanging in bunches from a long series of hooks on the rafters. Herbs dry quickly in here, as it's dark, breezy and very dry in the greenhouse when the door is left open - ideal conditions for drying herbs to perfection! I remember volunteering as a WWOOFer (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) one summer about ten years ago up at the Algonquin Tea Company in the Ottawa Valley. The experience at Algonquin Tea was probably one of my biggest inspirations for delving further into the world of herbalism, medicinal plants, and wild foods. They had converted a huge old barn loft into their herb drying studio, with rows upon rows of shelving to dry all the plants for the beautiful loose-lea teas they produce.

Today we were harvesting herbs for our teas and salves: bergamot, various mints, lemon balm, catnip, lavender, calendula, red clover, anise hyssop, sage, yarrow, plantain, comfrey, oregano, thyme, marshmallow leaf, sweet grass, sacred (tulsi) basil, plus plenty of pesto basil and wild grape leaves to eat. It's amazing to see the abundance available on our urban property!
Wonderful medicinal herbal teas can be made as hot infusions or as iced cups of teaâ€"benefit from the medicinal value of your herbs while enjoying a warming tonic, or cool summer beverage. To make the perfect cup of tea, follow these simple instructions:

Hot Infusion Method
To gain the full medicinal value of your herbs they should be steeped in water that has just boiled, for at least 5-15 minutes. Longer steeping time extracts more of the herb value. We like to steep 1-2 tsp of dried herbs in a tea pot or glass mason jar. Sweeten with honey or maple syrup if desired. Once made, these teas can be taken hot or cooled and used throughout the day as a refreshing drink.

Iced Tea or Sun Tea Method
Herbal iced tea can be made by regular tea infusion that is allowed to cool, or by a solar infusion (sun tea). Steep 1-2 tsp dried herbs in large glass mason jar, covered and set warm sunny window or full outdoor sunlight for at least 12 hours. Allow tea to achieve desired strength and flavour. Sweeten with to taste with honey, agave, maple syrup, sugar, or stevia, serve with ice cubes, and garnish with fresh fruit or edible flowers. Beautiful & delicious!

Enjoy your summer!
Karin, Greg and Maya
from Little City Farm
www.littlecityfarm.ca
Follow our blog to learn more about our urban homesteading life:
www.littlecityfarm.blogspot.com

This week look for:

• cherry tomatoes
• blueberries for now and for the freezer
• cheeses for lasagna
• peas, spinach and zucchini for a Cream of Green soup
• grainharvest rye bagels
• chevre to spread on the bagels

In love with local food and people like you who care about food,
Nina
Bailey's Local Foods
www.baileyslocalfoods.ca

P.S. We can use your fruit boxes, baskets and jars from preserves again if you return them.

Is this your first email from us? Read more at baileyslocalfoods.blogspot.com.

You are receiving Nina's Messages because you are a member of Bailey's Local Food Buying Club.

If you do not wish to receive Nina's Messages in the future, please uncheck the Nina's Messages box associated with your email address in Account Settings at https://www.100milesystems.com/baileyslocalfoods.ca/account.php

Bailey's Local Foods ordering ends at 8:00 pm on Tuesday July 13th

This is your reminder that you should place your order before 8:00 pm Tuesday, July 13th for pickup on Friday, July 16th.

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order.

*** Mark Sunday, August 15th on you calendar for Bailey's Picnic Pot Luck in Waterloo Park! We have reserved the Servery by the Bandshell for our group! More details to come!

Items that you have placed in your shopping cart will be ordered on your behalf on Tuesday at 8:00pm. There is no checkout button. If you do not intend to order, please ensure that your shopping cart is empty.

Message from Rachael:

There are new teas from Little City Farm on the order form as well as the first of the peaches! Get your order in for Friday's pickup!

I just got off the phone with Stuart from Floralane and he is sad to say that there will be no more grape tomatoes until March. We will have a very limited supply of cherry tomatoes and lots of beefsteak tomatoes until then! Other suppliers will be starting to harvest grape and cherry tomatoes soon also!

Many of you have asked about the bread from Neil at Rundles Restaurant in Stratford. I got an email from him to day and they have fewer helping hands in the kitchen this year and are only able to supply bread for the restaurant. You could always visit them in Stratford!

A quick reminder that we try to return fruit baskets and boxes as well as jars to farmers and producers whenever possible. Please bring them to the church so that they can be reused over and over again! Unfortunately we cannot reuse clamshells (plastic pints and such), so you can recycle them.

Best,
Rachael
Bailey's Local Foods
baileyslocalfoods.ca

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order.

Is this your first email from us?
Read more at baileyslocalfoods.blogspot.com.

You are receiving this notification because you are a member of Bailey's Local Food Buying Club.

If you do not wish to receive Notifications in the future, please uncheck the Notifications box associated with your email address in Account Settings at https://www.100milesystems.com/baileyslocalfoods.ca/account.php

Bailey's Buying Club - Ordering is now open for Friday, July 16, 2010

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order. Ordering closes at 8:00 pm on Tuesday, July 13th.
Please be sure to read the wavier on our website when you log in. It reminds you that items placed your shopping cart are automatically saved (there is no 'checkout' button).

Items you order this week are to be picked up at First United Church on Friday July 16th between 3:30 PM and 7:00 PM. Ordering will end on Tuesday July 13th, 2010 at 8:00 PM

*** Mark Sunday, August 15th on you calendar for Bailey's Picnic Pot Luck in Waterloo Park! We have reserved the Servery by the Bandshell for our group! More details to come!

Message from Rachael:

The cherries for this week are the Regina (ruh-JEE-nuh) which are very large dark red fruit that we haven't yet gotten a chance to try as they have split due to rain in the last few years.. Apricots and early plums will also be in the order form on Friday once the prices are set.

Look for more meat from Vibrant Farms on the order form over the next few days as I add it. There will be ground beef, stewing beef and patties!

Kevin from Snyder Heritage Farms will be at the pickup to 'talk turkey' with you on Friday July 9th. You can ask him about his farm, the turkeys and his maple syrup.  Want to 'hear' the turkeys? Check out Kevin's website at http://www.snyderheritagefarms.com/!

Oak Manor (flour and grains) will be closed for the month of July so stock up now! Below are the current sources of their grains:

• Hard Wheat â€" Cambridge
• Soft Wheat â€" Hickson
• Arva Hard Wheat â€" London
• Oats â€" Petrolia
• Rye â€" Ayr
• Spelt â€" Petrolia
• Barley â€" Eastern Ontario

With this warm weather, please consider bringing a cooler and ice pack to the pickup to keep your food a little cooler on the way home.

(A little too) Warmly,
Rachael
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Message from Nina:

I talked to Eva this week and was glad to hear that her carrots are ready for harvesting. Eva, if you remember, is the carrot guru of Waterloo Region. She lives near Linwood with her family and they grow much of their own food on their land. She says the soil at her farm is clayey enough to hold the moisture and yet not too heavy for carrots. Her husband and sons run a wood shop on the farm and raise the grain crops and hay while she and her daughters do more of the food raising. She is hoping that now that the hay crop has been successfully cut and dried in this heat and baled that they “menfolk” will help with the carrot harvest. They take their carrots to their neighbour Paul Bowman to use his vegetable washer. A vegetable washer makes a long and cold labour-intensive job of washing carrots much faster. She made me want to go barefoot in the garden when she was telling me how the freshly tilled soil feels so much better on her feet than when it gets a hard crust on top.

Black Currants
At our weedy urban homestead it is currant season. Matthew picked 4 quarts of red currants that he threw in the freezer promising to make jam when it is cooler. Last year he made jam in November from frozen fruit. It's nice to not make it when it is so stinking hot. We don't have a supplier of red currants but Abner Horst is offering us black currants. Black currants make amazing jam. Abner says his family's favourite currant dish is black currant pie. I've never had it. Maybe when it cools off this weekend I'll try making it. Abner and Erma are also offering us black currant jam that is in jars and ready to eat. The ingredients are: organic black currants, organic sugar, and pomona pectin. I just googled "benefits of black currants" and found many websites singing the praises of black currants' health benefits. Here is the summary from one website:

• Anti-Inflammatory Action
• Powerful Anti-oxidant Action
• Maybe help prevent cancer
• Reduces the effects of arthritis

And tastes darn good on toast?! Wow.

Thawed Cherry Pitting Proven True
After writing last week's email I had this nagging feeling I should check the freezer to see if I froze cherries with the pits in them. Sure enough, there was a bag. The kids loved them mostly frozen. When they were thawed and “too squishy” for the kids I tested how easily I could take out the pits. It was great! I opted for the method of squeezing each cherry and, pop, the pit would slip out. This is much faster than pitting them fresh and you can do it in Winter when you have more time. (Tip: Wear an apron and make a cherry milkshake when you're done to celebrate.)

If you want to save your cherry pits, Maryrose will take them, wash them and turn them into something wonderful (bring them to the pick up). She's thinking she'll use them for heat-bags. See her website. I loved reading about her grandparents' (Nonno and Nonna) urban farm. Maybe she'll include photos of their two cold storage rooms too. They obviously know how to grow a lot of food in a small space. So inspiring! It makes me want to get out there and weed our vegetable patch. Weeds don't pull well when it is so dry. Perhaps I can procrastinate until after a good rain. Here is her website: www.loopeeeee.com . Check out the sexy photo of the tomato salad with Fiore Di Latte cheese (from Local Dairy).

Cabbage Joy
This week I realized that I like cabbage again! I was really tired of it in February and March and needed a break. Now I am loving the summer slaws! I made a super easy and delicious dressing with mayo and the juice from the pickled asparagus and a touch of sugar (pickled asparagus - YUM). A friend was over for supper and asked me what I put in the "delicious" dressing. I'm not sure if he was impressed or aghast at the short ingredient list.

The other cabbage delight this week was the Tin Foil Dinner not in tin foil. It was too hot to make a fire so Matthew cut up the potatoes (from Herrle's - we'll get some soon), carrots, onions, cabbage, garlic scapes, and sausage and baked them in the oven (better to heat up the house than the outdoors??). It was one of those very satisfying meals that was perfected with ketchup and hot sauce.

Letter from a raspberry farmer
Shawn Vernon is a new farmer who is supplying us with divine raspberries and promises us nectarines in August. Here is his letter describing himself and his farm:

I have been around and growing food since 1976 on our family farm near the Thedford/Parkhill area. I am a 3rd generation fruit and vegetable grower. It is my goal to farm full-time in the not too distant future.

I am passionate about sustainable, ultra high quality Ontario, farm fresh, food production. I am very aware of the movement to support local Ontario producers.

I am a graduate from the University of Guelph. I have diploma in agriculture (horticulture major) and a Bachelors in Agricultural Science (plant protection major). I have 35+ years in farming and producing high quality food.

I am looking to develop long term business relationships with customers that allow me to go more directly to the end consumer. I am very aware of the consumer's concern for high quality, fresh, produce. I grow my produce via sustainable conventional methods. There are no GMO products on my farm and there will never be. I do not believe in that system of production. The only sustainable business model for my operations is to build the business one customer at a time and sustain that relationship for the duration of my farming career. Hopefully that could involve your group.

At present I grow the following crops: crisp apples, pears, peaches (freestone), nectarines raspberries, green bell peppers, red bell peppers, roma/beefsteak tomatoes, beets, carrots. onions, potatoes. I plan to expand operations and grow in the future: coloured carrots, fingerling potatoes, green onions, squash, spinach, melons, black currants, goose & saskatoon berries, strawberries, snap beans, peas.

I froze a few dozen pints of Shawn's raspberries on Tuesday. They were lovely. Shawn reminded us that raspberries should be eaten or frozen within 24 hours. They are one of the most fragile foods grown locally. I ate a bowl-full with fresh cream and maple syrup drizzled on top. So sensual!

This week look for:

• fresh carrots
• cherries to freeze or just OD on
• ground turkey for burgers
• peanuts for a high protein snack
• your favourite cheese for your favourite salad (mine is the goat cheese with herbs and garlic)
• fresh head of garlic (they're ready now!)
• black currants for a pie
• pickled asparagus with hot pepper, garlic and dill - not a boring pickle (just mild hot)
• fresh cabbage for summer slaws
• blueberries!!
• raspberries to freeze for the winter

Nina  
Bailey's Local Foods
www.baileyslocalfoods.ca

P.S. We can use your fruit boxes, baskets and jars from preserves again if you return them.

Is this your first email from us? Read more at baileyslocalfoods.blogspot.com.

Bailey's Local Foods - RASPBERRIES!

I thought that this warranted sending an extra email out! I LOVE raspberries and am very excited that it's finally raspberry season!

I just got off the phone with a raspberry farmer from Thedford, Ontario (near Grand Bend) who will be picking and bringing us raspberries tomorrow (Tuesday) and Friday. The raspberries are not organic berries, but the canes have only been sprayed with fungicides once before the canes started flowering.

The raspberries are on the order form for Friday and will be for sale spontaneously for tomorrow at St Mark's Lutheran Church in Kitchener (Between KCI and Grand River Hospital).

If you want updates between emails you can become a fan of Bailey's Local Foods on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/baileyslocalfoods for lots of info and a chance to share your comments and photos too!

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order.

Items that you have placed in your shopping cart will be ordered on your behalf on Tuesday at 8:00pm. There is no checkout button. If you do not intend to order, please ensure that your shopping cart is empty.

Rachael
Bailey's Local Foods
baileyslocalfoods.ca

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order.

Is this your first email from us?
Read more at baileyslocalfoods.blogspot.com.

You are receiving this notification because you are a member of Bailey's Local Food Buying Club.

If you do not wish to receive Notifications in the future, please uncheck the Notifications box associated with your email address in Account Settings at https://www.100milesystems.com/baileyslocalfoods.ca/account.php

Bailey's Local Foods ordering ends at 8:00 pm on Tuesday July 6th

This is your reminder that you should place your order before 8:00 pm Tuesday, July 6th for pickup on Friday, July 9th.

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order.

*** Mark Sunday, August 15th on you calendar for Bailey's Picnic Pot Luck in Waterloo Park! We have reserved the Servery by the Bandshell for our group! More details to come!

Items that you have placed in your shopping cart will be ordered on your behalf on Tuesday at 8:00pm. There is no checkout button. If you do not intend to order, please ensure that your shopping cart is empty.

Message from Rachael:

After a weekend camping I need to order so many items like mini pepperoni sticks from Traditional Foods, Mapleton's Yogurt, cheese from Millbank and Local Dairy that were perfect camping food. I'd write more, but I need to find a spot to cool off. Have a great week and we'll see you tomorrow at St Mark's and/or Friday at First United!

Warmly,
Rachael
Bailey's Local Foods
baileyslocalfoods.ca

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Bailey's Buying Club - Ordering is now open for Friday, July 9, 2010

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order. Ordering closes at 8:00 pm on Tuesday, July 6th.
Please be sure to read the wavier on our website when you log in. It reminds you that items placed your shopping cart are automatically saved (there is no 'checkout' button).

Items you order this week are to be picked up at First United Church on Friday July 9 between 3:30 PM and 7:00 PM. Ordering will end on Tuesday July 6, 2010 at 8:00 PM

*** Mark Sunday, August 15th on you calendar for Bailey's Picnic Pot Luck in Waterloo Park! We have reserved the Servery by the Bandshell for our group! More details to come!

Message from Nina:

Hello Local Food Lovers,
After a year, I was finally able to visit Noah's farm yesterday (one of the main farmers of Traditional Foods). They live near Auburn, just 10k or so from the Lake Huron shore in an Amish community that has less than 500 members. Their community was settled by in the 1980's (yes, just 30 years ago!) from Ohio who came looking for affordable farmland. Their farms look different than Old Order Mennonite farms in Ontario. Amish farms have smaller houses and barns (usually white houses). The Amish farms don't have electrical poles or lines since they don't have electricity like most Old Order Mennonites. I've noticed that both Amish and Old Order farms often have neat straight rows of vegetables in their HUGE gardens and nary a weed around the fence posts or trees (thanks to weed wackers?). I loved seeing small groups of people working in these gardens/fields. Tended by hand.

I asked Noah why he farms naturally (he uses a more expensive natural feed for his livestock, no GMOs, no antibiotics, no drugs, no animal by-products in the feed) when most of the Amish around him farm conventionally and sell to the stockyards. He said that he, "Believes in it." He also explained that the farmers who sell to stockyards are struggling financially to make ends meet. Noah is hopeful that Traditional Foods will be able to pay their member farmers more than the stockyards (though they are not yet). Like most farmers in Ontario, Noah says that Amish farmers need off-the-farm income to pay the bills. For Amish, the off-the-farm jobs are very limited due to few transportation options and schooling that ends at grade 8. Many farmers are able to hide their financial struggles with loans and a second or third job. Hiding poverty is especially important in rural areas where it still a strong stigma to be "poor." I'm trying to figure out how to say this tactfully: The Amish farms I saw were not able to hide their financial struggles.

Since our visit yesterday I've not been able to stop thinking about how we as grocery shoppers and "we" as a society are unintentionally cruel to our farmers. I was tempted to write an email focusing on the beauty of the fields and the sweetness of the children and little yellow chicks (all true!). The truth that I saw yesterday is that some farmers in Ontario do not have enough money to pay for decent footwear and dental care. This is not a sob story. This is what we choose when we demand cheap food.

Noah said that he'd give me a breakdown of how much the farmer received from a dozen eggs. From what he said it is less than $.70 a dozen that the farmer is left with to cover labour, heat, bedding, equipment, insurance, taxes and family expenses like footwear and dentist bills. More info to come on this.

Noah and Amelia have 9 children but only 7 of them live on their 100 acre farm. The other 2 are married and live elsewhere. Roy, 11 years old, and Katie, 7 years old, gave us a tour of the animals in the barn: work horses, pink pigs, Berkshires (black/brown) pigs, a couple roosters, chickens for meat, 200 day-old chicks, a couple ducks and geese... Their farm is a true "mixed farm" where they don't depend on one crop or one animal for the income.

Noah said that he's noticed the manure from the chickens smells better when they are fed natural feed. We feed our hens in our backyard this same feed. When we ran out a couple months ago my Dad picked up a bag of conventional feed at a feed mill and the hens refused to eat it for 5-6 days! They seemed to be on strike until we were able to get more of the feed from Traditional Foods.

If any of you want to visit Noah's farm, it is on the way to Kincardine (off of 86 - I can give you the address) and they welcome visitors to their little farm store where they sell everything from frozen chicken to green beans and even sea salt (not from the farm!). You can often talk to Noah at pick-up as he comes in about once a month. He's the man with the straw hat and long beard.

Cherries for Winter
Cherries can be labour-intensive to can or freeze if you pit them first. I pitted one gallon bag full last summer and made a few precious cherry milkshakes this Winter that were definitely worth the half hour of pitting. I'd recommend picking up a hand tool called a cherry pitter from Home Hardware to make the job go faster. I have friends who freeze sweet cherries without pitting them and then when they thaw them they lay the flat of a knife on them and the pit slips out. I'm going to try that this year. Amelia was canning jars of sweet cherries with the pits in them and a sweet syrup around them. They eat them in the Winter like we do fresh cherries (spit out the pits as you eat them).

Look For:
This week we have our first cucumbers coming in from Kingwood Farms! We'll also have the first of the super sweet carrots from Eva and her family. I've been waiting for these carrots since last November.

• cucumbers
• carrots
• eggs for egg-salad sandwiches
• ricotta for pasta dishes
• swiss chard (steam it and use it like spinach in recipes such as quiches)
• turkey breasts, feta and salsa (for an easy meal pour the salsa on the breasts and bake - add feta on top 10 minutes before it is done)
• first few raspberries (more will be added to the order form on Friday)
• Divinely Raw's tasty "Celestial Burgie" is this week's special (vegan and gluten free creative version of a burger)

I hope that you are savouring the first few days of "real summer" (when school's out, of course) and enjoying the local foods wherever your adventures take you.
Nina  
Bailey's Local Foods
www.baileyslocalfoods.ca

P.S. We can use your fruit baskets and jars from preserves again if you return them.

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